Sequential Switch / Sequencer / Voltage Source / Clock Divider

The Ara is a sequential switch on steroids that was designed by us with live performance in mind. At its core it is a 5 step unidirectional sequential switch, allowing users to cycle through 5 different incoming voltages on the slave i/o jacks and send them out in steps via the master i/o jack. It can also be used in reverse, with the master i/o jack becoming the input and the 5 slave i/o jacks becoming outputs for distributing one voltage source to up to 5 destinations in timed steps.

We then decided to take it further and integrate both a clock divider with secondary clock input for self patching and continuous voltage sliders on each step. These are output individually at the top of the module or passed through to the master i/o when no input is present on that step. The voltage range of the sliders can be adjusted to either 0 to 5v or -5 to +5v using the switch at the base of each channel. Without an incoming clock signal, the Ara works as a stand alone bank of 5 voltage faders.

Gate outs are both per step and as a summed output which can be used to trigger envelopes being fed into the Aras slave i/os. With no incoming inputs, voltage sliders and the gate outputs can be used to turn the Ara into a 5 step sequencer. Sequence length can be easily changed by patching a gate step into the reset jack. Any step that is excluded from the sequence then becomes a stand alone continuous voltage source.