# Main - Shift Register Bells with Motor Mutation - SignalPath Patch: [[Patches/Main - Shift Register Bells with Motor Mutation]] Build: [[Patches/Main - Shift Register Bells with Motor Mutation - Build|Build]] ## Overview Three jobs run at once: the Mother-32 keeps time, the Disting decides the notes, and Rings makes the sound. Then Beads puts it in a big room and the A-540 sends it out. ```mermaid flowchart LR M32[Mother-32 ASSIGN clock] --> D[Disting F-6 shift register] Motor[Reverse DC Motor] --> Sh[Shades attenuator] --> D D -- "A: pitch" --> R[Rings] D -- "B: trigger" --> R R -- "ODD / EVEN" --> B[Beads reverb] B -- "L / R" --> O[A-540 line out] linkStyle 0 stroke:#2a9d3a,stroke-width:3px linkStyle 1 stroke:#1e63d6,stroke-width:3px linkStyle 2 stroke:#1e63d6,stroke-width:3px linkStyle 3 stroke:#9e9e9e,stroke-width:3px linkStyle 4 stroke:#d62828,stroke-width:3px linkStyle 5 stroke:#e0b800,stroke-width:3px linkStyle 6 stroke:#e0b800,stroke-width:3px ``` **Cable colors:** [[Cable Colors]] after [Learning Modular](https://learningmodular.com/choosing-patch-cables/): ⚪ Gray 1 V/oct · 🔵 Blue modulation · 🟡 Yellow audio · 🔴 Red gates/triggers · 🟢 Green clock/sync · ⚫ Black external ## Why it repeats like a music box The F-6 algorithm is a shift register: an 8-step loop of bits. Every clock pulse it shifts the loop one step and turns the bits into a voltage. Its quantizer snaps that voltage to your scale, so you never get a sour note. The Z input sets the odds that a bit flips on its way around. Past about +2 V the odds hit zero (the display shows **), so the same 8 notes cycle forever. ## Why the motor mutates it The Reverse DC Motor is a generator. Spin it and it puts out a voltage, positive one way and negative the other. Spinning it left pulls Z down under the lock point, bits start flipping, and the melody rewrites itself a note at a time. Let it coast to a stop and Z goes back to locked, so whatever loop you landed on stays. Shades is just the brake. Raw, the motor swings 5 to 10 V, which slams Z around instead of nudging it. ## Why it sounds like bells Rings doesn't play a recorded sample. It models a struck, resonating object. Each trigger on STRUM is the hammer hit, and V/OCT tunes the object. Sympathetic-strings mode adds extra strings that ring along with each note, and that's the harp shimmer around it. With STRUCTURE at noon and DAMPING past noon, notes ring long with a metallic overtone mix, and BRIGHTNESS just under noon keeps them from going glassy-harsh. ## Why it's so wide Rings splits its sound into two outputs, ODD and EVEN, which spreads it across left and right on its own. Beads' reverb, with a big SIZE and the wet mix past noon, smears each strike into a tail that overlaps the next note. That overlap is what makes 8 plain notes sound like a pad. ## Short version The Disting is the composer, the motor is your hand on its shoulder, and Rings and Beads are the bell tower.