	"How to make the Seeds bloom"

The Ginkosynthese Seeds module is a simple yet versatile synth-voice module.
The simplicity makes it a suitable choice when you quickly need a sound in a
live improvisation setting, or as a basis for a more complex sound. The Seeds
has its own internal attack-decay envelopes, but if you'd rather use an
external VCA and your favourite envelope, you can use it as a traditional
oscillator as well. This manual will help you make the most of your Seeds, to
grow them into something beautiful.

	Selecting a sound.

Turn the "select" knob until the desired sound's number (or letter) shows.
When the shown number isn't the number of the currently loaded sound, there
will be a dot to the lower right of the number. Press the "shift/enter" button
to load it; the sound will load and the dot will disappear.

0; The original "Grains" sound. Two triangle-wave formant peaks synced by the
main oscillator. The "mod" knob sets a formant peak.
1: Triangle wave with asymmetrical wave-wrapping. The "mod" knob sets the
amount of wave-wrapping.
2: PWM-saw, saw wave with a PWM feature modulated by an LFO. The "mod" knob
controls the LFO rate.
3: Classic fm; a "carrier" sine wave phase modulated by a second sine. The
"mod" knob sets the modulator's pitch offset.
4: Saw-wave with hard-sync.
5: Phase-distortion.
6: Tuned noise.
7: Square wave with pulse-width modulation and build in LFO. The "mod" knob
	controls the LFO rate.
8: Two ring-modulating sines, with one hard-synced to the other. The "mod" knob
	controls the frequency offset.
9: Sine wave with a wave-wrapper. The "mod" knob sets the amount of wrapping.
a: A flute-like sound based on fm feedback. The "mod" knob controls the
	duration of the initial burst of noisiness.
b: Organ sound. The "mod" knob picks one of 10 different chords
c: Old-school game sound. The "mod" knob set the speed of the arpeggio.



	Connections

Out; There is a single output jack that carries the generated sound. Please
note that while the Seeds can act as an instrument on it's own, it's not
recommended to connect it straight to your amplifier; Eurorack signals are a
lot more "hot" than normal line signals. Please use a mixer or attenuator.

Pitch; Sets the main pitch. Calibrated to cover 5 octaves over the 0-5V range.

Gate; Gates and triggers notes. While receiving a gate signal a red led will
light up above this input to show you what is going on in your patch. This
input is normalised to +5V, so when you leave it unconnected the Seeds will
act as an oscillator.

Decay; Sets the decay of the sound; how long the sound takes to die out
after the gate signal ends.

Mod; Modulates the timbre of the sound. The effect of this depends on the
sound currently selected.


	Main Knobs

The three large knobs all have two functions, as labelled on the panel. To
access the secondary function press and hold the "Shift/Enter" button for a
few seconds. The display will read "-". This means the shift mode is
activated, allowing you to adjust some extra settings. When you are done, let
go of the shift button. The display will go back to showing the number of the
selected sound and the knobs will function normally again.

Tune; tunes the main pitch within a range of one octave, from C to C.
Quantize; while shift is held this knob turns pitch quantization on and off.
In the upper (right hand) range of the knob quantisation is on and the only
pitches the Seeds will output will be quantised to a traditional chromatic
scale. When set to the left side no quantisation is used and you can get
continuous glides between notes if you so desire. Note that quantisation
doesn't cover the "Tune" functionality, so you can still tune your Seeds to
your antique piano.

Decay; When no connection is made to the jack labelled "decay" this knob sets
the time it takes notes to die out. When there is a cable connected to the
decay input this knob will attenuate that signal.
Attack; while shift is held this knob will set the attack time of the internal
amplitude envelope.

Mod; When no connection is made to the jack labelled "mod" this knob affects
the timbre (character) of the sound, an effect that varies depending on which
sound is selected. When there is a cable connected to the mod input this knob
will attenuate that signal.
Filter; Adjusts the sustain level of the internal filter. When you'd like to
use the Seeds as an oscillator with an external filter and VCA then it might
be a good idea to turn this up. At the max setting the filter won't affect the
sound.

	Philosophy/Rationale

Probably the most interesting thing about modular synthesizers is how we can
try new things and get unexpected results. This is especially nice in live
improvisations, but modular synthesizers can be a bit slow, there. Patching up
about four or five modules to get a simple melodic sound takes a lot of time
when you have a musical idea right now; it'd be nice to get a basic sound more
quickly, that you could then extend. Another question is where one would start
one's modular; it'd be nice to be able to get a single module that can create
an interesting sound that any other module could add something useful to. From
both of those perspectives the Seeds should make sense, at least to some
people.

On the sound-design side you might notice some 90's popular music influences.
There are two reasons for that. First of all; those sounds are a natural match
for the rather modest (8 bit, 16MHz) Atmel chip on the Arduino Nano we're 
using. That music was made using digital synthesizers using the processors
available at the time, and those had to make the most of the chips available at
the time, which were quite comparable to the Nano. The second reason is that
those sounds are a lot of fun. Once that link became clear it became more a of
a guiding principle than a potential problem; it seems more sensible to lean
into such links than it is to resist them.

	Updates

As the Seeds uses an Arduino (that little board sticking out on the back) it
can be programmed. New versions of the code will be found at
https://www.ginkosynthese.com Instructions on how to upload those updates to
your module can be found at https://www.arduino.cc/en/main/software
This also means this code is Free Software ("free" as in "liberty"); you can
read it, you can edit it to change it, or add your own sounds. Under some
conditions you can even redistribute it. See the included file called
"gplv2.txt" for details.

	Advanced options

Using an external modulation source;

Three of the sounds (2, 7 and c) feature an internal LFO with adjustable
speed. That's very convenient for stand-alone usage, but it turns out that
some people prefer using an external module for more precise control. If
that's you; near the start of the code in the seeds.ino file you'll find a line
that reads;
#define INTERNAL_LFO
If you'd change that to;
//#define INTERNAL_LFO
, save the file, and upload it your module, you'll enable direct control over
those sounds so you can use a modulation source of your choosing. If you change
your mind, and decide you liked the internal LFO better, you can reverse the
edit (removing the slashes), save again, upload the code again, and you'll get
your LFO back.

Organ tuning;

By default, the chords of the organ sound (b) are laid out in equal-temperment.
However, there exists an option to use just intonation for the chords.
Simply comment out the line;
#define EQUAL_TEMPERAMENT
in the .ino file before uploading the firmware to the module, and it will use
just intonation for the chords.

Note that the just intonation chords will sound more in tune with themselves,
but might clash more with other notes.
