A Exception Switch designed with live performance in mind. Quickly switch or toggle to another CV source (or a fixed value). Press the button to activate a manual gate (momentary or toggle) or use it as a gate inverter, a mute button or a clock divider (divide by 2).

εκτός (greek adverb)

1. except
2. out, outside

The basic idea of the module is simple — it switches between two inputs — A and B — which are routed into one output. You can switch between these inputs manually either by pressing the Exception Button, by toggling the Invert Switch, via external CV Signal (Gate or CV) or a combination of the three. Input B has a attenuverter and a Bias/Offset control, while Input A goes directly through. You can switch the Button/CV-behavior between Momentary and Toggle and there is a Gate output which allows you to do something with the resulting gate.

This module uses a Cherry MX switch most popular from computer keyboards. Two LEDs will show the currently active signal.

Controls

• Exception Button: switches between Input A and Input B depending on the settings, NAND-combined with the gate from the Switch Input
• Mode Switch: switches between Momentary Mode and Toggle Mode
• Invert Switch: selects which of the two inputs is used as a default
• Bias Knob: Change the DC Offset added to Input B (center is 0, fully CCW is -5V, fully CW is +5V)
• Attenuverter: Attenuvert Input B (center is no signal, fully CCW is negative signal, fully CW is positive signal and anything inbetween)

Inputs

• Input A: CV Input, goes straight through to the output if active
• Input B: CV Input, goes into the Attenuverter and then into the Bias-Offset and then to the output if active
• Switch Input: CV Input, everything above a certain voltage will activate the switch, NAND-combined with the gate from the Exception Button

Outputs

• Output: outputs either Input A or the scaled and offset Input B, depending on what is active
• Gate Output: outputs the combined gate from the Exception Button and the Switch Input

Normalization

In the back of the module a jumper can be placed to normalize Input A into Input B.

Linking multiple modules together

Ektos has Back-panel connectors that allows you to chain multiple modules together. If fully connected this means:

• Signal B from the previous module is normalized to the Inputs B of this one (allowing you to dial in a different offset or attenuvertion)
• Output from the previous module is summed with the output of this module

This allows you to e.g. chain multiple signals together and only grab one summed signal from the final output. Let's say you input a pitch CV to Input B of the first module and attenuvert and scale all normalized variants on the next modules – this would allow you to play a crude melody. Because the outputs are summed you can also combine the button presses to get more variations. A binary piano : )