Quantizer

Snaps an incoming pitch CV to the nearest note of a scale you define. Patch a free-running or detuned pitch source through it and everything lands in key — essential for taming sequencers, sample-and-holds, random voltages, and slides.

How it works

A one-octave piano sets which of the twelve pitch classes are allowed. Each sample, the incoming 1V/oct is matched to the closest enabled note and that pitch is sent out. The scale is stored relative to the root, so transposing with Root moves the whole pattern without redrawing it. The sounding note lights up live on the keyboard as it plays, and if you disable every key the input passes straight through unquantized.

Controls

• Root — the tonic the scale is built from; turn it (or feed the Root input) to transpose into any key.
• Scale — a preset stamp: pick Chrom, Major, Minor, Penta, or Blues to fill the keyboard in one move, then tweak from there.
• Scale Notes — click or drag across the piano to enable and disable individual notes; this is the actual scale, presets just seed it.

Inputs & outputs

• In — the pitch CV to quantize, in 1V/oct.
• Root — CV transpose; adds to the Root knob in semitones.
• Out — the snapped pitch, ready for any 1V/oct oscillator.

Tips

• Feed it noise or a sample-and-hold for random melodies that always stay in key.
• Sweep the Root input with a slow LFO or a sequencer to march the same scale shape through key changes.
• Pentatonic and blues masks make almost any wandering source sound deliberate — a fast way to audition new lines.