lure

follow it down

20 HP

Every note that comes in follows the lure down. Its own filter walks it into the dark, and where it would have died it hangs there instead, below the surface, ringing with the others. Press EMPTY and only the skins are left, floating up and away.

The LURE panel: black, gold dots of an endless dark floor glossy as oil, one far light on its horizon and its rippled reflection running down the middle to the foot, thin ripples across the floor. Under the name a window of bare circuit board: the far light on the spine, a line of eight segments across it for the surface, and forty ripples under it, eight columns of five. LEFT and RIGHT in at the top corners, DEPTH and HOLD under them, then DEPTH's and LURE's jacks; LURE's big knob in the middle under the ripples, SHEEN and DRIFT either side of it; the EMPTY button under LURE with WALK's and EMPTY's gates either side; SKINS and BELOW out under them, LEFT and RIGHT out at the foot. lure at the top, daylight noise at the bottom.

Turn a knob: drag it or tap either side of it, roll the wheel over it or use the arrow keys; a double click puts it back. EMPTY is a button: press it to hollow them, or hold it down and every note goes straight to its skin. The patches step on by themselves until you touch anything.

A dark loop in A minor: a plucked line into LURE, the drums and a sub beside it. Listen plays the patch from its top.

example patches

Everything LURE does here is its engine as designed, running in your browser. The loop is a stand-in rack.

Following

LURE hears each note start in what comes in, a line, chords, drums or a whole mix, and gives it a filter of its own. The filter walks down over the note from wide open, on its own clock, and only ever closes. Where the note would have died, or when the next one comes, it's caught and hangs at the bottom of its walk.

LURE, the big knob: how readily the notes follow, and how far down and how fast. Fully left nothing is caught: a plain low-pass gate, each note's filter closing as it dies. At noon each note walks down over a second; at full it dives to the floor in a quarter of a second.
LURE, the jack: its CV, added to the knob.
DEPTH: how dark it is down there, the floor every walk heads for: 3 kHz fully left, 370 Hz at noon, 45 Hz at full, where only a rumble and the ring are left. Its jack adds to it.
WALK: patched, a note starts only on its gates, from a sequencer or a drum's triggers, not on what LURE hears.
LEFT, RIGHT: the sound in. The note following is heard in the middle, each side through its own filter.

Below the surface

HOLD: how long they hang. A second fully left, half a minute at noon, ten minutes at full. Each one fades and sinks slowly as it hangs, and every note caught after it pushes it a little deeper.
SHEEN: the ring on them. Fully left none; towards full every walk is a falling whistle, and every hung note rings on as a tone at its own depth, sliding down as it sinks.
DRIFT: how they move as they hang. Fully left they hang still in their places; at full each wanders the whole field, swells and fades on its own clock, and the held chord boils.
Up to eight hang at once, each in a place of its own across the field, the newest nearest the middle. When a ninth comes the oldest is let go and sinks away.
The lights: the far light flashes as each note is taken. Each note lights its place on the surface, walks down its column and hangs there, dimming as it fades.

Emptied

EMPTY, a lit button and its gate: press it and every note hanging, and the one following, is hollowed. Its body goes and only its skin is left, thin and high and papery, rising out to the sides, gone in three seconds.
Hold it, and every note that comes in follows the lure as usual, then goes straight to its skin instead of hanging.
The skins rise back up their columns and through the surface, and the button glows while they rise.

What comes out

LEFT, RIGHT: the note following in the middle, the hung spread to their places, the skins out at the sides.
SKINS: the skins alone, both sides together.
BELOW: how much is hanging, about a volt a freshly hung note, 0 to 8 V.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Controls: a big knob, 4 knobs, a lit button

Inputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio, ±5 V; RIGHT takes LEFT when it's empty
LURE, DEPTH: CV, added to the knob, 5 V the whole way
WALK, EMPTY: gates, high past 1 V

Outputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio
SKINS: audio, mono
BELOW: CV, 0 to 8 V