wipe

it melts into the next

20 HP

A crossfade that melts. Press MELT and the sound that's playing comes apart in columns, each sliding down out of hearing at its own moment, and the next sound is behind it. Or hold FREEZE and melt away what you just played.

The WIPE panel: black, gold dots of a row of tall melting candles across the middle, their drips running down to the foot, the candles windows of bare circuit board. A in at the top corners, MELT's jack under the name between MELT's lit button and FREEZE's, DRIP and WEIGHT either side of SPEED, the big knob, over the candles; B in under them either side of POSITION, FALL and GONE out under those, LEFT and RIGHT out at the foot corners with POSITION's jack between them. wipe 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. MELT is a button: press it to melt what's showing away. Hold FREEZE to catch what comes out. The patches step on by themselves until you touch anything.

A dark loop in G minor at 120 BPM into A and the next section into B, both through WIPE. Listen plays the patch from its top.

example patches

Everything WIPE does here is its engine as designed, running in your browser. The two sections are a stand-in rack.

It melts

Patch the sound you're leaving into A and the next into B. Press MELT and A doesn't fade: it comes apart in columns, bands of it from the lowest to the highest, and each one slides down out of hearing on its own, faster and faster as if under its own weight. Where a column has gone, B's is there behind it. When the last one goes, B is all there is; press MELT again and B melts away to show A.

MELT, a lit button and its gate: melts what's showing away. Pressed while it melts, it turns the melt round and the fallen columns climb back. Its cap burns while a melt runs.
SPEED, the big knob: how long a melt takes. Fully left a snap, an eighth of a second; at noon a bar at 120 BPM; fully right a long sag over sixteen bars.
DRIP: how ragged it is. Fully left every column falls together, a plain falling wipe; at noon they go at moments that wander from column to column; fully right at wildly scattered moments, each dropping out fast. Every column has gone by the end of SPEED.

How they fall

WEIGHT: how far each column drops in pitch as it goes, and how it gathers pace. Fully left a steady sag of two semitones; at noon an octave, falling like a weight; fully right it holds on, then plunges five octaves.
POSITION: the melt by hand. Turn it and the columns fall as you turn; all the way, and the sound behind is all there is; turn it back and that one melts away to show the first. A MELT carries it the rest of the way.
POSITION, the jack: its CV, added to the knob. A slow wave here melts back and forth.

Your own bar

Hold FREEZE and what's coming out is caught, for as long as you hold it. Let go and the caught stretch loops on top, a still picture of what you just heard, with the live sound behind it. MELT melts it away to show what's playing now. With B empty, B is A, so one sound can melt into itself.

What comes out

LEFT, RIGHT: the result.
FALL: how far the melt has got, 0 to 8 V across a melt, back to 0 V when it's done.
GONE: a gate when the last column has gone. Patch it into MELT and it melts back and forth for ever.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Controls: a big knob, 3 knobs, a lit button, a button

Inputs

A: audio pair, ±5 V; the right takes the left when it's empty
B: audio pair, ±5 V; takes A when it's empty
MELT: gate, rising past 1 V
POSITION: CV, added to the knob, 5 V the whole way

Outputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio
FALL: CV, 0 to 8 V
GONE: gate, 0/5 V, 10 ms