Announcing the ES-5 "ES-3 Expander"
It piggybacks on one of the ES-3's stereo channels to provide eight gate/clock/sync/MIDI outputs on the ES-5 itself, plus further expansion headers to connect up to five ES-4 Gate Expanders.
Expected to be available late March 2012.
Announcing the ES-3 mk2
The ES-3 mk2 is identical in every way to the original ES-3, except for the addition of a couple of expansion headers on one of the PCBs. What will these connect to? Expect some announcements soon.
The ES-3 mk2 will be available from all the usual sources just as soon as we can ship them out, with a choice of black aluminium or black acrylic panels.
Expert Sleepers modules coming soon to Australia
Silent Way & ES modules reviewed in Synthesizer Magazin
Expert Sleepers modules arrive in Canada
Silent Way & ES-3 reviewed by Sonic State
“I rarely get to review stuff which I feel is almost flawless, but I think this is one of those occasions”
ES-3 back in stock - new orange aluminium version
A new panel option is now available - orange aluminium, to match the ES-1 and ES-2-2 orange aluminium designs.
Silent Way reviewed in Future Music magazine
“Incredible options for controlling modular synths”
“Silent Way is a no-brainer”
“Silent Way opens up sound design options that'd be expensive, difficult or impossible any other way. It's a fantastic new approach to controlling analogue Control Voltage hardware.”
“... one of the most friendly plug-and-play pieces of hardware you'll ever have the pleasure to use.”
Expert Sleepers on the Sonic State podcast
Video and photos from the Musikmesse
sonicstate.com did a very nice video interview with me, in which I explain the ES-3, Silent Way, and show the ES-2-2 in action, which is not something you often see - if you’re still unclear on what this module does, this video should help. You can watch it here.
This is a little video tour of the Schneidersbuero booth, starting from the Expert Sleepers area:
And here are a few photos:
ES-3s now available
Audio processing with the ES-3
Modular audio
processing with Expert Sleepers Silent Way and
ES-3 on Vimeo.
A real-time demo of processing audio samples using
Expert Sleepers Silent Way and a modular
synth, connected via the Expert Sleepers ES-3
Lightpipe/CV interface.
A drum loop is processed first with a phase shifter
controlled by Silent Way LFO, and then with a VCF
controlled by Silent Way Step LFO.
Escape From Noise to sell Expert Sleepers modules
Silent Way/ES-3/modular demo video
Modular
patching with Expert Sleepers Silent Way and ES-3
on Vimeo.
A real-time demo of using Expert Sleepers Silent Way and a modular
synth, connected via the Expert Sleepers ES-3
Lightpipe/CV interface.
First the oscillator is connected and calibrated
using the Silent Way Voice Controller plug-in. Then a
simple patch is made using a VCA and an envelope
generator, triggered by a gate signal from Silent
Way.
Other modulation options are then explored, using
another envelope from the Voice Controller, the
Silent Way Step LFO plug-in, and the Silent Way LFO
plug-in.
Silent Way v1.6.5 released - new SMUX plug-in
This release adds a new plug-in: Silent Way SMUX.
Silent Way SMUX provides a hack to workaround the reduction in channel count over ADAT connections when running the audio system at 88.1/96kHz.
When using an audio interface to produce your CVs that is connected via ADAT (for example, the Expert Sleepers ES-3 Lightpipe/CV Interface), and when the audio system is being run at a ‘double speed’ rate (typically 96kHz), the number of audio channels that can be sent down the ADAT connection is reduced from the usual 8 down to 4. The 4 double-speed channels are multiplexed onto the 8 ADAT channels - this system is usually referred to as ‘S/MUX’, or sample multiplexing.
The Silent Way SMUX plug-in gets around this reduction in channel count by providing a complementary multiplexing scheme, which takes 4 channels of CVs and combines them onto 2 channels of the double-speed audio stream. When the ADAT output is then decoded by a normal-speed interface (such as the ES-3 mentioned above), the channels are demultiplexed, and so you get your 4 channels of CV back again.
Download now from the downloads page.
Coming soon - the ES-3 Lightpipe/CV Interface
The ES-3 is a Eurorack format module which converts eight channels of ADAT Lightpipe input to DC coupled outputs on 3.5mm jacks, for the ultimate convenience in connection of a DAW directly to analogue synthesizers.
The outputs can be used as control voltages (CVs), for example with software such as Expert Sleepers Silent Way, and can also be used as audio outputs at high, modular synth-compatible levels.
With the ES-3, a single optical cable is all that is need to bring direct CV control from your DAW right into the heart of a modular system.
The ES-3 is expected to be available from February 2011. Pricing TBD.
