Hello,
Im using Hermod+ as midi>cv interface. I use layout 2 voices: Mono + Vel. To properly drive synth I need one VCA for gate signal and second VCA for Velocity which seems to be redundant.
Is it possible to route gate x velocity signal on single output?
A gate needs to rise quickly to a voltage the destination recognizes as a trigger — usually somewhere above 2–3V depending on the module. If you multiply gate × velocity, low-velocity notes scale the gate down proportionally. A velocity of 20/128 turns a 5V gate into ~0.8V, well below most thresholds, so the note doesn’t trigger at all. Mid-velocity notes land in a gray zone where some modules fire and others don’t. You lose reliable triggering.
Keep gate and velocity separate: gate → envelope generator; velocity → 1v/Oct, is a standard patch, not wasteful.
thsi should help clear things up
Hello Max,
Thanks for answer! That’s great and I’m big fan of Monotrail channel but you completely missed the question so I will rephrase it to makes things clear.
My actual question is: is it possible to send gate x velocity signal using Hermod+? Because that is the thing that I need as it will work perfectly in my case and It will provide perfectly reliable triggering.
hum, OK sorry about that. You wrote:
Is it possible to route gate x velocity signal on single output?
No, Hermod+ can’t output gate × velocity as a combined signal — gate and velocity are always on separate voices by design. You’d need to multiply them externally with a VCA (velocity → CV in, gate → signal in). Any basic VCA works — Doepfer A-132-3, Intellijel uVCA, etc.
My question is correct. Im asking about gate x velocity on single output, not on separate outputs within single track.
As you already pointed out, this operation needs external VCA which is completely redundant and doesn’t makes sense. The whole operation could take place inside Hermod+ and simplify chain.
That’s pity.
If you have the XP32 channel, you can cleanly output an envelope on a CV channel with the envelope effect. You still need a VCA though because the Hermod is not passing audio through the device, so it cannot amplify or attenuate the signal directly using the envelope. This can technically be done with the CV output on the Hermod+ itself by setting one of the tracks to a mono track, but the released firmwares are more prone to small clicks and pops on the main unit. You would also be consuming the entire track for that envelope if you are not intending to use the gate. The gate tracks are just on/off signals, and you can only control whether they are quick pulses or stay on for extended periods. This isn’t a Hermod+ thing. This is how most of the Eurorack world of devices are designed. Again with the XP32, you have control over the voltage output for the gate signal, so, you could have a higher gate, but you can’t really hit any values in between the 5v/10v steps.
My Bizarre Jezebel Chloe device actually needs that extra voltage to properly trigger the onboard LPG, but that’s not quite what you’re after.
I haven’t tried this, but if you really wanted to pursue this, you could try routing audio into one of the mod inputs and route it back out to one of the CV channels with an envelope effect on the track. The audio will just be treated as an audio-rate CV signal, and the envelope should modify the amplitude of the audio signal. That said… it might not sound quite like it did when you input it. Might be cool though…