The tetragrid is a 2D cross section of a polytope.
A magnetic-board gate & cv pattern generator, which core is based on ciat lonbarde’s rollz & roolz gewei circuits, and multidimensional geometry.
Inspired by the concept of magnetic board games (and by the stunning magnet matrix from Meng Qi), it brings a rather unusual interface, using magnetic pins directly on the faceplate to create your patch.
Controls
The module have 6 square-ish1 lfo outputs, 2 of them (the ones at the edges) have their own speed control pot, while the other 4 are free running. The panel has a set of 30 cross-modulation touch points2 (the playing board). It's by placing the pins on the faceplate that you’ll be able to modulate the different lfos between each other. You can connect together distant pins on the board by using your hand as a conductor (if you dare it!).
1 I say square-ish because the attack can be slightly sloped, depending on how it is self patched.
2 Each one of the equilateral triangles is a cross-modulation point.
More about the outputs
Depending on how the connections are made, you can obtain different type of outs. In their pure state (i.e. unpatched), the lfos output ranges from 0 to 10v (9.4v more precisely).
Those lfos are transistor based and their behaviour can be unstable. It sometimes take a little moment for the connections made to stabilise, with scattered variations, making the module behave like a living organism. When patching, the behaviour of the output changes, it can become anything between a gate, trigger, ramp, a random cv, and can click and crackle at audio rate. It’s even possible within certain combinations that some of the outs stop 3 Although outs are considered to be at unipolar positive voltage, occasional negative spikes can occur.
Oscillating or stall at a DC offset, this is perfectly normal! It is due to the nature of the circuit (when a cross modulation chain is formed by an odd number of cores it behaves erratically), changing pins/pot position will bring them back to life! The output range varies from approx 0.2 Hz (5s cycles) to ≈200 Hz (low Audio rate). Even if the output is set at cv rate, it can output occasional audio rate bursts, bringing life and FM to your patch!
Something you should consider: the magnet pins don’t connect always the pads together, which is due to the tolerances in the flatness of the magnet and the pcb itself. This is something I embraced in the design, as it fits the philosophy of the module by adding an extra layer of randomness (real analog randomness) to the game.
Philosophy
This a random module. it’s about leaving behind the concept of control: realising that it’s the limits of a tool that dictates the way to interact with it, and the results will always be biased (life, innit?). The boredom from sequencers and the false idea of the need to be in control brought me there. It’s an anti-sequencer. Like in a game, there are some fundamental laws/ rules that you cannot overcome. But who am I playing with? you might ask. You play together with the game itself.
How to install the module
Connect to ribbon cable to the power header. Red stripe goes down, matching the white line on the silk screen (we talking about -12v!). Mount the module on your system before powering ON!!! Congratulations, you are now ready to play. Please consider the fact that you will be using moving parts on the module, you don’t want any of the magnets to fall inside your case and short the power rails (worst awful apocalyptic scenario), so be careful about that!
The module mount as well an expander, this is to connect two tetragrids together, by sharing some pads. Orientation of the cable doesn’t matter, as long as you’re using the 2x4 ribbon cable provided.
Power consumption:
+12v 56 mA(average) - 70 mA (peak)
-12v 11 mA
+5v not used
Power consumption:
+12v 56 mA(average) - 70 mA (peak)
-12v 11 mA
+5v not used
How much is my shipping?
Shipping is automatically calculated before you submit your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page, where you'll be offered shipping options and their prices. In the UK it's normally around £4 for order values under £150, and free above that. Shipping to mainland EU is typically between £7 and £20, depending on the shipping method and the size and weight of the order.
Do you ship to my country?
Almost certainly - the site will give you an estimate of shipping costs if you add an item to the cart and then enter your country and postcode. If you have specific requirements (such as if you prefer UPS over FedEx, for example) then let us know in advance and we'll try to work something out for you.
Shipping methods
We use a combination of Parcelforce, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS for the UK, and for international orders it's either Royal Mail, UPS, DHL or FedEx depending on where you are in the world. If you have a particular preference then try to let us know BEFORE you order so we can look into it for you. Please note that there may occasionally be additional shipping charges if you live in a remote area, depending on what surcharges are applied by the shipper. We'll get in touch to discuss this with you in such cases.
Dispatch times
For UK orders, we normally dispatch the same working day if we get the order before 15:00. If you have a really urgent situation then of course drop us an email before ordering and we'll always do our absolute best to accommodate you.
For international orders, we normally dispatch the same day if we get the order before 13:00 but again, occasionally it might be the next day before we can send it out, and sometimes FedEx or UPS may come a little earlier than scheduled which would also push an order into the next day.
Shipping times
Since April 2020 the couriers we use have suspended guarantees for shipping times, so even though we're paying them for priority services - 24-48 hours for most of the world - in practice it's often an extra day on top and sometimes it can be longer.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about this unfortunately. If you are outside the UK and it's a life-or-death situation where you absolutely MUST have that passive mult for the next day then... it may be better to find a local supplier.
Saturday shipping
If you're in the UK and you order before 15:00 on a Friday then we can send something for a Saturday delivery (NB: this applies to UK mainland addresses only). The success rate with DPD is about 95% so it's worth a punt most of the time. Please note that if you select Saturday shipping on an order placed earlier in the week, we'll wait until Friday to ship it.
Pre-orders
If a product is listed as a pre-order, it means we've ordered it from the supplier but it's not physically in stock yet. The product listing will include an estimated shipping date based on the best information we have from the supplier, but do bear in mind this is subject to change and is not a guaranteed date.
If you place an order containing a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items, we'll normally hold off on shipping anything until the pre-order item(s) have arrived, rather than splitting it into multiple shipments. If you need the in-stock items sooner, we'd recommend placing separate orders. As always, please get in touch if you have questions.
Product Overview
The tetragrid is a 2D cross section of a polytope.
A magnetic-board gate & cv pattern generator, which core is based on ciat lonbarde’s rollz & roolz gewei circuits, and multidimensional geometry.
Inspired by the concept of magnetic board games (and by the stunning magnet matrix from Meng Qi), it brings a rather unusual interface, using magnetic pins directly on the faceplate to create your patch.
Controls
The module have 6 square-ish1 lfo outputs, 2 of them (the ones at the edges) have their own speed control pot, while the other 4 are free running. The panel has a set of 30 cross-modulation touch points2 (the playing board). It's by placing the pins on the faceplate that you’ll be able to modulate the different lfos between each other. You can connect together distant pins on the board by using your hand as a conductor (if you dare it!).
1 I say square-ish because the attack can be slightly sloped, depending on how it is self patched.
2 Each one of the equilateral triangles is a cross-modulation point.
More about the outputs
Depending on how the connections are made, you can obtain different type of outs. In their pure state (i.e. unpatched), the lfos output ranges from 0 to 10v (9.4v more precisely).
Those lfos are transistor based and their behaviour can be unstable. It sometimes take a little moment for the connections made to stabilise, with scattered variations, making the module behave like a living organism. When patching, the behaviour of the output changes, it can become anything between a gate, trigger, ramp, a random cv, and can click and crackle at audio rate. It’s even possible within certain combinations that some of the outs stop 3 Although outs are considered to be at unipolar positive voltage, occasional negative spikes can occur.
Oscillating or stall at a DC offset, this is perfectly normal! It is due to the nature of the circuit (when a cross modulation chain is formed by an odd number of cores it behaves erratically), changing pins/pot position will bring them back to life! The output range varies from approx 0.2 Hz (5s cycles) to ≈200 Hz (low Audio rate). Even if the output is set at cv rate, it can output occasional audio rate bursts, bringing life and FM to your patch!
Something you should consider: the magnet pins don’t connect always the pads together, which is due to the tolerances in the flatness of the magnet and the pcb itself. This is something I embraced in the design, as it fits the philosophy of the module by adding an extra layer of randomness (real analog randomness) to the game.
Philosophy
This a random module. it’s about leaving behind the concept of control: realising that it’s the limits of a tool that dictates the way to interact with it, and the results will always be biased (life, innit?). The boredom from sequencers and the false idea of the need to be in control brought me there. It’s an anti-sequencer. Like in a game, there are some fundamental laws/ rules that you cannot overcome. But who am I playing with? you might ask. You play together with the game itself.
How to install the module
Connect to ribbon cable to the power header. Red stripe goes down, matching the white line on the silk screen (we talking about -12v!). Mount the module on your system before powering ON!!! Congratulations, you are now ready to play. Please consider the fact that you will be using moving parts on the module, you don’t want any of the magnets to fall inside your case and short the power rails (worst awful apocalyptic scenario), so be careful about that!
The module mount as well an expander, this is to connect two tetragrids together, by sharing some pads. Orientation of the cable doesn’t matter, as long as you’re using the 2x4 ribbon cable provided.
Power consumption:
+12v 56 mA(average) - 70 mA (peak)
-12v 11 mA
+5v not used
Technical Specs
Shipping Details
How much is my shipping?
Shipping is automatically calculated before you submit your payment information. Simply add items to your cart and proceed to the checkout page, where you'll be offered shipping options and their prices. In the UK it's normally around £4 for order values under £150, and free above that. Shipping to mainland EU is typically between £7 and £20, depending on the shipping method and the size and weight of the order.
Do you ship to my country?
Almost certainly - the site will give you an estimate of shipping costs if you add an item to the cart and then enter your country and postcode. If you have specific requirements (such as if you prefer UPS over FedEx, for example) then let us know in advance and we'll try to work something out for you.
Shipping methods
We use a combination of Parcelforce, DPD, Royal Mail and UPS for the UK, and for international orders it's either Royal Mail, UPS, DHL or FedEx depending on where you are in the world. If you have a particular preference then try to let us know BEFORE you order so we can look into it for you. Please note that there may occasionally be additional shipping charges if you live in a remote area, depending on what surcharges are applied by the shipper. We'll get in touch to discuss this with you in such cases.
Dispatch times
For UK orders, we normally dispatch the same working day if we get the order before 15:00. If you have a really urgent situation then of course drop us an email before ordering and we'll always do our absolute best to accommodate you.
For international orders, we normally dispatch the same day if we get the order before 13:00 but again, occasionally it might be the next day before we can send it out, and sometimes FedEx or UPS may come a little earlier than scheduled which would also push an order into the next day.
Shipping times
Since April 2020 the couriers we use have suspended guarantees for shipping times, so even though we're paying them for priority services - 24-48 hours for most of the world - in practice it's often an extra day on top and sometimes it can be longer.
There is absolutely nothing we can do about this unfortunately. If you are outside the UK and it's a life-or-death situation where you absolutely MUST have that passive mult for the next day then... it may be better to find a local supplier.
Saturday shipping
If you're in the UK and you order before 15:00 on a Friday then we can send something for a Saturday delivery (NB: this applies to UK mainland addresses only). The success rate with DPD is about 95% so it's worth a punt most of the time. Please note that if you select Saturday shipping on an order placed earlier in the week, we'll wait until Friday to ship it.
Pre-orders
If a product is listed as a pre-order, it means we've ordered it from the supplier but it's not physically in stock yet. The product listing will include an estimated shipping date based on the best information we have from the supplier, but do bear in mind this is subject to change and is not a guaranteed date.
If you place an order containing a mixture of in-stock and pre-order items, we'll normally hold off on shipping anything until the pre-order item(s) have arrived, rather than splitting it into multiple shipments. If you need the in-stock items sooner, we'd recommend placing separate orders. As always, please get in touch if you have questions.
