This utility splits, adds, and/or merges a stereo or 3D polyphonic signal with 2 or 3 monophonic signals. This is like VCV Merge and VCV Split combined, but only for a maximum of 3 channels. I chose 3 as the channel limit to support 3D vectors produced by Frolic, Polynucleus, etc. SplitAddMerge saves patch screen space because it is only 2 HP wide.
I created this module to save surface area in my patches. Often I want to merge a pair of stereo signals into a single 2-channel polyphonic cable, so that I can multiply both by the same envelope in a VCA, for example.
Usually I would use VCV Split and VCV Merge, but they are designed for up to 16 channels and are larger than I need.
The upper half of the panel includes 4 input ports.
The top 3 input ports are monophonic X, Y, and Z inputs. Below it is a polyphonic P input.
Usually you plug monophonic cables into X, Y, or Z. However, if any of these inputs has more than one channel, the channel voltages are added to produce a single monophonic sum.
The polyphonic P input respects up to 3 channels in the input cable. Any remaining channels are ignored. Missing channels are treated as 0 V.
The lower half of the panel includes 4 output ports.
The top 3 output ports are monophonic X, Y, and Z outputs. Below it is a polyphonic P output. Both are different representations of the following sums:
- P[0] + X
- P[1] + Y
- P[2] + Z
Any missing inputs are treated as 0 V, so using only the polyphonic input or only the 3 monophonic inputs causes them to be copied to the output ports.
You can change the number of polyphonic channels in the output port P by right-clicking on the Split/Add/Merge panel and sliding the channel count slider. The current output channel count is indicated by the LED-style numeric display in the uppper part of the panel.
Here is an example of splitting a polyphonic 3D vector output from Frolic into its component voltages.
And here is an example of merging monophonic signals into a polyphonic signal:
If you provide both monophonic and polyphonic inputs, the signals get added. This can be a handy way to create novel chaotic signals using a pair of simple chaotic oscillators. The following example also demonstrates that you can place a Tricorder immediately to the right of a Split/Add/Merge and it will graph the output vector.