Jomox Resonator Neuronium Operating Manual

Resonator Neuronium

RNS-N6 First Realisation

Operating Manual

Content

Foreword 6

1. The Net 9

1.1 Main Structure 9

1.2 Net Node Structure 10

1.3 External Inputs 10

1.4 Additive Nodes 11

1.5 FM Nodes 11

1.6 Digital Stimuli (GECO) 12

1.7 VCA Envelope 13

2. The GECO 14

2.1 DNA Structure 15

2.2 Wave Models 17

2.4 DNA Sequences 18

3. Direct Commands 19

3.1 Summing Node (Additive Nodes) 19

3.2 Neuron Frequency (Cutoff) 20

3.3 Frequency Modulation 21

3.4 Stimulus Recombination 23

3.5 Stimulus Edit 24

3.6 VCA Envelope 25

4. Menu Commands 27

4.1 Glb [Global]

4.1.1 Pnc [Panic All note off]

4.1.2 VCA [VCA all open]

4.1.3 Msc [Miscanelleous]

LCD [Contrast]
Clr [Global Parameters Init.]
Ini [initialise machine]
Ver [Display OS Version]

27

4.2 Seq (Sequencer)

4.2.1 Seq [Main Seq on/off]

4.2.2 Cut [Cutoff Seq on/off]

4.2.3 GCO [GECO Seq on/off]

4.2.4 Rcm [Recombination Seq on/off]

4.3 Mid [Midi]

4.3.1 Cha [Channel]

4.3.2 Syn [Synchronisation]

28

28

Uni [Unisono]
Syn [Midi Clock Synchronisation]
Div [Clock divider]
BPM [Beats per Minute]

4.3.3 Ena [Enables]

PrC [Program Change]
Aft [After Touch]
Pit [Pitch]
CC [Continuous Controllers]

4.4 Edi [Edit]

4.4.1 Nam [Name Edit]

4.4.2 Sti [Stimulus Edit]

4.4.3 Env [Envelope Edit]

4.4.4 Mor [More]

LF1 [LFO 1] not impl.
LF2 [LFO 2] not impl.
Ini [Editbuffer initialize]

4.5 Sto [Store]

29

30

4.6 Exit

4.7 Single/Multi

30

30

5. Appendix 31

5.1 Midi Implementation 31

5.1.1 Received Notes

5.1.2 Received Continuous Controllers

5.1.3 System Exclusive Data

5.2 D-Sub Connector 32

5.3 Technical Data 32

Foreword

Dear customers, first of all I want to thank you very much for your decision to purchase the unique
Resonator Neuronium.

I leave it up to you whether you will consider it a sound production tool, a performance machine, a
musical instrument, synthesizer, FX unit or an objective piece of art.

I hope that it will bring lots of joy and inner satisfaction to you. I myself am repeatedly fascinated by
the strange but organic sounds which emanate from this kaleidoscope of a sound producer.

Initial reactions are mostly those of loud laughter because these sounds partly remind one of animal
vowels or ape screaming.

Recently an editor of a magazine, who was born in Mozambique, was here for an interview. He heard
the first tones from the resonator, and without hesitating a second he mentioned it sounded exactly
like animal noises from Africa, and that such a direct organic animalistic sound he had never
experienced from an electronic synthesizer before.

When I made the very first tunes in 2001 whilst programming at home, sitting at the open balcony
window, even birds came by and sang in response because they obviously thought this would be a
friend (or competition) ☺
How can a unit be improved when it is able to make people laugh? Well, it can also scare you...but
hey, here we have a great pallet of human emotions.

I hope that you can use these emotions as sonic pictures within your electronic sound compositions as
much as a painter draws the expressions with his inner eye using different brushes. Why not use a
very complex brush from time to time?

I’m very honoured by the fact that there is a little worldwide community which shares my personal
thoughts, researches and musical ideas.
In the beginning I wasn’t sure if one can or even should sell such an experimental sound production
tool.

The initial thought was more a rebellious one: I wanted to develop something that is derived from my
very own individual ideas and wishes and that does not fit to a form of marketed music synthesis. I
found it was time to create a new sound synthesis.

And because in my private life I am much more interdisciplinary than “only“ being a designer of
electronic musical instruments, the outcome was something that contains a lot of other areas of
knowledge. Beyond the pure electronic and musical thoughts there are ideas from biology, chemistry,
cybernetics, system dynamics, communication and lately philosophy all implemented in the Resonator
Neuronium.

Therefore I had the desire in the beginning not only to establish this project commercially but rather
to understand myself as an artist who is introducing his work to the world.

By selling the Resonator Neuronium to people it becomes possible to bring this sound production
concept to a public that is becoming more and more bored by a never ending flood of plug-ins and
plagiarists.

By the vast number and exchangeability of many software synths the value of a sound producer has
dropped in the view of many people. A plug-in, a synth, a crack, I just can get anything cheap or for
free...and what’s the value of it?

Most people don’t even have at least the tiniest imagination about how much work and know-how is
required to build these tools.

This has damaged us all, musicians and manufacturers, because playing an instrument without feeling

a value for it or having a minimum respect for it feels bad and is not creative in the end.
For the manufacturers, it has damaged business which I have painfully experienced through the last
years as well.

It may be that in 5 years, soft synths become sonically indistinguishable from real analog (right now in
the age of G5 and P4 3.6GHz, they are still fairly far away from being the same), but I think the actual
problem is the value that we see in music and the ways to get there. Soft synths are not bad in
themselves, and certainly I know some very good ones, but the hype surrounding this new technology
and the piracy mentality and therefore the junking and crapping of sound synthesis tools hasn’t
helped the music – it is also often only seen as cheap stuff. I hope and feel at the same time that a
counter movement to this cultural ”clearance sale” is manifesting. It is a dictum of contemporary spirit
how people make music and why they have to do it.
I can imagine that the contradiction of software and hardware harmonises now to an ideal
supplement (say symbiosis) because both realms together have real advantages nobody has to
forego.

Many people have to written me over the past years to praise my instruments and even to give thanks
to me that they exist.

For this I want to thank you very much at this point! Interestingly enough, these or similar sounding
sentences mostly came up: “thank you for your great instruments, you just rock... keep up the good
work, guys, and please don’t give up.“

Obviously there is a consciousness as to what quality means, and that quality isn’t only natural.
I just want to add that I don’t have supernatural capabilities nor that the Jomox company makes
instruments of supernatural quality.
I do my work thoroughly and I have a clear concept – analog sound production first, then the digital
control around it – and I build hardware through material efforts, production, control and quality
control. Obviously this is quite a lot nowadays.
Some suppliers told me that the result of my huge technical efforts is not state-of-the-art any more...if
so, be happy to own a device of an extincting species☺
I hope that you will have lots of joy with it though. We should do what we like with what helps our
creativity and is fun for us. The universe handles the details...

I always put the sound and the usability to the top of the list. And that means also offering a tactile
fun that you should have with hardware in general. I don’t want to sell devices that aren’t fun for me
to use, and because of this they have been successful up until now.

So I have implemented some new things in the Resonator Neuronium: The net programming and
selection of neurons, for instance, are made simply by touching the touch-sensitve pot knobs – you
just have to touch them for selection and you have them already in your hand (by the way, made
from gold plated brass) to adjust the value. Net connections can be seen immediately through a
sophisticated matrix of 3-color LEDs which show the polarity of signals in red or green.
I have even tried to limit the menu and operating levels to a human level. Certainly some functions
are not 100% perfectly implemented though. There will surely be some updates in future which can
be downloaded by midi into the device’s flash in the serial version now.
But I hope I could give some of you a surprise gift. In the past half year I worked very intensely on
hardware and software changes. Probably I wouldn’t have done this if I had not sold this unit to
people. As the designer and user of one’s own units you know very well how to handle bugs and
incomplete parts.

Regarding the sound I am very anxious to know your reactions. Many people have acknowledged to
me that the sound is very organic which I have experienced a lot as well.

Maybe the concept is kind of a catalyzer for a new sound aesthetics which finds a place in
experimental or commercial music compositions, film scores or performances. If so, I would be very
happy about it.

Although this is an operating manual, this project has been running through my life for a couple of
years now so that it appears to me as if I were writing a book. For this reason I want to thank a few
people that have helped and supported me a lot through my endeavours:

First off, my lovely wife Heidi who never stopped believing in me and who always supported me in my
personal development. Even if it meant a deprivation of shared time for her.

Then there’s Peggy Sylopp and Giovanni Longo who did the first performances with the Resonator
Neuronium with me. In December 2002 we had the first performance with Resonator Neuronium and
computer visuals during the exhibition in the Glaslager of the Berlinische Galerie. I enjoyed that very
much!

Thanks to my suppliers BEK, Leiterplatten Nord, Schweitzer Systemtechnik and many more.

And, of course, I thank you, the first 16 brave owners of this unit to take the risk. Thank you for
having waited patiently for such a long time until the first serial units were finally finished.
Without the pre-financing, this project would have never taken place.
For this you deserve honest admiration.

I think I have said enough about reasons and backgrounds and therefore I want you just to put your
hands on and explore this micro universe with its about 2^6^256 (an unimaginable number) possible
states yourself...

With warm regards,

Jürgen Michaelis
MJ - Yogi

1. The Net

N2

N3

1.1 Main Structure

The Resonator Neuronium contains an analog neural net which has 2 main analog layers and a digital
layer with sequencers.
The first layer represents the networking of neurons by addition, which means summation as in a
mixer, and the second represents the linking by frequency modulation. All possible paths are
physically existent and can be activated by programming. In the Resonator Neuronium there are 6
neurons which result in a number of 36 possible links in one layer between the neurons.

N1

N6

N5

N4

Pic.1

Each of the shown linking paths is existent for every direction to and from each neuron and for every
layer, via summation and FM. This is shown by the arrows which point in both directions.
The self-networking of each neuron, or better its feedback, is shown as loop arrows. These can be
positive as well as negative. Thus the arrows point here in both directions too, although only one
inner physical path is existent for its own feedback.
Also FM has its own loop, which means that a neuron-filter indeed can modulate itself through FM.

The network looks the same from every point of view, hence it is symmetrical regarding each single
neuron and its network links.

⇒ In the R.N. the resulting sounds are NOT generated from different building blocks like VCO, VCF,
VCA, Envelope, LFO, etc. as on classical synths but by network vibrations, feedbacks and complex
interactions between EQUAL elements. In this case it’s implemented by differential cascade filters
(moog ladder) ⇐ (as described at www.jayemsonic.de ).

These elements, say neurons, are modular in hardware and can theoretically be exchanged later on
by different (and different sounding) neuron-filters. Swapping them is easy and can be performed by
the user just by opening the bottom plate and exchanging the plug-in (real plug-ins☺) modules.

1.2 Net node structure

FM

Cutoff

If you take a single neuron and its links apart, you‘ll get the following picture:

GECO

DNA

N1

OUT

N2

N3

+

IN

-

N4

Pic.2

Additive layer: The output signals come from all neuron outputs and are mixed by the input
potentiometers to the neuron input, like an audio mixer, with the only difference that it can be
continuously both positive or negative. If you keep with the audio mixer example, it is as if you switch
the phase button automatically on the mixer when you cross zero (center of the knob).

FM layer: Additionally, the output signals from the other neurons are also mixed together by other
potentiometers in order to modulate the cutoff frequency of the neuron filter. On FM it is only mixed
without a change in sign.

Digital layer: Attached to the neuron filter there is the GECO which feeds an analog but digitally
generated signal (oscillator or wave) dependent on the activated stimulus function to the neuron itself
and thus to the greater network, if links are programmed. The GECO contains a step sequencer which
can control the basic cutoff of the neuron filter. Please note that each neuron contains its own
independent sequencer and GECO.

1.3 External Inputs

You have the ability to feed external signals into neurons 1 and 4. Both channels are linked if only one
plug is inserted into one channel. The input gain can be controlled by the input gain knob. By this you
can trigger, filter and excite the network with external audio signals and obtain interesting effects and
sounds.

Furthermore, there is a D-sub connector placed at the rear carrying all analog inputs and outputs and
some supply voltages. Potentially one could craft a custom-made breakout box to integrate the R.N.
for example into a modular system or a studio cabling, or cascade several Resonators to form a larger
network.

The pin out of the D-sub connector can be found in the appendix.