Mutable Instruments Kinks User Manual

Mutable Instruments | Kinks

Kinks requires a -12V / +12V power supply (2x5 pin connector). The ribbon cable connector must be
aligned so that the red stripe of the ribbon cable (-12V) is on the same side of the module’s power header
as the “Red stripe” marking on the board. The module draws 25mA from both the +12V and -12V supply
rails.

This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following
two conditions: (1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must
accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired
operation.

This device meets the requirements of the following standards: EN55032, EN55103-2,
EN61000-3-2, EN61000-3-3, EN62311.

Important notice: with long bus-boards and in the vicinity of a transmitter, Kinks’ analog noise generation

circuit can receive radio transmissions. The range of frequencies concerned by this quirk all carry digital
modulations, indistinguishable from white noise.

This section consists of a precision inverter, a half- and a full-wave rectifier.

1. Signal input.

1 of 5

Mutable Instruments | Kinks

2. Inverted output. Besides the typical CV applications (invert the direction of an envelope or LFO),

inverters are useful for creating interesting waveforms from VCO outputs. For example, invert the sine
output of a classic analog VCO, and mix it with its sawtooth (or triangle) output. This is equivalent to
attenuating the fundamental frequency of the sawtooth (or triangle) waveform, creating a more nasal
sound.

3. Half-wave rectified output. The negative half of the signal is clipped to 0V. This can add many

harmonics to audio signals.

4. Full-wave rectified output. The negative half of the signal is inverted. On symmetric waveforms like a

sine or a triangle, this doubles the frequency of the signal (“octaver” effect). Another interesting application
is to pre-process a random signal before sending it to a quantizer or digital VCO - some of these don’t
handle negative CVs!

The monitoring LED indicates the amplitude and polarity of the input signal.

Remember what a logic OR gate does: its output is at a high level (for example +5V) whenever one of the
two inputs is at a high level. One could express this rule differently: the output is the greatest (maximum)
of the two inputs. This is exactly what an analog OR circuit (also called a maximum or peaks circuit) does:
it takes the maximum of its two input voltages. When these voltages are digital signals (for example with a
low level of 0V and a high level of 5V), this circuit does the same thing as a digital OR gate.

Similarly, the analog AND circuit extracts the minimum of the two inputs (the troughs in the graph of the
two input signals).

2 of 5