Noise Engineering Sinclastic Empulatrix

The Noise Engineering Sinclastic Empulatrix is an envelope module for modular synthesizers in Eurorack format. The module generates an exponential attack release envelope combined with a downstream VCA. The time range of the two phases is between 50 us and 5 s. The Gate/Trig switch can be used to select whether only the attack phase is run through instead of the entire envelope curve. The VCA is modulated directly by the envelope. The VCA of the Sinclastic Empulatrix is not a conventional VCA, but a clamp. This circuit was inspired by the Roland TR-808's hi-hat section.

Clamp
Instead of a normal VCA, the signal is not scaled at a clamp, but limited by clipping. When the decay phase begins, the signal peaks of the audio signal are cut off and distorted at the same time.