COCOLASE MANUAL SCROLL
COCOLASE FAQ


This is the SIDRASSI of the COCOLASE.
Each petal represents an oscillator.
The inner brassos represent square waves.
The outer brassos represent triangle waves.
One knob controls the speed of the two petals it is nearest.
The RAMBRAINS are in the bottom left and right.
Each RAMBRAIN cluster represents one oscillator sampled at the rhythms of three others.
For example, on the bottom left:
these three brassos represent triangle wave H
sampled at the rhythms of F, D, and B.

The following are oscilloscope traces of the patterns available within the COCOLASE. The time period for each pattern is variable by knob from very slow mountain creeping to high frequency audio.


On the left, a triangle wave. On the right, a square wave.


Rambrain patterns. The top four are slow samplings of a fast triangle wave, the bottom is a fast sampling of a slow triangle wave.


Combo waves. These are made by wiring several outputs together. Clockwise from top left: triangle+triangle+square, triangle+square+square, triangle+square+square, rambrain+triangle+square, triangle+triangle, triangle+triangle.


Modulation: this is a triangle wave modulated by another triangle wave.


OK Say you have four petals named QRST
Then there will be four switches, one for each
In minor mode "qrst" are high "audio" pitch
In major mode "QRST" are low "control" pitch
There are also four copper pins for each of QRST
Connect brassos to these to modulate QRST


This is a delay unit.
Adjust INPUT to your favorite level. I keep FEEDBA at around 11 o'clock.
The SPEED knob adjusts the delay period from about a minute to about a second.
Apply any signal from the SIDRASSI to the SP.AF. brasso.
The AFFEC knob adjusts how SP.AF. affects SPEED.
AFFEC at 3 o'clock means SP.AF. will modulate the speed at 50% verso.
AFFEC at 9 o'clock means SP.AF. will modulate the speed at 50% inverso.
AFFEC at 12 o'clock means SP.AF. will hardly modulate the speed at all.
The IP knob controls around which point FLIP and SKIP articulate.
Here is a demonstration using a triangle wave as input:


The horizontal black line indicates that IP is set at 1 o'clock, clockwise off center.
This makes the TO and FRO rhythm asymmetrical.
If IP were set at 12 o'clock, the rhythm would be symmetrical.
If the triangle is applied to FLIP, the delay will go forward at "TO" and backwards at "FRO"
If the triangle is applied to SKIP, the delay will mark time at "TO" and skip to that time at "FRO"


Each delay has three buttons.
set it to move-sound-delay for normal echo operation
set it to move-silence-delay to insert silence into the material
set it to move-sound-sample to infinitely play the material without decay
freeze will stop movement through the material, think of it as "bookmark"


This cord will enable you to connect audio from the SIDRASSI
to the inputs of the delays.

COCOLASE FAQ

how does it differ from the delays on the tranoe?
The cocolase is a portable tranoe (not available anymore), with more spontaneous options and hardwired rambrains (sample and hold random melody generators). The delays are similar, definitely 8 bit, but I put a low pass in them so when they are in delay mode, their decay is half 8 bit disintegration, half analog warmth. Instead of mandatory sample mode and pushbutton delay, the cocolase has a delay/sample toggle switch.

There has been a gradual takeover of unwanted radio reception in (I think) the right looper of the cocolase.
Hi there. I made the inputs slightly high impedance so you can use a microphone or a piezo in a pinch without an preamp. So if you use the alligator clip wire unconnected it will pick up radio. The answer is simply that the input needs to be connected to something. Does the radio go away if you turn down the input volume? If the radio does not go away when you turn down the input volume knob, I will need to know the name of the opamp directly beneath all that delay's knobs. You can open the case and look inside, there are only two socketed chips, one for each delay. These are the opamps for the feedback loops. Tell me which one (I think one may be ts914) is beneath the good delay and the bad delay. I'll send you out a selection of opamps you can try. pete

Well for now as long as I keep it off metal tables it seems I have found a way around it by having my mixer next to it and having the "prime mover" be connected to a preamped channel and entering the loopers through the aux send. This gives me a LOT of more control over attenuating all of the imputs/outputs, and I haven't had any radio even though I just got crazy with the cocolase for the last hour. I will tell you if I have problems later but again thanks for your quick response to my problem. I am thinking of actually making a few "prime movers" out of thicker color coded cable and then be able to have multiple audio imputs from the oscs, along with anything else on the board. And I'm not sure if I made this clear but the radio interference did occur for a time with the imput knob all the way down and then also with the input unplugged, but only on the r looper. Do the loopers have different kinds of opamps for the feedback loops?
I have been experimenting with different opamps because in that location- the center of a digital feedback loop- all their idiosyncrasies are accentuated. So lm324 will reveal it's celery likeness, ts914 it's super-crisp, tl064 is mellower. Your solution is the best though. I experimented a while last night with your prime-mover idea, good way to blip in sounds. You have obviously bnoticed the buzz there too, because cocolase inputs are a highimpedance compromise so you can use piezos/mikes. A way to emulate your mixer inputs is to connect the signal of the prime mover through a 47k resistor to ground. This can be done with the ground jack on the side (banana jack), or on the inside, soldering a 47k resistor between the lugs of the 1/4" input jack. Well please keep in touch if you ever get radio again with the input turned down. We can still go inside and put a celery-like lm324, which out of its economy does not respond to radio.

Wait, did you say that the banana jack on the left was a "ground jack", meaning I could reduce overall hum/hiss by attaching some kind of cable to that jack and then grounding it into some large metal object or somesuch? Please educate.
Hello, ya try making faraday cage grounded to banana jack (which is direct connection to ground). Then put this "large metal object" inside the cage and connect to cocolase input, for perception of odd radios.

Hyya Pete, Is there any way to get the Cocolase to way-down-pitch a delayed/sampled input signal within its variation-tendencies-magic? Like maybe one or two octaves or more? This would be wayyy cool for slow semi-random grinding sludge-fudge-- brrrrr!
Yes maam, it is an expert at multifrequency embedded messages.

I find myself wanting to make melodies in a variety of hand positions with the oscillators, but am finding myself wanting the knobs to have a little more resistance. Could I also install different pots for greater precision?
Hey there, let's see. you want knobs with more butter and less creak? Well I made the cocolase to be compact, so it would be hard to fit wooden knobs in... Hypothetically, you could make one big pot in a separate box which just outputs 0-9 volts and plug that in to a modulation input. You could attach a 9 volt battery to the two sides of the pot, connect the grounds, and tether the middle of the pot to the modulation input. Then you could put a steering wheel on the pot!

If I had someone who knew more about matters electrical wise than I open up the cocolase to put in the resistors to the imput gain as you suggested earlier to reduce ground hum Which would you recommend, and what are the complications involved with doing this, etc?
Gettin hum? I guess that comes with the territory when playing it by hand conduction. Well just connect a resistor between the two lugs of your input jack- that will make a lower resistance between signal and ground which are the two lugs. Try 100k, 47k, etc.