Moffenzeef Kriket
Four NAND gate cricket-chirp oscillators with vactrol CV
8 HP Eurorack module
Kriket is a quad CMOS NAND gate square wave oscillator module. Each of the four oscillators can be triggered on and off individually via BANG! inputs, and all four track a shared CV input through a homemade vactrol (photocell + LED) for sloppy, slew-heavy pitch tracking. The result is a gritty, lo-fi chirping texture machine with an organic, imprecise character inspired by hardware hacking tradition.
Features
- 4 independent CMOS NAND gate square wave oscillators
- Per-channel BANG! trigger input (active high at 2v or above, rising edge)
- Per-channel pitch knob with range 185hz to 14khz
- Shared global pitch CV input (unipolar 0-5v) via homemade vactrol
- Vactrol built from photocells and single LED for sloppy slew-based CV tracking
- All four oscillators track same CV simultaneously through shared LED
- Giant light-isolating enclosure on rear to shield vactrol from exterior light
- Audio output 4 to 16vpp, 10vpp RMS
- LED audio output indicator
- Inspired by Nicolas Collins CD4093 NAND synth circuit from Handmade Electronic Music
Controls & Jacks (13)
- Channel I Pitch — Pitch control potentiometer for oscillator III (185Hz - 14kHz)
- Channel II Pitch 2 — Pitch control potentiometer for oscillator II (185Hz - 14kHz)
- LED — Audio output indicator. Driven by incoming CV through Kriket input.
- Channel IV Pitch — Pitch control potentiometer for oscillator IV (185Hz - 14kHz)
- Channel III Pitch — Pitch control potentiometer for oscillator I (185Hz - 14kHz)
- Out — Audio output. 4-16Vpp. 10Vpp RMS.
- Bang! I — Trigger input for oscillator I. Goes high when 2V or higher is received, rising edge.
- Bang! II — Trigger input for oscillator II. Goes high when 2V or higher is received, rising edge.
- Bang! III — Trigger input for oscillator III. Goes high when 2V or higher is received, rising edge.
- Bang! IV — Trigger input for oscillator IV. Goes high when 2V or higher is received, rising edge.
- Kriket Input — input jack
- Channel II Pitch 1 — Pitch control potentiometer for oscillator IV (185Hz - 14kHz)
- ØUT — Audio output. 4-16Vpp. 10Vpp RMS.
How-To Guides
- Single Channel Cricket Chirp
- Quad Rhythmic Cricket Texture
- Vactrol CV Pitch Sweep
- Generative Random Chirping
- Envelope-Controlled Chirp Duration
- Lo-Fi NAND Bass Drone
- LFO Amplitude Gating Stutter
- CV-Sequenced Melodic Chirps
Explore the interactive Kriket panel on BleepDex — tap any control to learn what it does.
