Make Noise DXG Dual Stereo Low Pass Gate and Mixer Module

The Make Noise DXG (Dual Stereo Gate) music synthesizer module is a Dual Stereo Low Pass Gate and Mixer. It follows in the footsteps of the QMMG, Optomix, RxMx, DynaMix, and LxD. Unlike its predecessors, the DXG is specifically oriented around mixing stereo signals, making it an important addition to any system containing modules like XPO, QPAS, Morphagene, Mimeophon, and other stereo modules by Make Noise or others.

Unique to the DXG is a new low pass gate circuit that does not use vactrols. This circuit is 100% analog and its response was arrived at after many months tailoring it to meet or exceed the expectations that have been set by all the vactrol low pass gates that Make Noise has created over the years.

In the past, Make Noise produced the Dynamix module and Dynamics circuit in the 0-COAST, both of which are vactrolless LPGs; however, the DXG is a completely new approach which better implements the gentle single pole filtering of a low pass gate, while also emulating the slow decay and memory of the vactrol based low pass gate. This new circuit makes possible the consistency of response necessary for versatile stereo use, while also keeping the module small and affordable so that it can be a key part of just about any modular system.

As on all of Make Noise low pass gates, the DXG’s Control parameter is used to set both the amplitude and the frequency content of the sound that passes through it. The control parameter tends to open faster than it closes, imparting a subtle decay phase onto any envelope shape that is used to modulate it.

Unlike previous low pass gates made by Make Noise, all the DXG’s inputs and outputs are stereo. Each set of inputs is normalled so that the left input can be used for a mono signal, sending a copy to both left and right outputs. The Auxiliary inputs are also a stereo pair with mono normalization. These normalizations allow for the DXG to be used as a simple three channel stereo mixer, with one or two of the channels additionally being used for dynamics control and note event generation. The Aux inputs can be used to chain together larger decentralized mixes using additional DXG modules, or X-PAN, Optomix, modDemix etc.