Sample and Hold

sample n' hold (S&H)

(and its relative ... T&H)

a popular saying in the modular world is: 'You can never have enough VCAs' (why is another topic/post :))

BUT, here you can add.. you can never have enough S&Hs!

vcv tip:
the vcvrack PROCESS module is great for this, though there are many others.

why? in the modular world all change are 'instantaneous', voltages change immediately... unlike traditional synths (and midi) where most things are tied to a note on/off event.

but sometimes in modular, you want to have changes 'synchronise' to events, be that a clock or a key press - and this is where S&H come in, basically, if you want to hold off a change based on key events then use z/gate into the trig of a S&H. there are numerous variations on this... but just remember, if you don't want things sliding around S&H is your friend.

Ive noticed in my early playing with MM (and also from the EA) S&H are even more common with Eigenharps, the reason is, we are using live input ... we are the expression. whereas most modular videos will either be using sequencers (which naturally sync changes', or midi and so either sync'd envelopes or lfos.

another related use-case is T&H (track n' hold). where S&H freezes a value on a trig , track and hold will change a value only when a gate is high.

e.g - use S&H to freeze voltage when you press a key, use T&H to allow a value to only change when you are holding down a key.