Mass Driver

Mass Driver — 32 HP (AF-01)

Sixteen-channel no-wave signal mixer, and the flagship of the AF-01 series. Wall Conductor's ideas at four times the width: DENSITY sweeps sixteen channels rather than four, PRESSURE and MASS separate drive from output level, and three output pairs let you take the same mix saturated, clean, or in mono. Channels 1–8 run down the left spine, 9–16 down the right, with the master controls in the centre.

If Wall Conductor is a performance surface, Mass Driver is a whole desk.

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Sound in 60 seconds

1. Add Mass Driver. Patch sources into any of CH1–CH16, and OUT L/R to your interface.
2. DENSITY starts at 100% and MASS at 75%, so everything patched is already audible.
3. Sweep DENSITY down. Channels drop away in order, sixteen to one.
4. Raise PRESSURE towards 100%. Drive climbs from 1× to 4× into the saturator.
5. Take AUX L/R to a second pair of inputs. That is the same mix before PRESSURE — clean, for parallel processing.
6. Hit COLLAPSE. Everything ducks at once.

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Signal flow

CH1–16 IN ──► × GAIN (0–2×) × densityGain × (1 − muted)
                     │
                     ├─ pan: linear spread across 16 channels, −WIDTH … +WIDTH
                     └─ constant-power sum into mixL / mixR
                     │
        mix += previous output × FEEDBACK   [one-sample bus, capped 0.92]
                     │
        ┌────────────┴─────────────┬──────────────────┐
        │                          │                  │
   pre-PRESSURE               mono sum          × PRESSURE drive (1–4×)
   × MASS                     × MASS                  │ tanh
        │                          │             × collapseEnv × MASS
        ▼                          ▼                  ▼
    AUX L / AUX R              SUM (mono)       OUT L / OUT R

V/OCT IN ─────────────────────────────────────────────► V/OCT THRU

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Controls

Control	Range	Default	What it does
GAIN ×16	0–2×	0.75	Per-channel level. CH1–8 on the left spine, CH9–16 on the right
MUTE ×16	button	off	Per-channel mute
DENSITY	0–100%	100%	Sweeps 0 to 16 channels in
PRESSURE	0–100%	25%	Drive into tanh, 1× to 4×
WIDTH	0–100%	80%	Stereo spread. 0 is mono, 100% is full L/R
MASS	0–100%	75%	Master output level, applied to all three output pairs
FEEDBACK	0–100%	0%	One-sample recirculation, internally capped at 0.92
COLLAPSE	button + gate	—	Instant duck to silence

DENSITY, PRESSURE, WIDTH, MASS and FEEDBACK each have an attenuverter (−1 to +1) and a CV input. The per-channel GAIN knobs and MUTE buttons do not.

MASS and PRESSURE are worth keeping distinct in your head: PRESSURE decides how hard the signal hits the saturator, MASS decides how loud the result is. Raising PRESSURE and lowering MASS gives more distortion at the same volume.

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Ports

Port	Direction	Notes
CH1–16	Input	Channel audio
DENSITY / PRESSURE / WIDTH / MASS / FEEDBACK CV	Input	One per master knob, each via its attenuverter
COLLAPSE	Input	Gate — collapses, same as holding the button
OUT L / OUT R	Output	Main stereo, post-PRESSURE, post-collapse, post-MASS
AUX L / AUX R	Output	The same stereo mix before PRESSURE, with MASS applied
SUM	Output	Mono sum, with MASS applied
V/OCT IN → THRU	In / Out	Pass-through

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Patch recipes

Parallel saturation. OUT L/R and AUX L/R both to your interface, or to two channels of another mixer. Blend the driven and clean versions of the identical mix — parallel distortion without a second module.

Sixteen-voice assembly. Sixteen sources, DENSITY at 0, swept up across a long take. Each quarter-turn brings in four more channels. The most direct use of the module.

Mono check. SUM to a single input. WIDTH can be pushed hard on OUT L/R while SUM confirms nothing collapses badly when summed.

Feedback mass. FEEDBACK 60%, PRESSURE 60%, MASS 40%. The recirculation accumulates and saturates each pass; the internal 0.92 cap keeps it from running away, and MASS keeps the level sane.

Structural collapse. Drift GATE → COLLAPSE at a slow RATE. Occasional, unpredictable silences across the whole sixteen-channel wall.

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Known pairings

Module	Routing
DroneClone	Several instances across the channel spines
String-Mass-Core	OUT → a channel; DENSITY then acts over the whole mass
Collapse-Saturator	AUX L/R → IN for a second, differently-shaped distortion path
Feedback-Governor	OUT → Feedback Governor → a spare channel, a loop with tone control
Drift	SMOOTH → DENSITY or MASS CV for slow structural movement
Wall-Conductor	Use Wall Conductor for sub-sections and Mass Driver as the master

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See also

Wall-Conductor · Choke · Collapse-Saturator · Design-System · Playbooks

Full parameter spec: docs/modules/MassDriver.md