Yesterday, 11:54 AM
Christian here, quick clarification: The Divisions knob is a special case because it is a potentiometer with 11 detents. Notice, how all other knobs on the Komplex turn continuously but the Divisions knob lateches into 11 distinct positions. The issue is that these detents have huge tolerances and the spread between them is very irregular. This becomes worse on either end of the knob where resistance often changes less than in the middle of the potentiometer.
For the sake of simplicity, let's imagine, we have a 100K resistance potentiometer with 9 detents -> that would be 10 zones or 10 divisions available. You would probably imagine that the 10 zones (detents) sit evenly spaced at 0K, 10K, 20K, 30K, ... 100K.
The reality is that the detents will look something like: 0K, 1K, 1.2K, 2K, 10K, 20K, ... 90K, 92K, 98K (exaggerated). Now this is something that we can take into account in the firmware to some extent but imagine every 10th or so potentiometer coming with: 0K, 1K, 1.6K, 2K, ... now the firmware has a really tough time deciding if 1.6K still belongs to 1.2K or to 2K and divisions might jump around. There are more engineering challenges to this but this is the core issue.
On older models we have solved that manually by "nudging" the pots a bit up or a bit down by hand-soldering resistors to them, so the zones spread out a little more evenly, especially on the lower zones where the :32, :16, :8 divisons sit. But that sometimes may lead to errors in the higher divisions (4x, 8x). Additionally, when pots age - and some Komplex Sequencers are older than 10 years by now - these resistances shift around even further.
So with the latest firmware update, we coded an on-machine calibration mode. This is what you are doing when you calibrate your Divisions knob. You essentially learn your Komplex your exact potentiometer zones on the Divisions knob. We do this here before ship out any new sequencers but for any sequencer already out there, you need to do the procedure once and then never again. The specific zone settings to your Komplex will persist over all future firmware updates.
We thought it's a small annoyance that helps have extremely stable divisions. Unstable divisions come up every once in a while in support. Now we know for sure that any Komplex Sequencer that has uniquely calibrated Division knobs will never suffer from such an issue. Not now and not in the future.
I hope that helps! If you want to know more, just let me know :)
For the sake of simplicity, let's imagine, we have a 100K resistance potentiometer with 9 detents -> that would be 10 zones or 10 divisions available. You would probably imagine that the 10 zones (detents) sit evenly spaced at 0K, 10K, 20K, 30K, ... 100K.
The reality is that the detents will look something like: 0K, 1K, 1.2K, 2K, 10K, 20K, ... 90K, 92K, 98K (exaggerated). Now this is something that we can take into account in the firmware to some extent but imagine every 10th or so potentiometer coming with: 0K, 1K, 1.6K, 2K, ... now the firmware has a really tough time deciding if 1.6K still belongs to 1.2K or to 2K and divisions might jump around. There are more engineering challenges to this but this is the core issue.
On older models we have solved that manually by "nudging" the pots a bit up or a bit down by hand-soldering resistors to them, so the zones spread out a little more evenly, especially on the lower zones where the :32, :16, :8 divisons sit. But that sometimes may lead to errors in the higher divisions (4x, 8x). Additionally, when pots age - and some Komplex Sequencers are older than 10 years by now - these resistances shift around even further.
So with the latest firmware update, we coded an on-machine calibration mode. This is what you are doing when you calibrate your Divisions knob. You essentially learn your Komplex your exact potentiometer zones on the Divisions knob. We do this here before ship out any new sequencers but for any sequencer already out there, you need to do the procedure once and then never again. The specific zone settings to your Komplex will persist over all future firmware updates.
We thought it's a small annoyance that helps have extremely stable divisions. Unstable divisions come up every once in a while in support. Now we know for sure that any Komplex Sequencer that has uniquely calibrated Division knobs will never suffer from such an issue. Not now and not in the future.
I hope that helps! If you want to know more, just let me know :)