Module A-198 is a Trautonium Manual resp. Ribbon Controller. The controlling element of the A-198 is a linear position sensor (length about 50 cm) that has available a pressure sensor too.  Purchasing this system includes both the A-198 module and the Ribbon Controller.

 

(the color of the A-198 manual will be changed to black, so that for R2M and A-198 the same manual will be used)

Touching the sensor with a finger generates a control voltage CV1 that is proportional to the position of the finger. The scale (i.e. the relation between position difference and voltage difference) is adjustable with a potentiometer at the front panel. A hold switch is used to determine if the CV voltage is held after removing the finger (hold = on) or if the CV voltage jumps to 0V (hold = off). In the last case (hold = off) a gate signal is derived from the CV voltage whenever a finger touches the sensor (e.g. for triggering an envelope generator).
A sensitive pressure sensor located below the position sensor generates a second control voltage CV2 that increases with higher pressure of the finger. Even for CV2 the scale is adjustable. A second gate signal is triggered as soon as the pressure exceeds a certain value. The gate threshold is adjustable at the front panel.
The sensors are located in a separate metal frame (length about 600 mm, width about 30 mm, height about 18 mm, weight: about 900 g, color: silver-grey). The connection between the module and the sensor frame is made by a 4 pin cable (same as used for USB connections).

Typical applications:

• Trautonium manual, the string is replaced by the position sensor that is much easier to use and cheaper than the string. In combination with the Subharmonic Oscillator A-113, the Trautonium Filter A-104 and some auxiliary modules a complete Trautonium replica may be realized. In combination with the Quantizer A-156 exact semitone intervals are possible. More details about the Trautonium principles are available on our web site (use this link: The Trautonium project).

• Ribbon Controller for any A-100 parameter (e.g. pitch, filter frequency, loudness, panorama, speed, modulation depth and so on)

The English user's manual is available on our web site as pdf file: A198_man.pdf (~ 200 kB).

We have available some mp3 sound examples that were made by our Italian A-100 user Enrico Cosimione. He plays very virtuoso on the A-198. Even some well known musical phrases of Oskar Sala are among the examples. Only these modules are used: A-198, A-110 (VCO), A-122 (24dB low pass filter) and A-123 (24dB high pass filter). No quantizer, no VCA or other modules are used, only a bit of reverb is added. The following sound examples are available: 
a198_free_scales.mp3 (~ 350kB): This is an example of playing the ribbon with four fingers of right hand, alternating tapping and sliding; I have used a A-110 with PWM put into the 122 and 123 just for cut a little bit of bass click noise on finger lift-off.
a198_salas_theme.mp3 (~ 430kB): Is obviously the beginning of glissando caprice; I'm not sure that mine is the correct tonality..., I have scaled the ribbon CV to very LARGE interval, just for sake of note centering :-) 
a198_scales_gliss.mp3 (~ 750kB): The position CV goes to A-110, the pressure CV goes to A-122 cutoff frequency; no quantizing, obviously; you can hear the passages between tapping (furiously) and sliding.

Remark: R2M (Ribbon-to-Midi) is the stand-alone version of the A-198 with MIDI and CV/Gate outputs. R2M offers a lot more features than the A-198 (e.g. quantizing, gate function even in the hold mode, inverse scaling and many more). R2M is available even without manual so that an existing A-198 manual can be used. For details please refer to the R2M information.

Breite (Modul) / Width (module): 8 TE / 8 HP / 40.3 mm 
Tiefe (Modul) /Depth (module): 40 mm (gemessen ab der Rückseite der Frontplatte / measured from the rear side of the front panel)
Strombedarf (Modul + Manual) / Current (module + manual): 40 mA