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Tuning and Calibration (For 0.70+)

The assembled versions of WaveBoy will come pre-calibrated. DIY versions or updated firmware may change the tuning which may require adjustments. As a reminder, if you are not comfortable with this process, we can retune your WaveBoy for you! You can use our contact form to do so.

** Be sure to backup your SD card first! **

For previous firmware, use the following steps:

Pre-requisites

To tune the WaveBoy, you will need a means to generate good V/Oct values for notes. You will also may need an accurate tuner. It is generally easier to use a MIDI to CV interface for sending known correct CV V/Oct values to the WaveBoy though it can be done using other modules too. Just be sure it is accurately sending the correct note and octave (e.g. F2).

Pre-assembled WaveBoys come already calibrated and tuned such that you should not need to run through these steps unless the tuning seems off (in which case you should contact us) or if you are upgrading to newer firmware which requires it and do not wish to send it back to us for re-calibration.

When doing a full calibration, you need to use a stable and good voltage source that can generate the following voltages reliably:

  • -3.00V
  • +3.00V
  • +0.75V
  • +4.25V
  • -5.00V
  • +5.00V

Why -3V instead of -3.5V? This is because I use uO_C to calibrate the voltages and it can only go down to -3V. The ideal would be -/+ 3.5V as this is 15% and 85% of the ADC range. These voltages are for calibrating CV and aren't quite as critical as V/Oct. Calibrating the CV range helps avoid audio artifacts when using the realtime audio modes with a hot signal, as well as helping to balance the negative and positive CV range so that a bipolar LFO will produce the same modulation along the negative and positive voltages.

Initial Steps

Power on the WaveBoy and allow your Eurorack to rack operating temperature. Remove the USB cable from the WaveBoy if you were using it to update the module and ideally mount the module in its normal spot in your rack.

Navigate to Config and then ADC Cal.

ADC and CV Cal

The ADC Cal section is for adjusting the linearity of the ADCs and the CV range. These steps are optional but generally recommended. The module shows several pieces of information:

  • ADC0 0.75V Value
  • ADC0 4.25V Value
  • ADC1 -3.00V Value
  • ADC1 3.00V Value
  • CV Neg
  • CV Cen
  • CV Pos

Calibrating the ADCs

The ADC rows show the raw ADC value configured for the given voltage. Do these first.

For ADC0, connect your voltage source to V/Oct. Use the left knob to select the 0.75 value and then send 0.75V to V/Oct. Press the right knob to record the raw ADC value. Use the left knob to move to 4.25V, send V/Oct 4.25V and press the right knob to record that value. 0.75V will be a lower number (around 500-700) and 4.25V will be a higher number (around 3500).

For ADC1, connect your voltage source to CV and repeat the process for -3V and +3V. The numbers should be around 860 and 3300 or so.

If the numbers are way off, double-check you are using the correct jack and that your voltages are accurate.

Calibrating CV Range

** Be sure to calibrate the ADCs first! Otherwise the CV range will be inaccurate. **

Use the left knob to select the CV you want to calibrate and press the right knob to store the setting similar to the above steps.

To calibrate CV High, provide a +5V or higher voltage source to the CV input. The number should be close to 4080 or so.

For CV Center, simply unplug the CV input. This value will be around 2000.

For CV Low, provide a -5V or lower voltage source to the CV input. This will read near 0.

Saving State

To save your ADC and CV settings, simply press the left knob to exit the menu. Power cycle the rack to make sure the settings are applied for the V/Oct tuning steps.

V/Oct Tuning Process

During the tuning process, the tune knob is disabled (to avoid skewing the results) meaning the note displayed (e.g. F2) is the equivalent MIDI note you should be sending to the WaveBoy's V/Oct. This is important because the tuning process compares the ideal values of the current note with what is being read over V/Oct. Playing the wrong note will substantially impact these values.

One thing to watch for, if you accidentally skip a note or otherwise send a very wrong note to the WaveBoy than the one you are tuning, you may impact the auto-calibration process or run into a case where trying to tune the current note no longer works. This is almost always the result of having sent the wrong note at some point turing the process. If you run into this, turn off the WaveBoy and copy the cal/tuning.json file from your SD card backup. If you forgot to make a backup, you can grab the SD card image for your firmware version from Firmware.

Also, if you find that C2, C#2, or B7 are hard to tune. consider skipping these. Some modules may struggle at one end of the tuning range or the other (usually not both).

  1. Make sure alt audio output is disabled (Step Output) and Vol Audio is off (Audo Options)
  2. From the main menu, go to Config -> Tuning
  3. Use the left knob to dial in the note. If running a full calibration, start at C2.
  4. Play that note through V/Oct. The current value will update to the raw ADC value plus the tuning offset (if one is already set). C2 is a special case where the ideal value may be zero. For all the other notes, it will be non-zero.
  5. To perform an auto-tune, simply press the right knob. This automatically reads the incoming raw V/Oct ADC value and sets the tuning adjustment for that note so that it matches the ideal value.
    1. If you want more accuracy, you can set the tuning adjustment manually.
    2. To do this you will need an external tuner.
    3. Press the right knob to get the value close and then do a fine adjustments by turning the right knob left or right until it is in tune.
  6. Turn the left knob to go to the next note and repeat the process up to B-6.
    1. Be mindful not to skip any notes! Doing so can end up being fairly confusing as noted in the warning up above.
  7. Save the settings by pressing and holding the left knob to exit the Tuning menu.
  8. Power-cycle the Rack
  9. Select Wave or Jenny mode and re-check tunings. Be sure to use the tune knob to select another base note to make sure things are in-tune up and down the equivalent scale.