Hardware/cabling requirements – Expert Sleepers Silent Way v2.4.3 User Manual
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Hardware/Cabling Requirements
For most of the Silent Way plug-ins to work, the audio interface between the computer
and the synth needs to be “DC coupled” i.e. capable of maintaining a DC voltage at its
outputs. Refer to
on the Expert Sleepers website for up-to-date information on
compatible devices.
The exceptions to this are Silent Way CV Input, which has no special requirements and
should work with any audio interface, Silent Way CV To OSC, which in general only han-
dles signals within the computer itself, and
, which is specifically
designed to remove the need for DC coupled interfaces.
In most cases special cables are recommended when using a DC coupled audio interface as
a source of CVs. Most audio interfaces have balanced outputs (on TRS ('stereo') jacks or
XLRs), while synth CV inputs are unbalanced (usually on TS ('mono') jacks or minijacks).
If you use a regular stereo or mono jack lead, you'll be shorting out one of the balanced
output signals (usually the R (ring) to the S (shield)). While this probably wouldn't be a
problem for normal audio use, when outputting the sustained voltages that are useful as
CVs you risk damaging the interface hardware.
The usual recommendation is to make up special cables with a TRS jack at one end and a
TS jack at the other, connecting T->T (tip to tip) and S->S (shield to shield) while leaving
the R (ring) floating i.e. unconnected. (Such cables can be purchased ready-made from
An alternative is to wire a TRS jack to two TS jacks, connecting one T->T/S->S and the
other R->T/S->S. This then gives you two copies of the output CV, one of them inverted,
which is particularly useful from LFOs. Note that this cable configuration is identical to
that of a regular "Y" audio insert lead.