Jamuary 2621

When I finished 2620 I was left wanting for more. Although it wasn’t a complete disaster, it certainly didn’t materialize how I’d hoped. It was a frustrating effort trying to get the two parts to match, and in the end I couldn’t do it, especially not with midnight looming. Although once I finished recording I walked away from the synth, it wasn’t very long, perhaps 45 minutes or an hour, before I walked right back to the synth to start something new. It was a new day, after all, and though one patch didn’t work out, Jamuary still moves forward. I briefly considered working the patch, which was still playing away, how I’d initially envisioned, but abandoned that idea pretty quickly. One particular patch I really enjoyed making was 2619, and I wanted to see how else I might use similar techniques in order to broaden my experience with the NUSS.

One thing that had confounded me over the last couple of days was trying to align individual Activations of the NUSS, driven by CV and not triggers or gates to the Actvation input, with individual pitch changes. When using a Maths function to control the NUSS, the best I could muster was exactly one pulse per cycle (I could have two separate pulses using Function, however, as it has both an End Of Rise gate as well as an End Of Cycle gate), but I wanted something different; a new pitch with every activation. But I couldn’t figure out how to patch that. Polimaths doesn’t have some form of gate or trigger output. I was stuck. Not wanting to simply repeat a patch I did the night before, I soon went in a different, though related direction, and figured out a couple of solutions to my problem.

The patch started with a Speed-modulated Wogglebug. The Smooth output was patch programmed to the Speed CV input, which created a non-stable tempo in an almost chaotic fashion. But rather than using the outputs to only control the NUSS, I multed the stepped output to René first, and used it to change step locations in the X Channel. Each new voltage moved to a random step in the quantized sequence (Cmin Pentatonic – though as is often the case, I don’t know where the oscillator was tuned). Because the speed was being modified, there was no real time. Just a flow of voltages moving out at different speeds. This worked out fantastically, and led to two breakthroughs. Firstly, I could trigger an Activation by using the X Gate output. Every time the random signal moved the sequencer to a different step, a gate would fire and Activate the NUSS. And although this technique worked out okay, I had to use one of the sequential modes, like Robin, which moves each Activation predictably. I didn’t want that sort of predictability, so I tried something different by using the same random voltage that controlled René to Polimaths’ Span input while in Channel Index mode, thus allowing the signal to change just the same as in René. When Wogglebug produced a new random voltage, both René and the NUSS would move to a random position. René advanced to some other step on the 16 note grid sending a new pitch, while the NUSS would Activate one of its eight channels randomly. This is exactly the sort of behavior I was after, and it’s one that will very likely work well when used with a Maths (or Function) function.

My initial intention was to use Wogglebug’s Smooth output as the main source of control for this patch, and I will definitely try that soon, but I felt that using the Stepped output would produce a more readily apparent voice. What I didn’t want to do was futz with attenuation as I got deep into the patch to ensure that René and the NUSS were moving in concert. I didn’t want Renē to advance while the NUSS didn’t, nor vice versa. I’m sure it’s all very possible, but it would have required getting just the right level of attenuation for both control destinations. In any case, however, I wasn’t eager to make a switch because I very much enjoyed what was happening in the moment.

My initial instinct was to create short plucks as each new note was Activated, like it was with 2619, but it was a bit weird. I’m sure I could massage out a better outcome than I had at the time, but I quickly discovered that using this sort of patch as a moving drone of sorts was what my soul really needed. I need to fix the quantization scale a bit so that I run into fewer dissonances, but overall this is the sort of patch I’ve been trying to figure out with my Make Noise synth for a long time. The NUSS makes it a joy. All together, this eight voice patch with heavy modulation throughout only used 24 patch cables. Of course at least 16 patch cables have been eliminated by the Buss cables connecting Polimaths and Multiwave to QXG, but the onboard modulation also saves various other cable connections from needing to be patched in order to be thoroughly modulated in interesting ways.

With the core of the patch made, it was on to the particulars of the NUSS. Polimaths was set to fairly long envelopes, with the shape set somewhere between linear and exponential, though definitely closer to exponential. The Rise and Fall of each envelope, along with the Strength, Rate, and Osc, were all modulated using Spread Modulation, with higher numbered channels being slightly longer, with slightly stronger, and faster, oscillations, while each envelope was also slightly louder on the whole. But because the channels were Activated at random, there wasn’t a set pattern like there would be in Robin mode using triggers from René. Subsequent channels were often triggered at similar levels, but just as often were triggered at very different levels. These levels differences between chord tones really created depth within the sound stage.

Like 2619, the modulation for Multiwave in this patch was all quite simple. A slow moving triangle wave from Multimod controlled the Balance of Oscillators A and B. The Follow mode for Oscillator A on Multiwave was set to Green (Integer Multiply), with each oscillator progressively having a lower subharmonic accompanying the fundamental pitch, both sides slowly revealed, hidden, and revealed again as the Balance was slowly shifted back and forth. Multimod also slowly modulated the Xpread on QXP to keep the channels constantly moving in the stereo field. Not only were some notes closer or further than others, creating depth, but they were constantly shifting back and forth. The Wave for each oscillator, both from the Red (Classic Shapes) Bank, was modulated by Multiwave’s internal Multimod using the Sine shape on one oscillator and the triangle shape on the other. The Pitch knob of Oscillator A was modulated via Spread Modulation, each channel having a lower harmonic than the last as the channel number increased. With a fairly high note used to set Oscillator B’s pitch, having several subharmonics wasn’t a huge problem. The Waves for each channel, and the (Modulation) Time, were also modulated with the onboard Spread Modulation, each channel moving just a little slower than the last through the wavetable.

As the patch progressed and was nearing the end, I added in a gate to Multiwave’s Accumulation input, which created randomly generated chords. I’m not sure how much it added. Much of the time, the channels were already in use when the Accumulation gate would finally release the saved pitches, and so chord generation became instant, rather than with gradual rise and fall. It doesn’t sound bad, and you probably have to listen closely to hear it, but it is there.¹ I haven’t used the Accumulation feature much. I’d like to use it more deliberately, but I haven’t yet found a good way to serially address chords without just throwing a bunch of notes at Multiwave. I need to learn how to sequence chords in a way that makes sense to me.

The mix went straight from QXG’s outputs to the output mixer where it was sent to both Mimeophon for delay and Otterley for reverb.

The result was a fog where chord tones swirled about each other, slowly fading in and moving about, before just as sneakily fading back away into the ether from whence it came. This patch is the sort of thing I could listen to all day, and indeed I’ve had it on repeat since I hit stop on the recording.

I tried to set up an accompanying voice to this chord cloud, but I couldn’t find a good sound to go along with it. My initial thought was a set of pings, but my attempt at it when it was nearing three AM was half-hearted and ended predictably.

Modules Used:
Wogglebug
René Mk2
Multiwave
Polimaths
QXG
Multimod
CV Bus Mk2
Mimeophon
Tempi
Maneco Labs Otterley

Plugins Used:
Klevgrand Luxe

Performed and recorded in 1 take in AUM on iPad via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

1. As a note, an instant pitch change happens occasionally through the generation of the individual notes as well, as sometimes the random values generated correspond to a channel that has not yet finished its previous note. ↩︎