Today’s Jamuary is a much better effort than yesterday, and actually accomplished the result I was after, even if by using a different method than I originally imagined to attain it.
After pondering the patch for several hours last night, I came to the conclusion that a shift register wasn’t the right tool for this particular chord job, particularly with such a fast moving sequence. There was too much change too quickly. I didn’t want chords shifting as the same rate of the melody, but much slower. So after consulting my Notability folder where I write down stolen patch notes from YouTube videos, I happed upon a very interesting patch by the quite soothing, always creative, and ever educational Tom Churchill that essentially does exactly what I was wanting to do, so I decided This Is The Way.
When I walked into my studio space this evening, I was set to make the chords I badly failed at yesterday. I immediately undid yesterday’s web of patch cables to help scrub my brain, but while doing so decided to use the same set of modules, with a couple of small exceptions. I’d need to use a clock divider, not a shift register, a cascading buffered mult for 4 identical copies of the pitch CV, and as many S&H modules as I would want voices in the chords. I decided to simplify it and change a couple of modules in order to streamline things a bit.
If I was happy with anything from yesterday, it was the direction of the sequenced melody line. It wasn’t perfect but it was a good start, and I wanted to pull on that thread more to see what might lie beneath. I also decided to stick with the Chainsaw for my chords. Since nailing the chords was a primary goal, I decided on simpler 3 note chords to keep things relatively tamed. Add to that the Chainsaw is self contained, keeping tuning easier. Today I used some chaos from Orbit 3 to modulate Fold 6, rather than an envelope, and I think the envelope is better for this kind of source material. In fact, I didn’t use a separate envelope at all, but Natural Gate for the melody line. I also chose to simplify the filter on the chords, so used Seju Stereo rather than Pkhia and its 3 simultaneous stereo outputs.
There were other changes too, but I won’t make this long story even longer. Suffice to say that I’m quite happy with how this one turned out.
This piece was performed and recorded via the Expert Sleepers ES-9 in AUM on iPad in 1 take.
Modules Used:
Oxi One
Doepfer A-160-2 Clock Divider
Calsynth Changes (Mutable Instruments Stages)
2hp Buff
Joranalogue Generate 3
Joranalogue Fold 6
Joranalogue Orbit 3
Joranalogue Filter 8 (in LFO mode)
Rabid Elephant Natural Gate
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Acid Rain Technology Chainsaw
Bizarre Jezabel Seju Stereo
Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine
Error Instruments Brinta
Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster
Knob Farm Ferry
Vongon Ultrasheer