I was recently afflicted with a particularly bad case of GAS. During this latest bout, I hurredly purchased the drone specialist module, Sibilla by Clatters Machines. I didn’t need another drone machine, but after a couple of recent subsystem rearrangements, I had 10hp to fill in my Stereophonic Black Subsystem, and within a couple of YouTube demos jumped at the Sibilla. I don’t like GAS, and I know that it can be unhealthy, but it sometimes (oftentimes?) gets the best of me.
Despite my knowing it wasn’t a particularly wise purchase, I still thought that Sibilla could produce something nice. Had I doubted it, I wouldn’t have succumbed to GAS, at least not for this particular module. I had meant to use it in my recent Piano Mist patch. I had it patched up but never turned it up in the mixer because I was so enthralled with what I had in the Piano. So today I decided to start with Sibilla and see where it could go.
One of the reasons why I bought Sibilla was because I have a difficult time resisting additive oscillators. Although Sibilla isn’t anything resembling a standard oscillator, it does use additive synthesis as a big part of its process. Along with multiple delay lines and a fixed low pass filter (with adjustable resonance), Sibilla adds harmonics using different waveforms that are differently phased to help create a bed of complex moving textures. Naturally I wanted to emphasize those harmonics to create not only movement, but a sense of chordal change.
My initial experimentation was simply playing the Rise and Fall knobs, which was very cool. Improvising isn’t something I do very much, and I greatly enjoyed it. I even tried using the Doepfer A-198 Trautonium Ribbon Controller, but I decided to keep this sketch as more of a drone with full harmonic changes, not a part of a drone while using its harmonics as an improvised solo. So in order to create those chord-like changes, I reached for 2 of my favorite things: chaos and sample and hold.
I ran one of the outputs from a patch programmed Joranalogue Orbit 3 to the Joranalogue Step 8’s input. Step 8 functions as a really large Sample and Hold, with each step running as an attenuator. The trigger for each step comes from the Rise gate of a modulated looping Contour 1. The steps are not regularly triggered, so there’s nothing to time. The Step 8 samples the chaos signal, attenuates it depending on the slider position, and sends out that voltage to the Fall input. Each cycle is in continuous flux, creating movement, but not regular movement.
Joranalogue’s Orbit 3 is an unsung hero of chaos modulation. Nonlinearcircuits dominates the chaos landscape in Eurorack, and other forms of chaos generation are often overlooked in light of NLC’s vast catalogue and strong pedigree as the source for chaos in modular synthesis. But Orbit 3 has some distinct features that make it a compelling competitor. It’s controllable in a way that NLC’s chaos generally isn’t. Orbit 3 has full frequency control, a reset, and you can control the position of both attractors. I’ve been able to consistently get compelling low frequency waveforms that are interesting and easily tweakable. I don’t always want overarching control over chaos signals and how they go about their business, but when I do I patch Orbit 3.
The Audio Path
The audio path of this patch is fairly simple:
- The L/R audio outputs of Sibilla > Bizarre Jezabel Pkhia stereo multimode filter (LP out) > Worng Vertex stereo VCA for a bit of volume manipulation > Channel 4 of the AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer.
- The audio is then sent from Output 1 > Miso Cornflakes.
- Cornflakes > Ch 1 input of the matrix mixer to be mixed with the dry drone signal.
- The mixed drone and granular processing is output from Ch 4 of the matrix mixer to my final mixer.
- A send to the Vongon Ultrasheer for some reverb and vibrato, and we’re done.
I didn’t particularly need to send the output of Sibilla through another filter, it has a low pass filter of its own, but I wanted to create more movement per channel. I initially wanted to use Pkhia’s Band Pass outputs, but that didn’t really work, so decided to use the LP outputs with the filter set initially almost completely wide open. With some chaos modulation of the filter cutoff in each channel I was able to get slow, unpredictable appearance and disappearance of some harmonics which created lots of subtle, yet interesting, effects throughout.
Cornflakes is set to a constant pitch of +2 octaves, with its position, grain size, grain length, diffusion and speed being heavily modulated by chaos. This effect creates the slightly detuned shimmer on top of the drone, and heightens suspense as the patch moves along, finally releasing some of that tension before the drone fades away.
The reverb and vibrato is the exceedingly good Vongon Ultrasheer. The reverb portion is set with a long tail and no pre-delay. The tails also are set to favor higher frequencies to help avoid mud in the lower frequencies. Sibilla has 4 separate delay lines, so the lower frequencies aren’t without its own sort of reverb. I just didn’t need them delayed and diffused even more. Although I didn’t notice it while recording, there is a bit too much vibrato. It’s not distracting my any means, but it’s a bit too much in depth and speed, and it is noticeable in a way I rather it weren’t; like a shade too much syrup on your waffles.
The Control Path
If the audio path is simple enough, the control path is anything but. The heart of the modulation in this patch is chaos generated by a patch programmed Orbit 3. More chaos is used from NLC’s The Hypster. Slow chaos affects nearly every parameter of the patch, with the Auza Wave Packets in its debut role in my synth on 3 Cornflakes modulation targets.
Sibilla doesn’t have every parameter being modulated, but there is still a fair amount of modulation. Orbit 3 is modulating the Rising harmonics and resonance, while also supplying the signal for the Step 8 to do its sample and hold business.
Orbit 3 is also modulating the cutoff frequency for both sides of the Pkhia, the rate of the Rise and Fall on Contour 1, as well as self-modulating the EP+ and Distribution as a means to keep the signal ever-changing.
Step 8 provides the changing chords via its sample and hold functionality at the Scan output to Sibilla’s Fall input, triggered by the Fall gate of a constantly changing, looping envelope from Contour 1. The Analogue 3 output modulates the Distribute input on Cornflakes, with Analogue 5 modulating Orbit 3’s Distribution.
Contour 1 provides the stepping action for chord changes with its Fall output, as well as gating Cornflakes’ record functionality with its Rise gate output.
The Auza Wave Packets, a complex modulation source centered around various stages to create sophisticated wave types, made its first appearance in one of my patches. I’ve never used it before, and still need to learn lots of things about it, but it seems the possibilities are endless. In this patch, I used “The Unipolar Wave” (output 2) to modulate Cornflakes’ grain Size, “The Capsulated Oscillator” (output 4) for the Length, and “The Pure Oscillator” (output 5) for the Position. NLC’s The Hypster played a minor in rounding out modulating Cornflakes’ Speed and Diffuse parameters.
There are still a lot of details to work out with this patch. The modulation is largely not attenuated or scaled in any meaningful way. I’d probably try opening up the attenuation on the chaos signal used in the sample and hold to change chords. I’d also try and see if I couldn’t hone in Cornflakes to something a bit smoother. But overall I’m pleased with this first patch, and I look forward to doing special things with it.
Modules Used:
Clatters Machines Sibilla
Bizarre Jezabel Pkhia
Worng Engineering Vertex
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Joranalogue Audio Orbit 3
Joranalogue Audio Contour 1
Joranalogue Audio Step 8
Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster
Auza Wave Packets
Mutable Instruments Marbles
Knob Farm Ferry
Performed and recorded in 1 take in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.