Today was another long day at work, though it wasn’t as cold as it has been, so I didn’t have all of my energy drained from me. And despite still having time constraints today, I didn’t necessarily feel rushed, even if I wasn’t initially sure what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted a modular patch, but didn’t have much time, so I pulled out what I like to call a “back pocket” patch. You know, the kind you’ve done several variations of in the past and can pretty much wire the entire patch before you even listen to it, make some tweaks, and press record.
I did a patch of this nature when I visited with my brother over the Christmas holiday. It’s not a hard patch, even if it does have its drawbacks.
It’s pretty simple. Run a couple of clocks to the Jonah Senzel Pet Rock and use those triggers to ping CUNSA. Run a couple of other clocks through a gate probability module (I use a CuteLab Missed Opportunities even though Pam’s can use probability to generate gates), and use those triggers for a bass drum and some hi-hats. It’s always a fun patch, even if I should be better sequencing the filters rather than simply using cycling envelopes from Falistri. Overall, it’s a pretty low effort, but really fun patch to play.
The patch started with two clocks from the ALM Busy Circuits Pamela’s Pro Workout, one at x8, the other at x4. These two clocks went to the wonderful and always surprising Jonah Senzel Pet Rock, a module that spits out a different sequence everyday, and everyone who has one gets the same sequence. It’s a fun module precisely because you never know what you’re gonna get. The trigger sequence from Pet Rock was multed and sent to both the uO_C’s Quantermain for quantization, and to Falistri to trigger the envelopes used to ping CUNSA’s inputs. Two longer cycling Falistri envelopes were used for pitch, triggered by Pet Rock.
The Frap Tools CUNSA is a wonder to behold. It’s a fantastic filter extraordinaire. I often use it for pinging, even if today I made a couple of initial errors with it. Pinging filters sounds most full from CUNSA when you use either the Bandpass output, or when you use the LP output with a 24dB/oct curve. Today I opted for the LP outputs, but I inadvertently left one of the channels (the left channel) set to a 12dB/oct curve, significantly weakening its presence. I tried boosting both channels with the Intellijel Amps, but today it felt a bit like I just couldn’t get enough volume, despite my input meter telling me I had plenty of level. I bet much of the problem could have been mitigated simply by realizing the filter was set up wrong. Such is the life of a Jamuary patch.
These pings went to the matrix mixer before being sent through the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo. I love Veno-Echo. It’s an incredibly flexible delay with functionality packed into every corner. Oftentimes I use it as a very clean digital delay. Today I added in a reasonable bit of sample rate reduction, and a smidge of drive to emphasize said sample rate reduction. Most times I use separate delay times for each side, but today I kept them the same because each side would have separate inputs, and with no cross-feedback happening. I didn’t want very different delay times to be distracting (it was). The two cycling envelopes that control pitch are also lightly modulating each sides feedback, which brought it from moderately high to pretty damn high.
The hi-hats are about as simple as it gets. A Blue Noise signal from Sapel through a high pass filter, enveloped by the very excellent Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator. I use the Addac506 all the time for hi-hat patches because it’s dead simple to get some variation of open and closed hats. No Bernoulli gates or modulating the rise and/fall of your envelope. Just send it a trigger and it does it all. The trigger was a x4 output from Pam’s, via the CuteLab Missed Opportunities. The kick was a simple trigger at the Ping input of a CUNSA channel set in LPG mode. Its trigger, also a x4 output from Pam’s via the Missed Opportunities, was first sent to the Frap Tools Sapel to get its 10v output trigger, which is perfect for hitting CUNSA’s Ping input.
The mix is a bit off. The pings too soft overall, and the percussion a bit too loud. There’s also a weird DC offset that happened somewhere along the line that shows up in the recorded waveform, which may be a contributing factor to the relative softness of the pings. As I said earlier, such is the life of a Jamuary patch.
It was finished off with the pings going through the Vongon Ultrasheer. Percussion was dry.
Modules Used:
ALM Busy Circuits Pamela’s Pro Workout
Jonah Senzel Pet Rock
Frap Tools CUNSA
Frap Tools Falistri
Frap Tools 333
Frap Tools Sapel
Intellijel Amps
CuteLab Missed Opportunities
Calsynth uO_C (Quantermain)
Addac Systems Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator
Venus Instruments Veno-Echo
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Knob Farm Ferry
ST Modular SVCA
Outboard Gear Used:
Vongon Ultrasheer
Improvised and recorded in 1 take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.