Posts

Posted on

Jamuary 2511

It’s been a while since I’d played my Make Noise synth. It’s not part of my main synth, but down in my media room where I spend time to myself at night. Knowing my work schedule today, I knew that I wouldn’t have time to make a patch on the main synth, and I wanted more than just the iPad. So I made sure that tonight would be my return to this wonderful instrument. Only today I had a new addition. After dealing with a few technical difficulties with my audio interface, I was ready to go.

I was never really enthused by Spectraphon. Lots of people had an immediate case of GAS when it was announced, but it wasn’t something that drew my interest. Several months after release, I saw a couple of intriguing patches, and decided to revisit the early Spectraphon demo videos to get a decent hold of what it was and was not. Upon release, its resynthesis capability was the emphasis of most synthesists, and it turns out I was more interested in it being an oscillator, so when I found one at a decent price, I ordered it. Though I’ve had it for a couple of months, I hadn’t installed it until tonight with this very patch in mind.

Jamuary 2511 was inspired by my recent patch, Jamuary 2505, which used the cascading envelopes from the Verbos Polyphonic Envelope. Make Noise doesn’t have a cascading envelope, but it’s easy enough to patch up using End Of Rise or End of Cycle outputs that Make Noise’s function generators do have. The envelopes don’t have the same sort of close relationship as with the Polyphonic Envelope, but each function can be tailored specifically how you want them, and each envelope can still be triggered the same way. I used four functions for the drone, each bringing its oscillator in and out of audibility. The first envelope started with Maths Ch1, then to the first Function, and then to a second. The second function generator in Maths won’t work for this patch because it only has a EOC trigger, and I needed EOR gates to trigger the next envelope so as one chord tone was falling, another would be rising. The second Function triggered Contour on the 0-Coast, which in turn completed the cycle by triggering Maths. The chain started with a gate output from 0-Control, before I quickly switched cables. All four envelopes had their decays modulated in one form or another so the recycling chain of chord tones wouldn’t repeat exactly the same.

In total five separate oscillators are used in this patch. Maths Ch1 controlled Spectraphon A’s Odd and Even outputs in DXG. The first Function controlled Spectraphon B’s Odd and Even outputs in DXG. Both sides had Partials, Slide, and Focus modulated to some degree, and oscillator A was having its FM Bus lightly modulated to give it a bit of growl. The second Function controlled STO’s Waveshaper output in QMMG (LPG mode), and Contour controlled 0-Coast’s oscillator with its built-in LPG. Strega just drones on.

All of these signals were mixed in stereo, and sent to QPAS and out of the Smile Pass outputs for some subtle picking out of harmonics and a gooey, gooey swirl. The cutoff frequency was modulated by Maths Ch2, cycling away, and Radiate L and R were modulated by Wogglebug. I gave QPAS increasing amounts of drive as the patch played on.

From QPAS signal went to Mimeophon for some delay and further stereo movement. I had it modulated, but it just didn’t sound very good, so took it all off.

When I first got Strega I was preoccupied by figuring out the best way to stereo-ize it. It doesn’t exactly need it, Strega is a wall of sound kind of wash, but some movement in the stereo field is nice. It turns out I had the answer the whole time: Mimeophon. I hadn’t yet tried that until tonight (for some stupid reason or another), but it’s perfect. QPAS works great too, but it can be too much at times, whereas the Mimeophon is more subtle. I had used a stereo reverb in the past, but I wanted more.

There was also a new pedal in the mix tonight for reverb, the AC Noises Ricorda. My audio interface was giving me fits tonight when I sought to use sends, and so I couldn’t use it how I normally would. I had to control the wet/dry mix on the pedal, which is less than ideal, and it didn’t work exactly how I wanted it to work. The reverb sounds great, even if I’m a bit less enthused with its implementation of granular, which seemed to spit out grains in even intervals. First one, then two at twice the speed, then four, then eight, etc. it just didn’t sound natural. I’ll have to dig in the manual to get that sorted. I also used it to add noise with a scratchy pot, that was pretty cool, even if I didn’t use it enough.

Modules Used:
Maths
Function
Spectraphon
STO
0-Coast
Strega
QPAS
Mimeophon
DXG
QMMG
X-Pan
Wogglebug
0-Control
Knob Farm Ferry

Outboard Gear Used:
AC Noises Ricorda

Improvised and recorded in one take in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-10 and Arturia AudioFuse.

Posted on

Jamuary 2510

Between work and the second snow storm this week I was super short on time, which made today another iPad only affair. I started with something similar as with Jamuary 2507 and 2508, the Alexandernaut Fugue Machine feeding two instantiations of Decent Sampler, one with cello samples and the other with viola. Both go through some delay and reverb, and later Fluss, a beautiful granular synthesizer by Bram Bos and Hainbach.

I have lots to work to do with these sort of patches, and with this one in particular. I’m a midi novice, and still inexperienced with software instruments, particularly those on the iPad, so good chunks of my time were figuring the best way to do X or Y. It’s a pain, but the effort has not gone unrewarded, and, more importantly, I’ve opened a new world of possibilities for the future.

Plugins Used:
Alexandernaut Fugue Machine
Decidedly Decent Sampler
Numerical RP1 – Dual Digital Delay
Blue Mangoo Stratosphere Cloud Reverb
Bram Bos + Hainbach Fluss

Performed and recorded in 1 take in AUM on iPad.

Posted on

Jamuary 2509

Today I decided to go back to a technique I’ve rarely used, and on a much grander scale. I don’t use noise very often, and when I do it tends to be for the obvious use cases. Hit hats, wind and ocean sounds, sprays, etc. I seldomly use it for modulation, and only once have I used noise of any flavor to amplitude modulate an oscillators wave. Today I would do it again, times eight.

I conceived of using noise to modulate all eight harmonics of the Verbos Harmonic Oscillator this morning as my wife was talking to me. I even popped up a bit at the idea, and she took notice.

Wife: “What?”

Me: “Nothing. Just had a thought occur to me. Not even sure if it’s worth a shit.”

I spent the better part of the morning and early afternoon thinking about how I wanted to do this patch. I knew that just noise into each harmonic’s VCA wasn’t it. Then it occurred to me: Chaos! As soon as this though hit my brain I knew what to do, and immediately went to the synth to start patching.

I ran blue noise from Sapel to input 1 of the Intellijel Amps. Amps is a special sort of VCA. Everything cascades. All inputs cascade, as do CV inputs, and there are mixing outputs as well. It’s incredibly flexible. I have four of them chained together to be an eight channel “super VCA/submixer” and it’s been a great choice. Since each input cascades, I only needed one noise input to run this entire section of the patch. Every other channel received that same blue noise input as well. Into each channel’s CV input I patched one of the eight outputs from Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster to chaotically modulate the noise levels of all eight channels independently. Once that was patched, I ran each Amps output to its own Harmonic Oscillator VCA input at random. The only part of this patch that was planned were the first and fifth harmonics, which received their noise modulation from the U and -U outputs on The Hypster as they’re the outputs with the highest amplitude. Each harmonic was slowly brought in by slowly adjusting each CV attenuator individually at random until they were all playing. The nature of chaos means that cycles, even if semi-regular at times, don’t repeat exactly the same, and the harmonics never played the same twice, which kept movement interesting. There were often pauses or redirections in motion for each harmonic. Wonderful.

The mixed HO output was patched to the Multi-Delay Processor. I’ve been taken in by the earthy sound of the Harmonic Oscillator. Each harmonic sine wave has a little hair on it once you give them a little push. The drive in the MultixDelay Processor, both on the input and on each tap output, accentuates that hair in all the right ways. This Verbos ecosystem is warm and inviting, but it can also roar. Taps four and eight were patched to the Verbos Scan & Pan, hard panned left and right, and the output of the MDP, which only had the dry signal, was patched to be in the middle of the mix. This mix created a strong signal with some subtle stereo movement which ended up being fantastic. This stereo signal was then patched to the stereo matrix mixer to be spread around to different effects.

The Rossum Panharmonium fed the Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine, which was set with a fairly slow delay and full clockwise smearing, which really smoothed out the Panharmonium’s output for an accompanying drone that floats along beside the ever moving Harmonic Oscillator. This output then fed the Dradd(s), which did its thing in Grain Mode (although I think I forgot to turn on the modulation to both P1 and P2 on both Dradds 😬 – I’m also not convinced it isn’t lost in the mix).

I’m very pleased with how this patch turned out and was a great success at using this technique which I’ll be sure to use more often.

Modules Used:
Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster
Nonlinearcircuits Triple Sloths
Intellijel Amps
Frap Tools Sapel
Verbos Harmonic Oscillator
Verbos Multi-Delay Processor
Verbos Scan & Pan
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium
Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine
Pladask Elektrisk Dradd(s)
Knob Farm Ferry

Outboard Gear Used:
Walrus Audio Slöer

Plugins Used:
Toneboosters TB Equalizer

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

Posted on

Jamuary 2508

I was short on time yesterday, so put together a reasonably simple patch on the iPad. This Jamuary I’m purposefully trying to use unfamiliar techniques with unfamiliar instruments, and that’s what yesterday was all about in the little time I had. But the patch turned out so beautifully that I wanted to take some time to explore its possibilities in the modular. My first thought was to try and use the Oxi One as a Midi > CV converter so that I might patch the outputs of the Alexandernaut Fugue Machine to something like the Synthesis Technology E370 or some other quad sound source. But despite spending the better part of three hours trying to figure it out,1 I still had achieved no progress and so abandoned the idea and decided to do the next best thing. To patch a more intentional version of Jamuary 2507 into the modular and run it through several effects and see if I couldn’t come up with something new.

The initial patch is the same. Fugue Machine feeds the Klevgrand Speldosa and Decidedly Decent Sampler software instruments in AUM. Yesterday those went to reverb and I called it a day. The patch was beautiful and full of promise. Today went much further. The outputs of both Speldosa and the Cello samples were sent from AUM, via the ES-9 outputs, to the AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer so that they might be spread around the system to three different effects, shifted and morphed matrix style, and finally sent back to AUM before getting some reverb. Though I’m trying new techniques with new things, that doesn’t mean everything in a single patch, lest I become overwhelmed and frustrated.2 The effects I chose were the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo,3 Pladask Elektrisk Dradd brothers, and the Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium. Speldosa and the cello samples were sent to the delay, with Speldosa only going to Panharmonium, while the cello only was initially sent to the Dradd(s), before adding the delay to the Dradd(s)’ input, slowly adding more, and allowing those higher pitched notes to be granular-ized and spread through the stereo field. The Dradd(s) really turned out to be the highlight, though the delay isn’t far behind. Panharmonium sounds nice, as it always does, but seemed to get lost when it wasn’t leveled as a prominent voice in the mix at a given moment.

Modules Used:
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Venus Instruments Veno-Echo
Pladask Elektrisk Dradd(s)
Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium
Nonlinearcircuits Triple Sloth
CuteLab Missed Opportunities
Calsynth Twiigs
Frap Tools 333
Knob Farm Ferry

Outboard Gear Used:
Walrus Audio Slöer

Plugins Used:
Alexandernaut Fugue Machine
Klevgrand Speldosa
Decidedly Decent Sampler
Toneboosters TB Equalizer
CoVariant

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

  1. To be fair, I struggle with just about everything with the Oxi One. I really need to revisit it with purpose. ↩︎
  2. I recently suffered that sort of frustration when I put two completely unfamiliar modules in my Xmas 2024 Synth. It was an exercise in frustration when it should have been a relaxing time. ↩︎
  3. I used CoVariant, a now seemingly discontinued midi > cv plugin for the iPad to send out an analog clock from the iPad that is perfectly in sync with the midi clock generated by AUM. I will never delete this plugin as long as it continues to work. It also does midi > CV conversion (but I couldn’t figure it out). ↩︎
Posted on

Jamuary 2507 – A Radical Change

I don’t use software very often. I’ve never recorded a piece of music using only software. Until today.

With work looming early, and the promise of a late evening, a full modular patch just isn’t in the cards today. So I decided to pull out the iPad and create…something. Though just a little bit of effort went into it, I’m supremely happy with the result.

The patch is simple. The Alexandernaut Fugue Machine, a wonderfully conceived four head interactive midi piano roll where each head can be sent in any direction, at any speed or octave, sent 3 channels of midi data to Klevgrand Speldosa, a beautiful music box plugin for iPad, while sending a fourth stream of midi data to Decent Sampler loaded with the DK Solo Cello Spurs sample pack. Both software instruments are sent to the Eventide BlackHole Reverb, and out.

It’s not a super low effort day, I needed to figure out how to do a few things, and come up with a quick and dirty improvisation, but it’s not a high effort day. Whatever effort, the result is wonderful; in the spirit of Olafur Arnalds. After eight modular recordings in six days I think I can forgive myself.

Software Used:
Kymatica AUM
Alexandernaut Fugue Machine
Klevgrand Speldosa
Decidedly Decent Sampler
Eventide BlackHole

Performed and recorded in 1 take in AUM on iPad.

Posted on

Jamuary 2506

I like wavetables and I like drones. Jamuary 6 saw both. A modulated quad wavetable LFO modulating the levels of a quad wavetable oscillator. It’s a patch I’ve been wanting to try for a while, and Jamuary is the perfect time to experiment with new techniques.

There are a lot of moving parts in this patch. The base creating the ever-changing drone is four unsynced LFOs from Kermit Mk3 controlling the levels of the four outputs from the E370 in the Intellijel Amps. These four outputs were patched to the ST Modular Sum Mix & Pan and then to the mixer. The pan CV inputs of the latter three channels were modulated by the Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator. The stereo signal from Sum Mix & Pan went to both the output as well as to a second mixer for summing to mono before being routed to the Verbos Multi-Delay Processor. The mono output of the MDP, which only has the dry signal,1 went to the output mixer, while two of the taps were routed to the Verbos Scan & Pan for hard panning left and right. All three of these signals were mixed and sent to the output.

Although I like the drive the MDP created, it largely defeated the panning of the three E370 outputs. I’d have been better served to run the stereo signal from the Sum Mix & Pan to a stereo distortion for some added drive so as not to throw a cover over subtle movement in the stereo space, but I do like the overall result. The MDP is a fantastic source for overdrive, and is a different sort than a full blown distortion like Mimosa. It’s deep and warm, like a fuzzy blanket on a cold winter day.

There’s lots of modulation too, with the bulk of it being supplied by the Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster fed a Let’s Splosh, with its outputs modulating the waves in both the E370, and three of the four channels of Kermit. Let’s Splosh self-modulated both Gain and Damping to keep its outputs in constant flux.

To accompany the drone proper, I sent the panning wavetables from the Sum Mix & Pan and stereo delay taps from the MDP to a pair of unmodulated Dradds. Both are in Grain Mode, and both are time stretching, with the left channel in reverse at about 20% speed and the and the right channel in forward at a slow crawl. It’s a bit difficult to pick out in the mix, but the overall sound is very different without it, and the final result benefits greatly with it.

The final touch to the patch are the drips and crickets. This oscillator and envelope are both from Falistri, sent through the Holocene Non-Linear Memory Machine. Pitch and random triggering was provided by Sapel. The last free channel of the Addac506 controlled both the Freeze and Scanning of the buffer. Its EOF trigger turned Freeze on and off, with the EOR gate output gating the function output in a VCA, which was scanning the buffer. This little sub-patch took a little while to figure out, but the results are rewarding. I’d been wanting to mess with scanning the buffer of the NLMM ever since I heard this patch by Ras Thavas, and today seemed like the day. It was a fun patch that I’ll be sure to explore further in the future.

Modules Used:
Industrial Music Electronics Kermit Mk3
Synthesis Technology E370
Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster
Nonlinearcircuits Let’s Splosh
Verbos Multi-Delay Processor
Verbos Scan and Pan
Addac Systems Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator
ST Modular Sum Mix & Pan
Frap Tools Falistri
Frap Tools Sapel
Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine
Pladask Elektrisk Dradd(s)
Intellijel Amps
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Knob Farm Ferry

Outboard Gear Used:
Walrus Audio Slöer

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

  1. Delays have long been used as preamps without the delay, and the MDP will be no exception. ↩︎
Posted on

Jamuary 2505 – Two Versions

I was always sure that a Verbos system could do ambient, but it’s not what I read in their brand identity. Mark Verbos, the owner of Verbos, has noted several times in interviews that his main inspiration in both making music and instruments is his love for techno. The sounds his instruments make are raw, and there doesn’t seem a clear path to ambient paradise when I look at Verbos module faceplates. But in an interview I recently watched, Verbos mentioned that one of the first questions he was asked when the Harmonic Oscillator was whether it can do ambient drones, something he hadn’t considered at all when he was designing it. Nearly a decade later we know Verbos systems can used to perform ambient music, but it wasn’t until today, after a couple of days using sequencers and rhythms, that I finally decided to see what I could do.

The patch began with the Polyphonic Envelope, each of the four outputs to a different harmonic of the Harmonic Oscillator, with the All output patched to the fundamental. In a new technique for me, I decided to use blue noise from Sapel as an amplitude modulator for the fifth harmonic, which ended up being fantastic. I followed that up with very short, randomly generated pings to the eighth harmonic. As a means to more beef, I also frequency modulated the HO with its own second harmonic. The Mixed output of the HO was sent first through Amp & Tone for a bit of conditioning and resonance before going to the Multi-Delay Processor. The MDP was set to output the dry signal and some volume level delay taps, while I patched four separate individual delay tap outputs to the Scan & Pan for stereo-ification.

After some fuddling around with the Polyphonic Envelope, I finally got to a nice flow of envelopes, each triggered once the decay stage of the previous envelope begins in a beautiful cascade that cycles over and over. After a bit of figuring out some movement for the patch, I decided it was ready to record. Only this time, I decided on using some final reverb, my every trusty Walrus Audio Slöer, instead of relying solely on the reverb from the MDP. This was a great choice.

Having recorded the patch and still wanting more, I decided to process the Verbos voice through the Panharmonium (crossfaded saw waves) > the Bizarre Jezabel Pkhia, as well as the Dradd(s) to add some movement and edge, and recorded it again, so today we get another bonus patch.

I’m quite happy with how this patch turned out. This is definitely a route I’ll be exploring more in depth this year.

Modules Used:
Verbos Polyphonic Envelope
Verbos Harmonic Oscillator
Verbos Amp & Tone
Verbos Multi-Delay Processor
Verbos Scan & Pan
Verbos Voltage Multistage
Frap Tools Sapel
Frap Tools Falistri
Intellijel Amps
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer
Knob Farm Ferry
Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium
Bizarre Jezabel Pkhia
Addac Systems Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator
Pladask Elektrisk Dradd(s)

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

Posted on

Jamuary 2504

Today’s patch was a further exploration and curating of yesterday’s Verbos patch, with help from a couple of West Coast-y friends, Frap Tools Sapel, Brenso, and Falistri. Brenso played a pivotal support role in adding texture by supplying amplitude modulation via a triangle wave to Harmonic Oscillator’s Fundamental and the Final output to the Fifth Harmonic. Brenso’s wavefolder and wave shaper were triggered and modulated by Sapel. Harmonic Oscillator was the only sound source, being modulated by Voltage Multistage and Polyphonic Envelope. The mixed output went to Multi-Delay Processor. The saw wave was patched to Amp & Tone. It started out being pinged in LPG mode, before plugging in frequency modulation of the cutoff from Sequence Selector. Two of the MDP individual tap outputs (four and eight) are patched to Scan & Pan and hard panned left and right for some ping-pong action.

Modules Used:
Verbos Harmonic Oscillator
Verbos Multi-Delay Processor
Verbos Voltage Multistage
Verbos Sequence Selector
Verbos Polyphonic Envelope
Verbos Amp & Tone
Verbos Scan & Pan
Frap Tools Brenso
Frap Tools Sapel
Frap Tools Falistri
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer

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

Posted on

Jamuary 2503

Like yesterday, this patch was also inspired by Stazma’s Verbos Harmonic Oscillator demo. I’m not really experienced with much of this Verbos case, so it’s a very rough draft, but a direction that I’m very much enjoying. The tone and texture of the Verbos ecosystem is intoxicating. Enough that’s it’s giving me some bad ideas….

Modules Used:
Verbos Harmonic Oscillator
Verbos Multi-Delay Processor
Verbos Scan & Pan
Verbos Voltage Multistage
Verbos Polyphonic Envelope
Verbos Amp&Tone
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer

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

Posted on

Jamuary 2502 – Two Versions

I’ve had the Verbos Harmonic Oscillator and Multi-Delay Processor for a little over a year. My very first Jamuary patch ever used it. But as I was adding to my Verbos case over much of this last year, the HO and Co. went unused. I decided I want to change that, and so I did.

This patch is loosely based on a video by Stazma (AKA The Junglechrist), though there are certainly plenty of changes. It’s not a difficult patch, but the resulting audio is compelling. The amount of drive and saturation is wonderful.

Version 1

It’s starts with two smooth random voltages from the Frap Tools Sapel into the Fundamental and Fifth Harmonic to create a base drone. The random is constantly fluctuating, so the levels of those notes are a bit unstable. It follows with a very short, attenuated envelope triggered by the random triggers from Sapel in the Sixth Harmonic, and then again by another very short envelope into the Spectral Tilt CV input. The Final mixed output of the Harmonics is patched to the input of the Multi-Delay Processor, and straight to the output mixer.

Four of the Harmonic outputs from the HO (the Third, Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth) are patched to the Verbos Scan & Pan. It’s here that each harmonic is played, rather than directly on the HO interface. The harmonics panned, and sent to the second input on the Multi-Delay Processor for some of that saturated delay goodness.

Version 2

This version doesn’t change too much, but the changes are fundamental. I’m working on “stereo-fying” mono gear, and Verbos gives us a great way to do that with the Scan & Pan. Rather than patching harmonics from the HO to the Scan & Pan, I used four of the delay taps, (Five, Six, Seven, and Eight) and hard panned taps five and seven left, with taps six and eight panned right. The HO output and Scan & Pan outputs are patched straight to the mixer.

This change was great for the stereo-fication of the Harmonic Oscillator, but at the expense of drive. The dry signal has little or no drive outside of the saturated sines from each harmonic, with the delayed signal supplying it all. It does admittedly help with clarity. Next time I’ll run the output from the MDP to the mixer with only the Dry signal on the mixed output, which should give me back the drive I’m after.

Modules Used:
Verbos Harmonic Oscillator
Verbos Multi-Delay Processor
Verbos Scan & Pan
Verbos Polyphonic Envelope
Frap Tools Sapel
Frap Tools Falistri
Frap Tools 333
AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer

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

0:00
0:00