During one Jamuary patch, I had the pleasure of using the Alexandernaut Fugue Machine Midi sequencer extraordinaire. I enjoyed it so much that I sought a MIDI > CV converter so that I could bring that particular brand of magic into my synth. Sequencing is easily the most challenging part of eurorack for me. I’m quickly learning that, at least in the immediate term, “battleship” sequencers and me don’t work well together. The options are oftentimes overwhelming and programming them can be a constant exercise in frustration. When you’re trying to play a polyphonic patch, these frustrations compound as the patch gets more and more complex. Of the large sequencers I’ve used René v2 is easily my favorite. I find it to be the most intuitive sequencer I’ve used. The sequencer in the Doboz T12 is also easy to catch on, and the Verbos Voltage Multistage is ultra-simple. But I’ve done nothing but get my teeth kicked in by some of my larger sequencers. Frap Tools USTA, Oxi One, and 4ms Catalyst Sequencer in particular. Perhaps it’s the lack of effort with learning them, or that I simply quit on them too quickly, but nothing kills a moment like manual digging in the midst of a patch. Fugue Machine, even if it’s walled in its own very small box, is but one of many tools that make sequencing much less of a chore, and can help spark the creative drive to explore more advanced sequencing. Fortunately, there are good ways of leveraging MIDI tools in Eurorack.
I searched for a couple of weeks for my ideal MIDI > CV converter. My main consideration was for sequencing polyphonic patches, so it needed to have at least four channels of pitch CV, gates, and velocity. There are several options. One of the more compelling options is the Der Mann Mitt Der Maschine DROID. It’s a CV generating and processing powerhouse that can do almost anything that can be done with CV, including MIDI > CV conversion. I even have a DROID, and it has a killer feature set. If you can program it. It turns out that I can program DROID. It’s not terribly hard, even if I still do it by hand rather than using the GUI tool to create patches. But DROID would take more space, and would only be useful in this capacity, needing all eight CV outputs for pitch and velocity CV. So I kept searching, and finally settled on the relatively new Befaco MIDI Thing V2. I already have and use the Befaco CV Thing CV > MIDI converter and find it good at its job, even if the screen is not fit for middle-aged eyes. It’s only 6hp, and can sit right next to the CV Thing.
One of the MIDI Thing’s features is that it has 12 outputs. Exactly enough for four voices worth of outputs, and what’s more is that the exact configuration for my initial intentions with MIDI > CV conversion is already saved as a preset, or Pre-Def in Befaco-speak, for quick and easy input and output configuration. I simply set the MIDI Thing to “Predef 2: Multi Timbric” in the Global Menu and it automatically set the incoming MIDI channels to 1-4 and preconfigured the outputs. Pretty slick. Since I was already in for a lot of patching, I opted to forego using the velocity outputs. That wasn’t a step I was terribly interested in today. I wanted pitch CV and gates to trigger envelopes, and by golly that’s what I got after spending less than one minute in the MIDI Thing configuration screen.1
Once I had my MIDI routed in the AUM MIDI Matrix, and properly set MIDI ”Predef-ed” in the MIDI Thing, I fired up Fugue Machine. Since I was testing the functionality of the MIDI Thing and how that would work with a modular system, I wasn’t overly worried with an elaborate, or even original, sequence, and just used one of the included presets. Although I had played with the sequence length and transposition while running through the patch before recording it (which was all supremely cool), I simply forgot when I improvised the recording. I was more preoccupied with timing each channel, the levels of each oscillator, and crossfading the ending. As a result, this recording is a repetitive sequence. It doesn’t repeat exactly because of the modulation, but there’s no variation in anything other than oscillator timbre.
For oscillators I chose the always excellent Synthesis Technology E370, with a User-Loaded Wavetable titled NOV that was left from a previous owner. Thanks, dude. It’s pretty outstanding. Tuning each oscillator to unison (in Morph X/Y mode), I ran each of the pitch outputs from the MIDI Thing to the v/oct inputs. I followed that up by using the eight outputs of the Nonlinearcircuits Frisson to modulate both the X and Y parameters of each wavetable for all four oscillators. This constant timbre changing caused by the modulation also causes dramatic volume changes as waves morph in and out of more and less prominent waveforms in the table. I initially wanted something glitchy, and turned Glitch on HIGH with Interpolation Off for each of the four channels, and while it was cool, it didn’t fit at all in with the overall tenor of the sequence itself. The tonality is too “positive”, being in the key of A Lydian, and the sequence too upbeat. I suspect it would work fantastically on slower, more drone-ish material.
After I routed the pitch CV and modulation, I ran the gates to two Frap Tools Falistris for some enveloping. In addition to being enveloped at the Control inputs, three of the four gate outputs were also multed to the Hit input on one of two Rabid Elephant Natural Gates to provide some beautiful pinging of these ever-changing tones coming from the E370. All four channels were processed through Natural Gate, but only three were pinged. The bass note was only enveloped. In this process I made a grievous oversight. While Falistri is a perfectly good tool for this job, particularly the pluckier notes, more defined shaping with a ADSR would have really served the slower voices well. It so happens that I have perhaps the most advanced ADSR generator in Eurorack, but I didn’t even think to use it, and when I did, I was way too deep in the patch to re-patch and reconfigure the envelopes, so I let it go.
To be honest, I was expecting hurdles to cross, but I was surprised when it all just worked. CV did what it’s supposed to do. Gates did what they were supposed to do. Everything was perfectly in tune and on time.
Once the notes were created in their respective Natural Gate, all four outputs went to the ST Modular Sum Mix & Pan. While three of the four channels were panned to mono, the fastest moving and highest pitched voice was being slowly panned in the stereo field. The stereo output was then routed to the Addac814 6×6 Stereo Matrix Mixer, and sent to the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo. To ensure a solid clock for the delay, I used the now-defunct (or at least unavailable in the United States according to the App Store – which would seem weird) CoVariant Clock AUv3 plugin, which converted the MIDI clock in AUM to CV and sent it out an ES-9 output as an analog clock. I’ve never really sought to use a MIDI clock as the master clock outside of the iPad. I’ve certainly never used it as the master clock in a Eurorack patch. But this clock was flawless, likely to due CV being generated directly at the source, minimizing switches and pass-thru cabling or USB MIDI jitter. Hopefully CoVariant remains a working plugin in iOS for a while to come as there are currently no other direct MIDI > CV clock converters on the iPad. Veno-Echo was set at x2 on both sides with similar feedback just shy of noon. I also added a smidge of drive in order to enhance the sample reduction I put in the feedback loop. Veno-Echo, with its cross-feedback and width parameter, really can create an enormous stereo field
And so can the Dradd(s). It’s no secret I’m absolutely smitten by dual Dradd(s). Despite this infatuation, my first instinct was to patch in Beads, but Beads just didn’t really have what I was looking for today. At least I couldn’t find it. But the Dradd(s) did. In fact, I had to decide between two modes which both had something very cool to offer. I ultimately chose the Tape mode because the octave up was too much to resist. I slowly started to fade out the oscillators once the Dradd(s) were at full volume, and allowed its magic to guide the rest of the recording, fading out in a glorious wash of the Rain algorithm on the Walrus Audio Slöer.
When I set out to do today’s Jamuary patch I had initially planned on recreating, at least in spirit, a patch I did as a test for a travel synth during the summer. After setting up the piano portion of the patch, I changed my mind and decided against creating a sub bass sequence, or indeed using any distortion as I did in that patch. In part was because I was highly taken aback when, instead of plugging the piano output into the Qu-Bit Nautilus, as I did in that patch, I reached for the extremely lo-fi Bizarre Jezabel Quarté Mk2. The natural decay of the delay was plenty dirty in all the best of ways, and decided to go with it instead of introducing some other form of distortion. From there the patch went a very different direction. Rather than a sad yet hopeful tenor, this one is just sad.
For this patch I decided to use Stochaos as my gate producer for triggering the piano sounds, being fed by a chaotically controlled clock. I’m a fan of using chaos as a clock source. I’ve used multiple methods of using chaos to create off beat rhythms, from using Numberwang to running a chaos signal through Divide & Conquer, a clock divider than can use any signal as a clock input. Today I used, for the first time, the Nonlinearcircuits Let’s Get Fenestrated, a comparator NLC-style, fed by a heavily modulated The Hypster. This process created a perfectly ultra-wonky clock, which then fed Stochaos. Stochaos spat out four gates at the Disting NT inputs which triggered both the quantizer and the Poly Multisample player.
The audio was sent to the AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer, and on to the Bizarre Jezabel Quarté Mk2 for some soul-crushingly beautiful repeats that seem to disintegrate as they decay away. I seriously contemplated just leaving the patch at that, adding in some reverb, and calling it a day, but I knew that I could add to it subtly and give it some more life. To give it some other textures to contemplate and heighten the overall mood of the piece without distracting too much from the piano and those beautiful repeats.
I started with the Qu-Bit Electronix Data Bender, but I knew I only wanted to use that sparingly and didn’t think it would add enough by itself, so opted also to send the piano notes to the Dradd(s) for some good old fashioned time stretching. This was perfect and even allowed me to use the Data Bender even more sparingly so as not to overwhelm the Piano with failure. I slowly controlled the Data Bender output in the ST Modular SVCA with a modulated LFO from the Frap Tools Falistri. To modulate the length of the LFO I used an attenuated and slightly offset Smooth Random output from Sapel into the Both CV input. An inverted copy of the LFO was sent to a second SVCA which very slightly lowered the volume of the Piano and its repeats while the Data Bender did the thing.
The Dradd(s) add tons of texture with their medium-to-short grains, re-creating the piano at a slow crawl, filling in space and adding a layer of intrigue. Like a splash in water, the Dradd(s) created a distorted view of what’s underneath: slivers of sound overlapping and rippling off each other in a beautiful chorus. I’m still infatuated with the dual Dradd(s). I’ve used lots of granular processors in Eurorack. Of the continuous processing type, those that don’t rely on pre-recording to a buffer, but instead have a continuous buffer and don’t require recording a certain bit of material to process, I have a very difficult time choosing between the Dradd(s) and the Mutable Instruments Beads. It seems like I can always find something fascinating. That I can always use it to find something beautiful inside of the audio itself.
I haven’t felt as bad as I did today for a long while. I even called in sick to work, which is something I don’t generally do. It was hard to get motivated for Jamuary today, but, as usual, once I finally mustered the energy to turn the synth on, the rest of the world kind of melted away for a short time, even if today wasn’t destined to be a fully from-scratch patch.
Today’s Jamuary patch is a re-work of yesterday’s patch. My first inclination was to simply swap the effects on the piano and Panharmonium and call it a day, but the result wasn’t at all what I had in mind, so decided on using different effects entirely.
The base of today’s patch was exactly the same as yesterday. The four outputs from the Addac506 were split to Numberwang and Let’s Splosh, which sent gates and CV respectively to the Disting NT, which quantized the CV and passed it to the Poly Multisample algorithm that spat out audio.
The audio, via the AI Synthesis 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer, was sent to the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo for some slow repeats that were occasionally triggered into reverse using spare gate outputs from Numberwang. Both the dry and repeated audio were sent to Panharmonium, set to an octave down. Panharmonium is a magical module. It can sometimes be hard to tame, but when you finally find that sweet spot in a given patch, it has the capacity like few other things to gracefully fill up space and create a floating bed of awesomeness. Panharmonium was sent to the Dradd(s) in Tape Mode, each side played 2x speed, one forward, the other in reverse, with just enough feedback to occasionally shimmer upwards another octave. I’ve been absolutely amazed with the sounds I’ve gotten with dual Dradd(s). Of the many GAS-induced purchases I’ve made in modular, a second Dradd is amongst the best of those decisions.
The Piano/Veno-Echo, Panharmonium, and Dradd(s) were all separately sent to the output mixer for some reverb in the always lovely Walrus Audio Slöer.
Despite having to hazard snowy conditions doing afternoon obligations, I finally had a bit of time today to patch as the sun was beginning to set on what is about to be a very cold night. Like, for real. It’s gonna be cold as balls.1
I didn’t have an idea ready to go for today, so resorted to a couple of patches that I’ve done variations of in the past and wanted to further explore. I finally used Just Friends as a six part oscillator, with a lightly modulated Nonlinearcircuits The Hypster chaotically controlling their levels in six VCAs, while also modulating Just Friends’ Shape to get subtle timbre shifts. I didn’t seek a particular harmonic relationship between the different oscillators, but I turned Intone clockwise from noon until I got something that sounded a little dark but still pleasant.
Once these waves were level modulated and mixed to stereo in an Intellijel Amps, with odd Identity outputs on the left channel and even ones on the right, the mix was sent to the Olivia Artz Modular Time Machine for some delay before being sent to the output mixer and some reverb. I also sent a passthrough of this output to the Dradd(s) for some granular synthesis in Tape mode. I initially wanted it in an octave up mode, but between the high pitched bleeps, that were further pitched up in their own delay and granular-esque process, there was too much going on in that higher frequency range and it became too much to deal with. In lieu, I went with what amounts to using a tape machine that stutters at half speed. The effect here isn’t dramatic, but it does add a lot of movement in the stereo field which is really interesting.
The second voice was a simple triangle wave from a Falistri, using the other generator as its envelope and trigger source in the Rabid Elephant Natural Gate. The EOC output also triggered Sapel, which supplied both a new fall time for the envelope, as well as pitch for the oscillator, varying both note pitch and length. Although this sub-patch worked as it should, it was weirdly patched. It could have been great simplified without any penalty whatsoever. The inefficiency is due to it being what was left from other ideas. Rather than re-patching, I recycled what was already going on. I initially combined both generators’ bipolar outputs in Falistri’s four quadrant multiplier for some ring modulated tones, but ultimately opted for a sparkly sound over the marimba sound. The output from Natural Gate was sent to the Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine for some delay and buffer freezing, which created some really cool effects, especially the aliasing on the pitched up notes. I wanted to devise a way to scan the buffer only while it was frozen, but couldn’t quite figure out how to do that with the current patch and gating technique. It definitely stumped me. I’ve done a recent patch where I was able to scan the buffer only when it was frozen, but it used an entirely different triggering mechanism and today I didn’t have there wherewithal to work together an algorithm to get it done. That said, the effect it does create is very cool. Almost Data Bender-like, which appeals to me.
I ran into a dreaded problem while recording today’s patch. It doesn’t occur often, only a handful of times that I can remember, but it is a problems channel bleed/crosstalk in my mixer. It can be clearly heard for at least the first two minutes and 20 seconds, and intermittently throughout the recording. It only happens under circumstances like today, with much lower pitched audio in one input, and much higher pitched audio in some other channel. Think sparkles. You know, kind of like in today’s patch. It’s really annoying, even if I don’t notice it in most circumstances. Fortunately the builder is super-responsive, and we’ll see if he has a fix or mitigation for it.
In America, at least for my generation where I grew up (South Florida), “as balls” is a popular unit of measurement. You can use it similarly to “as fuck”, although “as balls” isn’t quite as flexible. It works, however, under many circumstances. Hot as balls. Cold as balls. Busy as balls. Heavy as balls. Far as balls. It can also sometimes be used in a slightly different form as an adjective. (E.g., balls cold, balls hot). ↩︎
Today’s Jamuary was hard. I’m tired, and I made the fatal mistake of waiting until the last minute. The result isn’t bad. I actually like it, even if I’d make changes in a future revision. But in the spirit of using some unfamiliar gear during Jamuary, I ran into unfamiliar problems. I couldn’t find a filter I liked, had a hard time choosing delays, and had to patch and re-patch several times, only to arrive at a fairly simple audio chain and control scheme. I made dumb mistakes that hampered the effort and made it much more difficult than it should be.
Jamuary 2513 and 2514 were both rhythmic driven patches, and cool as they were, I was ready for something slow today. Up in the top right corner of my synth (as it’s currently configured) sits the revered Mannequins Just Friends. I haven’t had it too long, perhaps three or four months, but I hadn’t had the occasion to use it yet and I figured there’s no better time than right now to pop that particular cherry. Though I know Just Friends is many things, including a harmonic oscillator, I wanted to try its modulation capabilities during my premier with it. From all reports, it’s utterly fantastic in that role. So I set it at a slow yet still moving Time, and let it loose. The Hypster, via De-Escalate, modulated both Intone and Curve to keep the movement of each function in constant flux.
I thought about using virtually every multi-oscillator module I had. The E370, Falistri(s), 4Vox, CUNSA, Harmonic Oscillator, Quad Operator, and several others. But for some reason, I settled on using a Calsynth Changes, a very excellent 1:1 Mutable Instruments Stages clone, in Harmonic Oscillator (AKA Ouroboros mode). It’s not really a conventional choice for use as an oscillator, though it does the job great, and has the added benefit of having exactly six oscillators with six shapes (I used triangle waves), conveniently matching the six outputs of Just Friends.
Initially I tried to control the levels of each oscillator directly on Changes, but it doesn’t work great that way, so I opted to patch each output to a individual VCAs to be modulated by Just Friends, with the odd harmonics left and the even harmonics right. The output goes directly to the Bizarre Jezabel Mimosa, then Quarté Mk2 for a bit of lo-fi-ification. I had two looping triangle envelopes modulating time on both delay channels for some vibrato (even if I couldn’t hone in the modulation to my satisfaction), and, as the performance progressed, fed a slow looping stochastic function from the Addac506 to Mimosa’s wet/dry CV input. The noisy delay made Mimosa superfluous in some ways, but the effect is still nice, though probably not necessary, especially since I was also overdriving the VCAs with hot envelopes and, for much of the performance, with the attenuator wide open.
As a last minute addition, I also added a send to the Dradd brothers (in Grain mode) for some more gritty texture. This patch is full of texture. I tried to send the Dradd(s) through a delay, but couldn’t find one I liked quickly enough, and so abandoned the idea and ran it straight to the mixer for some reverb treatment.
The result is a pretty epic drone, perhaps a bit reminiscent of Alessandro Cortini (if I may be so bold), especially with the signature noisy PT2399 sound from the delay chips.
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.
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.
To be fair, I struggle with just about everything with the Oxi One. I really need to revisit it with purpose. ↩︎
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. ↩︎
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). ↩︎
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.
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.
As a result of acquiring both the Synthesis Technology E370 and the Flame Instruments 4VOX, after also getting the Humble Audio Quad Operator and RYK Modular Algo earlier in the year, I’ve been stringing together a series of chord-based polyphonic patches using various forms of slow modulation to control the volume of each chord tone. From standard LFOs to chaos, and stochastic functions to ocean wave simulations, I’ve tried at least a dozen of this style of patching over the last several months. Some of these have used static chords that don’t really move anywhere. Different notes of a chord come in and out chaotically (in most cases), but the chord itself doesn’t change. Others are based on the harmonic series, where only one pitch change of the master oscillator affects all of the individual harmonics resulting in chord changes. All of those were composed using chaos or random as a pitch source. But, with one exception, it wasn’t until this patch that I used the NOH-Modular Pianist with real intent and composed a chord progression to move the piece along. To set a mood and provide some tension and relief with harmonic motion in addition to volume and timbre changes. And this time I went big with using all eight CV outputs, rather than just four.
The NOH-Modular Pianist is an interesting module. It promises a world of harmonic movement in an environment where using chords isn’t a simple proposition. Polyphony in Eurorack is equipment and labor intensive. Each separate note of a chord requires its own separate oscillator, function generator, and VCA, at minimum. and requires its own discrete signal path. That’s a lot of patching for what is an easy task in a DAW or by using keyboard-based synths. It’s a lot of tuning (and re-tuning); lots of signals to tweak, and lots of modulation to account for. Before the Pianist, ways to get this sort of advanced polyphony was hard to come by. You could use a MIDI > CV converter, which has its own challenges, or else by painstakingly programming a pitch sequencer note by note, which requires a level of music theory knowledge that most don’t possess.1 MIDI > CV converters require careful calibration, and there are few sequencers with more than just four channels. But the Pianist is different.
Rather than programming chords note by note, Pianist uses standard western music shorthand for identifying chords, and the module does the rest. When you program it to play a CM7 chord, for instance, it knows to send out pitch data for C E G and Bb. It’ll even repeat chord notes in a different octave if no color tones are used. You can add two chord extensions beyond the 7th, called Colours in the Pianist, or use chord inversions to designate the third or fifth as the bass note in the chord. If a up to six note chord can be played on a piano, it can be played by the Pianist.
Users can freely enter chords from scratch in Free mode, or, to make the job even easier, set it to Scale mode and choose only from chords within your chosen key. The scale can be set to Major, Minor, or any of the modes2 and Pianist does the rest. So, for example, if a user in Scale mode were choose A Major as the scale, Pianist would present you with only AMaj, Bmin, C#min, DMaj, EMaj, F#min, G#dim, the diatonic chords in A Major, in order to facilitate easier chord progressions for theory novices. As long as your oscillators are tuned, your chords will be in key. Nifty. For those who want to use chords outside of a key, or if your composition isn’t really in a specific key, Free mode allows for creating chords from scratch. Virtually any chord is possible (up to six notes). In both modes, harmonic complexity is simple, with up to two color tones available, and made even simpler in Random Gate mode where each gate received will add random colors automatically, and choose colors that make harmonic sense within that chord. The workflow in creating chord progressions is intuitive. I was quickly making fairly complex progressions with repeats and skipped chords with ease.
Though Pianist is a boon to those of us seeking access to polyphonic 12TET harmonic movement in our Eurorack patches, it does have its weaknesses. Though you can move notes up and down in octaves to create chord depth, it’s done in a haphazard way. Rather than setting each note for the exact voicing you’re looking for, you have to rely on functions Pianist calls Shift and Spread in order to get full, rich chords that don’t clutter a particular part of the audio spectrum, but it’s not exactly clear how that affects the chord as a whole. I can hear changes, but can’t always identify them. Easy variety, however, can be achieved when the Gate mode is set to Spread. No chord will be voiced exactly the same which creates intrigue.
The calibration for the module, at least in Version 1.0, is straight funky. This patch uses eight discrete oscillators. While tuning I sent a C from Pianist to set a baseline. But in order for the oscillators to play the C being sent, they each had to be tuned to G, which I found odd. The newest firmware, 1.2, addresses tuning and scales in a way that version 1.0 does not, which is a great improvement by all accounts, even if I haven’t used it yet to note any changes. Since I’m using Pianist in Free mode in this patch, however, there wasn’t a compelling reason for me to upgrade, though I certainly will now that I’ve finished recording it, even if I have an aversion to the upgrade processes of most digital modules.
The screen has a lot of information, and not a lot of room. However, navigation is still reasonably simple and the information on the screen laid out such that it’s not hard to read. It’s easier to read and use than many far more established modules like the Disting Ex, Kermit Mk3, or uO_C, even if there isn’t a lot of screen real estate. The interface is super easy to navigate using the mini joystick/push button. Version 1.2 is reported to have an even more streamlined navigation and menu system. Though altering global settings like the Scale, Gate or Spread behavior requires some menu diving which is never fun, programming chords decidedly does not. It’s a point and click operation made easy with the joystick, all done on one level. Move the cursor to what you want to change, click, move the joystick to the desired value, and click. Done.
A major issue with version 1.0, which may have been changed, is that it always boots up with the first saved sequence. Unless you save your progression to one of the user slots, you will lose your work if the module power cycles. If you don’t have much in your progression, or it’s a super simple that’s no problem. But if it’s long or has a lot of direction you might be losing a lot. Ask me how I know. 😕
Pianist has its own clock that will change on each beat, along with a clock output to trigger envelopes or some other event as chords change. But it also has a clock input, which will move along the chord sequence with every rising edge like any standard step sequencer. Being that I rarely use a steady clock, I haven’t tried the internal clock, and have instead used clocks created by chaos or some other irregular source. This patch used a fairly complicated sub-patch in order to derive the chord changes. I didn’t want haphazard pitch changes in the midst of notes actively being played, but only when nothing was being heard. Finding an approach for this was time consuming, and although there are probably (certainly?) other methods that would work as well, I settled upon an approach using two comparators, one analog and one digital.
The four waves from Swell Physics first went to the Xaoc Devices Samara II. Samara compares all four inputs, and outputs the Maximum signal (AKA Analog OR). Being that these four waves were controlling the volume of the individual chord tones, it occurred to me that once the Maximum signal went below 0v meant that all four parent signals were below 0v, which meant no volume at all from the chord voice. This is exactly when I want to trigger the next chord in the sequence. I then sent that Maximum signal from Samara II to a digital comparator, the Joranalogue Compare 2, with its compare window set to anything below 0v. So once that Maximum signal went below 0v, it would spit out a gate that would trigger a chord change in Pianist.
The eight chord tones created by the Pianist went to eight different oscillators. The root, third, fifth, and seventh (or fifth if there is no seventh) form the base of the chord and all go to one of the four Flame Instruments 4VOX oscillators, while the color notes and two additional root notes, one that follows chord inversions and one that does not, all go to a self-frequency modulated Frap Tools CUNSA, where each filter is set to self oscillate, and pinged in a Natural Gate.
The Flame 4VOX has been around a long time. My brother, a house sound engineer, producer, and DJ who’s been into Eurorack a long time, lusted for one long before I even knew what Eurorack was. It’s a fully polyphonic, wavetable oscillator beast, split into four sections of up to four oscillators each. Each oscillator can create detuned swarms, chords, or be unison. Each oscillator can be controlled by v/oct CV or midi, and is fully polyphonic with its own output. It really was a very advanced piece of gear for its time. It still is, even if it hasn’t been updated in several years and is showing its age. There are two pots and two CV inputs per oscillator that can control several parameters including scanning the wavetable, detuning, amplification, and more. It has internal VCAs to control volume, but I did not like how they functioned at all, and opted to use external VCAs, which worked to my benefit allowing me to modulate two wavetable parameters rather than the volume and only one parameter. There are also separate FM and reset/sync inputs per oscillator, along with its individual output. Even if CV-able options seem to be limited, virtually every facet of the 4VOX can be addressed via midi, although I haven’t used it with midi at all. It’s a very powerful oscillator bank that can cover lots of ground.
Although I wouldn’t say programming the 4VOX is difficult, it’s not as easy as most more modern interfaces. The screen is bare bones with low resolution and a slim viewing radius. The encoder is a little weird. You have to push it down and turn CCW to move downward in menus, while you simply turn it CW to change parameter values inside the menu. As a unit, it’s impressive. There are lots of options, plenty of stock wavetables to choose from, and it sounds good, but it shows its age. Upgrading firmware is a laborious process with modern computers. Although you can install your own wavetables, the processes to convert them to the right format and get them loaded can be a nightmare, particularly if you’re a Mac user. All of the computer-side software is a decade or more old, and workarounds are sometimes needed. I’m not a “I need to load my own wavetables” kind of guy, and my unit came to me with the latest update, but if I were that guy or my unit hadn’t already had the latest firmware, it would not be an easy task. I’ve had similar problems with older gear before3, and they’re no fun.
The 4VOX forms the base of the chords, brought in and out by the four waves from the Addac508 Swell Physics. The sound is both powerful and delicate, with each quadrant set to four slightly detuned, unison oscillators, each one being slightly modulated by the Nonlinearcircuits Frisson. Although I was pleased with the 4VOX’s performance, the Synthesis Technology E370 is a better overall option. Although the E370 is also based on nearly decade-old technology, it’s still a better user experience. The screen is in color, fully customizable, bigger, and gives more information. The stock wavetables are a gold standard. The software UI is easier to navigate using a more standard encoder. The physical UI is also far better arranged. With the 4VOX, the screen is in the middle of the module, knob locations are not symmetrical, and are more difficult to wiggle once everything is patched up. The E370 has everything laid out very neatly. The screen is on the far left, I/O on the far right, with knobs in the middle, leaving more than enough room to wiggle. It’s really a premium user experience. The only advantages the 4VOX has are its price, size, and complete polyphonic midi capabilities. The 4VOX has always been less expensive than the E370, and that remains true on the secondary market. However, the price differential on the used market is much closer than their respective MSRPs, as the E370 can be purchased for well under 50% of the original retail cost. The price difference on my units, both purchased used within a week of one another, was $100. The size, however, cannot change, and in that regard the 4VOX has the E370 soundly beat. At 29hp the 4VOX is still large (and odd hp 😕), but it’s dwarfed by the massive 54hp E370. It’s the massive size, however, that makes the E370 such a pleasure to wiggle.
Once mixed to mono in the Atomosynth Transmon, the 4VOX chords went through the venerable Industrial Music Electronics Malgorithm MkII, a powerhouse FSU-type module with bit crushing, sample reduction, and various types of waveshaping available to have anything from subtly crunchy through completely mangled audio at the output. Using Malgorithm was an absolute treat. Most of the lo-fi effects I tend towards are of the vintage variety, tape sounds, record pops, etc, vs just slightly old sounding digital artifacting, so it was a different sort of experience. On any other day I likely would have chosen distortion in this role, but the day I started this patch I precipitously chose to go with a different kind of dirt. And it was perfect. I was still able to get some nasty distortion via the “Axis” waveshaper (whatever that does), with the bit crushing and sample reduction playing a slowly increasing role. It’s starts clean, then moves to understated digital artifacting, and finally waves of full blown destruction, ending clean once again. One aspect of Malgorithm I enjoyed was the interaction between input level and the waveshaping. It responds similarly to tube distortion circuits, where the harder you drive the input, the more distortion there will be ranging from just barely there to outright obliteration. Each of these waveshaping circuits has three different levels, red, orange, and green, and all of them have their own character. These waveshapers can even interact with each other for nuking your audio from orbit if that’s what you want. I rode faders on the very awesome Michigan Synth Works XVI to control both the input level as well as the wet/dry mix in order to provide a performative aspect to this patch. Both the bit crushing and Nyquist parameters were modulated by the Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator, with a fairly wide range of both rise and fall times between medium and long. Each of the parameters were set to moderate crunchiness with the knobs, with their modulation moving towards a full-resolution signal. This created an absolutely amazing effect from the sound of dying batteries to the fabric of the universe being unzipped and sewn back together. I would highly recommend Malgorithm to anyone, but you’d have to find one first.
Once through Malgorithm and into the stereo matrix mixer, these now buzzy chords went to the Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine, with a very light perfect fifth shimmer in the feedback loop. I initially went with a full octave shimmer, but decided against it as it was too prominent and spiraled too far out of control too quickly. This created a very subtle sheen on the chords that isn’t noticeable much of the time, but is a nice effect nonetheless. Feedback and Spread were both modulated by attenuated versions of the Average output from Swell Physics.4
The color tones of each chord were all sent to the mighty Frap Tools CUNSA, a quad filter extraordinaire, and pinged in a pair of Rabid Elephant Natural Gates. Though I was tempted to use the simple sine waves from each LPF output, I later decided to use the HPF output as a means of each oscillator frequency modulating itself in order to add some harmonics, which worked a treat. In retrospect, I could have simplified the patch significantly had I pinged CUNSA itself instead of running the output to Natural Gate, but I chose the Natural Gate route because Natural Gate.
Using a patch technique I’ve used often, the gates that pinged the Natural Gates were created by running the four waves from Swell Physics into the Nonlinearcircuits Numberwang. But rather than simply choosing four gate outputs, I ran several Stackcables so that each strike input on the Natural Gates were each derived from three Numberwang outputs. This filled in space much better. The notes are still sparse, but they’re triggered at a much better pace using three gates each rather than just one. These notes fill out chords in interesting ways. They’re very short, but combined with delay and reverb, those colors hang around long enough to create intrigue in the overall sound without being intrusive.
These notes were sent to what is becoming one of my favorite delays, the Chase Bliss Audio Reverse Mode C, a re-imagining of one of the modes on the legendary Empress Effects Superdelay. Although it certainly does standard stereo delay stuff, it excels at being a quirky sort of delay, able to output normal delays, reverse delays, and octave up reverse delays, by themselves, or in a mix. Mixing delays creates a beautiful sound space of echoes bouncing all around the stereo field, at different speeds and octaves, which is an incredible aural treat. I haven’t yet learned to properly modulate the Reverse Mode C, but that’s a function of not having a firm grasp on midi. As I figure that out, things ought to get very interesting, with different sorts of delays fading in and out in very creative ways.
The last synthesized voice in this patch is the Good and Evil Dradds as an effects send, sending both the chords and ornamental color notes for some granular action. The Dradd(s) outputs went to separate EF-X2 tape echoes with different settings. Ever since getting a second Dradd, I’ve been infatuated by what I can do with them, and this patch may be the best result yet. Both were set to Tape mode with similar P2, but different P1 knob positions, with the P1 parameter on both being modulated by an attenuated version of the Average output on Swell Physics. The Dradds, in some ways, steal the show. They create all sorts of movement in the stereo field and fill the space between chords and color notes in ways that keep the piece from becoming still. They’re the wake left after a large swell passes by. The bio-luminescence after a crashing wave.
The spoken voice is a set of three samples that were triggered in Koala on the iPad. Triggers emanated from the gate outputs on Swell Physics combined in the new Nonlinearcircuits Gator, sent to the Joranalogue Step 8 and then the Befaco CV Thing and converted to midi notes that were sent to trigger Koala samples on the iPad. It took me a while to figure this one out, though it worked exactly how I envisioned. Gates from Swell Physics were combined in Gator, which triggered Step 8. Each of the first three steps sent its individual gate output to a different CV Thing input. This ensured that the three samples were always triggered in the correct order. The samples themselves were then sent to a new collaborative delay plugin, Moon Echo, by AudioThing and Hainbach.. Moon Echo is a modeled simulation of bouncing sound off the moon, and has a very distinct character. The delay was set to fully wet, and has a delay of about 2.5sec, though that changes depending on the day. The moon is not at a fixed distance from the earth, and the plugin reflects that. By “pinging” the moon upon startup, you will get the current distance to the moon, and a new delay time down to five decimal points (1/100,000 of a second). Fucking cool.
One thing I did differently with this patch paid off high dividends, and will absolutely become a staple in my recordings. I’ve been patching for a few years, but am still an absolute novice at standard studio stuff. Mixing, EQ, compression, and everything else in that sphere evades me. I’ve used some very basic EQ in the past, but really only on the final output, which, as I’ve discovered has several drawbacks. This patch was the first I’ve ever recorded using EQ, the highly regarded Toneboosters TB Equalizer 4, on individual channels as they were being recorded. The chords, ornamentals, and reverb send received EQ that greatly improved the sound quality, even if it could still be better. I did, however, neglect to put EQ on the Dradds, which proved to be a mistake, as there is a very occasional pitch that pierces through in what can’t be far from dog whistle frequencies. It’s not eardrum busting, but I can hear it, and it annoys me. I didn’t catch that behavior when recording, and never EQ’d it out. That said, it was also the first time I’ve recorded a modular patch in separate multi-tracks, including the chords, ornamentals, Dradds, spoken voice, reverb return, and the mixed stereo signal (presented here). I can go back and make changes or additions should that be something I want to do, or send the parts to someone else for mixing and mastering should I ever choose to release it.
Overall I’m very pleased with this patch. It was originally composed in a different key and completely different chord progression, and for a special group of online friends. The chord progression I used in this recording wasn’t composed, as such. At least not by me. I asked ChatGPT for a “sad progression, yet with a sense of hope.”5 I asked for it to be more sad, and it changed key from Amin to Dmin, and ended in a non-diatonic chord (DMaj), which I found a wonderful “choice.” Then, as a means to test the Pianist, I asked for several chord extensions and inversions, and ChatGPT complied, giving us what we have in the recording.
Improvised and recorded in 1 take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.
I studied music performance in college, and have a decent grasp on music theory. The last 30 years, however, have pared that knowledge down to basics. I’m certainly no expert, but I can read chord charts and identify chord notes, even if I have to think for a second. ↩︎
The Humble Audio Quad Operator I purchased did not have the latest firmware update, and the internal VCAs all bled badly. I was unable to install the latest firmware with a modern Mac. I was fortunate to have an older one available to me that I was able to use. ↩︎
There are no fewer than seven modulation points in the patch that are all modulated by an attenuated version of the Average output from Swell Physics. ↩︎
This was literally the first time I’ve ever considered purposefully using AI for anything. ↩︎
