When I turned on my Make Noise synth tonight, I had anticipated some more experimentation with filter wobble. I had both QMMG and QPAS right in front of me, and so far in my brief experimentation, these two filters had been the best at it. And I did do some of that. It was the first thing I did for about 30 minutes. But, as it so often does, the patch sent me in a different direction. It’s still a delicate patch, but not in that kind of way.
This patch won’t get the full patch breakdown, but I’ll lay out the basic framework.
René X Channel > Spectraphon B (stereo outputs) > QPAS (Smile Pass 😁) > X-Pan Spectraphon B (Sub) > QMMG Ch 2 (LPG) > QMMG Ch 1 (VCA) > X-Pan The recording starts out with only the QPAS outputs, before bringing in the LPD’d version. Both are crossfaded once the LPG’d version is brought in. The resonance, particularly on QPAS, got a smidge out of hand, but nothing ear screaming or offensive.
René Y channel > Spectraphon A (stereo outputs) > QMMG Ch 3 & 4 (LPF) > X-Pan (Aux) This is the slower, lower voice that was brought in last. Spectraphon’s A side Focus and Slide were modulated by Wogglebug. Once bright in, this voice was only level controlled by the cutoff of the filter in QMMG. I slowly brought up the envelope amount in Maths to open it further and further.
X-Pan (stereo outputs) > Mimeophon > Output
Maths is doing a lot of work, modulating the filter cutoff of both Both QPAS and QMMG, Radiate on QPAS, controlling the envelope level to the QMMG in LPG mode, as well as the crossfading of the continuous playing sequence and the pinged one. I need to find a better way to activate the crossfader. Since I was using a copy of a Maths Unity output in both of X-Pan’s Crossfade CV inputs, I couldn’t just attenuate it to 0v then introduce the crossfading by turning a knob. So I inserted the cables when I was ready to introduce the voice. You can hear that little fumble as that voice is brought in.
I used a reverb send from my mixer to the Maneco Labs Otterley Reverb for some reverb (duh) as well as a touch of granular treatment.
When I finished Jamuary I was resigned to taking time off before patching again. Jamuary was exhausting, and I’m tired. I wasn’t sure how long it might be before I patched again. It turns out the answer was “immediately.” By 10pm on February 1st I was bored, and so decided to put something together on the iPad for fun. I had no intention to record it. I was just playing around with a few things to see how they work. The same thing happened on the 2nd. I started to watch a YouTube video, and decided that I’d rather just do a patch on the synth that was sitting not eight feet from me than watch someone else do one. And so I did.
The patch started with Tempi. The base tempo was ~60bpm:
Channel 1 (x1) > Mimeophon
Channel 2 (x1) > René X Clock
Channel 3 (x2) > René Y Clock
Channel 5 (/5) > René X Mod
Channel 6 (/7) > René Y Mod
René received the clocks and Mod gates from Tempi on both the X and Y channels. Mod on both channels was set to Start/Stop on the Fun page. When the gate is low at their respective Mod inputs, the sequence moves forward, when it’s high, it stops. Since all four clocks are at different times, there is no continuous repeating pattern, each channel starting and stopping every bar and change. Gates and Access were adjusted for both channels throughout the performance to guard against becoming stagnant. René controlled all four voices in the patch, using just two oscillators, Spectraphon and STO. As far as I know, the scale is in C Lydian, but it sounds like I may have neglected to make the key change between C Major and C Lydian in one (or more 😬) of the channels. It doesn’t happen often, but we get a hint of dissonance on occasion.
The X Channel sent pitch CV to Spectraphon’s A side, and the trigger from the X Gate output to DXG’s Channel 1 Strike input. The Y channel was routed similarly to Spectraphon’s B side and DXG’s Channel 2 respectively. These two oscillators form the first voice, comprised of fairly sparse pings in the DXG. The mixed outputs from Spectraphon A and B were sent to DXG in a way to remain discrete left and right with their separate gate patterns. When you plug something into the Left input on any DXG channel, it normalizes to the Right channel and becomes a mono signal at the output. In order for the Left (mono) input to remain in the left channel only, a dummy cable should be plugged into the Right input. This dummy cable breaks the normalization, and will send audio at the Left channel input to only the Left channel at the output. I plugged Spectraphon’s A side Mix output into DXG’s Left input on Channel 1, along with a dummy cable in the Right input. Spectraphon’s B side Mix output went to DXG’s Right input on Channel 2. This kept the A side pings on the left side of the stereo field, and the B side pings on the right for a delightfully stereo experience of pings and echoes.
Both sides of Spectraphon were tuned to C one octave apart. Spectraphon was modulated in three places, but only moderately. The A Side Focus and Slide were modulated by a Maths envelope and Wogglebug’s Stepped outputs respectively. The B Side Slide was modulated by the Maths OR output. The slight modulation helped to have subtle timbre changes on the pinged notes, some brighter and others darker. Both sides also FM’d each other slightly. The FM Bus Index for both channels were around 8:30 on the knobs. There’s some FM, but not very much at all. Just enough to give notes a kind of bounciness once struck in the LPG. One really nice feature of the Spectraphon’s FM capability is that its sine waves always stay pure in order to avoid the problems associated with cross-modulating oscillators. No matter how much one might FM Side A, its sine wave can still modulate the B side with a clean sine wave rather than one that is FM’d. Most oscillators, once they become carriers, are useless as modulators. Not so with Spectraphon where both oscillators can be both modulator and carrier oscillators at the same time. Very nifty.
René’s Cartesian Channel performed an identical role with STO and QMMG as the X and Y channels with Spectraphon and DXG. I wanted something well above the predominant audio register in the patch. High pitched tings and drips, in the same manner as the Spectraphon pings, only even more sparse. These were designed to be ornamental notes, not the star. The Cartesian Channel CV output sent pitch CV to STO’s v/oct input, and its trigger output went to Channel 2 of QMMG for similar pinging with the Cartesian trigger. The STO’s sine output was used to keep the notes with as soft a texture as I could with pings. One interesting difference between using the QMMG and DXG as a LPG is that QMMG’s decay, at least my QMMG’s decay,1 is noticeably longer on higher pitched notes than the DXG when pinged with a trigger. In the DXG, higher pitched notes are sometimes just barely blips. This sort of behavior is generally expected with just about every LPG because of how they filter the upper harmonics. But through the QMMG, those high notes are seemingly longer. It’s certainly a result of the those juicy QMMG vactrols, and a good argument for keeping vactrol LPGs around, cadmium eaters be damned. These pings in the QMMG were mixed in with the Spectraphon A and B side pings via the Aux input in the DXG.
After I worked up the pinging I was after, I knew I wanted something more, but it had to be complementary and juxtapose itself against the very delicate pings. I was in a stream of consciousness-like trance when building this patch, and so even though I’ve documented all of the final patch connections for the entire patch, I’m not exactly sure what thought process led me to how I was going to fill in the space in a graceful way. A bit of experimentation, some clever routing, and tinkering seemed to be the answer.
I first decided I wanted to use QPAS. I’m not sure how I decided on it being heavy filtering, but I knew I needed the voice to be subtle so as not to overtake light pinging happening in the stereo field. I sent Spectraphon’s A side Sine wave to the L input on QPAS, and the B side Sub output to QPAS’s Right input. The trick was to have both oscillators filtered by QPAS, yet remain separate in the outputs. QPAS essentially became a dual mono filter with shared controls.2 The frequency knob on QPAS, for most of the performance, was moderately low, around 10 o’clock on the knob, though it was being modulated by an unsync’d Wogglebug’s Smooth output, while both Radiate knobs were being modulated by the Woggle output.
QPAS’ Left and Right outputs would become completely separate voices, unfettered by any gating or enveloping, being tamed and shaped only by the filter cutoff(s) and resonance(s) before going straight to the output. Because these outputs weren’t being gated or enveloped, they were always present, moving along with their respective pitch sequences from René, Spectraphon’s A side following the X Channel, and the B side following the Y channel. I remember really liking the sound of the voices and the feel they added, but struggled to find a solution to these sequences droning along overtaking the pings. The answer was simple: only send as much volume to QPAS’ inputs as is absolutely necessary, and allow the resonance to do some of the lifting. It’s a delicate balance between not being audible and drowning out everything else; the output needed to be always present, but delicate enough to not use all of the space in the sonic field.
The Right Low Pass and Smile Pass outputs went straight to X-Pan Channel 2 A and B inputs where they were crossfaded and slowly panned across the stereo field (by the same cycling envelope). This melody carried a mostly present sequence from the Y channel, though quite muffled by the filter and constantly swirling with the crossfading, and smoothed out with resonance, then copious amounts of Mimeophon with Halo. From the time it was introduced, this Y melody is omnipresent, filtered to various degrees, and allowed to drift through the stereo field.
The Left outputs is where the routing became a bit of voodoo. I know what connections led to this sound, but I’m not sure I understand the mechanisms that led to the result. It was a sine wave playing a sequence heavily filtered by QPAS,3 and then very heavily filtered again by QMMG. The Left Low Pass and Smile Pass outputs were routed first to QMMG channels 3 and 4. I tried all four modes, but only the Low Pass mode gave me the specter of a ghost lightly singing in the background, occasionally wavering and trembling as the pitch of the input, slowly moving filter cutoff, and resonance interacted with one another. When the voice was introduced, the filter on QMMG was completely closed, only being modulated by a cycling Maths envelope. Resonance started at about 8:30 on each knob. I slowly added more resonance, then more again, before also slowly raising the cutoff. By the time I hit stop on the recording, both the cutoff and resonance for both channels were at about 1 o’clock on the knobs. It sounds as if it’s a feedback patch, though, outside of the copious amounts of resonance in the QPAS and QMMG signal paths, tamed by the controlled input into QPAS, there is no feedback patching.4 These two outputs from QMMG were crossfaded in X-Pan, so that the sound constantly drifted and resonated in interesting ways. This led to wavering cries that occasionally had a smidge of growl enough to resonate through the Mimeophon in an incredibly beautiful way.
This voice, although the most subtle and delicate, as well as the least present, is by far my favorite part of this patch. It brings the patch to life. It’s one of the coolest sounds I’ve gotten from any patch. When I first heard that sound I stood tall and stared straight at the QMMG as if to ask it to teach me its wizardry. It was the first time I’ve looked at the QMMG as an instrument; as something more than a set VCAs, LPGs, and filters, with a mix output.
All four voices were mixed in the X-Pan, and sent to the Mimeophon for some delay-ification and Halo, the soft noise of the Mimeophon cushioning the edges in subtle ways.
Like so many patches I made during Jamuary, this patch is an open testament to a cohesive Make Noise system being a fluid instrument. It’s an absolute pleasure to play.
One small issue I had, which reinforces my desire for a couple of VCAs than can boost levels before going to the ES-9, was that the recording was ultra-quiet. The pings are very quiet, which necessitated a low volume for everything else in the patch. I needed to add a full 12.5dB in post in order to bring my peaks up to ~ -12dB in AUM.
Each QMMG will have a different response because of the natural variability of vactrols. Make Noise does a great job of matching vactrols in an individual unit as closely as possible, but there are (sometimes noticeable) differences in the decay length between different units. This is the same for all vactrol-based LPGs. ↩︎
Definitely a first time using QPAS in this way. ↩︎
Filtering a sine wave is about as pedestrian a job as a filter can do. It’s normally unremarkable as filters thrive on upper harmonics. ↩︎
If the input level was much louder, I’m confident the resonance, particularly in QMMG, would have been screaming. Both filters have a very pronounced resonance that can run away quickly. ↩︎
A completely ripped off note progression (E, F#, G#, B) from Alessandro Cortini’s piece titled ERA on the Make Noise Records release Strega Musica.
0-Control fed the pitch sequence to Strega, which Strega-fied it. Strega’s triangle wave output was copied and patched to channels one and two of QMMG for some low pass filtering, with slightly different cutoff frequencies and differently attenuated modulation to helped create a stereo effect in the note progression. I first tried feeding it through QPAS, but it simply didn’t sound very good.
The blip bloops were a failed experiment. I was hoping for sporadic, sparkly bits that would ornament the droning note sequence, but it ended up not really at all what I’d hoped. Jamuary inherently comes with struggles, and sometime the time demands that you push record, ready or not. I probably should have had those notes be simple sine or triangle waves from Spectraphon. Instead I tried to be cute by using the even and odd mixed outputs with some heavy handed modulation to Slide and Focus on both sides. It didn’t really work. It exists, and juxtaposes itself against the dark drone, but that’s about it. I added to the confusion by using the Sample and Hold feature to control both the X and Y channels of René,, and haphazardly at that.
Well call today’s patch…a Time/Filter Experiment gone wrong.
I love my Make Noise synth. No matter my mood, I can always count on my Make Noise box to provide for some serious fun. The instrument is simply sublime. It’s quick, intuitive, and a breeze to perform with. Tony and crew have really done a bang-up job not only designing each module, but in making sure they fit seamlessly together as a cohesive instrument. Of course there are some modules that I have strong opinions about, but rarely do those issues inhibit creativity.
Tonight’s patch was an improvised jam. It was a long day at work and I had just under two hours to get a patch together, work out the modulation, figure some flow for the performance, however meager, and record it. Two hours is about the least amount of time I can generally create a patch from scratch, though I’ve noticed throughout this Jamuary that I am getting faster, but with the Make Noise synth I figured I’d hit record before midnight. Today I had some time to spare.
The patch is pretty involved. Every sound except the kick drum, which is STO, was generated from Spectraphon. I used both sine waves from Spectraphon to ring modulate each other in my very cool orange LED ModDemix. One copy is sent to the L channel of DXG, the other the right channel (both with dummy cables in the unused channel to preserve the stereo field), each triggered in their respective Strike inputs by René’s X and Y channel. Both sides of Spectraphon received pitch CV from the X channel. This created a really cool stereo field with the molody’s rhythm jumping back and forth in your ear, constantly changing as I improvised on René.
The second voice is where it gets a bit complicated. It was made from Spectraphon’s B side Odd and Even outputs, triggered in QMMG by using René’s Cartesian channel gate. The B side Focus is sequenced by the Y channel, and Slide was sequenced by the Cartesian channel. Varying levels of Wogglebug’s Stepped output modulated the B side Partials, as well as the B side FM Bus Index. There’s a lot of movement in this voice, but it’s always harmonically related to the first voice. Partials flying around, FM being heavily modulated, both affecting the sound of different from each output.1 After being gated in QMMG. I sent a mix of the modulated Odd and Even signal to X-Pan to be panned back and forth in the stereo field.
Everything is mixed together in DXG and sent to Mimeophon for delay and a hint of Halo.
The kick is made using STO. A x1 gate from Tempi triggered Function which provided an envelope in X-Pan’s Aux input, I polarized Function’s negative output in Maths, in order to make it positive again, and used that to FM STO to give the kick a little more punch.
This patch was really fun to make and perform. I was shaking my skinny little ass all over the joint. As a kid from the 80s, that’s the measuring stick for a good time.
It occurred to me as I was writing this that I could have simply used the mixed output from Spectraphon rather than mixing them later. It would have also enabled me to not have to run the kick through the delay. ↩︎
I worked today, but got off earlier than normal. Even still I was short for time, but I decided pretty early in the day that I was going to put together one of my favorite patches in my little Make Noise ecosystem. This patch was inspired by a patch by Walker Farrell at Make Noise. The idea is to lean into vactrol bleed as an asset, rather than trying to defeat it somehow. I’ve done a patch like this before, but it was just okay. I wanted another at-bat, so-to-speak, and today was the day.
This patch is comprised of three separate voices. The first voice is a sine wave from STO, being sequenced by René’s Cartesian Channel, only striking the vactrol in QMMG infrequently. At no time were more than three gates active, and most of the time it was only two gates. And because both the X and Y channel were being clocked at two different speeds, as were both channels’ Stop/Run parameter via the X and Y Mod inputs, the sequence started and stopped in interesting ways. But because vactrols bleed, that is they take a second for the vactrol to completely close, any pitch changes that occur as part of the sequence will still be audible, though not gated at full volume. Not notes, per se, but also existing as pseudo-notes.
The second voice was made of two sine waves from Spectraphon being ring modulated in ModDemix, and enveloped by Function, before being panned in the stereo field by a slowly cycling envelope from Maths in X-Pan. Spectraphon’s oscillator A was tuned to the same pitch as STO, with the B side tuned an octave above for a pretty standard 1:2 ratio. Both oscillators received the same pitch information from René’s Y Channel.
For both of these voices I was regularly changing the sequence. Which steps were gated and which weren’t, which steps were active and which weren’t, and occasionally adjusted pitches on some of the steps. This created a stream of change that isn’t always noticeable, but keeps the performance moving.
The third voice was QPAS, pinging away. It had a steady gate hitting the input, but it was being level controlled by a slow envelope from Maths that was being triggered infrequently by René’s X Channel. When the trigger would hit Maths, it would send a slow envelope to QPAS’s VCA input which would control when and how long QPAS would be heard. I arranged the Resonate knobs to get a nice marimba sound, and added some self-modulation from the HP output back to the Frequency input.
Everything is mixed together in X-Pan and goes through Mimeophon before going to the output.
I’ve always loved the concept of this patch, but it wasn’t until today that I felt like I’ve done it some justice. I’ve butchered it a couple of times before, but not this day. And what’s more interesting (to me at least) was that patching was easy today. Ideas flowed freely, and patch cables followed. It’s a testament to the fluidity of a full Make Noise system. It’s a complete instrument unto itself.
I hit record on the patch at 11:56pm EST. It counts. A even longer day at work than yesterday, but I was able to make it in time.
I started tonight with another feedback patch, but was completely uninspired, so went to a Make Noise Jam. René v2 is an incredibly good sequencer for live jamming. I’m not very good at sequencing, but René doesn’t care. It just works and things flow freely. Spectraphon is exceeding all expectations at this point. It sounds friggin’ good.
The quick and dirty….
X Channel controls Spectraphon A Odd/Even outputs in QMMG Channels 1 and 2.
Y Channel controls Spectraphon B Odd/Even outputs in QMMG Channels 4 and 3.
C Channel sends pitch to QPAS, which is pinging away to a steady clock, but it’s input is faded in and out by a cycling Function via its VCA.
Wogglebug, Maths, and the other Function do some modulation to Partials, Slide, Radiance L and R, and QPAS’ Frequency.
All three voices mixed in DXG and sent through Mimeophon, then the Maneco Labs Otterley Reverb.
This patch was really fun and making it exemplifies Make Noise’s strengths as instrument designers. The cohesiveness of the modules as a set, and the physical UI are really conducive to just jamming out and having fun.
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.
I always seem to find myself both perplexed and captivated by my Make Noise case. Because it’s a relatively small system that’s also a walled garden, modules are limited. I’ve always scoffed a bit at the idea that a small case can spurn on creativity in a way a big case can’t. That it forces you to make deliberate choices and patch in new ways to get the most of what you do have. But with my Make Noise case that’s at least partially true. I’m not sure whether it’s the Make Noise ethos or the small case, but I find myself having to really think through patches. Even normally basic tasks, like mixing, can be a logistics challenge while patching. There are a finite number of jacks to plug, and a static few modules to work with.
After a short hiatus, the Make Noise case is back in order and with a couple of new additions. I needed the case for a travel synth, and I’ve been crazy busy since my return. I made a trip to Asheville and had a really great day at the QMMG in-store event, and I recorded a couple of tracks on the main synth and another on my new Make Noise 0-Series setup since, but I’ve straight procrastinated wrestling with the shitty M2.5 screws and sliding nuts Make Noise uses with their cases.1 Post-trip I also decided, after seeing rack rash on a couple of the travel synth modules from being screwed in without washers exactly once, that I was going to wait until I received longer screws and nylon washers to mitigate any further scratching issues. Rack rash isn’t the end of the world, but being that I move modules in and out quickly, I like for them to retain resale value, especially when it comes to factors I can control.
Once I got the case assembled I went to work. Not on creating a beautiful patch to share with the world (even if I do think the results are beautiful), but on seeing just exactly why QMMG generates the hype it does. How does it ring? Beautifully. How does it squelch? Loudly. How does it sweep? Lovely. How does it bleed? Perfectly.
I set out to re-create one of my favorite patches that encourages vactrol bleed, allowing subsequent pitches of a sequence to be heard after a step has been passed, and before the vactrol has had the time to close the gate of the LPG. These notes aren’t being gated, but sneak through at an audible level anyways as a byproduct of the slow vactrol response. Walker describes these bled notes as “[N]ot ghosts, exactly, because they have yet to exist. They’re more like premonitions or ideas; bulbs casting light on possible futures inscribed in the sequence.” Although I’ve written about this technique before, and use it often, I couldn’t resist using it with the new QMMG. I wanted to hear the vactrols for everything they are, not try and cover them up or hide their true nature. After all, Tony Rolando allegedly has said that the vactrols are the heart of QMMG, and it bleeds. It’s the module’s logo. Vactrol bleed is at the center of QMMG’s identity, and I wanted to hear it.
There are also 3 other voices in the patch. The first is a moderately modulated QPAS, pinging quietly in the background, sounding beautiful as ever. The second is the sine wave of the first DPO oscillator ring modulating the second sine oscillator of DPO in the modDemix. It only hits very infrequently, and is NOT passed through a LPG, but a VCA so that it does not ring past the current step. The third is a ripping bass part that absolutely does not fit with the rest of the patch in any way. What I was attempting did not work. Instead, I got a killer bass sequence that is contemporaneously always staying the same, yet always changing at the same time. This bass line is created with the STO’s Variable Shape output into QPAS in LP mode, with a completely ungated sequence on the X channel, which is clocked by alternating outputs on Tempi. Both of the clocks used were run at different rates, as well as having stops in Rene at different rates.
This patch is not perfect. It’s not even very good. But it’s a peek into the process understanding of how QMMG works, while trying to have a little fun at the same time. I also inadvertently learned a new bass technique for my patching library. If I were to expand on this patch, I’d certainly unmarry the bass part from the rest for its own track, but other problems exist too.
The delay is too forward in the mix. With the initial sequence and its premonitions, QPAS’ pinging, and ring modulated sine waves all going through the delay, it got very busy in the mix, sometimes obscuring the bleeding vactrols of QMMG, which was the entire point of the patch in the first place. I also ran into an inherent problem with using DXG, even as just a mixer. I’ve had my fair share of complaints about the DXG’s inability to not mix. I feel like it’s an extremely important piece of gear in the history of modern Eurorack, but with some serious flaws. It’s the first stereo LPG in existence (as far as I can tell), and made by the LPG legends at Make Noise who made Optomix (two versions), QMMG (two versions), LxD, MMG, RxMx, Dynamix, and the brilliant transistor-based LPG in the Strega, yet despite its importance and lineage DXG is a tragically imperfect piece of kit. As a LPG mixer, it raises and lowers both the volume and the harmonic content of the input simultaneously, more closely mimicking how sounds work in nature. As a sound gets louder, there is more higher harmonic content. As that sound gets softer, it loses harmonic content. And that’s great when you want to create sounds, but when you mix already created sounds together you generally want to control the volume, while leaving the harmonic content intact at every level. The DXG doesn’t allow you to do that. I noticed this phenomena most directly when trying to mix a full wet Mimeophon return signal on Ch 1 from with the dry signal on Ch 2 using its send outputs. Because I didn’t want what amounts to a 50/50 dry/wet mix, I wanted my repeats much softer than the dry signal, the repeats from Mimeophon were not only quieter (good) when patched through the DXG, but also near bereft of its upper harmonic content (very bad). All that pretty Color and Halo being added in Mimeophon, shat upon by the DXG. Although I was able to mitigate this problem by patching the output of the full mixer, rather than only the Ch 2 send output, to Mimeophon, and patching it as an insert using Mimeophon’s mix control rather than as an AUX send with a full wet return as originally intended, this necessary workaround seems to greatly minimize the utility of the Ch 2 send outputs. Traditionally, one would patch the dry signal to Ch 2, the Ch 2 send outputs to Mimeophon with its outputs patched back to Ch 1, and mixed with the original dry signal at the mixer’s sum output. However, losing valuable harmonic content from Mimeophon’s output when I only want to lose volume makes that a far less than ideal use case scenario for me. They work great as mixers, but only if you want to mix inputs at relatively even, loud levels.
Overall I’m pleased with the patch. Not the outcome, per se, but that the process of patching taught a couple of valuable lessons about the gear I’m using so that I might better use it in the future. The QMMG sounds fantastic, both as a LPG and a filter, and I’m slowly learning how to control the Final output of the DPO. Not every patch will turn out well, and that’s okay.
I’m clearly a Make Noise enthusiast, but that by no means makes their products perfect. There is no good excuse for sliding nuts and un-washered M2.5 screws in an otherwise premium case. ↩︎
Eurorack can be a funny space. We have thousands of modules available to us to do any number of amazing things with sound. Sometimes these modules are bullshit copies of a worthy predecessor, while others are completely unique and have a cult-like following that stands the test of time and the ever-increasing number of new modules released almost daily.
And then there’s a very small handful of modules that attain legendary status in the community for being something much greater than the sum of its transistors, capacitors, and resistors. Those modules that transcend its intended purpose and becomes an instrument unto itself. The Make Noise Maths is a meme at this point, being the solution for so many Eurorack conundrums. If you need to perform some difficult (or easy) control scheme, chances are “Maths does that.” The Modcan Quad LFO and Rabid Elephant Natural Gate are other examples. But arguably no other module in all of Eurorack approaches the iconic status of the Make Noise QMMG.
Originally billed as a spin on the Buchla 292c, the QMMG (Quad Multi Mode Gate) is a quad set of VCAs, low pass gates, resonant low pass filters, and resonant high pass filters, with clever normalizations and mixing schemes that make it ideal for controlling and mixing both audio and CV. On the surface QMMG isn’t anything special. It looks simple enough, like most quad filters out there. But under the hood is some circuitry magic that does “something” to the sound that elevates QMMG to its current pedestal atop almost everyone’s Eurorack wishlist. A quick peek at Reverb will show a seldomly sold module that goes for several times more than its original retail cost, with buyers eager to plunk down thousands, and happy to have the chance to own one of these fabled modules, even if only for a short time.
Although this story is largely accurate, I’d be remiss to omit one simple fact: although the QMMG has been around in one form or another since 2008, so few of them have been made that scarcity plays a large role in its status, as well as almost all of these modules. It’s no coincidence that so many legendary-status modules fetch obscene prices on the secondary market. There just aren’t very many of them. They’re unicorns. Unicorns to the point that their scarcity adds to the legend. Some of these shortages are the result of these modules being made by hand in small workshops by as few as one person. Costs in a small operation are already very high. Scaling production simply isn’t an option for many.1 Some are the result of a company having stopped making them long ago. Others, like QMMG, are the result of the parts being both difficult to source, as well as being expensive when you can find them. Add in a serious variability differential between nominally the same exact parts, and it’s just plain hard to build them in any sort of real quantity. So far as anyone can tell, far fewer than 1000 QMMGs have been made since its original release in 2008. Originals are scarce and fetch very high prices. There was a 10th anniversary run in 2018 which resulted in perhaps 100 units, but nothing since. The only place to get one is on the secondary market at collectors prices.
Until now.
In mid-August Make Noise announced that although QMMG is a difficult module to build on any sort of scale, they had spent the better part of the last several years sourcing and testing as many parts as they could find in order to try and fill the gap. That QMMG would make a return, even if only in another limited release. It would go on sale in stores worldwide on September 9, 2024, with a popup sale event on September 7, 2024 at the Make Noise headquarters in Asheville, NC.
Make Noise is a staple in the Eurorack community, and has been for a very long time. They helped usher in the modern era of Eurorack with modules like Maths, QMMG, and Rene, and have been stewards of modular music, making hundreds of demonstration and tutorial videos. Walker Farrell, Make Noise’s YouTube video host, is known throughout the modular world as an ambassador of not only Make Noise as a company, but the entire genre of modular music. Very few Eurorack synths don’t have at least one Make Noise module. Without Make Noise, Eurorack would not be what it is today. Yet despite their enormous success, Make Noise understands that this community is small, and still seeks to interact directly with their customers. Not only do they occasionally open up their HQ in Asheville for special releases like QMMG, but they often use that opportunity to help proselytize Eurorack and modular synthesis as a whole in a way that is more than than just promoting their brand and bottom line. Today that sense of community building came in the form of a free modular performance at a local brewery and beer garden, Cellarest, where about 100 Eurorack geeks got to hang out with people we’ve never met, and never would have met without the QMMG event, to enjoy something special outside of being one of the few who were fortunate enough to purchase one of the most revered modules of all time at retail pricing, straight from Tony Rolando himself.
Being that this was the first time I’ve been to a modular performance, it wasn’t at all what I expected. When I sat down with my first Crescent 9 seltzer, I was expecting boots and pants, or some approximation, but instead got three freeform modular improvisations by three experienced modular performers, which was a rare treat. I hadn’t anticipated that, like me, their creative interests would lie in something far less structured and free flowing. The patches were clearly premade, but the performances spontaneous and raw. Although I’m not sure I’d play their performed pieces on repeat, it was an eye opening peek into a live creative process, and I’m glad I was able to share that space and enjoy that process with them.
I feel very fortunate that I was able to attend the pop-up sale event and snag a revered and highly sought after module that’s been high on my want list since I first got into modular synths. When I first looked into getting a QMMG, I was resigned to never having one. I knew that no matter how good, I was never going to buy one on the secondary market at collectors prices, and with Make Noise, along with much of the rest of the modular universe, beginning to move away from vactrols because of asinine EU regulations, I didn’t anticipate they’d make another run. Yet here we are, and with ideal circumstances to finally have a good chance to snag from straight from the source. I’m very privileged to be in the position I am. And, perhaps even better, I was able to meet new people, including a couple of very cool guys who were in line behind me, and experience my first modular performance. It was a very good day, and I hope Make Noise has many more release events like this in the future.
Even though both Mannequins and Rabid Elephant have found new ways of scaling production beyond a few dozen per cycle, it hasn’t been until this year, almost a decade after they were originally released. ↩︎
