Tag: spectraphon

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Made Noise – Sketch 7 (A Multimod Experiment)

I’ve had a full Make Noise synth for a while. In fact, I had far more Make Noise modules than I had space for, and with the recent release of Multimod, their new modulation tool, I decided to spring for a second 4-Zone CV Bus Case to avoid having to constantly rearrange the case from patch to patch. Multimod is an interesting tool. Billed as an eight output buffered multiple with several tricks up its sleeve, it presents a new method of spreading modulation signals around a case. It uses phasing, time, and speed manipulation in order to conjure this newfound magic. Fugue-like sequences can be created, as can wild modulation schemes, and many other things besides, all created from a single input signal. Being a Make Noise fan, I ordered one knowing only that it was a modulation source. If Make Noise has a gap in their lineup, it’s modulation sources. Once I saw the initial demo videos by Sarah Belle Reid and Red Means Recording, I ordered a second.

Although upon receiving them I used the new Multimods briefly to get an idea of how they worked, I hadn’t yet delved into what they can really do. I roughly recreated a couple of patches found in the videos, such as sending a sequence to several oscillators, and even trying it as a multitap, pitch shifting delay, but these were surface level primers, not any sort of real exploration. Being that Multimod presents a very new way of sending modulation around a synth, I was unsure how I might want to use them. My initial thought in ordering two was to use one for CV manipulation, and the second as an audio processor. I’ll certainly do more of that in the future, but I wanted to see if I couldn’t tackle an issue I noticed right away.

One of the highlights of the video demonstrations were the creation of fugue-like sequences, where many oscillators would receive the same sequence, but at different speeds or phased in time in interesting ways. But I also noticed immediately that although the sequence pitch data was spread around, there wasn’t a good way of spreading around an accompanying gate sequence for articulation. Some attempts at remedying this conundrum that I’ve seen involve using a separate gate sequencer, or even just a clock. And while deriving pitch and gate sequences independently is a particular strength of eurorack, that method seemed haphazard and insufficient for this application. I wanted more. I wanted the entire sequence at all of the outputs regardless of the speed or phase. So I thought about it, and suddenly a potential answer came to mind. Use one Multimod for processing the pitch sequence, and the other for processing the gate sequence. But there was still the problem of movement. I needed to move the knobs the exact same amount at the exact same time in order for the outputs on both modules to follow. How would I modulate them so that they were always doing the same thing at the same time and the gate sequences were following their pitch CV counterparts?

The CV Bus.

Although a Maths channel two or three could be used as an offset in the same way, I decided to use the CV outputs of the Noisy Fruits Lab Lemon, a very excellent standalone CV/MIDI controller, to manually control Multimod’s Time and Spread controls. My goals here were simple: to use two Multimod’s to control a single René CV and gate sequence, with the outputs on both being in sync with one another. If Multimod were an all analog module, I think this experiment would likely be dead in the water. I’m not convinced that parts and control tolerances would be close enough such that they would remain identical through modulation. But since Multimod is all digital, I surmised that so long as all of the Init settings were the same on both, they should (very theoretically) react the same to identical control voltage received at the same time.

To start, I copied a x2 clock from Tempi to both Multimod Tempo inputs, with a second /16 clock to both Reset inputs. This ensured that the clocks of both units would always be in sync. I then patched René’s X CV channel to the first Multimod input, and the X Gate output to the second Multimod input. The Init setting on both Multimods were simple: Phase at full CCW, Spread at Noon, with the Spread CV attenuverter at full CW, and Time at full CCW. With these settings, things worked just as they should: a single CV and gate sequence from all eight outputs happening at precisely the same time. So far, so good. I then patched the Lemon fader CV outputs to the CV Bus, and then to both the Time and Spread CV inputs on both Multimods.1 A single CV source should (again, theoretically) modulate both units identically such that as the CV sequence speeds up (or slows down), the gate sequence simultaneously does the same, and corresponding outputs on each Multimod should remain in sync.

For the oscillators I chose the Spectraphon.2 The first Multimod output one was patched to Oscillator A, with Output four patched to Oscillator B. The mixed outputs of each side of Spectraphon were then patched to QMMG inputs one and two. Outputs one and four of the second Multimod were patched to QMMG’s CV inputs, with both QMMG channels in LPG mode (though it sounded cool in LPF mode too). With identical modulation going to both the Time and Spread CV inputs of both Multimods at the same time, the CV and Gate sequence outputs should (theoretically) also be in sync with changes. The CV sequence from output one on the first Multimod should match the gate sequence from output one on the second Multimod. Ditto with the other outputs.

To be honest, I’m not sure if the patch worked like it should have in theory. What I mean to say is that the result is ultra-cool whether theory was borne out in practice or not. Things sound correct with the resulting sequence from Multimods output four, the output that is affected least by changes to Time and Spread. But I can’t really tell if the pitch and gate sequences from Multimods output one, the output affected most by changes to Time and Spread, is synced in the same way. The sequence is moving pretty fast. Hearing individual triggers can be tough at super high speeds, especially when slamming triggers into vactrols, like those in QMMG. Not only is there inherent bleed, but the fall response is such that you can’t always hear individually triggered notes if they’re in quick succession. DXG would likely have been a better candidate for testing the precision of the altered sequence because each trigger is annunciated clearly in a way that isn’t possible with vactrols. That said, I’m a huge fan of vactrol bleed. It can be a beautiful effect when used with intention, and although I wasn’t looking for any particular sound with this patch, vactrol bleed certainly showed off its character in this test recording.

This diagram is missing the clock and reset to the Multimods.

The QMMG outputs were sent to X-Pan, with the Channel four sequence mixed in the middle, while the Channel one sequence was slowly panned left to right and back again through the stereo field by a cycling Maths triangle function. The stereo output of X-Pan was sent to Mimeophon for some finishing with beautiful repeats and Halo.

Modules Used:
Tempi
René Mk2
Multimod
Maths
Spectraphon
QMMG
X-Pan
Mimeophon
Wogglebug

Outboard Gear Used:
Noisy Fruits Lab Lemon

Improvised and recorded in one take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

  1. As mentioned previously, the same thing can be accomplished with any offset generator like Maths or ChnSvr. ↩︎
  2. Seriously, Make Noise: Spectraphon is awesome, and I’ve never even explored it beyond SAO mode with the default Spectra. ↩︎
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Made Noise – Sketch 6

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.

Modules Used:
Tempi
René Mk2
Spectraphon
QPAS
QMMG
X-Pan
Maths
Function
Wogglebug
Mimeophon
Maneco Labs Otterley Reverb

Improvised and recorded in one take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

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Made Noise – Sketch 5

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.

I knew from the start I wanted it to be in a minimalist vein. Maybe not the dictionary definition of Minimalism as a musical discipline, but still something with not much going on. You know; minimalist.

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.

Modules Used:
Tempi
René Mk2
Spectraphon
STO
QPAS
QMMG
DXG
X-Pan
Maths
Function
Wogglebug
Mimeophon

Improvised and recorded in one take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

  1. 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. ↩︎
  2. Definitely a first time using QPAS in this way. ↩︎
  3. 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. ↩︎
  4. 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. ↩︎
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Jamuary 2529

Hitting record before midnight counts.

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.

Modules Used:
0-Control
Strega
René Mk2
Tempi
Spectraphon
ModDemix
Function
QMMG
DXG
Maths
Wogglebug
ModDemix
Mimeophon

Improvised and recorded in one take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

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Jamuary 2528

Long day at work so this will be a quick and dirty patch notes….

The Make Noise system has my back again.

QPAS pinging away. Sequenced and pinged by René. Smile Pass and Bandpass outputs both sent to X-Pan and crossfaded, although I don’t know there’s much difference between them in the output. Spectraphon supplied both ring modulated and FM tones. For FM tones, Spectraphon A is on left, Spectraphon B on right. They are tuned an octave apart. Both mixes enveloped by a Fall modulated Maths functions in DXG.

Both QPAS and Spectraphon had every CV input modulated by…something. Wogglebug, René, Maths, Tempi, Maths Functions, the OR and SUM outputs on Maths, and just about anything else I could find.

Everything mixed in DXG and sent to Mimeophon for some delay and a decent amount of Halo. Had a little too much fun using the 0-Coast Slope output to modulate Mimeophon’s uTime CV input.

Kick was created by the 0-Coast. A steady clock from Tempi triggered the Contour on the 0-Coast. The Contour output was attenuated and sent to the v/oct input to give the kick some punch. The kick is dry in the mix.

Modules Used:
René Mk2
Tempi
Spectraphon
ModDemix
Function
QPAS
Maths
Wogglebug
X-Pan
Mimeophon
0-Coast

Improvised and recorded in one take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

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Jamuary 2526

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.

Modules Used:
René Mk2
Tempi
STO
QMMG
Spectraphon
ModDemix
Function
QPAS
Maths
Wogglebug
X-Pan
Mimeophon

Improvised and recorded in one take on iPad in AUM via the Expert Sleepers ES-9.

  1. 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. ↩︎
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Jamuary 2518

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.

Modules Used:
René Mk2
Tempi
STO
QMMG
Spectraphon
ModDemix
Function
QPAS
Maths
X-Pan
Mimeophon

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

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Jamuary 2513

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.

Modules Used:
Make Noise René v2
Make Noise Spectraphon
Make Noise Tempi
Make Noise QMMG
Make Noise QPAS
Make Noise Maths
Make Noise Function
Make Noise Wogglebug
Make Noise Mimeophon
Make Noise DXG
Maneco Labs Otterley

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

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Jamuary 2511

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Outboard Gear Used:
AC Noises Ricorda

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

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