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.
One of the beautiful things about eurorack is the many happy accidents that we all run into on occasion. Those times when some combination of conditions present at just the right moment seems to produce something magical. You don’t necessarily know what got you there, but nonetheless, here it is and it’s glorious. Though we may not always know exactly what leads to these enigmatic moments of splendor, there are things we can consider when seeking to be able to use those sounds as part of your artistic arsenal. It’s one thing to hap into something beautiful, however you might describe that term, but it’s another thing altogether to reproduce whatever it is you heard to make that magic an intentional part of your sound. To play it, rather than have it fall in your lap.
A couple of days after Jamuary concluded I made a patch on the Make Noise synth that made me stand up and stare. There was a whisper. An oscillator speaking softly into a filter’s ear, quivering as it tried to muster enough courage to get sound out. It wasn’t unlike bowing a string as lightly as possible, or trying to play a wind instrument as quietly as one can. There was a vulnerability in the voice, seemingly lacking the confidence to speak, or like trying to speak when you’re crying and your lips quiver. There was a wobble that was absolutely intoxicating, and I was set on trying to reproduce that wobble.
When I first set out to try and recreate this sound, I first isolated the conditions of the patch I wanted to emulate. Of course oscillators can’t speak softly. They only know one output level, generally speaking. I documented every patch connection and knob setting from this sub-patch. I verified modulation sources and any peculiarities. I thought about this patch a lot, writing extensively in my Notability patch book, and narrowed it down to three factors. At least theoretically.
As low a level going into the filter as possible. On my original patch, I used QPAS as my first filter, and controlled levels with the input VCA knob. I initially did this out of necessity because the other voice in the patch was very quiet by its nature, and when any real level was given to the oscillator going through QPAS it was too loud. I discovered later that night that the lower the level, the better the conditions for interesting wobbles. If your filter does not have input level control, you can use an attenuator or VCA before going to the filter input.
A filter with some fairly aggressive resonance. It need not scream like a Polivoks, but the resonance needs to be pronounced before it goes into self oscillation. If the resonance is non-linear, it’s even better. I’ve also surmised, perhaps errantly, that a vactrol-based filter would be better suited to this job because of the inherent drag and voltage drift of vactrols. The filter creating pronounced wobble in my Make Noise patch was QMMG, a vactrol-based filter, processing a signal that had already gone through QPAS. I could be wrong, but my experiments trying to reproduce the wobble seem to bear out this conclusion. I don’t have a vactrol-based filter in my main synth, but none of the filters I used in my experiments had the same sort of wobble as that produced by the QMMG.
A slow moving modulation signal that moves the cutoff frequency through the fundamental frequency of the note. I’ve found the slower the better, but there are diminishing returns to that proposition. When you add resonance to a filter, you’re creating a small hump in the EQ curve at the cutoff frequency by feeding it back into the filter’s input. When that cutoff frequency intersects and passes through the fundamental frequency of whatever signal you’re passing through it, you get a small wobble. The resonance itself and the modulator’s frequency and shape can alter that wobble some, and can change its character, as do any curves you might put on your modulating signal.
Of course all of this was theoretical, and much of it still is, even if I’ve received some form of verification via Google AI, and tangible signs that I’m on the right track through my subsequent experimentation.1
When I set out to make a patch yesterday, my goal was to first experiment with recreating filter wobble through my main synth where I have a plethora of filters of all sorts. My first thought was to experiment wholly within the Frap Tools Cunsa. I can create sine waves with the first filter and still have three filters with which to experiment, all with normalized patching to make things simple. I was pretty quickly able to create some wobble using my three guideposts listed above, but it was very consistent, and exciting as it was to know I was on the right path, I felt that perhaps the Cunsa was simply too polite a filter to get the best results. Abandoning Cunsa, I next went to the Joranalogue Generate 3 feeding Filter 8, but I never felt like I could get anything close to what I wanted. The cutoff was always too high, and I couldn’t tame the harmonics in a way I wanted. So I switched to a single sine wave from Filter 8 feeding the Bizarre Jezabel Seju Stereo, which was okay, but not special, so I went to the Pkhia, which didn’t work very well. I moved on to the Pkhi Mk3, and had a promising start, but it didn’t progress much. Finally I went to the Blossom, a multi-output filter inspired by the legendary Mannequins Three Sisters, and I heard…something interesting. The wobble was there, and had a bit more character than the simple hump like the rest of the filters. I had found the subject for the rest of the day’s experiments. I spent well over two hours exploring different filters, and of those I tried, a simple sine wave into Blossom was definitely the most compelling. I have other filters that I think are good candidates, namely the Verbos Amp & Tone and Instruo I-ō47, but neither of those cases were in the synth when I turned it on. I’m definitely interested in trying those filters, as both have just the right kind of resonance, I think, to be compelling options.
After I’d finalized a base sound I wanted to use for the rest of the patch, a single sine wave into a resonant low pass filter, I worked up a sequence in C Lydian on the very excellent Doboz T12, and went to work. Like the voice used in my Make Noise patch, this voice would also be completely un-gated, sauntering along, only being level modulated in the filter by the slowly moving function of a cycling Contour 1. The cutoff point is set lower than the lowest fundamental frequency so that there would be times when no notes of the sequence come through. Because Blossom doesn’t have level input control, I ran the output of Filter 8 through an attenuator to initially make the sound as quiet as possible while still being (mostly) audible.
I decided to use a staggered clock. One that is gated by a clock divider, so as to never have continuous repetition. I multed a single x1 clock output from the Sitka Gravity to the Nonlinearcircuits Divide & Conquer in order to create my gate. Because the Gravity is in its infancy, there are several basic things it can’t do. As of now, Gravity’s clock (and sequencer) only outputs triggers, and not gates, so I couldn’t use the duty cycle of a gate output (like those on Pamela’s Pro (and New, and OG) Workout) to gate the x1 trigger that would ultimately go to the clock input on the sequencer. I wanted the clock to start and stop every five beats, and Divide & Conquer was able to provide a gate that enabled that staggered clock for my sequence to follow. The sequence itself is simple. It’s a couple of scale lines going up, with a very low probability (11%) of getting a quantized random pitch within seven semitones (a fifth) of any given step of the sequence. But because the cutoff frequency of the filter goes below the lowest fundamental pitch, the sequence flows in and out and isn’t steady. Notes hold in beautiful ways, and the sequence doesn’t repeat despite being only 16 steps long.
Once through the now occasionally wobbling filter, the audio went straight to the Bizarre Jezabel Mimosa. Mimosa is what I consider to be the most beautiful distortion I’ve heard in any format, short of very high dollar guitar amps. Of course the word beautiful is doing a lot of heavy lifting here, but what I mean is that it can heavily distort something, while still allowing the source to shine. It adds life, even when the dials are pinned. No matter what, you can always let some of the original dry signal through which helps keep shape in the audio regardless of the amount of distortion is applied. From gentle piano notes and sine waves (such as those in today’s patch) to ripping saw clouds Mimosa just does the right things whether using it for some gentle saturation or full on sonic destruction.
In this patch Mimosa started gently, with both the output volume and distortion amount both turned low. As the piece progressed, gain was adjusted upwards at multiple points. The first place was the original audio signal on the way into the Blossom. This allowed its resonance to growl a bit more rather than wobble. Higher input levels into the filter also mean higher output levels from the filter, and Mimosa is very sensitive to input level. Even at the same knob settings, input level is a crucial determinant of the final sound. Lower levels at the input might just have a bit of coloration or slight crunch, whereas loud sounds will rip or soar. It’s part of Mimosa’s magic. After I adjusted the initial input as loud as I dared, I started to slowly raise the output volume and distortion amount on Mimosa, as well as the amount of wet signal. From gently whispering and quivering to finally finding one’s voice to sing, all from nothing but subtle gain changes along the way. From Mimosa, the audio went to a new addition in the synth; the Addac Systems Addac814 6×6 Stereo Matrix Mixer to be distrusted to several effects.
It should be reiterated here that every sound is this patch arises from one single sine wave fed by one simple sequence, with but a single parameter being modulated by a lone triangle function (the filter cutoff). Of course that isn’t the only sound in total. That lone sine wave is repeated all over the place with overlapping delays, looped with four simultaneous digital tape heads and a delay of its own, and reverberated. The first delay, a Bizarre Jezabel Quarté Mk2, mostly added some lovely texture. A bit of a wash of decays in the wake of the melody, its gritty tail disintegrating into nothingness, which added depth and color. Repeats were set to moderately long, with a slow(er) delay time. With the PT2399 delay chips, the longer the delay time, the noisier it will be. The second delay was an Olivia Artz Modular Time Machine, with 4 active taps. It’s clear digital voice echoing the distorted sines near perfectly. Both delays are set to different times which really served to fill out space and maximize this one simple voice with the most basic of sound waves.
As beautiful as this very simple sequence was, I wanted to see if I couldn’t perform some complimentary embellishments, and decided to once again delve into the Cutlasses Instruments Gloop. I’ve only used Gloop a couple of times, but it’s already captured my attention. Some modules take some time to gel with. Despite some sloppy transitioning in my first couple of uses, I immediately took to Gloop. Its interface is (mostly) intuitive, and it’s a capable looper with some very cool tricks. It’s pretty easy to create compelling loops with Gloop. That said, it does have some drawbacks, at least in its current iteration. Though it’s packed with some clever effects that can be eminently useful with a looper, delay, reverb, and a host of tape-related effects like tape degradation, wobble, noise, and saturation, these effects can only be used on one channel or the other, and not both. Though Gloop has two outputs, it’s not really stereo, but dual mono. Each of the four heads can be panned in a stereo fashion and be used in one or both outputs as if it were a stereo signal, but for reasons I don’t understand the effects can only be used in one output at a time. This imbalance can definitely be a problem when trying to create a consistent stereo field. I was hoping to use the degradation effect, wherein the audio degrades as it would on a tape machine with each successive loop, fading out to nothing after a time. In loopers this is generally simulated by constantly low passing the signal at progressively lower cutoff frequencies in order to gradually roll off the highs. It’s a crucial component of Frippertronics, for instance. Allowing a loop to fade to nothing is also a beautiful way to end a track, and unfortunately I can’t do that with Gloop while using both output channels. In lieu of using Gloop to add tape hiss, I was able to add noise to both channels in the mixer via the very excellent DAW Cassette by Klevgrand, but that was an improvised half-measure. I think I can patch a workaround, but it definitely won’t function in quite the same way. A slow moving negative function into a wide open filter cutoff should get me at least part of the way there. Timing would be an issue. How long should this envelope be? What happens if I get to the end of the function, and I haven’t pressed stop on the recorder? Will the cutoff reset to fully open? That would be bad. But those are problems for another day.
I recorded a length of the sequence to Gloop, then while the sequence continued to play configured the four play heads and slowly started to raise the level on the looper, while lowering the level of the continuously sauntering sequence. Though this transition isn’t perfect, it’s much smoother than in tries past. I would use a crossfader like the WMD AXYS to more smoothly move between the two parts, but because the individual voices were being multitracked separately, I crossfaded in the mixer by hand using the Michigan Synth Works XVI Faderbank CV and Midi controller. The first and fourth heads were hard panned left and right at 2x forward and 4x in reverse respectively, while heads two and three were panned in the middle at 1x forward and .5x forward. I manually played the loop size and location within the loop of all four heads until it I manually faded out the hard panned parts before fading out the base melody and its half speed sibling. But not even Gloop was without its own dedicated delay, the ever-excellent Venus Instruments Veno-Echo. I used a x4 output from Gravity, with a /3 clock division set in Veno-Echo, which gave me a dotted eighth note delay, an always interesting pattern.
Both voices were mixed together in AUM and sent to the Walrus Audio Slöer using the Rain algorithm with almost no diffusion, and the clock speed at its slowest, adding to an already textured outcome. A medium long decay and high modulation finish off the track.
I put very little stock in the accuracy of AI at this stage in its development. However, it stated the same three conditions I had independently surmised, and so choose to engage in a bit of sweet, sweet confirmation bias. ↩︎
I wanted to do something very different today. Throughout Jamuary I’ve done drones, rhythmic pieces that one might even dance to, as well as many other styles. I even have a classic Rings > Beads patch. It had been a long while since I played my 4ms case. I can recall the last patch I used it. It was a pretty cool patch featuring the Ensemble Oscillator (though not one I uploaded to peaks and nulls), and before that was a patch last February. I hadn’t touched it at all during this Jamuary; it was one of the two cases I hadn’t touched at all (the other was my Instruo case), and I wanted to hear those sweet, sweet wavetables again.
I had initially set out to duplicate my 4ms Wonderland patch. I really enjoyed that patch and wanted to see if I could do it again. The answer is probably, at least a close enough version of it, but I ran into the same problem I had when making it the first time. The output levels of the Spectral Multiband Resonator pings are so low as to need significant boosting. In order to get them in an audible range for humans, I needed to boost them by 20dB, then run them to another VCA to boost them yet more. All this boosting added significant noise. I’m sure it’s something I will lean into in the future (who doesn’t like a bit of noise?), but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with it for tonight. So I decided to use the Spherical Wavetable Navigator to trigger itself in LFO > VCA mode rather than drone in the background. I started it with no transposition or Spread, then slowly introduced modulation to both, along with the modulation present in the Browse, Latitude, WT Spread, and Depth parameters of the wavetables, constantly changing the timbre and voicing. This made the SWN go up and down minor scales, and have different arpeggio patterns.
The SWN was sent to the 4ms Dual Looping Delay, another first-use module this Jamuary. What a cool delay that I’ll definitely need to explore. In the process, I used the Industrial Music Electronics Malgorithm Mk2 in the feedback loop, often times a little too eagerly. I manually rode the input level to the Malgorithm. There was a sweet spot where I could get good crunch without starting to runaway with feedback. This crunched up some already fairly crunchy wavetables in a really nice way. The mix was sent to the output mixer for some reverb.
I also decided to have a second crack at the Cutlasses Gloop. Last night was loads of fun, even if the recording wasn’t perfect. What an excellent little instrument. I need to practice looping, especially when trying to use four different loops simultaneously. Looping slower or more sparse material is much easier. It’s definitely a performative skill I haven’t used much of in the past, and my meager skills show. There’s some unintended jumpiness as I tried to shorten and move the individual loops within the large loop. Though far more gracefully than yesterday’s debacle, the transition between the source and the looped recording was a little rough around the edges. I also made a boneheaded mistake with this track: I never put a reverb send on it in AUM (😬), so the only tails it had were the delays tails, which rode the edge of self-oscillation throughout the Gloop section due to giving slightly too much juice to the input level on Malgorithm. It’s better than nothing, but would have been better with reverb and not low-riding oscillation. This was not intentional. I likely mistook it for reverb, though I did know something wasn’t right.
The Shaped Dual EnvVCA and Dual EnvVCA performed all modulation in this patch. All of their outputs were modulating something. The Spread and Transpose on SWN, the Latitude, Longitude, and Depth on the SWN to navigate the wavetable sphere, as well as the Shape of two of the LFOs.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do today. I initially settled on a simple piano into an occasionally reversed delay patch, but wanted more than this very Rings-into-Clouds-like aesthetic. If I wanted that today, I’d just use Rings-into-Beads. But there’s a new module I recently got, and it was kinda staring at me wide-eyed, asking “Can you play with me now?”, akin to a small boy begging his busy father for just a few minutes of time. Or something like that. Whatever.
I was set on buying the new Cutlasses Gloop the very first time I saw it. Gloop is a four head tape looper. Each head can be played simultaneously, in either direction at various speeds. Each head can play the entire loop or any snippet down to small grains. It’s a fantastic looper on paper. I received it a couple of weeks ago, but just hadn’t gotten around to playing it yet. Once I realized that I wanted to use Gloop today, the patch pivoted and started to take on a life of its own. But I made the unfortunate decision to still incorporate the whole reverse delay and Beads thing. It’s not that it sounds bad. It doesn’t. It sounds really nice, actually. But it doesn’t fit with the looper direction very well, and I didn’t have the courage to dump the work I’d already done. It added several unnecessary minutes to the recording, and because of a now fixed peculiarity in how the module operates,1 I flubbed the performance, and had to add more unnecessary time to the recording in order to get the settings right and get to looping. That doesn’t happen until over nine minutes into the recording. Such is Jamuary.
The patch isn’t terribly difficult, even if there’s a lot of patch cables. I patched four cycling functions from the Addac506 to Numberwang, adjusted the rise and fall range to something that produced a nice cadence of gates in the Disting NT. The same four functions went to the Vostok Instruments Asset where I attenuated and offset all four channels into specific ranges of notes so as not to overcrowd the sonic range by using attenuation only. These four signals were patched to the Disting NT CV inputs for the quantizer to voice everything in D minor.
The piano went to the stereo matrix mixer where it was sent to the Veno-Echo, Beads, and Gloop.
Veno-Echo provided the sumptuous delayed sounds, randomly triggered into reverse by End of Rise gate outs on the Addac506, via the CuteLab Missed Opportunities, with a low probability of allowing the gate through.
Beads was set to have medium length grains with a sharper envelope, the buffer being slowly scanned at one octave up. The Beads output was sent directly to the mixer for multitracking.
One unfortunate fact of looping more or less randomly generated parts is that you get what you get. Sometimes, like during my first run-through, you’re able to capture a really good loop. Something you can work with. But other times, you’re not left with much, and you kind of need to eat your own dog food and pretend it tastes great. Such is this recording, I think. It’s not offensive. Not by a long shot. But had this been a take for anything other than Jamuary, I would have re-done it (as well as jettisoned other parts). Looping can be inspiring when you have a good loop. But it can feel like work when you have to search around for good looping points.
I completely neglected to snap any pics of this patch, which is a shame. Next time. And I’ll definitely be revisiting Gloop very soon.
This behavior has been fixed in the newest firmware, but I haven’t installed it yet. When you cleared a loop, all tape head settings would revert to the default. I didn’t realize it until I was in the midst of performing the patch. ↩︎
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.
Today’s patch was a long time coming. Several years ago I saw a patch from scratch video by Omri Cohen which used a Befaco Rampage as the base of everything else. It dictated volume, speed, when pitch changes would happen, timbres, and lots of others things besides. I was inspired, and immediately purchased a Rampage. Only I never tried that patch, and moved on to other great things.
Even though I no longer even have that Rampage, I do have several other Function Generators with many of the same features, and after watching the video again recently, I decided today was the day. Only I cheated a little bit. Rather than patch up various Sample and Hold modules to vary envelope length for the higher Brenso voice, I used the Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator which accomplished the same effect. I initially tried using a Falistri but the pitch was always changing a fraction too late for the cycling envelope, and I’d hear that pitch change. I worked on it for a bit, but decided to move on once I realized I wasn’t getting anywhere. To be fair, it was similar with the Addac506, but since I can negatively offset its functions directly, I was able to make it so that always happened in silence, and didn’t give a noticeable blip. I could have accomplished the same thing using a separate offset with the Falistri envelopes, but in a bit of laziness decided I didn’t want to patch it. I did use a certain kind of Sample and Hold for pitch voltage, via Quantermain for quantization into D# Phyrigian (which gives it a dark, mystical feel – like were walking through a dark elvish den), from the Nonlinearcircuits Helvetica Scenario. It differs from a standard Sample and Hold module in one unique way. Rather than using a noise source for sampling voltages, Helvetica Scenario uses a Jerk Chaos circuit running at 300Hz, which, from a practical standpoint, is similar enough.
That varying envelope and pitch control a Frap Tools Brenso, with its wave shape being modulated, along with a slight bit of modulation to the wavefolder. I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t used Brenso very much. Not nearly as often as I should. I’m generally a bit intimidated by complex oscillators, and have mostly used them as two separate oscillators without the FM or waveshaping features, but in the spirit of loving my Frap Tools case and generally trying new things during Jamuary, I decided to give it a bit of a shot by using the waveshaper and wavefolder features. At least a little bit. I would have used some FM too, but decided to leave that for another day. I did note, however, that while patching Brenso, how beautiful the sound was. Reedy in some ways, at least before running it through the noisy PT2399 delay chip of the Bizarre Jezabel Quarté Mk2. I then ran it through to ST Modular Sum Mix & Pan to slowly pan the signal across the stereo field.
This voice was doubled by the Dradd(s) in Grain mode, time stretching the Brenso part, but at a fairly high clock rate to both shorten the buffer, and produce shorter grains.. I’ve really enjoyed using the Dradd(s) this way of late.
The ever oozing chord base underneath is the Humble Audio Quad Operator with a set chord of the one, three, five, and seven of D# Phrygian (D#, F#, A#, and B). I initially used three cycling envelopes from a pair of Falistris to control the level of those notes, but opted in the end to use a cycle similar to the one I used in Jamuary 2505 and 2511, where the End of Rise gate would trigger the next envelope, allowing the next note to fade in while the current note fades out. I should have used Sample and Hold on these envelopes to vary their length, but opted not to in the end to allow the main Brenso voice to monopolize attention. All four oscillators were mixed to mono in Intellijel Amps, and sent to the Bizarre Jezabel Pkhi Mk3 for low pass filtering before the output. The low passed audio signal was also sent to a the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo, which had its high pass filtering enabled in the feedback loop so as not to muddy the sound. I was never fully happy with how this voice turned out. The mix was too easily blown out, giving it a much darker and grittier feel than I initially intended, though after a bit of struggle, decided to lean into it a bit. I need to find a different way for gentler chord washes like this using saw waves. Some of the individual tones were buried in the mix, and at times the chord is lost.
My forgetfulness finally caught up to this Jamuary day. I forgot to take pictures of this patch before I had to turn everything off for the night so my wife could go to bed, so no pretty eye candy tonight. I may add some tomorrow. If I remember anyways.
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.
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. ↩︎
I recently sat down with a goal: identify modules in my synth that are underutilized, and make a plan to integrate them into my patches. Like all musicians, synthesists can fall into patterns. We use the same techniques and too often travel similar routes. Though my repetition of techniques of late is somewhat purposeful as I learn new gear, its’s still repetition, and it’s nice to walk on untrodden ground every once in a while.
While I was looking through my folder of manuals, I quickly identified a module that I’ve only used once, and over a year ago: the Blukač Instruments Endless Processor.1 On paper this sort of module seems a natural partner for the kinds of sounds I use most, but for some reason I’ve tended to reach by it and patch something else like the Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium or Qu-Bit Electronix Aurora. In a bid for some nonlinearity in my practice, I decided that the Endless Processor would be the first of those unused modules to put through its paces.
This patch uses chaos to create a sequence. The starting point is The Hypster by Nonlinearcircuits. I use The Hypster in a lot of patches for a lot of different purposes. I use it for “normal” modulation, the beginning of a chain to make clocks, pitch CV, and maybe more. It’s definitely one of my favorite modules overall, and a top two or three modulator that I’ve used. The Hypster serves many purposes; sometimes more than one in a given patch. In this patch it would serve all three of those functions, plus a bit of self-modulation to keep it from settling into something resembling a pattern.
Four outputs from The Hypster (X, Z, -Y, -U) were patched to another Nonlinearcircuits module, Numberwang, for some good old fashioned gate extraction. The last time I used Numberwang, I wanted a steady-ish rhythm. Not perfectly-on-the-grid steady, but something close, even if it had the propensity to drift (which was a big part of the point), which is why I didn’t modulate The Hypster in that patch. But this time I didn’t want steady. I wanted gates that can’t easily be tied time, which required a meandering source. Chaos can meander a bit, but it can also become regular in that chaotic kind of way. I didn’t want the regular part this time, so modulation of at least one parameter was crucial. Once I started to ping my oscillators with gates from Numberwang and found a frequency on The Hypster that provided a satisfying cadence, I set out to modulate both the Damp and Gain settings. Adding gain adds both voltage and nonlinearity to the feedback loop. More gain is higher output levels and more meandering. Damping suppresses those things in interesting ways. Modulating both brought revealed the chaotic nature of the signal, specifically through the pitch CV, but also in the gate pattern from Numberwang.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve used a chaos signal an a source for pitch CV or gates. But it was the first time I’ve used chaos as a source for pitch and gates while I performatively modulated it so that I would have more control over its range, or the way it meanders. Too much gain and you have pitches more fit for dogs than humans) Too much damping, and you have pitches without enough variation to keep the note sequence interesting, and gates that quickly turn into patterns (even if they do drift a bit). To modulate gain, I used The Hypster’s next door neighbor in my case, Frisson. I also used the -Z output to self-modulate Damping. Although both the Gain and Damping CV inputs both have attenuators, I patched both signals to an attenuator to fine tune the level of modulation The Hypster was receiving. Even very small turns of either attenuator knob revealed very interesting results that would be difficult to achieve with one-pass attenuation at the CV input. Slightly different gate patterns; slightly different notes in the pitch sequence. All very interesting and necessary in order to keep any part of the sequence from becoming dry or repetitive for too long.
I’ve used chaos as a pitch CV source frequently, but this time was a little different. Normally I use one source signal for each oscillator in the patch. But this time I decided to use just one chaos signal as the source for all four oscillators, clocked by Numberwang separately in four separate channels of Quantermain. I controlled the range of pitch primarily through an attenuator, the Nonlinearcircuits De-Escalate.2 This allowed for small changes in pitch choices. One thing I would likely do differently would be to minimize very low pitches by using some offset to the signal before attenuation, especially as I opened up the attenuator. Higher pitches also means lower pitches at the bottom end without some offset, and some of the pitches on the low end are just a little too low for my liking. I imagine some are even inaudible.
The pitch sequence (in D Minor) was sent from Quantermain to the four wavetable oscillators of the Synthesis Technology E370, with all four oscillators tuned to the same pitch, even if I couldn’t tell you what that pitch is. Each wavetable was lightly modulated by the Frisson, with each oscillator detuned slightly by hand. This constant variation in timbre created a wide variety of sounds. Each note just a little different than the last time it was struck. The oscillator outputs were patched to a pair of Rabid Elephant Natural Gate LPGs for pinging, using the same four Numberwang outputs that selected pitch for each channel.
The result is a dance of orbs in some fantastical forest, or drops of water falling to make music, like something akin to a fast moving Fall on the Monome Norns. It’s a beautiful generative sequence, even if this version of the patch used some human assistance. Using a VCA to control levels of the pitch and modulation signals with a very slow modulator would be the key to make it fully generative. In fact, I’ll put that in my patch book to use in the future!
In this patch I used a very simple stereo algorithm: the first Natural Gate outputs are the left channel, and the second Natural Gate outputs are the left channel. Although this decision created a wide stereo space, four separate events happening independently, two in each ear, can become a little distracting and separated, even if it also heightened interest. I think I might have been better served to send these outputs to a panning mixer for mixdown to place them a little more carefully in the stereo field, though I won’t go so far as to say that change should be recorded in ink. There is no sense of a unified space until these completely independent left and right channels hit the stereo reverb.
This effect was exacerbated by the dual mono delays used in the patch, a pair of Echofix EF-X2 tape echoes. Each was set to augment the original’s clarity, holding on to timbre as long as it could until atrophy took hold. Each delay was also set to a different delay time and tape head playback/feedback configuration which created very different echo patterns, heightening the very different sequence patterns in each ear.
But I made a terrible mistake. Throughout much of the recording you can hear some clipping in the left channel. While I investigated I made sure levels were good going into the audio interface. Not only were they not too hot, I’d have liked for them to be even louder. At first I thought it might be some artifact in the wavetable being modulated. But why only that wavetable? I then thought I might have set an envelope a little hot before going to Natural Gate, but that wasn’t it either. Then I heard it. A clue. The clipping wasn’t on the note generation itself, but only occasionally on the very first repeat of only particular notes. It doesn’t happen all of the time. As I was recording i investigated my gainstaging. I discovered that my levels going into the left channel delay were quite hot, and that’s what was causing the clipping; the inbuilt analog limiter that was occasionally being hit very hard and distorting. At least I think that’s what it was. Toward the end of the recording I adjusted the input level to the left delay which seemed to mostly sort the issue.
I also used The Dradds in this patch, although in a way I had never used them before, with the Grain algorithm. I had sort-of tried this mode before, but never really investigated it with the manual until this patch. Like when I actually RTFM while using The Dradds in the Tape algorithm, I was immensely happy with the result. Understanding your instrument is key. As synthesists we can happy accident our way into nice sounds regularly. But you can’t really compose with the hope that your knob twists will land you where you want to go. Just as strumming away on a guitar, or pressing piano keys doesn’t create something musical, you can’t really get music from a modular until you know which knobs to turn and when/how much to turn them. For this patch I chose to scan each buffer using a chaos signal from Frisson. This was nice movement, but the scarcity of notes feeding The Dradds meant that sometimes there was nothing in the short buffer to scan, or so little that it wasn’t scanned while it was in the buffer. This served to keep the Dradds from becoming too busy and overtaking the patch, but I would have liked more from The Dradds at many points.
The last effect used (besides reverb on the entire output) is the aforementioned Endless Processor. I hadn’t used this module much before. Not because I don’t think it would add a beautiful dimension to my patching, but because of unknown reasons that had me patching other FFT-like modules instead. The Endless Processor is a very simple module that does just one thing: it analyzes the frequency and level information of incoming audio, and endlessly sustains an average of that audio until you clear the layer. You can clear layers, or replace them with new audio, but ultimately the Endless Processor is a very simple instrument. It’s perfect for drones or making chords. It’s perfect for creating air in your patch, or filling space and creating texture. You can even use this module for stabbing techno chords.
But simple doesn’t mean easy. Capturing the exact sound you want, particularly at lower Memory times, can be challenging. You don’t always get the capture you hoped for (something that happened during this recording), and sometimes you get a capture that sounds downright bad. Today was my first day with it, so I think I can forgive myself for getting “meh” results in my first recording with it. I can only discern one capture, though I was pretty sure I did at least four of them on layers one and two. My initial goal was to have both channels of the Endless Processor float back and forth in the stereo field at different rates, but with only one sound being audible it’s pretty awkward, especially with as loud as it is. Clearly, I need practice.
Overall I really enjoyed creating this patch. Chaos is always fun to use in whatever capacity I use it. The Natural Gates shines again. The Echofix tape delays, brilliant. The Dradds doing Dradd-y things. My hope is to really work with the Endless Processor, as I can absolutely see just what a boon it could be in my practice.
I actually identified a whole lot of modules that have been underused, and am making a plan to use them, or sell them. ↩︎
As much as I like the De-Escalate, it would be a much easier tool to use were the jacks to one side and the knob on the other. Input-Knob-Output is a horribly patching orientation for minimizing spaghetti. ↩︎
