Ever since I started using the Polyphonic Multisample algorithm in the Disting Ex, and now the Disting NT, I wanted to do a string patch. For some unexplainable and inexplicable reason I never did. I got a taste of using string samples during a handful of Jamuary patches, particularly Jamuary 2507 and Jamuary 2510, when I experimented with using the very excellent Alexandernaut Fugue Machine and Decent Sampler, but I really wanted to do a string sample patch modular-style. At first I wanted to use the same string samples I used during Jamuary, the DK Solo Cello Spurs from Pianobook, but that did not work at all.1 After quickly pivoting to the LABS Low Strings Long samples included with the Disting NT, I was off.
Much of this patch is a simple altered duplicate of my last patch, so I won’t rehash the entire patch here. Many knob settings are different, and of course I triggered string and not piano samples, but the control and audio paths are largely identical. Because these string samples are inherently longer than piano notes, I had to drastically slow down The Hypster, the initial source for the master clock, in order to compensate and have Stochaos produce fewer gates. This slow down was coupled with using outputs on Stochaos that change much less often. I also tuned in the delay used on the string samples, the Qu-Bit Electronix Nautilus, to what I thought sounded best, thought I can’t recall the settings other than a long delay time with moderately high feedback. The Panharmonium settings were also changed drastically, cutting the number of voices, zeroing in on the desired frequency range, and really tuning the sampling time. Panharmonium is not always instant bliss, but given some gentle massaging it can become transformative. The Dradd(s), however, weren’t changed at all.
But even after being able to hone in on what I had hoped for the strings and the existing sound chain, there was something missing. It needed some kind of ornamentation. Something to juxtapose against the somber sounding string sequence plodding along in C minor. I initially thought of high pitched bells or sparkles of some kind, but then remembered a patch I did last summer as a test shortly before bringing a travel synth on a trip to Alaska. In that patch I used Plaits in the Vowel and Speech Synthesis algorithm (the last Green algorithm) to repeat four colors, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green. In this patch I took a slightly different approach, by using a random output from a Mutable Instruments Marbles to select the spoken color. I was quite happy with the result in the moment, but was carried away a bit during the performance with too many triggers. It should have been an occasional color spoken in a sad-ish voice to reflect the somberness of the strings, though it sometimes ended up being a robot talking over himself. I used a CV output from the Noisy Fruits Lab Lemon to control Marbles’ clock, which had a high amount of Jitter so as to not be regular. When I wanted more from Plaits, I pushed the fader to create more gates with Marbles. However I clearly pushed it too far during a couple of points. Initially I had Plaits running straight to the mixer, but later in the recording used Beads in full wet delay mode, which altered the tone slightly, and added a low number of soft repeats that really only served to add to the confusion. Plaits is simply triggered to often.
The proverbial icing on the cake was the Walrus Audio Slöer in “Light” mode, which is an octave pitch shift. But rather than a standard pitch shift, Slöer adds more of a choir or symphonic strings sound, which is absolutely beautiful. This patch used basic settings. Pitch shift volume at max, and clock speed at the slowest setting. There was a long decay, and a moderate amount of modulation.
Overall I’m quite happy with how this patch turned out. It’s beautiful and not deterministic. That said, the piece could use for some composed string sequences, even if only occasionally, in order to maximize tension and relief. I’m definitely going to try other adaptations, particularly in the timing of gates and pitch. I’m thinking the Addac508 Swell Physics might be a good place to start.
I was getting all sorts of sputtering and general ugliness using these samples. I’m not sure if I was overwhelming the algorithm with too many gates, or whether the sample rate or bit depth of the samples was too high, or perhaps something else, but I quickly abandoned these samples in favor of the stock LABS string samples. ↩︎
Like all good little electronic ambient musicians, I’ve finally picked up a Monome Norns. Any quick look around the web, and you’ll see Norns is a common tool for creating ambient music, used by musicians from around the world. Norns is a small, open source, community driven music computer that runs scripts written in a language called Lua. There are hundreds, if not over a thousand, Norns scripts that perform any number of musical tasks from sequencing, being a sound source, or processing audio. Overall, it’s a very charming piece of kit that is elegant, minimalist, and can sound beautiful. To me, no script represents Norns better than Fall, a beautiful generative sequencer designed to be a soundscape of falling leaves, and synthesizer made of pure relax-ium, written by Ambalek. It’s simple, elegant (especially when paired with a Grid), and creates absolutely beautiful sounds that will lull you to sleep, or send you on a journey in a bed of peace.
The Init settings on Fall’s sound engine are seemingly simple. A chaotic (or random) process guides virtual leaves falling to the ground. As they hit the ground, sound emerges. A 13-bit filtered square wave is brought in with a gentle rise, and fades out with an even slower decay. This note is sent through two separate stereo delays, the first with a one second delay time, and the second delay with a ten second delay time, all followed up by long reverb. Although I can send midi from Norns to the synth, I wanted to try my hand at patching my own Fall algorithm from scratch. ”This should be pretty simple”, I thought as I started to patch. A few square waves into a filter, followed up by two delays and reverb. “That should be easy enough.”
My first consideration was how I might create a similar cadence to Fall using the tools I have in the case. This all important process determines when notes are played, and I was hopeful to get a reasonable approximation of a representative sample of how often notes are fired in Fall. Fall assigns a note value to each leaf as it’s generated, which can change if the key or scale is changed before a leaf hits the ground. That’s not possible in Eurorack. There are no predetermined leaves here. The only part of that simulation we have in this patch is once these proverbial leaves hit the ground and are actuated by the gate triggering an envelope. Since it’s not clear to me what sort of process generates the falling leaves in Fall, I decided to use chaos. A leaf falling is a chaotic phenomenon created by any number of nonlinear conditions from wind speed and direction, to humidity and leaf density. In that light, I decided to use Swell Physics, a CV generator based on ocean waves, another chaotic process, and ran the four wave outputs through the Nonlinearcircuits Numberwang in order to create nonlinear, sporadic gates. Increasing the simulation speed of Swell Physics would render “leaves” hitting the ground more often.
A second copy of the four Swell Physics outputs were sent to the Vostok Instruments Asset, a very handy six channel attenuator and offset generator, in order to tune them into a range that was good for pitch changes as to not have pitches too high or too low. Though I was able to accomplish a reasonable range, I wasn’t entirely happy. There are too many notes in a very low register, and they repeat too often. I’ll need to really sit down and further tune this set of CV outputs to get it right.
Though I was pretty happy with the cadence of triggers fairly quickly (I’ve done this sub-patch many times), something wasn’t right. Whether from a bad case of mis-remembering or simply being wrong, I struggled with the envelope that shapes each note, which created all sorts of downstream issues. The first delay was utterly lost, which also lengthened the note in a bad way, which also affected the second delay. It also created way too much dissonance with more newly created notes in this generative sequence. I couldn’t figure out the problem until after several listens. When I went to Norns to check the Init settings, I discovered I was wildly off on the envelope times. I somehow remembered a three second rise with a nine second fall, or thereabouts, while in reality the rise is around one second, with an approximately three second fall. About three times shorter than the settings I used. I’ve no doubt that shortening the envelope will prove to be fruitful in many ways. I used Falistri for all four envelopes, which served fine, but I’ll need to shorten those envelopes in order to get closer to Fall. Falistri has become my “go-to” function generator. Whether for modulation or actuating sounds, I use Falistri in almost every patch. I use Falistri so much that I’m in the process of expanding my Frap Tools case to include a total of four Falistris. The module is fantastic and flexible, and if I could keep only one function generator it would be Falistri.
I used the Humble Audio Quad Operator bank as my four square wave oscillators. Operators one and three were tuned in unison, with operators two and four tuned one octave higher. There’s no good reason why I chose to stagger high and low pitched oscillators, but it doesn’t make much difference in the long run. I tuned each oscillator to each other, but none are tuned to a specific pitch, a mistake I’ll remedy when I tweak the patch. The audio from each channel went to the Frap Tools CUNSA for some low pass filtering, and was enveloped by Falistri in CUNSA’s VCAs.
The delays used were the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo for the short delay and the Vongon Polyphrase for the long delay. I’ve spilled much proverbial ink writing about Veno-Echo. It’s a seriously wonderful delay with a feature set that’s tough to beat. I’ve used it in a goodly chunk of my patches since getting it. But because the envelope of the note was so long it’s barely audible despite being turned up much higher in the mix than the Init setting calls for. The long delay is also “weird” because it too followed too closely to the note played. It needed more space to be effective in the way it is in Fall. I chose the Polyphrase because of its very long delay times. Many delays can do one to three second delays, but finding one that can do full ten second delays without serious degradation is tough. The Polyphrase records up to 22 seconds in its continuous buffer, so very long delays with high fidelity are possible. Degradation in repeats can be lovely, as I was reminded of multiple times during Jamuary while using the Bizarre Jezabel Quarté Mk2, but Fall calls for a more clear set of repeats, not disintegrating fragments of what was once there.
Although I wouldn’t describe Fall as inherently lo-fi sounding, it can definitely get in that territory via its control over bit depth. We can go from crisp 32 bit resolution down to a cascade of distorted, bit-reduced blocks, with the Init settings at a fairly low 13 bits. It’s not chiptune sounding by any means, but there is a certain dustiness to Fall that is charming. Wanting to get my clear filtered square waves closer to the OG Fall sound, I decided to patch in Malgorithm for some light bit and sample reduction. With Fall, the bit depth can be modulated by an internal LFO, for which I substituted a slow, cycling triangle function from the Joranalogue Contour 1 to bring the square wave from lightly bit and sample reduced to clean and back again.
But I didn’t want to just replicate Fall and call it a day. As instructive as replicating a patch or sound can be, I wanted more. I decided on using the Disting NT Poly Multisample with LABS Music Box samples, triggered randomly by the two lowest outputs of the CuteLab Missed Opportunities, using the Average output from Swell Physics as a pitch source via the Disting quantizer. I wasn’t unhappy with the results, not even a little, but I was unhappy when I discovered that things were a bit out of order because the oscillators weren’t tuned to a pitch, meaning the Fall notes and short plucks of the music box were playing in different keys. The registers are different enough that it doesn’t clash too strongly, but it has dissonance where there should be none.
I fed the output of the Disting NT to the Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine, via the Addac 814 6×6 Stereo Matrix Mixer, with a fairly slow delay time. Like in a couple of Jamuary patches, I occasionally froze and scanned the buffer for a granular-like effect which I find absolutely charming. The wet and dry signals were mixed in a Knob Farm Hyrlo at about an 45/55 mix and sent to the output mixer for some reverb.
The last voice in this patch was Mutable Instruments Beads, playing grains in reverse at two octaves up. You know; for some sparkle on top. I initially only sent the “Fall” audio to Beads, then as the patch progressed introduced the music box samples to give the patch even more sparkle at the top end. Beads provided a nice flourish to the patch.
This patch interests me enough to want to improve it. Fall is a fascinating script, and I’d love to be able to get closer. I’ll definitely be making the adjustments I’ve identified and giving the patch another shot.
Rev 1
After recording this patch and listening back several times, I had ideas. I wrote furiously in my Notability notebook where I keep all of my synth and patch notes trying to suss out what changes I wanted to make, and the best way to go about making those changes. After a couple of days of writing I identified no fewer than eight different parts of the patch that I wanted to tweak, or at least think about tweaking. No part of the patch was left unexamined, and after writing and pondering I was ready to try again.
After tuning the oscillators to C2 and C3, as opposed to merely tuning them to each other at a random pitch value (it was ~Eb), the first change was to the envelope length. In my first iteration, whether through faulty memory or bad information, the envelope for each note was way too long. Something like three times too long, which caused other problems downstream in the audio chain. After fumbling around with a high level of uncertainty, coupled with the desire to be as close as possible to the Fall settings, I decided to run the envelopes to the Mordax Data in order to get their rise and fall times as close as possible to the Init settings. With this simple change the patch was instantaneously improved, and, as hoped, it did fix several other issues like pitches changing mid-note.1 It’s amazing how such a simple change can make such a huge difference. Although the Init settings in Fall imply that its envelope is a simple AD function, it’s not clear to me whether there is an appreciable curve in one direction or another. I decided to stick with a linear function unless I get some sort of clue or confirmation.
Things weren’t perfect, however, and it wasn’t something I’d noticed until I was deep into the recording: with shorter notes, more of them can be heard more clearly, and it dawned on me that although the cadence of gates hadn’t really changed, there were too many notes. When I had way-too-long envelopes controlling note generation during the original recording, many notes were camouflaged by others. By mid-recording on this revision (or thereabouts) I adjusted the Simulation Speed on Swell Physics to slow it down, and although that had the desired effect of creating fewer notes, it was still too many notes happening too quickly. It wasn’t slow enough, and their tendency to pile up, particularly with more discernible repeats, was a bit distracting, and caused a few problems in the process. Lots of notes with various levels of repeats created dissonance, and even if it wasn’t overwhelming most of the time, it was noticeable too much of the time. At least to me. The cadence wasn’t overwhelmingly fast, but, between the notes and their various echoes, the cadence was just quick enough to still have too many notes floating about simultaneously.
Although I didn’t make any appreciable changes to the delays themselves, the delay times stayed the same, I did add slightly more feedback, and adjusted their levels in the matrix mixer to be closer to that of Fall. In the first recording I had the delays both set at about 3 o’clock on the dial. That’s roughly 75%. In Fall’s Init settings, the delay “Gain” is listed as “.400” and “.600” for the short and long delays respectively. Although it’s not exactly clear just what that means, I’ve interpreted those settings as roughly 40 and 60% of the dry level. Even if I was wildly off in my hypothesis, the results bore positive results. The delays no longer overwhelmed the dry signal, and it added a more somber tenor to the patch, with repeats drifting in the distance on different time scales. Just beautiful.
I briefly considered consolidating this part of the patch down to a mostly Frap Tools affair by switching oscillators from the Quad Operator to using the EOR gate outputs on Falistri as square/pulse wave generators, but it would have required a fairly major overhaul to the patch, including installing a new case which I do not like doing while there’s cables hanging everywhere, and so quickly decided against it. Besides patch consolidation, I’m not convinced that there would have been much difference.
Another problem faced in this iteration is that there were too many Music Box notes too. There was just a tad too much CV going to the Density input on the CuteLab Missed Opportunities, which resulted in too many random triggers. This too wasn’t something I’d noticed until well into the recording, and even when I tried to alter it, I didn’t do enough to save the recording. I also worked on the wet/dry mix between the Music Box samples and Non-Linear Memory Machine, allowing the echoes to be a bit more prominent, emphasizing when the buffer was frozen and being scanned. Even just this simple level adjustment between dry and wet was a drastic improvement to this voice, even if I’d still add yet more in the next revision.
Rev 2
Still not yet content with the recordings I’ve captured, I once again started to identify tweaks to make. Too many “Fall” notes. Too many Music Box notes. Not enough feedback or level from the long delay. Wanting to change something about Beads, but not sure what.
My first challenge was getting the Fall cadence down to something manageable. Enough notes to remain relevant in the patch, while not becoming a distraction. My first idea was to simply lower the Simulation Speed on Swell Physics, and while that had an effect, the effect was too great. I was at a point with far too few notes, oftentimes hearing the long echo repeat two or even three times without another note being produced, leaving the space too sparse. I knew that speeding the simulation up again would lead back to too many notes, so I tried a different solution: using Stackcables to combine gates in Numberwang. The switching in Numberwang’s outputs wouldn’t happen any faster, the input signals controlling Numberwang were still running at the same speed, but more gate outputs were being used to trigger the same number of notes (six as opposed to four). These extra gates worked a treat, allowing notes to be triggered more often, but without being overwhelming.
But after several listens of this revision I’ve come to the conclusion that more notes are paramount. There are too many spots with way too much empty space. I’ll have to decide on whether raising the speed of the simulation, or a couple more Stackcables, or indeed a combination of both, is the best route to make that happen. But I’d like two to three notes every ten seconds or so, not one note every ten to 20 seconds as sometimes happened while recording this revision. At first I had too many notes, now too few. Finding that medium ground is my key concern with the next revision.
Having the desire to somehow vary Beads in this patch, I changed how it would fade in and out of the mix by using the Swell Physics Average output to control the output levels via the excellent Intellijel Amps. Rather than being a constant volume once introduced into the mix, Beads faded in and out along with the flow of the wave simulation that controls most of the patch.
In addition to this change in Beads, I also used the same gate that allows Swell Physics to scan NLMM’s buffer to change the repeats to an octave up for a very nice effect. I very much enjoy scanning NLMM’s buffer. It’s an incredibly playful way of presenting a different side of the audio source. The overt aliasing when pitched (especially up) adds a character that is lively and expressive; bits of audio that crackle like sparks from a fire.
Rev 3
Immediately after hitting Stop in AUM, I thought I had captured the recording I was after. But as so often happens, the memory of a moment can be misleading. While recording, it felt right, but after even the slightest bit of examination, I knew I needed more notes. The recording was simply too sparse: the noise floor being the only thing audible in too many spots, which is a weird thing with multiple overlapping delays. This isn’t to say that every second of every recording needs to be filled with something. John Cage showed us that a recording need not be filled with anything. Silence is a fantastic juxtaposition to sound, but too much silence can leave a listener bored rather than enraptured with anticipation, and that’s the feeling I had after listening to revision 2.
Getting more notes in the Fall pattern was my only real priority in this recording. I’ve been after that perfect cadence the entire time, and I hadn’t yet found it. While studiously examining how the gates fire from Numberwang and its relationship to Swell Physics, I tried everything I could think of. Increasing the wave simulation speed, adding another Stackcable, cursing the gods, but it wasn’t until after a while that I discovered that gate generation started to slow and then stall for a bit when the Swell Physics waves were collectively in a trough, all of them well below 0v. Once the waves started to move upwards again, the gates would fire more or less how I wanted them to fire, but I knew that the collective signals from Swell Physics needed some positive offset to keep them below 0v for much less time.
There’s still a bit too much silence in a couple of spots of Revision 3 while Swell Physics was in a lull, particularly from about 2:17-2:42 of the recording, but after several days of trying to proverbially shove a square peg into a round hole, I finally came to accept that Swell Physics was simply the wrong tool for replicating the falling of leaves. Both are chaotic processes, but they are still fundamentally different from one another in a lot of ways. Falling leaves don’t oscillate, they only go downwards, while ocean waves move both ways. If I want to replicate the falling of leaves in any meaningful way, I need a different algorithm in my patch to get me there, and I think I have an idea, though that will be for another day.
Rev 4 – A Rework
When I was done with Revision 3, I was content to tear the patch down and maybe come back to it another day. But there was a gnawing in the back of my mind. As I was writing what was going to be the conclusion to this post, an idea sprang to mind about how to better cadence my interpretation of Fall.
I thought about what sorts of movement I could create that was in the direction of falling leaves, and immediately thought of a saw wave, or falling ramp. The start of each cycle would be the moment a leaf breaks away from the tree, and the fall time that leaf’s journey to the ground. But I also knew that I couldn’t just have cycling saw waves. That would create an unwanted pattern, so I chose the Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator as the new engine of the Fall portion of this patch. Every time an envelope cycled the Addac506 randomly assigned a new fall time to the function within a pre-determined range, and the End Of Cycle outputs triggered the quantizer and envelope for the Fall note. Each leaf fell at a different rate, just as leaves falling from a tree do. The functions themselves were patched to the CV input of the quantizer, via the Vostok Asset for some attenuation and offset. After un-patching Swell Physics and re-patching the Addac506, I realized I made an absolute rookie mistake.
Normally when I’m creating a polyphonic patch, I keep everything fairly orderly. The first trigger goes to the first envelope generator which goes to the first filter, etc. Having quad modules like Quad Operator, CUNSA, the Addac506 and 508, dual Natural Gates, Sum Mix & Pan, etc. generally make polyphonic patches a much easier proposition. But when an End of Cycle trigger is a patched to a quantizer with that channel’s function as CV input, you will always trigger at 0v (unless there is an offset on the function). Not cool. Every trigger is the same note! To remedy this mistake, I simply switched the functions around in the Vostok Asset, with the Ch 4 and Ch 1 envelope outputs, and the Change 2 and Ch 3 outputs. Once I made the switch, each end of cycle triggered a different envelope, and not its own, resulting once again in random pitches.
With this new engine in place the Addac506 drove the patch at a much better and more evenly distributed cadence. I could change it easily by adjusting the fall time range, and it was much more consistent than when I used Swell Physics. Lulls in note creation disappeared, and overall the patch became much easier to control.
All of the delays and other effects remained the same with the exception of how I froze and scanned the buffer on the Non-Linear Memory Machine. The method was the same, but rather than using Swell Physics gate outputs I used one of the End Of Rise gates on the Addac506.
Conclusion
Though I’m sure there could be many changes made to get a better recording, I’m happy enough with the result of this fifth version to finally move on. My re-imagining of Fall, though not perfect, is a credible stand-in and I’ve found a new way to facilitate patches like it. The Addac506 has turned into something resembling a super-modulator. A very flexible module offering several methods to create different timing systems and control entire patches.
Overall, this was a very fun patch to make. Trying to mimic a sound or patch can be very instructive, and this patch was no exception. The process of revising a patch can be a tedious one. Small changes and decisions often have an impactful outcome.
These changes didn’t completely alleviate rogue pitch changes, you can hear one in quite literally the first note of the recording, but it greatly reduced them. I’m pretty sure that first untimely pitch change is the only one in the recording. ↩︎
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. ↩︎
Today was a much needed day off from work. After two long shifts in the cold, I was looking forward to taking my time while patching in my warm studio today. The last couple of days had been last minute jobs on the iPad, and I don’t like being rushed. The process was unsatisfying, and the outcome suffered. They’re not terrible sketches by any stretch, and absolutely gave me ideas for future use, but they just feel rickety and incomplete to me. Such is the nature of Jamuary.
As I was in the midst of discussion in a Discord earlier this afternoon, the conversation turned to the new 4ms MetaModule, a module capable of running VCV patches. A couple of others and I had chimed in voicing our preference for the also new Expert Sleepers Disting NT. I also mentioned that I needed to learn how to use the Disting NT, which set off a lightbulb moment. This is Jamuary, and I had planned to make a full modular patch today. I’d use this opportunity to learn better how to use the algorithm(s) which prompted the purchase in the first place, even if it can do so much more.
I have created a lot of patches over the last year that use the Disting Ex in Polyphonic Multisample mode. I love that mode, but the Disting Ex has a user interface only a mother could love. It has a lot of great features, but the screen is incredibly small which is tough on these almost-50 eyes, and the interface awkward. Each algorithm has a million options, and navigating to make changes is a hassle. So much so that I literally only ever used Disting Ex in Poly Multisample mode. The new NT promised a much bigger screen, a much friendlier interface, and that it could run several algorithms simultaneously. I wanted that superior interface, even if it couldn’t do anything more (which of course it can do a lot more). It’s totally possible to have a multi-voice patch complete with FX while only using output cables. It really is an incredible machine, but there is a learning curve. I wanted today to be about making my way up that curve, even if just a little bit.
I’ve only used the NT once. It was just before Christmas, and I had just received it. Between my brother and I, we were able to squeeze just a drop or two of juice from it (Day 2, Patch 2). I left frustrated, but not ready to give up on it, because that drop was sweet. But today was a bit different. Shortly before getting ready to patch, I watched an introductory video for the NT to see if I could find my bearings a bit, and learn better how to navigate it, and how to leverage using more than one algorithm at a time. After firing up the synth, I immediately starting digging through menus and setting up a simple patch, but with a twist. I would only run a quantizer into the Poly Multisample algorithm, but rather than a single gate and cv source, I would use four pairs of gates and CV, all to be quantized, and then sent via Aux busses inside the NT to the Poly Multisample which was set up to receive the quad set. Though programming wasn’t completely smooth, it went easy enough, and once I stumbled in the menus a couple of times, navigation eased, and programming came together exactly like I’d hoped without a hitch.
The patch started with four cycling functions from the Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator. The outputs were split and sent to both the Nonlinearcircuits Numberwang for gate generation, and Let’s Splosh for pitch CV. Four outputs from each went to Disting NT, with the CV being attenuated and offset with the Vostok Instruments Asset to varying degrees before going to the input pairs. Once the signals reached Disting, they were quantized into C minor, and passed on to the LABS Soft Piano sample library, before coming out of stereo outputs and directly into the AI 018 Stereo Matrix Mixer.
From the mixer, the Soft Piano audio was sent to the Holocene Electronics Non-Linear Memory Machine. Set at a medium slow delay time, the freeze section was gated and modulated by a cycling function from the Frap Tools Falistri. The End Of Cycle trigger turned the Freeze on and off, while a clock divided (/2) version of that trigger gated the function itself, which scanned the buffer for some granular-like sounds. The clock-divided trigger also gated an offset signal that switched the output to an octave up while the buffer was scanning. This part of the patch was tricky. I tried several different methods before I made a realization about the nature of the gate I was using to trigger freeze and scan the buffer. Because it was the End of Cycle output and the function had not yet started, it was already high, and on the first count in the clock divider. Once I started the cycle, the cycling function and resulting trigger, a simple /2 output of Divide & Conquer worked perfectly to keep the freeze function, scanning, and offset to the octave up in sync. The result is almost Data Bender-like in the best of ways.
In order to fill in some space between the sparse piano notes being played, I sent both the piano and NLMM to the Rossum Electro-Music Panharmonium, which went through the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo at about a 50/50 mix. I set unsync’d, medium-long delay times on each channel, and allowed it to bring some motion to Panharmonium before going to the output mixer.
Everything went through the always lovely Walrus Audio Slöer for some thickly modulated reverb.
Although I’m not fully clear on what might make a module beastly, what I am clear on is that the Synthesis Technology E370 Quad Morphing VCO is a beast. One might call a module beastly because of the sound it makes. Others might be termed a beast because of its sheer size. But then sometimes there are a few Eurorack modules that strive for something grandiose; so technically complex that to have it function at all is a major coup in engineering. It’s these sorts of tools that have the capacity to change the dynamic of one’s rack. To change how we go about playing our synthesizers. Not many modules fall into this category, and those that do tend to be bulky and expensive. I’ve only had this experience with a small handful of modules. The Synthesis Technology E370 is one of those modules.
I tend mostly to live in ambient-world when patching my synthesizer. In some ways it’s an extension of the mental state patching places me in. When I patch, I get lost; completely immersed in the algorithm. Not the shitty-type algorithm like those on social media, but that state of constantly thinking my way through the patch step-by-step. Sometimes that thought is speculative (I wonder what will happen if….), while other times I’m thinking through a problem (or set of problems) that are keeping me from achieving some goal within the patch (How the fuck do I do X?). Modular synthesis is a puzzle. It’s a technical exercise far exceeding putting the right notes in place, and one that rewards deep thought about how to approach the next step. The puzzle is what initially attracted me to modular. It’s like playing Myst, only with the real life reward of beautiful music for solving the puzzle correctly.
This quest for ambient has landed me with several oscillator banks in a search for the perfect cloud of notes. A few minutes that might have a chance to reflect the state I’m in while making the patch. I’ve used several of these in my practice. The Humble Audio Quad Operator, RYK Algo, Frap Tools CUNSA, dual Frap Tools Falistris, 4ms Spherical Wavetable Navigator, and 4ms Spectral Multimode Resonator can all be used as oscillator banks, and I’ve used them all in that capacity. But as nice as those tools are, none come to level the E370 strives to achieve. A full 4 oscillator wavetable oscillator with just about every bell and whistle one could desire to customize your sound. Oh, and each oscillator can be eight oscillators, either stacked and detuned, or with chords. That’s a total of 32 oscillators swarming around. That’s quite the tool.
Although this post is not an attempt to write a comprehensive review of the E370, it’s only my first patch with it, and after only a couple of not-terribly-thorough glances at the manual,1 I do want to note that it’s immediately apparent that the E370 is one of those transformative modules. The kind that will affect how I patch the modular in the future. Despite experiencing a couple of frustrations during this first patch,2 it’s clear that the E370 is ultra-powerful, able to deliver a wide assortment of sounds and timbres. The interface is beautiful, well laid out, and at 54hp definitely large enough to easily use it. Despite having a deep menu system, navigating is relatively simple and changing parameters is no problem. Where the issue lies is in understanding what each parameter within the menu system is and what it does, and that will come with practice. What’s the difference between MorphXY and MorphZ? What is Phase Interpolation? But those are different problems to be understood and solved with practice, not obstacles that need a workaround or compromise. This module is deep, yet despite not being quite as easy to navigate as something like the Doboz T12, it’s not difficult by any definition of the word. It’s quite easy to get going in a hurry.
This patch is a combination of several patches I’ve done recently. The Addac508 Swell Physics is the heart of the patch that controls almost everything, from the levels of each oscillator, to panning, to wavetable modulation, and more, even if not directly. Oscillator levels are controlled by Swell Physics indirectly via the Nonlinearcircuits Let’s Splosh, using the very excellent Jolin Labs Agogo LPG/mixer extraordinaire. Each oscillator output is patched to inputs 1, 3, 5, and 7 of the Agogo, with white noise patched to inputs 2, 4, 6, and 8. Four CV outputs from Let’s Splosh modulate the levels of each oscillator and its noise pairing in CV inputs 1, 3, 5, and 7, with the mixed signals being taken from outputs 2, 4, 6, and 8. This sort of usage really highlights the Agogo’s proverbial girth. With all inputs and outputs cascading, it’s a mixing powerhouse, with the ability to create all manner of different submixes to suit any patch. This patch made four separate outputs, each with one oscillator mixed with white noise that then went to the ST Modular Sum Mix & Pan for a mix down to stereo. Each of those signals was individually panned in the stereo field by outputs 1-4 of Swell Physics, with the L/R output of Mix & Pan patched to the matrix mixer. Swell physics also modulates each oscillator’s wavetable.
Another part of the patch I’ve used recently, and repeated here, is panning between delays in order to get contrasting patterns or textures and keep the sound progressing. I first learned this patch while watching a DivKid video about the stereo strip, even if I’ve adapted it to be able to pan a fully stereo signal between delays using chained Intellijel Amps, rather than sending them a mono signal to be stereo-ized by the delays. Although I don’t use the Stereo Strip for that specific purpose in this patch, I do use it to EQ the audio before going to the delays.
The first delay I used is the Venus Instruments Veno-Echo. It’s a staple in my synth, and might be the most versatile delay in Eurorack. I often use it in patches like this because it has reverse delay that can be triggered, and that leads to interesting textures that are able to contrast with whatever other delay I decide to use. It’s fully controllable per side, and highly modulate-able. I added some sample reduction (it does that too) for some slight crunch which really brings out the wavetable nature of the E370. Add in probability gated triggers to turn reverse on and off per side, and the first delay is set.
The second delay I used was a pair of Echofix EF-X2 tape delays. With this delay I added some drive using the preamp(s), and for the first time with the tape delays, used CV to control the Speed, creating a beautiful tremolo that sang almost like a voice in the feedback, particularly once run through the octave up reverb in the Walrus Audio Slöer. I hadn’t set out to CV control the tape delays, but I was reminded by the CV input sitting on the control panel and decided to give it a go.3 I’m glad I did. For me one of the highlights of the patch is this vibrato and how it interacts with the feedback of the delays. I spent a good chunk of time while playing the patch riding the feedback knobs, never allowing it to gather too much accumulated sound and run away, but at times enough so that it doesn’t really go away, even when the tape delays aren’t receiving any input. It’s a halo of entropy sitting atop everything, singing. It’s a time when a delay is more than just an echo, but an instrument unto itself, becoming its own voice.
These delays generally take the lead in the full mix. There is certainly dry signal present in the mix, but it ended up taking a supporting role in the patch, being about a 80/20 mix in favor of the wet delays, and that dry signal was to keep some kind of coherent shape to the patch. Without that wee bit of dry, it felt like it was falling apart. A loose blob.
Another highlight in this patch is The Dradds. I’ve had a Dradd since not too long after its release. I’ve long been a fan of Pladask Elektrisk. I’ve had all, or almost all, of his pedals at one point or another. Although all of them were unique, none were stereo, and I’m a guy who (irrationally) believes all of his time effects, like delay and reverb, should be in stereo. Despite also being mono, as soon as I learned of Dradd I knew I would give it a chance. After several plays, I was frustratingly underwhelmed. Not that it didn’t sound great (it sounded awesome), but that it too wasn’t stereo. I know There Are Ways, but I’d rather just have stereo effects and not worry about it. They can always be patched in mono if need be. As I was on the verge of selling it I saw a video by Matt Lowery featuring dual Dradds. Gratuitous as it may be, I was quickly convinced on the merits of two Dradds and rushed to the Pladask Elektrisk website, elated to see that they had them in stock, and purchased a second one, the first’s evil twin.
The Dradd, despite its innate ability to stumble into happy accidents with virtually every knob twist, is a module that confused me. I’d kept it for so long because of how easy it is to find sweet spots. Flick a switch, turn a couple of knobs, maybe add in some modulation (or not), throw in some delay and/or reverb, and something beautiful happens. But I never used it with an intention that requires understanding. It’s one thing to turn a couple knobs until something pretty comes out. It’s another thing entirely to understand the controls, and intentionally use them to create the sound you want, or meaningfully transition into something different. Having used Dradd several times I was becoming frustrated that I couldn’t play it. It was an exercise in happy accidents. I hadn’t run into any sort of problems that kept me from decent enough results so there’d been no rush to the manual, but I was at a point where I wanted more than luck determining the output. Having run into this realization, I finally decided to really dig into the manual to finally understand what the module is doing with all these these knob twists. And the outcome is the first time I’ve been truly happy with the results. Dradd had certainly put a smile on my face before, but the sense of creating a sound with intention rather than happing upon it is far more satisfying. I’m a long way from Dradd mastery, but the first step is often the most intimidating, and that’s now done. From here it’s about ingraining my understanding of the instrument by practice, which will surely lead to an even greater understanding.
This patch also put the Jolin Agogo to use in a capacity far more involved than as a simple LPG, instead using it as a complex mixer for eight signals (four oscillators and four sources of white noise). The Agogo is my favorite kind of mixing VCA/LPG. It does a special trick that most don’t: every input, both audio and CV, as well as every output cascades to the next channel if unplugged, making the creation of complex submixes, both mono and stereo, a simple task. If you’re not using all eight channels, you can add saturation simply by moving down a couple of outputs. The Agogo is also chainable, making a 16, 24, etc. channel LPG/mixer with almost endless possibilities. The mixing flexibility it offers is truly incredible. It’s possible to mix entire patches with the Agogo, and the slight filtering it does in the odd channels brings just the right amount of vactrol-controlled goodness to any mix. It does have a drawback, however. Being that it’s vactrol-based, any slow moving CV like LFOs (or simulated ocean waves) must reach a minimum voltage level before the vactrol can start to open. Like all vactrols, and sometimes me, it’s a little slow. You are, however, treated with beautiful decays when there are sudden voltage drops (or indeed pings), provided by eight vactrols on the PBC.
The Oto Boum also made a first appearance in this recording. I’ve never really been a huge fan of using compression. Not because I didn’t think it was good for producing music, but mostly because I don’t really understand it all that well, and most compressors are decidedly not happy accident machines like Dradd. I never had the patience to mess with it, especially when the differences and improvements you’re listening to are often very subtle. But, as with Dradd, I became frustrated at not using the heralded Boum much at all, much less in the capacity for which it was designed: an end of chain compressor.
In this exercise, the manual was no help, even if it is quite good. I needed real guidance. Basically, something that could be a crutch and tell me exactly what to do. Compression is a debated topic in ambient music. You want everything to be heard, but since dynamics play such a pivotal role in ambient music it’s paramount that you maintain a high dynamic range. Having turned to YouTube for some direction, I found a video with the perfect title: “INCREDIBLE OTO Boum – Dawless Mastering Chain part #3.” Although the video is dedicated to mastering live club music, virtually the entire video is on compression and how to apply it using the Boum as an end of chain effect. Using the approximate knob positions and general guidelines in the video as a starting point I finally decided it was time. After some careful (read: very conservative) knob turns and A/B listening, the Boum worked a treat. Although the differences are admittedly small, there is more obvious clarity and sharpness across the soundstage with compression than without.
Although the Oto Boum is also a distortion, I decided to use the ever-beautiful Bizarre Jezabel Mimosa so that I could isolate it to the main voice and not the entire mix. Plus, although I’m sure the Boum is a wonderful distortion, the Mimosa is the most beautiful I’ve heard outside of high dollar tube amps.
This patch was a lot of fun to make, but it’s not perfect. The Dradds are a bit forward in the mix, and get a little busy in spots. Some more care with the settings and in the mixer ought to clean that up. I’m also not convinced that using Let’s Splosh as an intermediary for Swell Physics was executed as well as it could have been. I tried using different outputs, but to call those efforts half-assed would be a disservice to genuine half-assed efforts. I’m also not sure about the result of panning the individual signals in the Sum Mix & Pan with Swell Physics. Although the waves are spread, they’re still close enough to each other to keep too much of the audio to one side of the stereo field or the other at a given time. Inverting one of more of those signals would probably help balance out the soundstage.
