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Nice! Nautilus really does some very cool effects. Definitely a keeper. Is it just me or does it really do granular better than Clouds/Beads? I tried both of those modules hoping it would sound like Nautilus does. OK, maybe Nautilus is technically not "granular" but it is the sound I was after with those modules. Cheers!
First jam with the new Make Noise XPO. It sounds amazing. This is a one-take, raw performance recording. No additional processing on the audio.
Here are the rough patch notes:
XPO to X-Pan to QPAS to Mimeophon
VPME QD for Kick and Clicks - Clicks go through Chronoblob 2
Rene X channel driving the main sequence - goes into XPO main 1v/O
Rene Y channel is driving key changes going into XPO 1v/O second input
Rene C is sequencing Blades cutoff which is filtering the VPME Clicks
PNW is modulating Snake changes on Rene X
Planar 2 X axis is set up to drive QPAS cutoff on the second input
Planar Y axis is driving the XPO FM level
PNW is sending S&H to QPAS main cutoff
PNW is pinging the left wildcard input on QPAS with a euclidean rhythm
Sloths is modulating QPAS Q level
XPO Saw and Sub outs are going into X-Pan Aux and Maths is fading them in and out
Tides is modulating Fade and Pan on X-Pan A & B Channels
Diode Chaos is modulating QPAS Radiate levels
Ochd is modulating Mimeophon Zones
Batumi is modulating PWM on XPO
Quadrax is enveloping XPO square waves with a sharp attack and longer release, and enveloping the wave fold outs with a soft attack and sharp release
Performance Mixer brings it all together and Strymon Starlab provides some reverb through the Aux send/return.
Yes, this whole series is great listening. I get the “etudes” concept and these do work well in it, but I agree with Garfield that these could definitely (also) be longer. :-) Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
Great piece! But it was weird to see the images in contrast to the gorgeous day we are having right now. Sunny, just hot enough, clear blue sky, birds chirping away, hawks flying around, deer eating apples off my tree, bunnies grazing on my lawn... :-)
Yeah! Great track. Some consider their modular setup as an "instrument" but this is a great example of it being much much more than an instrument. All the various pieces coming together like this form and entire orchestra. This is the real power of modular. Only a workstation type "synth" can do this kind of thing, but no workstation I've owned comes close to the hands on experience I get putting together whole tracks on my modular rack. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
Many thanks Garfield and MBPNick. Much appreciated.
Re SIG - It has become my favorite module. I am using it in almost every patch these days. It does a lot, but it is very easy to learn and very versatile. I really like it for performing cool solos over sequenced tracks from Rene or Metrolopolix, but I have used it to drive drum beats - four channel gate outs to the gate ins on VPMEQD for example. It's also a great CV source for modulation. For me, if I want to have a quantized krell, then why bother with S/H and a quantizer? It's much easier to just drive the notes with SIG and adjust it on the fly. I can't recommend it enough. Cheers!
Hi All! I wanted to see if I can make something cool and "musical" with a bunch of sound sources and a single krell function. I really like how this came out.
This was a one take performance recording. Minor EQing and compression added to the final mix.
The basics here are that there is a single krell function coming from Maths and multed along with the End of Cycle gate. One gate goes to the Stochastic Inspiration Generator which is providing pitch information to four oscillators (Cloud Terrarium, Piston Honda, Elements, Brenso). One gate also goes to the Subharmonicon to drive its two internal sequencers. One gate goes to the gate input of Elements.
The Krell function is driving VCAs for the Cloud Terrarium and Piston Honda, but there is no VCA controlling amplitude for Brenso or Elements. The krell is also modulating the filter cutoff of Bionic Lester (for the Piston Honda).
All four channels of SIG are tuned to some variety of Dm (minor triad, minor 7th, minor pentatonic, etc. so each sound source will never play the same notes, but they do combine to make some very interesting chords.
CT and PH are set to "traditional" krell flowy/stabby sounds, Brenso is legato, but still somewhat abrupt, while Elements is plucky with a silky timbre. The Subharmonicon is mostly set to slow attack and medium release, but gets tweaked in the performance. SubH is quite subtle in this recording but fills a lot of sonic space with at least two of its oscillators always turned up and up to five of the six are dialed in at one point.
All kinds of modulation providing lots of movement throughout. I used Triple Sloths, Tides, Kermit, Ochd, Quadrax and Planar. Effects are from Mimeophon and Starlab. Sloths is modulating the Speed and Depth of the Starlab internal LFO which occasionally does very cool things.
That's a great and nice relaxing track! I could hear all they music like that :-)
How is your experience with the Strymon Starlab, was it worth the investment? Kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular
Thanks Aphew and Garfield! Much appreciated. Regarding Starlab - It is expensive, but I have it permanently patched in my system. It is very powerful and flexible and I am using it in every patch these days, so for me it was worth it. I just racked FX Aid Pro (to replace Beads that I was just not liking very much) and it also has very good reverbs for the price, but I really like it's other algorithms more. Cheers!
Just a quick little patch that came together. Here we have Qu-Bit Chord in four separate channels with modulation of wavetable, voicing and panning and mixed manually. Then we have four separate channels of Mutable Instruments Tides in VCO mode, also modulating various Tides settings plus panning and also mixed manually. Stochastic Inspiration Generator is driving MI Elements, and Plaits is just droning away. Effects by Happy Nerding FX Aid Pro, Chronoblob II and Strymon Starlab. Modulation by Maths, Triple Sloths, Ochd, Quadrax, Batumi (panning Tides voices in quadrature mode) and RND Step. Cheers!
That’s a good question. I’m using Pamela in this, but I’m not thrilled with it for this purpose - it’s not playable enough. I’ve been looking at various modules to drive the QD, and oddly I’m contemplating getting another Stochastic Inspiration Generator. Now that that patch has been destroyed I’m going to mess with SIG into QD and see what I can do. Euclidean Circles is also high on the list. Constellation looks interesting. What to do, what to do…?
Been spending a lot of time wiggling and learning new modules and also how to manhandle this giant rack I now have. This just started out tooling around with Metropolix then trying to build something around what I was grooving to. Turned into a pretty big patch with lots of stuff going on. Too much stuff probably. Still trying to figure out the best way to compose a complex set of sounds into something coherent... Also, and crucially, I changed the gel on my overhead light from red to green. Sounds much cooler now. Cheers!
Yup, Lugia is right on. Just gotta keep plugging away at it (pun intended) and I recommend you keep hitting record when you get to something you like. I find it very valuable to listen back critically and think of what I could have done differently. Cheers!
I was planning on buying the QD and a new sequencer, but I bought Elements and Cloud Terrarium because both makers are no longer making new modules. I’ve had my eye on both modules for a while and learned early that supply of Eurorack stuff is fleeting, so I just went for it, and glad I did. It is a shame to see synthesizers.com in trouble and other manufacturers closing shop these days. Hopefully it doesn’t get much worse.
10 minutes in and really enjoying the dynamics and evolving sections you arranged into this. It's something I need to work on. I got a bunch of new modules recently and I've been spending time learning them (Elements, VPME QD, Cloud Terrarium and Metropolix - all quite deep, so lots of learnin' to do). Thanks for sharing.
Hi All! Been having issues trying to get the video to embed, but apparently underscore characters in URLs are not parsed properly, so I can only provide a link this way:
I'm not sure what you call this kind of music other than modular synth jamming. Most of this is driven by the Stochastic Inspiration Generator, with a bass line from the MTM Turing Machine. I added some chords from the Prophet Rev 2 just to fill it in a bit. Frap Tools Brenso through Blades is used for the main lead voice and has Quadrax in Burst mode driving the filter cutoff. Make Noise DPO provides the main bass line and Piston Honda MkIII provides the steady bass oulse. Percussion is from Plaits and Erica Synths Black VCO 2 does kick drum. Moog Mother 32 is doing the little fast arpeggio.
I tweaked this patch for about two weeks and practiced performing it more than I care to admit, but still couldn't get in all the tweaks I made in my notes and keep it on the short side. It was a great learning experience though. :-) Cheers!
Ha! Thanks for the details. It's even more impressive now I know more about how it was done. I don't post tracks on ModWig that much but I should post there more often. You won't get much feedback usually, but some people do listen.
I really want to see a side by side between this, the new Happy Nerding FX Aid Pro and the new ALM/Busy Circuits MFX. They all look good. I am not getting along with Beads and would like to replace it with one of these multi effects modules.
Whoa! That's freaking cool. How the hell did you do that? In YT it says "generative" but it does sound more composed than most generative stuff I listen to. Some great sounds in there.
Great track! Love the dynamics, the warbly sounds, and the chord changing sequence is excellent! Also loved that break at 3:00 with the formant sounds. That never gets old for me. The Nerdseq is interesting but I wonder how hard the programming is and how much of it is just straight programming vs playing a sequence into it. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
Hi Garfield! Thanks for your fantastic comments. Regarding the Summit - I really like it. I don’t use it as much as I’d like but every time I touch it wonderful sounds come out. It has a ton of features and functionality and I love the filter and even the effects are pretty good. Notation offers a ton of free sounds online and spent a bunch of time grabbing cool pads and leads, so that made it even better. I don’t do “sound design” on it but find a preset that’s close to what I want and tweak from there. If you’re in need of a kick-ass 16 voice poly-synth it’s hard to beat.
This may be the most involved project I have done in the last couple of years. It was born from a simple goal - create a full album length ambient piece in multiple parts, using a wide variety of synthesizers and synthesis techniques, but not using midi note programming or sequencers. It's four pieces with a common melodic theme and blended together. I used almost all of my synths including my modular rig and a guitar.
Part One is a brief intro that gives you the flavor of the whole piece.
Part Two has a complex foundational drone from my modular rack and uses six oscillators, each tuned to a different note within the E Dorian scale. They are all running through filters or being modulated in other ways. Each oscillator is faded in and out using slow asynchronous LFOs on the mixer's VCA creating a very unpredictable combination of sounds and textures. This is a "self-playing" or "generative" patch. Other sounds are layered on top and come from the ASM Hydrasynth, Korg Kronos, Novation Summit, and Moog Taurus Pedals.
Part Three uses a base drone from the Waldorf Iridium in a low register and features a few solo sections using that same sound played in a higher register. I made extensive use of the Waldorf's amazing Mod Matrix and set up about 25 different modulations of all different kinds of sound parameters. This is also a generative patch. Part Three also feature solo sections on electric guitar, Moog Subsequent 37, Korg Kronos and Novation Summit.
Part Four has a foundation pad from the Prophet Rev 2 which is played on its keyboard and expression pedal controlling Filter Cutoff. Additional bass, pad sounds and solos are layered on from the ASM Hydrasynth and Korg Kronos.
Again, no midi note programming or sequencers were used to record this, so each track, section, solo here is recorded "live".
All images are from the NASA website and are public domain. They're freakin amazing to look at, especially with the Ken Burns treatment. Enjoy!
I've been tweaking this patch for three days... The foundation is the Subharmonicon and Mother 32 all patched up with my modular rack. I added a low drone from the Iridium patched up with a couple of PNW LFOs. I also improv'd a track with the Hydrasynth. 22 minutes of space-ambient goodness powered by Magneto Reluctance! Cheers!
Listening now. Great stuff so far! I'd love to hear about your production methods. Whatever you care to share would be interesting to know. Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
This is my second recording with the classic Todd Barton Krell patch. Again, huge thanks and acknowledgement to JD Cramer for his most excellent recent tutorial series "Krellberg Variations" on YouTube.
This is a patch I got going that follows that series up to part nine (with some of my own twists). I have the primary Krell function coming out of Maths and driving VCAs for Brenso and DPO, and EOC driving Strum on Rings (2.5 krells) - lots of modulation of the oscillators and filters, and all in stereo. The Maths EOC is providing the click that advances the Stochastic Inspiration Generator which is feeding three different sets of 1v/o CV data to the three OSCs. I have another Krell function from Quadrax (making it 3.5) that is driving the VCA for Plaits running in Formant OSC mode. That EOC from the Qx Expander is advancing a sequence in Rene 2. Yes, I removed the S&H+Quantizers from the patch completely. Using sequencers to get pitch info I can exert more control over the notes but still retain some randomness, especially with SIG. Looking forward to more. Cheers!
Sacguy! Always love watching your videos, and this tour of the smaller systems integrating is great. That Endorphines system does look very cool. Also glad to see you active over at ModWiggler. Have you tried recording the audio direct, as opposed to through the open mic. I feel like I am missing a lot of the nuance of the great modules you are highlighting here. Is all your stuff going into one central mixer? Cheers!
