The top two rows here is my rack for working with Akemie's Castle:
The modules in the third row are modules that are currently unconnected, as I'm focusing on Akemie's Castle at the moment.
What do you think?
Do you have any suggestions for modules that could enhance working with Akemie's Castle?
(Modules that could enhance my work with Morphagene, or just be helpful in general, would be welcome as well!)
Thanks! :)
Three quick thoughts:
1) What music are you hoping to make here? The answer might be different for techno vs ambient (or both at the same time)
2) I have an Akemie and find that the XAOC Zadar is a fantastic modulation source for it as you can quickly pan through a huge range of sounds and you get four envelopes out of it.
3) This is a ton of support for just one voice (well two with Akemie). Not sure if this is a good suggestion or not but I'd try to fit another voice in there, analog or digital either way.
my tunes: https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/
Three quick thoughts:
1) What music are you hoping to make here? The answer might be different for techno vs ambient (or both at the same time)
2) I have an Akemie and find that the XAOC Zadar is a fantastic modulation source for it as you can quickly pan through a huge range of sounds and you get four envelopes out of it.
3) This is a ton of support for just one voice (well two with Akemie). Not sure if this is a good suggestion or not but I'd try to fit another voice in there, analog or digital either way.
-- troux
Hi! :) Good points!
1) I'm interested in ambient (like Biosphere) and electronica (like Autechre).
2) Thanks for the tip!
3) So far, I've been meaning to focus on Akemie's Castle, and then to explore Rings (exciting it using external audio) and Morphagene. But I'm curious about ideas as to what additional, complementary, voice sources could be, though!
Thanks!
Also, effects that make the sounds more rich/dynamic, or thicken up the sounds, would be interesting as well!
When I put together a similar rack I added an Intellijel Dixie+ which has been incredible, and I'd add another if I wasn't rapidly running out of space. So, I'd suggest an analog oscillator, a Dixie+, an STO, or something in that vein. It's a radically different feel than the Castle but they can compliment each other really well.
To the effects, I haven't quite solved that myself, but it does seem to me like you have a lot already. Echophon + Erbe-Verb + Rings is pretty solid, but perhaps an Erica Synths Black Hole DSP, a 4MS Dual Looping Delay, or a Happy Nerding FX Aid?
my tunes: https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/
Hi!
Thanks again! :)
I'm curious about combining Akemie's Castle with analog oscillators. Are you combining these in any specific ways? Are there any typical “roles”, or so, for the modules?
My idea was to use Stages (and perhaps Frames) for modulation. Do you think something like Zadar would make things a lot more convenient? Would you get the NIN expander?
After having thought some more about this, I'm actually thinking that Rings may be a bit too complicated as an effect for my system, and that I should perhaps take it out for now. I like to keep the system focused and not too “open” while exploring Akemie's Castle, and Rings is so dynamic. Have you used Akemie's Castle with Rings?
In line with keeping the system focused, I'm a bit hesitant to get modules like Erica Synths Black Hole DSP and Happy Nerding FX Aid (which seem absolutely awesome), since they are so flexible. I also think there might be too much overlap between what Dual Looping Delay, and what Echophon and Morphagene can do.
If I would take Rings out I have 20 HP to spare to enhance the sound of Akemie's Castle... :)
Cheers!
Perhaps an analog multimode filter like Jouranalogue Filter 8 or Make Noise QPAS could make sense to further shape the sound?
@ecstatic_sutherland I ended up adding some analog oscillators to my rack just to have a few more synthesis techniques available and so I'd have a lot of options to play with, and on top of that so I could have some polyphony. There are a ton of different ways you could approach that though, including other digital oscillators like the Telharmonic or even a second Akemie's Castle.
I haven't used Rings at all so I can't say exactly where it fits in, or Stages either. I would expect the Zadar has potential for more grit and character than Stages, but might be less controllably expressive? And yes, if you do get it I'd get a Nin too.
Out of curiosity how many of these modules do you have so far? I sped into modular pretty quickly so if you're starting from scratch I won't suggest (as is common) that you go slow, but I might suggest you go moderately lol and get about half of what you've picked out here? An Akemie, a nice analog filter (FM synthesis plus a good analog filter is a great combo), and a handful supporting pieces would go a long way right out of the gate and might help with some of the questions you're raising.
my tunes: https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/
That's cool, I can see how the analog oscillators help with that. :)
For me, I like to focus on only one voice module for now. I find that limiting my options makes things less distracting for me. Besides, I have a Nord keyboard and Ableton Live for my polyphony needs!
The modules I have are the ones in the image above.
For the Akemie's Castle setup, I decided to throw Rings out for now and get a QPAS as my “final” module. I think the extra filtering capabilities will come in handy, and it will be fun to try some stereo processing. I will also switch out FHX-8CV for Ears to get an envelope follower in the rack. I now feel that all modules in the rack are working together and are supporting Akemie's Castle in a way that is relevant for what I want to explore right now.
For modulation, I have decided to experiment using CV Tools in Ableton Live, and see how that goes.
For extra effects, I will use Ableton Live (perhaps adding on to it Valhalla VintageVerb and Valhalla Shimmer).
And when I want to explore the other modules, I can switch out Akemie's Castle for Morphagene, Rings and Quantum Rainbow 2, and have something very different to play around with.
Thanks for your thoughts! :)
