First Full Patch
Dec 24, 2009 Uncategorized
Well, for the first time since I filled my first chassis for my synthesizers.com system, I actually made a patch that used every single last module in the system (excepting the Time Buffer, but since I don’t have a way to convert to Sync24 yet, that’s currently impossible). I’ve gotten to the point where I wanted another X or Y before, but I’ve never actually used every single module (and honestly — I don’t mean that I sat down with the intent of using them all, I just used them all naturally in the course of getting what I wanted). I could have used several Xes and Ys more, but still. :) It’s goofy, but it felt like something to make a note of.
An image of the patch should be attached. I think you can click to embiggen it. I’m pretty new at using WordPress’ built-in media gallery tools:
First Full Modular Patch
The goal was this rather noisy loop, which I spent some time jamming to on the Axiom driving Massive run through Guitar Rig 4 and had a lot of fun with:
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If anyone’s super curious, I can try to throw together some sort of patch diagram showing the layout of the patch.
New YouTube Video: Fakey Clock Division
Dec 23, 2009 YouTube
Last night as I was going to bed, I got an idea for a patch on the modular that I wanted to try, so I returned to the den and gave it a go. It worked like a charm, and the patch was simple enough that I figured I could document it in a video. Unfortunately, I was ridiculously tired, so not only is my handheld shooting pretty shaky, but I randomly say “oscillator” instead of “envelope generator” and use a bunch of other terms involving timing more or less at random. Still, the basic idea gets demonstrated, which is that you can send a bunch of velocity pulses at a series of velocities over MIDI from Logic and then dice the various velocity sets out to trigger different things using a signal processor or signal processors.
A few things to note:
- There’s no real limit to how many discrete velocities you could use this way;
- I use this to divide a rhythm into even fractions, but the pattern you set could be totally arbitrary;
- I use the pulses to trigger envelope generators, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use them to trigger anything that uses a threshold-based trigger;
- I chose even durations for all of my velocity pulses, but you can set the “pulse width” by choosing different durations of notes;
- I used arbitrary pitches and then just ignored the pitch / gate / trigger information completely, whereas there’s no reason you couldn’t still use that information usefully (although you’d have to remember that the ‘off’ notes are sending all that data also).
Anyway, here’s the video:
Yep, still alive!
Dec 22, 2009 Uncategorized
Mostly this year has been sink into slowly building the synthesizers.com modular and learning how to use it, as well as revamping the studio in general. There have been quite a few changes lately, mostly things that would seem small but that have kept me busy. Lately I’ve been spending more time using the modular than building it, which has been nice. I often just noodle little riffs and play with sound and never post anything, so I thought I’d share the riff that I was working with tonight (it’s just a very short loop that I left looping for about a minute in the file):
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I’m always happy to hear that people are still out there, by the way! :)