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[kuliak]

Built on last patch, but slower.

Much the same in here. Rainmaker now running modified "16tap Swell" preset with added comb filtering. Added modulation to Daiko's wavefolder and Drum Map position. Data Bender's settings are a little more aggressive. Marbles is now in ratio mode to fill the slower beat a bit more interestingly.

[kuliak]

There's so much to learn.

It's been a heavy month. Even before Piston Honda, I snagged a ridiculously cheap steal on a Rainmaker. It's been sitting in a learning case all month, but I wasn't quite able to squeeze what I wanted out of it. Watching some demos, I determined that I needed more elements at play - not just one voice through the network. So here's my first proper attempt at that.

PH has both oscillators with some unison through Ikarie, all roughly in tune with each other. I employed the classic trick of having slightly different envelopes into VCA (for each part of PH) and VCF to create a thick voice, then that goes through Rainmaker with the "ParaleVerb" setting to create this lovely, lovely background texture.

The additional bass plucks are Just Friends in LPG "Plume" mode, with an offset from Tetrapad played to take it from short to looooong decay. This goes directly into Milky Way then the final mix.

Percussion is just Daiko through Data Bender, set to be more of a stutter/beat repeat effect. Sequencing is done by O_C "Drum Map" on a multiplication of the main beat.

Marbles in coin toss mode acts as the master clock and pitch sequencer, but I feel like there's so much going on you wouldn't know just based on a listen - feels like a nice washy counterpoint composition.

There's still a lot to learn with operating Rainmaker, but this is the kind of result that really motivates me to do so.

[kuliak]

Tables and tables of waves.

I gave up on Drezno/Jena as a wavetable voice once I learned that Piston Honda mk3 has the same external processing capabilities while hosting its own suite of additional features. Three body leaves the learning case for it and Daiko to enter.

That being said, it's not doing anything extra special in this patch - just acting as a normal thin digital oscillator, with a little morphing on the wavetables. It has a mix out through Ikarie droning and each individual osc enveloped through Data Bender, and Daiko provides percussion through Milky Way.

The real stars of the show are Tetrapad (Tete) and Quadrax, which are both such deep modules. Tetrapad is in combo mode supplying 1 LFO modulating Daiko (though tidbit mute switches), then 3 euclidian triggers - one for each channel of Taiko (1 on a straight 1/4 and 2 on a funky one, like 13/35), and another cleverly at 1/32 to act as a clock divider for Quadrax and Data Bender. Then I learned about internal triggering on Quadrax, where you can have a channel fire after the previous one's EoR of EoC - I'm using this to effectively get EoC triggers from channels 1 and 3 without the expander (I WILL pick one up, one of these days) to control a few other parameters.

All in all, a fun learning jam, but nothing too special. It honestly reminds me of some of my old recordings, with unison on PH3 sounding a lot like Telharmonic (but with a lot more range and controllability) - but ultimately it's dominated sonically by Data Bender.

[kuliak]

Deeper diving into animating the monosynth, and going from jam to song.

There's not a lot to say about this patch that hasn't been covered by other recent posts, in terms of signal flow. Milky way continues to impress me as a space effect for this smaller case, and Tete offers so many fascinating ways to play and sequence, really just a joy to play. Not every controller is a winner, but once you add something truly playable to the ecosystem, it changes the way you interact with and think about your instrument. I feel about it how I did when I brought in Constellation and Maestro. The three of them together I really think make the ideal core brain that can be be anywhere from programmable to performable.

[kuliak]

Ambient chirps and twinkles.

I started off with the "dubstep bass" patch from the Three Body quickstart guide, but obviously ended up a world away. Osc 1 is synced to 1/64 of Osc 3, which should be tuned to about the same root as Osc 2; and both 2 and 3 are receiving the same CV sequence. /64 clock also triggers Quadrax as a morphing LFO into Osc 1's mult input. This oscillator PMing Osc 2 creates the chirps and warbles.

Pretty simple from there - sine goes into Ikarie, then Data Bender, then Milky Way, with a number of parameters played through the recording to move things along.

[kuliak]

Lush paraphony.

Hey, it's been a minute. Things were busy, and some organizational things needed to be done. I performed another trade, getting rid of some desktop gear for Tete and Quadrax, both of which need some learning. Currently, my modules are split between a small learning skiff for those, and the main case which is currently exploring the "water wheel" feedback patch from a little while ago. Expect more from each of those flavors in the next little bit.

This patch is using 2 paraphonic voices from Three Body, sequenced by Tete's loopy mode - one PM voice through Ikarie (fun trick, using the modulation osc to audio-rate modulate spread of filter peaks) and Milky Way (which I also need to learn more in depth), and the other through Data Bender. Percussion is Bug Crack (O_C) and DFAM.

Loopy mode is a lot of fun. I love it to slowly tweak longer jams, and give my time to play DFAM more as well, but things are admittedly a little static here. Still, I wanted to commit this one to recording before tearing it down, since there are quite a few nice sounds coming out of Three Body.

[kuliak]

Squelchy kicks, more performance features, and fuller-case integration.

There's a dreaded part in the synth expansion cycle where more cables are needed, since you just aren't able to use all the modules. Fast forward a bit and I can bring the drums back in again, with even more added spice.

Something I've been doing, and intend to keep at a bit more, is running my drum mix through Ikarie - envelope follower on the signal inverted into frequency allows that great squelch whenever the kick hits. Snare is Taiko with an additional envelope from Maths, and Crucible covers hat duty.

Three body provides all the melodic voices here. Main osc is modulated by osc 3 with some envelopes from Just Friends, going through Waver, QPAS (4 pole/mono), Melotus, then Erbe-Verb to create the pulsing texture. Another out goes through Magneto, ping-ponging the signal around to really create that space and enforcing the beat.

Osc 1 is going through Sinc Bucina, triggered by T1 or T3 of Pachinko in ratio mode (selected via Vice Virga to create different related phrases), then mixed in with the drums via Jumble Henge to give it a consistent place in the stereo field. Its pitch is set to a ratio of the main osc so it stays harmonically related as everything's moving around.

Main drum sequencing via Constellation, while velocity of the SB triggers is modulated with Maestro. Planar on QPAS cutoff duties to swirl everything around.

[kuliak]

Giving the filters something to chew on.

This patch started off with inspiration from a new Cinematic Lab video where he explored a patch from Soma Digest 16 that mixed an LFO and a clock for an interesting rhythmic effect. Reading over the comments, this behavior is because the triggers on the Pulsar 23 are velocity sensitive, so the LFO effectively offsets the velocity - when it's high, the pulses hit extra hard, and when it's low they can be softer or even completely nullified. If the two sources are unrelated, their phase/frequency relationship creates a slowly drifting groove.

I set up this behavior using Maths Ch 4 EOC as the clock and Ch 1 with an offset as the LFO, then mixed via Quantus Pax. It took a bit of tuning, but this allowed me to get the variable strength trigger sequence as well as a lot of related modulation: EOR from 1 gates Just Friends, which modulates a lot of filter behavior, and both envelopes control a number of other parameters through the patch. The other part of this behavior needs a "velocity sensitive" envelope or VCA, so I used my old friend Sinc Bucina to get that gnarly resonance. The pings were still a bit harsh, so I actually sent the trigger sequence to the gate input instead - I still found the attack to be plenty fast on the strong gates, but it mellowed out the weaker ones so the whole sequence can breathe.

The only melodic voice is Three Body, receiving phase modulation from both of its side oscillators. The saw and "cosaw" outs are mixed via Waver with mild waveshaping and AM, and the fold out goes through Bucina - since the gate is resonant, all of this shape modulation gives the gate a lot to respond to and creates that rich "riffing" texture.

The straight mix output goes through QPAS, receiving all of those linked envelopes from Just Friends, then through Electus Versio for some interesting texture. Kick is Taiko, synthy snare is Daiko, and hats are Crucible, with the drum mix going through Milky Way for compression then Ikarie for some resonant distortion.

My only real qualm here, and it's a small one, is the sequencing. I used a locked sequence in Marbles (clocked by Ch4 EOC) on +/-5v, with Planar controlling spread and bias. This is a far stretch from what I usually do, but allows for more range in transposing the sequence - loosely, bias controls the root note and spread controls how far apart the highest and lowest note of the phrase can be. I think this is much more expressive than I'd been doing it before, however I need to attenuate the XY outs before sending them into Marbles. The direct output had so much sway over the sequence that I had a very small zone of the Joystick that made musical changes. So I need to attenuate that for the future, and also need some modulation on the drums. More cables coming in the near future which should fix that problem.

[kuliak]

Phased sequences.

Traded some gear in, and I'm now the very proud owner of a Three Body oscillator. I'm going to be getting more into the real highlights of it soon, but for a quick patch with the time I had this week I wanted to explore just the luxury of having 3+ reliable oscillators in my system. Swapped Traffic's firmware to Water and used all three outputs quantized via Bard Quartet to make this simple paraphonic/chord sequence. The side oscillators share one envelope, and the main one has its own which is slightly snappier, to introduce ratchets via IDUM.

QPAS on filtering, delay is Magneto, extra delay and glitches from Data Bender, reverb from Erbe-Verb. Really like the gentle swells with these settings.

I think this could really be spiced up with my percussion back in, but frankly, I'm just about out of cables with this patch. More stock of those is definitely next on the list!

[kuliak]

More mellow, less glitch, same patch.

Taking some more time to really get in deep with this patch so I can take notes about it before tearing it down. There's a big synth meetup and flea market this weekend, so I'm hoping to switch up my setup a non-insignificant bit there. When the dust settles, this case will be re-integrated into the main one and it's off to the races - time to rebuild this and use all the other utilities I don't really have access right now to make some more fleshed-out ideas with this sound since I'm still so enamored with it.

[kuliak]

Glitchy washes - the first of a few.

In need of a dedicated delay, I obtained a Magneto. This was nearly 3 weeks ago. I haven't been neglecting my modular since then, quite the opposite. It's just that my jams have been long ambient sessions that don't really lend themselves to short recordings. The star of the show in my mini magneto-learning case has been feedback, but in a much gentler and musical form than I was exploring during Jamuary.

This recording, and likely the next handful, feature Magneto with Erbe-Verb and QPAS in its feedback path, loosely inspired by Cinematic Laboratory's "Aquaphon" patch. Magneto quantizes the feedback loop to keep things musical, and the wide range in the parameters allows for all sorts of tone sculpting, and the !! inputs on QPAS even let percussion form within the loop. I also have the ability to sequence triggers to turn different feedback heads on and off, effectively shaping the chord/drone.

This sounds nearly completely different than my performance of the patch last night. It's one I want to keep in the books even after I disassemble this case, to keep coming back to and fleshing out, but one that I'm not ready to abandon right now either. More to come, hopefully this weekend.

[kuliak]

Traditional, decaying.

Learning the ropes of Magneto with a small dedicated monosynth - though I think I'll enjoy it even more when it's fully incorporated to my system. For now, we're very classic - VCO, VCF, VCA, delay, reverb, keyboard. Add in an arpeggiator and Planar for a little more expression and we're off to the races.

Pleasing, warm, especially melodic ambience here, with a little tape decay.

[kuliak]

Bias bursts.

The big thing here is using bias on marbles as both a coin flip/probability gate to let the acid sequence fire as well as controlling the multiplication in the burst - very performative. However, the wonky multiplications plus being on an odd sequence length means it sometimes misses the rest of the beat. But that's okay! It's a jam and helped shed some light on another fun concept and it's good enough to share.

On top of that stronger conceptual part, I'm a big fan of the ambiance added by Erbe Verb getting tweaked in the latter half, as well as the fun-if-plain percussion from ABD and O_C (BootsNCat). Looking forward to getting back into the main case and more fully exploring a lot of the techniques I flirted with this month.

By my count, I managed to get something up 22 days of the month - pretty good! It'll be nice to give ideas more time to simmer though. And next year, I hope to get even higher - maybe the full 31 :)

[kuliak]

Blowing and screaming.

Now a bit more musical - looping functions from Just Friends control a number of parameters, and the kick from T1 (Marbles ratio) resets them all at once for a sidechain-like effect that adds structure to the piece. There's a lot of depth to explore in this realm. I think my final -ary Jam will be something different, but I definitely want to explore more feedback and especially explore more with pushing it to be more musical back in the main case. A little variable-width BP on the end of this and more percussive voices would take this from an interesting but abrasive jam into something worth seeing through.

[kuliak]

(HIGH PITCH WARNING) Full force feedback.

Back home, but still using the palette. Wanted to go for something different today instead of another pretty Just Friends arpeggio, so this patch is primarily a feedback loop of Erbe-Verb and Ikarie. Beyond Out goes into EV, LR go into final mix, and EV's outs are multed to the mix and to Ikarie's ins. A number of parameters are controlled by looping functions from Just Friends, with attenuverters played through the recording. Stepped voltage from Marbles controls Ikarie's v/Oct.

I'd love to have another low-pass filter after the feedback loop - I think something like this into QPAS would sound nice. I'll have to try it out back in the main case.

[kuliak]

Gate logic arpeggios.

Using 4 channels of pam's with internal logic and additional logic from O_C to trigger 4 channels of just friends with higher voices choking out the lower voices. Mix goes through Ikarie's beyond out, while the root also goes through Erbe-verb.

[kuliak]

Small road case for a few days - explorations with Just Friends, Ikarie, and Erbe-verb.

There it is! Fun little rack while I'm on the road this weekend, and probably to round out Jamuary as I won't want to rebuild the main case as soon as I get home. Feels like there should be a lot to explore here, with either of the 3 sound modules acting as a source - today, it's JF.