#mutable instruments rings

[drmlab]

As I was leaving my acoustic-ecology group last night, a rushing sound caught my ear. Although I was concerned about missing the bus, I whipped out my iPhone to record the sound of water pouring out of a gutter into the alley below. I recorded a little over a minute and still caught my bus.

Moments earlier, I had been sharing how I'd been experimenting with running field recordings into a software version of the Mutable Instruments Eurorack module Rings. When I got home, I AirDropped the recording to my computer and set some quick levels in Reaper. Then I fired up VCV Rack and put together the patch above.

A sample player is playing a loop of the gutter splash. Both the left and right channels are fed into instances of the Rings clone. Then a quadrature LFO crossfades between the original field recording and the output from Rings.

This seemed like a really simple patch in VCV Rack, but it involves a lot of modules. I replicated the patch in ModularGrid, and list price for physical modules to make these sounds would cost nearly $1200. Although VCV Rack lacks the immediacy of a hardware synthesizer, it is a convenient way to try out ideas and experiment with modules.

[rickktish]

A list of mutable batfam headcanons that live inside my brain:

Steph deserves to be 6’ minimum, preferably 6’1” or 2”

Bruce is constantly trying to balance his need to be at the same eye level or above the people he’s intimidating vs his need to do his funky little gargoyle crouch. His favorite thing about the GCPD roof is that it has lots of surfaces he can crouch on and still meet or look down at Gordon’s eye level

Tim and Damian suffer from “too similar to get along” disease and must either become best friends or despise each other until the end of time

Babs prefers light, natural toned makeup. Steph prefers pops of color and decent amounts of jewelry when she can get away with it. Cass prefers jewelry and no makeup at all

Jason’s comfort meals are all variations on soup served with bread for dipping

Jason is of the opinion that Fitzwilliam Darcy is an ass at the beginning of the book and it’s a good thing he decided to change himself so he could take his place as Best Fictional Man Ever. Dick, who read the book in order to be able to connect with Jason better, is of the opinion that Fitzwilliam Darcy has done nothing wrong ever and only needed to work on his social skills, meaning that it’s his improved ability to communicate that makes him worthy of Elizabeth Bennet at the end. Neither of them wants to listen to Tim’s analysis of what this says about their relationships with Bruce

Duke has never engaged in non-Alfred approved chaos. This is not because Duke seeks Alfred’s approval, but rather because their senses of humor are in perfect alignment and Alfred is always pleased to discover that he approves of Duke’s particular instances of chaos even after the fact

Damian never had stuffed animals growing up, but after being corrupted by Dick’s influence he can no longer sleep without a minimum of one in his bed

Damian collects posters and articulable action figures. His favorite ones are the ones that can stand on their own, which he uses for posing practice in his drawings. His favorite figure is of one of the characters in Cheese Vikings who has a zuko-esque backstory and a secret propensity for gardening

Dick always buys the most beat up box of cereal at the grocery store because he feels bad for them

Cass loves not only ballet, but other works by classical composers as well. She will unironically listen to the local classical station, and can identify the Borodin String Quartet by the sound of their instruments alone

Tim and Bruce watch and read Gray Ghost media in all its various forms and discuss it together as a bonding activity

Alfred and Jason’s shared birthday is usually celebrated with them making each other cakes, meaning that everyone gets to enjoy not one but two cakes for the day

Jason specializes in cheesecake above all other cakes, though he did make Damian a black forest cake for his birthday once right after he’d finished playing Portal

Literally everyone is surprised when they learn that Damian plays video games. No one has ever once looked at him and thought “yeah, i bet that kid plays console games” and he’s actually really insecure about it, but he also refuses to wear any kind of merch outside the house. He owns dozens of gaming and anime T-shirts but refuses to be seen as anything but completely neutral outside his own territory

Most of the bats wear drug-detecting nail polish at all times, though the base and reactive colors vary by the bat in question

Bruce and Dick have both had therapists straightup quit on them and are therefore reluctant to go back to therapy ever again

Duke’s favorite book is Walden Pond

Alfred read Lord of the Rings aloud to Bruce when he was a kid

[taperwolf]

Finally got my Eurorack system updated on ModularGrid — I hadn't gotten around to setting up a few of my custom modules, like the Harald Bluetooth Receiver, the Toy Drum, my true diode Ring Modulator, and my analog logic module "Lola".

Starting with the top left is the Behringer Radar, a contact mic and input amplifier with a gate and a triggered envelope. It's a version of the Mutable Instruments Ears (itself an adaptation of the MTM Mikrophonie); the big change is that all the sensitivity and envelope jumpers are brought out to front panel switches.

Next is one of North Coast Synthesis's "Passive Multiples and Friends", which I built as a mult.

Next is the Behringer Model 182, a clone of the Roland Model 100-series analog sequencer. (A Christmas gift from my wife's parents!)

Next is the MidCentury Modular Dividers, which combines a binary clock divider (simultaneous ÷2 - ÷128) and an adjustable (÷2 - ÷9) divider, both based on CMOS chips. (Built from a PCB/panel set).

Next is my homebrew analog logic module Lola. It has two sections: the unary input which takes one signal and outputs its inverse and its half- and full-wave rectified versions, and the binary input which gives you the OR, AND, and XOR of two signals. (Lola is named that because it's mostly based on the Mutable Instruments module "Kinks". I left off its S&H and added the XOR.)

Next is Chaos, a clone of the MI Marbles random gate and voltage generator.

Next is a set of two low-pass gates, made from vactrols, which I built onto a buggy (malformed) version of my oscilloscope module panel.

Next is my LittleBits Adapter, which lets me plug in the magnet-based circuit building toy modules including those from the Korg collab.

On the second row, we start with the Behringer Model 150, another Roland 100 series clone; this one is noise, a S&H, a ring mod (actually a chip based four quadrant multiplier), and an LFO.

Next looks like another Passive Multiples and Friends, but this one is my Simple Cascading Fixed Amplifier, a set of four fixed amplifiers set up to do x2, x10, or x20 without modifications and up to x400 with self-patching.

The next is a Passive Multiples and Friends, this one an OR Combiner meant to combine multiple gate or trigger signals.

Next is the Kassutronics VCO 3340, an analog VCO I built from the PCB/panel set — basically the CEM3340 chip broken out plus a sine wave output (though the chip is actually the AS3340 clone).

After that is the 3320-VCF by PM Foundations, a low-pass filter with voltage-controlled cutoff and resonance, again built from PCB/panel.

Then it's my first VoxMachina Sigma function/slew generator, followed by a dual attenuverter/mixer, followed by the second Sigma — all together basically a workalike of the Make Noise Maths. The Sigma is very versatile but mostly ends up used for envelopes and LFOs. I had the pcbs and panels fabricated from VoxMachina's uploaded Gerber files.

Next is another Passive Multiple.

The next is a Behringer Four Play, four VCAs that can be used separately or mixed together. It's a functional rip-off of, I believe, Intellijel's quad VCA design.

Next is my homemade ring modulator, a proper two-transformers-and-a-diode-ring unpowered design.

After that, built into another PMaF panel, are two copies of the IamO single-JFET VCA, followed by my version of David Haillant's Simple VCA.

And last in the center row is the Modular in a Week "A Simple Mixer, Right?" (ASMR). A basic five-channel mixer with plain and inverted outputs, I got this as a kit.

In the third row, we start with MiaW's POW, which has LEDs for each power rail, a USB power jack, an external Eurorack power breakout, and a switch that currently doesn't do anything. (I'm still debating whether I should add case lighting.)

Next is a very simple reverse-avalanche oscillator with (not particularly tracking) voltage control, built from LMNC schematics.

Next is the Behringer Brains, their adaptation of the MI Plaits; it's a tremendously versatile voice that's way too tempting to leave on speech synthesis mode.

After that is another Simple Cascading Fixed Amplifier. I think this one uses inverting amplifiers and the other uses non inverting ones?

Next is the Toy Drum — I tore apart one of those electronic drum kits with the roll-up rubber pads and wired up inputs to four of the triggers, giving me a cheap but cheerful kick, snare, hat, and cymbal set.

Next is the Harald Bluetooth Receiver, the module out of a DIY Bluetooth speaker; it'll play stuff off a paired phone, or read files from a microSD card or USB stick.

Next is the DSPFX, a very cheap 100-in-1 audio effects board, which I often use to add end-of-chain reverb/delay and stereo separation. Built from MiaW design, though I had the panel fabricated.

The final PMaF is wired in passive mixer mode; it usually combines the ASMR mixer's output with the stereo output from the DSPFX, the two channels feeding the Phonic, my custom headphones output device (based on the circuit from the Befaco Out).

That's a total of 6 purchased modules, 2 kit builds, 3 PCB/panel builds, 5 PMaF panel builds, 2 fabs from Gerbers, and 13 modules of assorted more custom building, all in a homemade case. Not too shabby, I guess.

[synthtv]

Mutable Instruments Rings 5 AWESOME PATCHES

[presswerk]

How to Download Sonixinema Saxophone Explorations (KONTAKT)

Looking for a groundbreaking saxophone library that pushes the boundaries of sound design? Sonixinema's Saxophone Explorations for KONTAKT delivers just that. This powerful instrument library offers an incredibly versatile and emotive saxophone experience, capturing unique articulations and evolving textures through expert recording and innovative use of modular effects. Here’s an in-depth guide on how to download and use this exceptional KONTAKT library.

Step 1: Download KONTAKT PRO

Before diving into Saxophone Explorations, make sure you have KONTAKT PRO installed on your system, as this library requires the full version for optimal functionality. If you don't have KONTAKT PRO, you can download it from our website to ensure seamless integration and performance. KONTAKT’s interface allows for rich playback of the complex articulations and dynamic effects crafted in the Sonixinema library.

Product Overview: Sonixinema Saxophone Explorations

Instrument: Saxophone Product Range: Explorations Microphone Positions: Close Mono, Direct Signal to Modular Rig Presets: 27 Articulations (108 Presets) File Size: 6.8GB (Delivered as 3.5GB in NCW Format) KONTAKT Version: Free Kontakt Player File Format: VST

This library isn’t your typical saxophone plugin; it's a creative exploration of soundscapes inspired by artists like Colin Stetson, Bobby Krlic, and Mica Levi. With 108 customizable presets spanning baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones, Saxophone Explorations allows composers and producers to incorporate new textures and sonic possibilities in their work. The intricate modular setup includes effects like Mutable Instruments Rings, Makenoise Erbe-Verb, and the Quad Peak Animation System to deliver atmospheric, layered soundscapes.

Detailed Recording Process and Modular Integration

At the heart of Saxophone Explorations is saxophonist Jay Reynolds, a versatile musician with a deep love for both saxophones and modular synthesis. This library was recorded during lockdown in Jay’s studio, using a premium microphone setup with Beyerdynamic M160 for close-miking and an AKG C414ULS for room depth. Combined with FMR Audio RNP preamps and Audient ASP880 converters, the recordings retain every nuance of Jay’s expressive performance.

The blend of dry and modular effects is where Saxophone Explorations truly shines. Jay’s custom signal chain includes synth-driven processors like Makenoise ModDemix, 4MS Tapographic Delay, and Mutable Instruments Ripples. The Character Slider gives users intuitive control over these sounds, allowing real-time modulation between the dry sax signal and Jay’s effects, resulting in an endless array of sonic textures.

Installation Guide

Ensure KONTAKT PRO is Installed: As this library requires KONTAKT PRO, verify you have it installed. You can download KONTAKT PRO directly from our website if needed.

Download Sonixinema Saxophone Explorations: Access the download link for Saxophone Explorations here. The compressed download is 3.5GB in NCW format and expands to 6.8GB once installed.

Loading into KONTAKT: Once downloaded, open KONTAKT PRO and load Saxophone Explorations into your library. The presets are grouped into 27 articulations with 108 presets in total, allowing a vast array of tonal and expressive options.

Explore Articulations & Presets: Dive into the library’s extensive articulations, covering both traditional saxophone sounds and experimental textures. With baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano saxophones available, you can seamlessly explore different registers and timbres within your compositions.

Final Thoughts

Sonixinema Saxophone Explorations offers an avant-garde approach to saxophone sampling, bridging the gap between acoustic performance and synthesized textures. Whether you’re scoring films, creating ambient soundscapes, or adding depth to electronic music, this KONTAKT library empowers you to reach new creative heights with one of the most expressive virtual saxophones available.

Don’t miss out on adding this groundbreaking tool to your collection—download Sonixinema Saxophone Explorations today and unlock a world of sonic possibilities.

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

"Orizzonti" Modular meditation with Mutable instrument Marbles, Rings an...

[useanotherday]

I can lose myself in playing around with Modular by Softube - especially the Mutable Instruments Rings and Clouds. (Until I mess up and change the wrong knob (02:22) and get an inharmonic mess.) I eventually put it back to where it was (05:37). Music: https://ift.tt/p1JDsK5 Audio production blog: https://ift.tt/DWCETai Newsletter: https://ift.tt/ICmzZWy

[defiantdreemurrs]

alright lets get started. heres the initial layout.

you might notice a lot of mutable instruments modules and yes the box was mostly built around *primarily* using stages (here known as segment generator) as a set of 6 decay envelopes triggered by various sequencers. i literally only just finished putting it together so i havent given it a try yet to see how it works but ill outline my thought process behind this initial build.

so here we have sequencer land. i probably didnt need marbles in here considering it isnt super relevant to the intent behind this box, but i like to use marbles in basically every setup i build in vcv rack because you never know when you need multiple turing machines.

the heart of this synth is the segment generator, as stated before. up in the corner i have CLKD to act as a master clock for the entire box because it offers a precise BPM clock which, considering the point of this box is to create percussion sounds and especially percussion *loops* that i can use in other work, is going to be very useful for getting things to sync up right in logic. next to it is the topograph module by valley, which is a clone of mutable instruments fantastic grids module, which uses a 2D map of drum patterns from across the world to generate drum patterns that can be tweaked in real time using the fill knobs. beside that is the rebel technology stoicheia, which is a "euclidean rhythm sequencer", using the mathematical principles of euclid to generate percussion patterns. its really neat and creates some interesting patterns just by twisting knobs and ive been meaning to use it more.

here in sound territory we have even more mutable modules (or "audible instruments", as that is who repurposed the open source mutable code to port all these modules to vcv rack). starting from the right we have a pair of plaits (macro oscillator 2) and a pair of TS-Ls, these by instruo. plaits is a "macro oscillator" with 16 different oscillator models, each of which can be shaped using the timbre, morph, and harmonics knobs which do different things depending on the model. TS-L meanwhile is a simple analog oscillator with sine, triangle, and square waveforms, plus pulse width modulation and wavefolding. these are meant to be my primary sound generators, a quartet of oscillators in pairs of analog and digital, for the best of both worlds (though i do wish TS-L had sawtooth waves).

the remaining modules on the top part are a pair of filters, namely ripples once again by mutable instruments (im on a mutable kick today after diving into a lengthy video about stages). theyre simply wonderful sounding filters offering 2 and 4 pole low pass filters as well as a 2 pole band pass filter. theyre my go to filter these days. the bottom rack meanwhile has the ever popular rings ("resonator"), a physical modeling oscillator using resonators to create sometimes percussive, sometimes bell-like, and sometimes plucked string-like sounds. its another module i use in as many setups as i can shoehorn it into because it just sounds nice and theres nothing like it.

to its left is streams, another mutable module that provides a pair of low-pass gates. low-pass gates are an innovation from the west coast and the world of don buchla. in the real world sounds that decay in volume also tend to get darker as they decay, something don buchla figured out when he was developing his own take on synthesis back in the late 60s. in contrast to moog designs (and the 99% of the synth world that took after moog) many buchla synths feature these instead of traditional filters and VCAs. you can essentially see a low-pass gate as a combination low pass filter AND VCA, working in tandem to filter out high frequencies from a sound the quieter it gets. streams in particular i havent played with much but in a synth where low-pass gates are a significant focus (due to their wonderful effect in creating percussive sounds) i wanted to wrap my head around what it can do.

that ends the discussion of the major blocks of the synth so now im just gonna look at the rest of the modules which are a bit scattered to wherever they can fit. here we have a simple noise generator on the left, a logic module in the middle, and the CGS modulo magic on the right. the modulo magic is something far beyond my comprehension or ability to explain (all i really know is its originally a serge module that i guess was later adapted to eurorack) but from what i understand it uses the concept of modulo operations to effectively limit an input voltage to a certain range. the logic module meanwhile, in case it isnt obvious, uses logic gates (AND, OR, XOR, and NOT in the case of this module) on incoming signals to generate trigger outputs.

in this corner we have a pair of ALM tangle quartets, which are 4 channel VCAs with a mix output. i dont have much to say about these other than VCAs and mixers are essential to any modular system and you can never have too many of them. to the right is a pair of buchla inspired random voltage generators stacked into a single module. the orange plug receives a clock source or trigger of some kind, and the four blue plugs underneath spit out random voltages that change each time the module receives a trigger. the other two plugs below that are a simple CV inverter (any control voltage that goes in comes out inverted).

finally on the right we have utilities, based on mutables kinks, and tidal modulator 2, based on mutables tides. kinks is a simple utility module with an inverter, wave rectification, logic AND and OR gates, and sample and hold. tides meanwhile is a modulation source that i, once again, have not wrapped my head around yet, but am slowly getting the hang of.

and last but most certainly not least, we come to meta modulator, also known as warps, and modal synthesizer, also known as elements. warps takes two inputs and modulates them against each other in some way based on the position of the algorithm knob, ranging from simple crossfading and cross modulation, working up thru multiple ring modulation algorithms, bitwise XOR modulation, a comparator, and finally resulting in a vocoder. elements meanwhile uses excitation and resonators to act as a full physical modeling synth voice on its own. i cant say how much use im going to get out of it in this box, but i thought it would be neat to include since i had the space and didnt know what else to put in. its a bit similar to rings but with a much larger feature set and with an entire excitation section to use for shaping the transients of the sound.

so overall im looking forward to using this to create a bunch of really cool percussion sounds. ive also got a little manual trigger module on the side thats just a big ol button i can push to trigger a sound for ease of sampling. plus the variety of sequencers are there so the synth can be used as a kinda fucked up sounding drum machine. when i get around to using it ill post another write-up including my thoughts on the design and its usability and whether or not it does what i set out to do with it.

i think todays vcv rack experiment will be building a percussion synthesizer that i can sample and use outside of the modular world except instead of a single voice itll be capable of building patterns too

so a percussion box for sampling both one shots and loops from

ill do a writeup on the process later when its done

[loudestwarning]

Ringsssss

[cygnusred]

Star Wars Voice FX With Warps

[merryfortune]

Day 18 / Paranormal

Clover and Violets 2021

Ship: Controlshipping | Asuka/Camilla

Universe: Alternate - Medieval Fantasy

Word Count: 2,595

Rating: M

Tags: Vampires, Blood Drinking, Sexual References, Character Death, Light Necrophilia (?), Inspired by Castlevania (?)

   She wanted knowledge, so she sought knowledge from the one who had been there when history was not history but the present day.

   On the edge of a certain township, nestled in the range of certain mountains streaked with volcanic glass and obsidian, there was a manor. No one ever came to it and no one ever left it but every night torches would be lit and there would be a gentle candlelight glow coming from the inside of it and it had been like that, unchanging but steady in rhythm, for centuries.

   It was ill advised to make the pilgrimage but one Tenjoin Asuka, with that unquenchable desire to learn and learn, she went against such warnings and ascended along the path. And when she arrived, she would have been that manor’s first visitor in many, many years. Eons, even. But the manor was just as it was rumoured. Black and dark with crystal-eyed gargoyles watching the front door but she was unafraid.

   With the back of her hands, she rapped on the front door, “Hello?” she sang out. “Is anybody home?”

   Her eyes darted up and about. She saw that there was light inside the manor. It wasn’t blindingly so, given how gargantuan this place was, but they were there. It was homely. Asuka’s eyes searched the door again and she felt foolish but she noticed the bronze doorknocker - a horrible faced boar - and reached for it. It was situated a good head or so taller than her so she had to get up on her tiptoes. And just as her fingertips grazed the smooth ring of its plaque, the door opened. Swinging wards and she gave a startled noise.

   From inside the doorway, she heard a demure chuckle. She blushed.

   Asuka saw the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in the doorway. Rather taller than her; voluptuous and wearing only the thinnest clothes on such a cold night that had just pressed past a frigid twilight. Her eyes were sharp and her lips were sharper as she studied the most unlikely guest whom she had.

   Asuka was starstruck as she tried to muster herself to speech. Her sudden shyness amused the woman but somehow, she bustled through her own social impediment.

   “I desire what you have. Your library, I hear, is the stuff of legends. I want to enrich myself on those tomes and I will not be taking no for an answer.” Asuka said.

   The woman’s grin grew wider.

   “My name is Asuka and to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

   “Camula.” she replied. “Thy name is Camula and I am impressed with ye, come in, come in.”

   Asuka was mutably pleased with herself as she was invited inside. And the inside of this manor was just as grand as the outside. The decor was rich and decadent but brutal. Tapestries of the most brutal deaths in history adorned the walls which were seemingly endless. The manor was a maze within but this woman - Camula - navigated them so well compared to Asuka, who just kept track of where they were going mentally, was already quite confused.

   The doors opened by themselves at the threshold of the library. Asuka was stunned. She had never seen such automations before. From what she could observe, the only living souls in this manor was herself and her madam, Camula. She had not spied a servant or any quarters which would pertain to such.

   Camula kept sashaying forth and Asuka kept pace. She stole glances around. It smelt old and musty but there were rows upon rows of bookcases which were taller than trees and all of them crammed tight with tomes and grimoires and all sorts of treasure troves of history. Merely being in their presence, Asuka felt blessed and eager. 

   Camula sat down in a plush armchair by a central, brick fireplace in the middle of the library. There was a twin to the set so Asuka did the same. She kept her knees and ankles together but Camula was more languid in her body language. Asuka glanced down and she noticed the fire had not been lit. 

   Camula noticed and Asuka stiffened. She worried if she had committed some faux pas but Camula merely giggled with a smirk, she lifted a hand and snapped her fingers. The fire ignited.

   “H-How did you do that?” Asuka stuttered out the question.

   “Dominion over fire is one benefit of my longevity,” Camula said and she spoke with sloth, bringing attention to her crimson lips and Asuka was entranced, even as she saw those unnatural canines in the corners, she chose to believe they were carved or natural disfigurements, “counteracts the loneliness and starvation. Almost. You come to Camula, yes, for her knowledge and her library. That must mean you are familiar with the not quite truths of my power and my resources, yes?”

   Asuka frowned. “I heard you were a vampire, yes, if that is what you are asking but I do not believe in such monsters.”

   “A shame.” Camula said. “Because such monsters believe in you.”

   Asuka shivered. “What do you mean?”

   Camula leaned over the armrests of the armchairs, just so she could touch Asuka’s face. She winced. Camula’s fingers were ice cold and her nails were more like the talons of a vulture.

   “I am vampire. That is no lie nor no rumour. The exactness of vampirism, yes, it is murky to those unaware but I am a vampire.” Camula whispered. “And if you desire all of this, all of thy library to study, then I wish to feed from you, dearest Asuka.”

   Asuka had come here for knowledge. Including and especially that which had been forbidden to her. Her furrowed brows were cute and she lifted her arm to Camula, flexing the muscle and making a vein in the pale of her arm more noticeable, even in the fireside dim of the library.

   “I want to see more of the effects of your vampirism, and what would you recommend? Reading forward or reading backward? Beginning at the beginning of time or at what you have most recent?” Asuka asked, withholding a tremble in her arm as Camula caressed her there.

   Her fingers slid sensually along the flat of Asuka’s forearm. Her heart pounded. Camula looked up to her and her eyes glowed in the dark like a bat’s. There was a droop of hunger to her demeanour. Forlorn and agonised with what she had been denied for so long.

   “Whatever you desire, dearest Asuka.” Camula replied.

   “Very well.” Asuka said. “You have my consent to feed from me.”

   Asuka steeled herself but there was very little need to. Camula was gentle. She kissed the inner of Asuka’s wrist before sliding her face, soft as velvet, down Asuka’s forearm before stopping at the crook of her elbow. She held on a little tighter and there was dual pinch. Asuka flinched but she didn’t let that turn into hesitation or suspicion as Camula fed from her.

   The taste of Asuka’s blood was divine. She was sweet as a noblewoman should be; having grown up on buttered, honey toast and game grown on verdant pastures. Camula taste it all and what a feast Asuka provided her with. She was succulent.

   Asuka watched, intrigued, as this vampire drank her blood. After losing what felt like a quart of blood, she withdrew her arm and Camula sighed. She let Asuka go but Asuka felt her nails trail on her skin and Camula held her hand. She looked up, in a daze, blood on her lips. Tasteful trails, not messy. She licked idly at them and Asuka was fascinated.

   “You should eat too, dear,” Camula told her, “not good to lose too much blood at once, yes?”

   Asuka nodded but Camula laughed. There was a mirth in her eyes which surprised Asuka.

   “But let me guess, you would like it brought out here so you may read simultaneous to tending to your own health and hungers?” Camula asked.

   “How did you know?” Asuka asked, a little sheepish.

   “I just know these things.” Camula told her.

   Asuka smiled with a hint of a blush. Camula excused herself and left Asuka alone. She was giddy but it was a quiet sort of giddy. She couldn’t tell if it was from blood loss or the gain of something else. She looked around the hallowed room once more - such a gargantuan library - and she was just filled with wonder. She just knew this would be a most beneficial relationship between herself and Camula.

   And oh what a true prophecy that was.

   From Camula, Asuka feeded and from Asuka, Camula feeded. Soon, not just in the library or along Asuka’s arms, but elsewhere too. Asuka permitted Camula’s lips to all parts of her body. Underneath her clothes and deep between her legs, upon her breasts and in sessions long and sweet for them both. In turn, Asuka found many reading nooks in the various places of the castle - including and especially what would become her favour, Camula’s royal bedchambers. 

   They spent months together in this bliss of satiating all their various hungers: of the body, of the mind, and even of the soul. From the dead of winter all the way to the brink where summer surrenders to an already pervading autumn. But it was at that fall of summer and that rise of autumn that they experienced a fall of a different kind.

   Asuka’s older brother, concerned for his younger sister’s welfare had come searching for her. Though she had disowned herself when he had tried to stifle her curiosity and tenacity, he had come looking and upon that mountainside, streaked with vermillion leaves and harsh outcroppings of rock, he found her.

   In the ballroom and in the arms of her lover.

   The ballroom was huge. Of marble tiles and tall marble spires.  It was wall to wall with mirrors that only Asuka could see herself in. Dress sashaying about but there were two sounds of high heels on the crisp, clean flooring. A place where instruments played themselves: a harp, a lure, a violin. All of Camula’s favourites and more playing songs that Asuka knew from before the first century that humans recorded and recognised.

   It had been such a wonderful night for them both. Camula was always one ready for a dance and at the end of what had been harvest time for the human peons down off the mountainside was a perfect time. Asuka had agreed. One last time to don their summer dresses of brilliant scarlet and sepia. They could have danced the night away and that had been their intention with their dancing eventually leading to something else but then the door opened unexpectedly. 

   Banging and clanging and they were both terrified, holding onto each other, a mess of arms and scars, and Asuka saw him.

   “Fubuki.” she gasped and she gasped again when he acted first and thought second.

   He shot a crossbow with an arrow meant for Camula.

   Camula screamed as Asuka slumped in her arms. Asuka had never lost blood quite like this before. It always felt like a kiss of passion from Camula. This was passion too. Just not quite so sensuous. More wrathful than that. And when she died, fearing for her own life and safety, Camula abandoned Asuka, even though that caused her to screech in anguish than if she had been the one to have had a stake launched against her.

   Her eerily beautiful human body gave way to fur and she transformed into a bat. She escaped and Fubuki cursed her name. Blaming her for his sister’s death than his own hands but at least she was back. She was no longer with monsters. Not realising his own monstrousness as he took back his sister and buried her six feet under. Caressing her arms, covered in bite marks from repeated sessions of bleeding, seeing something vile where Asuka once saw love.

   But Camula would not rescind her lover quite so easily.

   Asuka wanted knowledge for knowledge’s sake. She did not want immortality or vampirism. She still saw good in humans, even when Camula relayed stories of all the times she had to hide for her own safety. If only tonight had been one of those nights in the crypt where she begged for humans to leave her alone but she was alive as she was dead and she wanted to celebrate every minute she had with Asuka as human lives were so finite.

   Completely unlike the dirt they buried themselves in after they lived. Dirt, Camula thought, was endless as she sifted through the soil that Asuka - her Asuka - was buried beneath. She scraped through it with an expression born of ferity. Not caring remotely for how it sullied and tarnished the silk dress and ermine coat that she adorned herself in. Not even as how the dirt became slurry and mud as rain poured overhead, stingingly cold and cruel. Not until she felt her whole body quake when her claws raked against wood. Not even fine, mahogany wood. Just pine. Asuka deserved better, Camula cursed her brother and her pitiful family.

   She had not been stolen away and seduced. She had journeyed and been loved for her inquisitive nature. Her accursed stone gravestone was wrong and Camula would ensure it was. 

   Camula broke through the wood and she saw Asuka’s face. Pale, tinged green and blue but still so, so beautiful. Like a saint. Camula helped Asuka out of it. Her body like the poppets that Camula was so fond of making for herself.

   With a heaving breath, desperate and wrong, Camula kissed Asuka. They had done so much together but never this for a vampire’s kiss was all that it took. Took to return life to a corpse and to cause an undeath in a human. But Camula kissed Asuka hard, even when she tasted for the chemicals they used to embalm her body and it sickened Camula. Things were meant to die and become putrid. She knew that all too well as an immortal. 

   But at least Asuka woke up from her death like she had woken up from a nap. She was confused, her brown eyes wide, and then she realised. Thunder crashed and boomed; lightning was quick to follow like a snivelling dog. And Asuka’s heart broke: with that realisation, yes, but with the grief she saw on Camula, like mud and rain and death.

   “What have you done?” Asuka asked, tears in her eyes but Camula was praying they were raindrops.

   “I couldn’t,” Camula sobbed, “I could not face eternity after knowing you and your love, please, dearest Asuka, forgive me and mine own selfishness. I am no different to your brother and murderer.”

   Asuka took Camula’s hand. She didn’t know how to console her. She didn’t know if she ought to but she at the very least took Camula’s hand and marvelled at the fact it was still cold. Just like hers now, she supposed, and she kissed Camula. Camula kissed back and she snivelled into it. Scurrying and terrified but Asuka didn’t mind as there was a dominance to her own kiss. A pierce of the lips as she tried to grapple with the feeling of having fangs in her own mouth. Camula whimpered and she bled with the sludge that vampires carried in their own veins in the place of blood. It was foul. Putrid. But she kept kissing back to Asuka’s forceful kiss in her very own grave.

[taperwolf]

I decided today that I should build my own version of ⅔ of the old Mutable Instruments module Kinks — the top two sections, leaving off the sample and hold. To review, the first section takes a single input and yields its inverse and both a half-wave and full-wave rectified version; the second takes two inputs and outputs their voltage maximum and minimum, aka their analog OR and AND. I'm throwing in an extra circuit to the second section that's said to be the analog equivalent of an XOR, supposed to act much like a ring mod.

I'm planning on building it on protoboard from parts I have on hand, and because I'm terribly impatient and a little obsessive, I've just spent a couple of hours whomping up a faceplate from some scrap sheet aluminum without any power tools.

The top mounting hole is for an LED following the polarity section's input, and the rest are for jacks. I've long tried to follow a convention of inverting the background of output jacks, just for that extra bit of clarity; I may still need to give that white another coat of paint marker before I start labeling.

Anyway, I'm trying to better document progress on these projects I'm doing, so I'll keep you all posted.

[synthtv]

Mutable Instruments Rings as a Reverb Module

[n5md]

Cloudwalker

In our newly relaunched "Learn more about..." interviews, we switch up the continuity slightly and focus on just one release: Gimmik's Cloudwalker. Martin kindly agreed to answer a few questions to kick off what we'll refer to as v2 of the "Learn More About..." blog.

While Entre Les Chambres was the actual return of Gimmik to the public eye, Cloudwalker is more of a return to form. It is undeniably Gimmik; however, Cloudwalker treads some new ground for you. Can you shed some light on how the creative process changed from Entre Les Chambres / Deux Nouvelles and how those two albums might have influenced Cloudwalker?

Very well observed - they did influence Cloudwalker! Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were both produced under technically limited circumstances. On top of that, I thought that no one will ever hear this material. Luckily it was not the case, and I got the chance to become a member of the n5MD family. When you produce with the idea that the material will never get released, it gives you a lot of room and space. You are not concerned about expectations. The music can flow and evolve freely. The calm nature of those albums helped that process. It was research where I experienced myself more as a witness than a composer. For me, that is a new approach. This approach was still the same when I produced Cloudwalker. That is the reason why the tracks are so diverse. Short Wave Memories and In My Family do not have anything in common, but that is the way they evolved, without me constructing anything. The most significant difference is that Cloudwalker was produced in a proper studio environment. Plus, I took a step into eurorack, which brings a very unpredictable element. And yes, that is Mutable Elements "Rings'' what you hear on In My Family. I was working on a self-generative patch with "Marbles'' when all of a sudden, the melody appeared...

I think you sent me In My Family shortly after you finished it, and it was one of the darkest days of the early pandemic; where our local government-issued curfews and such. It was the track that I needed at that moment; it brightened my day. It's very cool that the melody was a generative experiment gone right. I seem to remember you have quite a bit of the Mutable Instruments modules. Modular, to me, seems like a bit of a wormhole of experimentation. So, how do you stay focused when experimenting with new sounds and textures to bring, say, one of your Modular Nature tracks, which you have on your Youtube channel, to life.

Working with a modular system is entirely different. My approach is always a question. What will happen if I connect this with that and modulate with this? Then you start patching, and the results are entirely different from what I expected - a lot more exciting and better! In the beginning, I thought modular was about rebuilding synth voices. So I started emulating the signal-flow path of a 101 for a start. I missed the whole point of modular... A system has a life of its own and takes you to completely different places, and sometimes I do not even understand the results. (-: But that is not important. The decision to work with modular is to avoid walking down paths I have taken too many times when composing. What keeps you focused is your ear. The trick is to learn when to stop. In the beginning, I lost a lot of great patches when the result was already at 90%. When trying to reach 100%, my tweaks destroyed that patch's beauty, and I never found a way back to 90%. That happened a lot of times in the beginning. A modular system really helps to learn when to let go… (laughing). I chose Mutable Instruments because those modules are very focused on musical and harmonic results.

So, going back to Cloudwalker, how did it feel getting back to basics as far as Gimmik goes. People may not know that Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were made for very personal listening. Care to shed a little light on those two, and more importantly, what made you want to go past those themes and bring Gimmik full circle for Cloudwalker?

Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles were NOT a conscious decision. Those were a necessity! The title Entre Les Chambres means "between two rooms", the space that is between two rooms. That is nowhere! It mirrors how I felt at that moment. There were many significant changes in my life, luckily nothing concerning my family, but still major changes. In order to cope with it all, I started making ambient tracks. It was the only thing that helped me to cope and focus again. The tracks happened by themselves. Listening to them and working on those albums was a calming experience. When they were finished, I played them to Chris, and he convinced me that he liked them. That led to the decision to make those first tapes. Later I sent them to you. Your reaction was very motivating because the music got released. With that motivation and getting back into a studio environment, the Cloudwalker tracks just poured out of me very quickly - it felt terrific to go back to the studio. My family gave me the time to work in my studio, and you and Chris gave very motivating feedback! From my perspective, this makes Cloudwalker my most important album so far, and I am very thankful for this chance! Another key element is that you gave me total freedom regarding artwork, choosing tracks, and their order. Just great!

Well, I knew going in that you know what you are doing. So I shouldn't have needed to step in and manage such details. For release prep, I'm available to take care of the details that an artist doesn't have access to or the working knowledge. You and Chris ran Toytronics, and you are a graphic artist as well, so I knew that you know the drill. If something was glaring or didn't work under the n5 stylistic umbrella, it is my job to say something, but I was pretty confident that wouldn't happen. I also know that after you completed the tracks, you took a great deal of time to get them to flow perfectly and also fit on four LP sides—your care in craft shows, and it's been great to work with you.

You brought up Chris, and there is an Abfahrt Hinwl remix on Cloudwalker, so; I'm going to ask. Are we going to hear some new Abfahrt Hinwl soon?

Thank you, as I said, that means a lot to me. And I still think that it is a fortunate situation. The AH RMX of Sailing Everest on Cloudwalker was just me, to be honest. That is why I used an abbreviation - AH. It is more a hint. It has a lot of the Abfahrt Hinwil ingredients. We tried to revive the project and realized that working over a distance via the internet does not work for either of us. The key of Abfahrt Hinwil was that we worked in the same room, at the same time, with the same equipment - listening to what the other one does - giving an immediate reaction. The most important point is communication, which has to happen immediately - you need to respond straight away, not with a delay. Today we find ourselves in two different life situations. We both would like to continue. After an online experiment, we realized it would be only possible when we visit each other and then work in the same studio. That is not possible at the moment, and Covid plays a significant role in that.

Ah, I see; Abfahrt Hinwil was you and Chris basically feeding off one another; also, there are cheques and balances, which is great to have. I completely understand why it would not be feasible to do it from a distance effectively. So, I'd like to pivot to these little builds I see on your Instagram. You recently sent me a pic of a peculiar little box that looks to be a synth. Assuming this is something you built (loving the stickering, by the way). What is this, and does it appear on Cloudwalker?

(laughing) That is a drone box handmade by a guy in Russia. Six oscillators, each one with a kill switch. Three standard range oscillators and 3 Sub. A very rough-sounding machine, great for drones. The filter sounds very nasty, just great. There is a little bit in the track Cloudwalker itself but washed out by Big Sky. The downside is that there is no midi, trigger gate, or voltage control. It is more of an experiment tool. The important parts of the track Cloudwalker have Mutable Instruments: Plaits and Tides 1, using the Sheep mode. Both outputs went into Warps, modulated by Stages. The little melody was played live on the Yamaha DX Reface, going into the Big Sky. It was all recorded live onto tape to 4 tracks to a Tascam 234. Then it was mixed the classic way, patchbay, fx, analog mixer main out to digital. 75% of the album was recorded to a Sound Devices MixPre-3 II.

It sounds like your Big Sky gets some action! Strymon makes some exceptional pedals. It seems like you can almost entirely make music out of the box if you needed to, which is excellent. So one last question: When we collaborated on the Cloudwalker one sheet text, you added something about the production tools "representing technology from 1958 to 2019," and I asked if 1958 was a type-o that needed to be corrected to 1985 when it was not. When people read that, I think they will be very curious as to what technology you utilized from that far back…

Yes, it is a great pedal, I love the sound and the fact that you get nice results very quickly.

1958- (laughing) There is an on oscilloscope from Russia, which can be seen in some of the videos on HIDDEN REALITY, and 2 vintage function generators. I got those old function generators from a close friend, he is an electronic engineer and professor for physics at a university. They got rid of all their old equipment, and he asked if I wanted to have something. He could not throw those old machines away, so he rescued them to his cellar. He changed the connections for me, so I can use them with the modular environment, using my standard patch cables. I used them a lot as modulation sources, as they can modulate extremely slow (like MI tides). But I have to admit that I got them for their looks in the first place…(laughing) - Those machines look like the machinery you see in Qs research center in old James Bond movies...

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Learn even more about Gimmik

[mysticalblizzardcolor]

"breath under a tree" w/ Mutable Instruments Beads, Rings, Plaits, Marbl...