When I went down this modular synth hole about a year ago, I distinctly remember thinking to myself that while I’m okay with the modular nature of modular synths, I’m not okay wit the Do It Yourself aspect of electronics and I had no interest at all in any of that. i didn’t care what was a resistor, I didn’t plan to learn to solder, and it didn’t bother me that I didn’t understand the difference between hertz and amps and volts and ohms.
Now, if you know me, you know that these kinds of thoughts can be accurately put in the “famous last words” category. For the last several months I’ve been planning all kinds of soldering and circuit mayhem, starting with a build-it-yourself control-voltage joystick kit that I bought, that needs a minimal amount of soldering, but lots of planning to go into a metal box correctly (picture of the kit here). I also have a few books now that describe various interesting handmade musical instrument projects. And (oh yeah) several years ago, I had the kids collect all their funny electronic musical toys and we’ve had them sitting in a box here at my studio, waiting to be bent (including a complete set of Speak & Spell, Speak & Math, and a Speak & Reads).
So this last Sunday, I dragged the childrens up to New York City to Culturefix, a small bar/studio/gallery on Clinton Street, just below Houston. Create Digital Music was throwing a little Handmade Music fest there, and they were having a workshop where one can learn to build a very simple, seven-component theremin-type device. Since I’ve had these books and the soldering gear for several months, I’d yet turned it on and still wasn’t sure what to do when I did. So I signed up and took the kids.
Here’s a not-great little movie of the theremin chorus, after we built the things.
It was a real nice time. Peter and Cole made space for us, everyone was friendly, and Wilson and Elliot were interested. We built two kits, one of which had its transistors reversed and needed some desoldering (so I learned to do that too!). But in the end, we got two working teensy theremins (sounds and video to come soon).
And, of course, I think this is just the coolest thing. Now I’m thinking of all kinds of crap I want to make, and when a friend of mine asked me how he might put some push-button sound sources in some space-ship sculptures he’s putting together, I immediately decided that this will be something worth figuring out. It won’t be too hard to build small circuits with buttons and potentiometers that make spacey sounds, will it?
As I’ve written, earlier this summer a friend of mine gave me an old Boss DD3 guitar delay pedal. I’m a big fan of using delays and I’ve used them a lot in the stuff I’ve made in software over the last several years. But as with everything since I got into the modular thing, having a tactile knob to twist and buttons to mash is something else entirely, and creates “fun” where there was just “nice” earlier. So once I ran across the Flight of Harmony Sound of Shadows delay module, where the delay rate and feedback can be controlled with CV, I knew I wanted to go to there. I sold a few modules I don’t use much and ordered the SoS from Analogue Haven. It arrived Monday, and Monday night I spent several hours working out some kinks.
I hadn’t rtfm* yet so some of the controls and inputs were a mystery. And listening to these now two days later, I have no idea what I’m hearing in some cases. “sos four” for instance is repeating entire pieces of the clean phrase, but I don’t know how. I like me some mystery. I do know that the frequent sucking sound on “sos one” is the rate being turned from on to totally off with an envelope, like an LFO.
As for other modules used, “sos one” was a Cwejman VCO6. Four five and six are a Hertz Donut. Some is sequenced by a Noisering, some with a Z8000 sequencer. I also think the last three were using my A134 VC panning module, which works as a crossfader as well, and is really nice for some pseudo stereo.
I realized this morning that I can route the delay signal into signal delay circuit and delay the delay, which with one in the right and the other in the left channel, will be loads of fun.
The SoS is a little noisier than I’d like at times, and since the delay chip was made for karaoke machines it’s got kind of a cranky glitchiness. But I can already see that this is going to be fun.
I’ve been loving my Boss DD3 delay pedal that my friend Greg gave me so much that I sold off some stuff I didn’t use or want, and got a Flight of Harmony Sound of Shadows module. Since this tune I’m posting here doesn’t use the delay at all, I won’t go into it much here. But while putting together some patches and sequences with which to test the SoS out last night, I stumbled across this little bit of goodness.
Basically it’s my two “normal” VCOs, the uLFO and the VCO6, sequenced by the Noisering. As I talked about in the previous posts, the EXT RATE knob is turned fully left so that while the CV output is random, the clock is straight. I’m sending the CV through a mixer to attenuate it a bit, then into a quantizer, then into my new Intellijel Buffered Mult, where I split it into two. With my previous unbuffered mults, this would have been less interesting because the signal would have dropped some. The buffer keeps that from occurring. Once it’s split, the sequence is piped into the VCO6 and the uLFO. The VCO6 is using the triangle wave, the uLFO is using its modified sine, with a LFO clocked every fourth beat adjusting that mod. That provides the slight buzz that rise each measure. The two VCOs are detuned, and it has a really nice organ feel. On some other patches I used a LFO to provide some wobble with the signals put through a filter which really added to that, but not here.
The result is quite pretty. The Noisering really knows how to sequence a bunch of random notes, and I’m loving that thing more and more. It’s random, but it allows so much control over that random. Oxymoronic, I know.
Enjoy. I’ll be posting actual results from several hours with the delay module soon. Including one that’s pretty similar to this.
(Soundcloud, as so often happens, seems to be having problems as I post this. Just click through the ‘vco6ulfo’ link to the source if you can’t play the file here…)
This is basically part 3 in the series of doing stuff with the Noisering, the Hertz Donut, and the Plan B low pass gate. Go back and listen to that which is posted on 3 August and 5 August. This patch is essentially the same. The Noisering sends its random CV to the Hertz Donut, attenuated slightly. The Donut is in “Good” mode, and is connected to the Plan B Model 13 in “both” mode. The signal from the Donut is also attenuated somewhat, as it’s really easy to completely overdrive the Model 13. The envelope for the M13 is provided by Maths. Now the difference here is that the triggers for the whole thing are coming from a Machinedrum. The Machinedrum has a machine called GND IMP which is just a trigger pulse made for things like pre-MIDI drum machines and analog synths. I can sequence these triggers just like any other drum or sound on the MD. I have the track routed through external output F to the CLK IN of the Noisering. That triggers the random CV of the Noisering, and also sends through the clock out the trigger for the Maths envelope.
Now the interesting part here is in the first half of this track. You can hear kind of a little double trigger on each note. I couldn’t figure out what was going on here, thinking it was something happening with the Maths. But then realizing that the notes were changing between each of the little triggers on each beat, meaning that the Noisering was getting two triggers, I realized that the event was taking place on the Machinedrum, not the modular. I noticed that I had the wrong machine chosen for the Machinedrum. It was set to a ROM machine, which is meant for playing back samples, and not the IMP impulse machine. I don’t know — and I wish I’d checked — what the ROM machine was playing. I’m assuming that it had two distinct peaks, whatever it was, which created two triggers. In any case, it sounds great. Like it’s got this funky little swing going. At 1:04 you can hear it change back to single triggers as I swapped the machines out.
The track loops a lot with most of the change coming from the notes played by the Noisering. But closer to the end I’m punching in random steps on the Machinedrum’s sequencer, keeping everything quantized to 16th notes. (In case you want to try this at home, I’m using generic 1/4″ to 1/8″ mono cables I bought at Radio Shack for $5.99. Don’t forget to set the routing for whatever track you’re using for triggers to one of the four external outputs rather than the main output…)
The Hertz Donut VCO has become my favorite source of noise and tones. At one moment nice and calm and soulful, the next minute with a few tiny knob-twists or introductions of voltage, it rips your head off. That’s a good thing, and surprising to me since the main reason I like synthesizers is distinctly not for the head-ripping-off that they’re capable of (re: blinky boopity subtractive synths).
I spent an hour the other night working on variations to the church donut sequence I posted previously. The main difference is in the use of the Noisering as the clock source, and to a lesser extent, modulation of the FM index of the Hertz Donut’s second oscillator. These three sequences were outtakes from that hour of recording. On a synth forum I frequent, I was informed by James Cigler that when nothing is plugged into the clock-in jack on t he Noisering, the randomness of the clock is controlled by the EXT RATE knob, which leaks the random signal from the 2nd output into the clock. The EXT RATE knob basically attenuates this signal, allowing for full-on crazy clock, or when turned counter-clockwise, barely any random signal. This is great, and turns the Noisering into a very useful clock source for me. The only problem with it that I see is that the randomness isn’t voltage controlled, and when something is plugged into the CLK IN jack, it breaks the connection. It would be the monkey’s uncle if somehow the source plugged into the CLK IN somehow controlled the amount of that randomness. Instead it’s the other way around, the EXT RATE attenuates whatever signal is plugged into the CLK IN. Both are useful, but I suppose it would take a second jack and knob to make this work.
In any case, this first sequence is the Noisering clock being rate-controlled by a slow LFO sine wave into the CLK IN jack. (When a trigger source is plugged into the CLK IN, that becomes the source of the clock. This merely controls the rate of the internal Noisering clock). lpg donut lfo-rate by dance robot dance
This next one has nothing plugged into the CLK IN jack. About halfway into the sequence I start turning the EXT RATE knob which adds the random signal to the clock. lpg donut nr clock by dance robot dance
And this last sequence is longer at eight minutes. It’s also clocked by the Noisering, with some randomness in the signal. In this one there are a lot of different kinds of tones with various modulations being applied to the Hertz Donut and to the Maths, lengthening and shortening the envelope (which for you non synth-heads, means shortening and lengthening the note itself). Near the end the Plan B model 10′s ramp output is all over the second Hertz Donut oscillator, which adds that audible rise in the tone behind the decay of the sound itself. I love that. lpg donut nr clock modding fm by dance robot dance
All the delay is provided by the Boss DD-3 pedal. It’s convinced me that I need a voltage controlled delay like the Flight of Harmony Sound of Shadows real soon…
You know how you can spend all day tweaking and patching and after hours you got nothin. Right? Then you decide, after dinner, after tv, just before dropping off to slumberland, just to try one little thing you have in your head. Say, one little thing like driving your Hertz Donut with CV from the Noisering, kinda attenuated a bit with a Plan B mixer so it’s not bouncing all over the place. The Donut sounds great through the low pass gate, so you plug the Maths into the Plan B m13 clocked by a basic LFO pulse, which also clocks the Noisering. So just something simple like that.
And luckily you were still awake enough to push ‘record’ on the laptop so as to save the result. And damn if that’s not the best patch you’ve made in a long time. I’d been told that the Noisering is a musical kind of random, but this was the first time I really attenuated it down without quantizing it, and it’s just lovely, isn’t it? Kinda spooky lovely. The FM tones of the Donut work perfectly with the notes that the Noisering is spitting out, and then I had it all go through a Boss DD-3 delay guitar pedal with a really fast delay, so it’s more of a reverb, and then to the computer for recording.
I might be posting here just for the sake of posting. These aren’t the best thing I’ve made but I like them. I’ve been busy with the day job, and we moved into a new house, so June/July have been silly. Part of the move included taking the music gear (the synth, the machinedrum, a turntable, monitors, a mixer/interface, and various albums and small parts) to an extra room in the new house. This is great, because while the music gear has been in the studio I’ve found that I’m never getting around to turning it on. Basically, if I’m at the studio I’m drawing pictures, and if I don’t need to be there to draw pictures any more, I get the hell out. So now the music studio is sharing a room next to the bedroom, and it’s nice to just be able to make sounds and music while Sacha sleeps or watches a movie or whatever Sacha does. In just the two weeks it’s been there I’ve been using the gear much more. However, I’ve not been recording it much, hence the lack of sounds to share here.
Last week I tried something new. I plugged the turntable into the Machinedrum. I have the UW version of the MD, which acts as a sampler, and if I may say so, holy crap. I have a bunch of files to grind through and I’ll post some results of this soon. In the meantime last night I tried using my a150 VC switch to jump back and forth between the two oscillators in my Hertz Donut. The Donut was set at various modes at various times, and was driven with the CV from a Z8000 sequencer clocked by the Machinedrum and sometimes a Noisering. The a150 was switched with the pulse of a uLFO, with a Maths and an a147 VCLFO modulating the pulse width. This led to some interesting timbres that weren’t there using the HD the way it was meant to be used. Overall, however, it was mostly pretty harsh. Listening to the more than an hour of sounds today I found these sections that all seemed to be rather martian in origin. Therefore, Lost in Space. Thanks to Dr. Pizzoli for the Boss BB3 donation. I likey some delay.
A couple of weeks ago I had to send my Machinedrum to get fixed. A button that was finicky when I bought it became dysfunctional. Elektron said they could send me a new button for $5 and I could do the work myself, which I thought was a little weird. So I sent it to their service facility in Georgia, where it was operated on and sent back to me quote promptly.
In celebration of the return of the Machinedrum, I spent half an hour yesterday on it. These two tunes are all Machinedrum, all recorded in one take, and edited down for length a bit.
As I’ve written, earlier this summer a friend of mine gave me an old Boss DD3 guitar delay pedal. I’m a big fan of using delays and I’ve used them a lot in the stuff I’ve made in software over the last several years. But as with everything since I got into the modular thing, having a tactile knob to twist and buttons to mash is something else entirely, and creates “fun” where there was just “nice” earlier. So once I ran across the Flight of Harmony Sound of Shadows delay module, where the delay rate and feedback can be controlled with CV, I knew I wanted to go to there. I sold a few modules I don’t use much and ordered the SoS from Analogue Haven. It arrived Monday, and Monday night I spent several hours working out some kinks.
I’ve been loving my Boss DD3 delay pedal that my friend Greg gave me so much that I sold off some stuff I didn’t use or want, and got a 
Everything is © 2010 Brian Biggs.