Can we talk about modular synths?

[coldbrightsunlight]

Wanted to try a Rytm for a while. They seem very fun, I love the Elektron sequencing. Enjoiii

[mr. sound boy king]

If anyone's looking for Vermona sounding drums on the cheap, I am selling a Mode Machines ADX-1 rn for good price.

[Muse FTW]

Rytm is great. Want to get a Mk2 but gonna wait for the price to go down again. They just gave it a paint job but they increased the price a bit.

The A4 Mk2 I have is excellent (the new enclosure is great) but the color being different than the Rytm Mk2 is gonna bother me for a while lol.

Haven't been using my modular for a few months now. Looking forward to setting it up once I have some more room.

[behndy]

lol. is it stupid that it's that it's avaliable in black now that pushed me into ordering one? DON'T CARE. MATTERS TO ME.

with the constant DetMod discounts and no tax, it was 14 hundy. 'm cool with that.

[GAS KING]

waiting on delivery of the Dinky's Taiko.
Seemed like the right solutions for triggered and modulate-able drum sound.
I'm not really after straight drums but I also have Peaks and Plaits to fill in.
I watched the Divkid Taiko vid and he was getting a bunch of drum sounds out of it with modulation. need to try that. I dig the functionality. don't have it yet.

update on my previous posts; I feel like I'm making some progress at least:

- my disting mk3 was broken. No wonder I couldn't figure out the menus or operation. I think someone (or me) tried to update it and bricked it. idk. but it didin't work. SD card traces were all bent and all the update procedures didn't do anything. said f-it. gone. move on. will wait for MK4 to be cheap.

- got a Pam's. wow. what a module. I understand the basic functions, skip, Euclidian, etc.... but need to explore the CV-able options. this really was a key to my progress. opened up so many things I didn't quite understand. Still more to learn.

- using Pam's or 2hp TM or EG into a uScale for arps or random melody. Maths to attenuate both 1v/o and modulations.

- realizing that I need to do something to all modulation....almost always, to get what I want.

- I like the DPO now that I'm not forcing the FINAL as the only output.

- patched a snare from scratch. don't have noise but could fundementally create a drum sound. Need to try again because I feel like I forgot it already.

- I also just got a SinPhi Miasma (impulse buy) after 2 month delivery from poland (bought maths within that time) and learning it still. Need to use it as a rampage to learn it and then figure out what is different about it.

- had some revelations about VCAs. I didn't quite understand how to use them. Still more to learn in different situations. I'm still a little fuzzy on the reason to use it other than attenuation and triggering volume.

- realized I have things just running. even if varied. there is a lack of space in my patches. no rhythmic space. bleepbloopbleepblapbleepbleepbleepbloopblap. no rests. I'm not sure how "bleep____bloop_____bleepblopbloob_____" in generated.


I made a good patch that I actually enjoyed and for the first time didn't sound like random/chaos/annoying.
some melody, ambiance, bass, drums/rhythm......first time ever.
It was shit but at least it was progress.


Sold my explorer E2 and splurged a little with the Dinky's and Plaits. (and some 24" cables (only have 12" short and 36" super long) and a mic stand cable hanger)

[eatyourguitar]

- had some revelations about VCAs. I didn't quite understand how to use them. Still more to learn in different situations. I'm still a little fuzzy on the reason to use it other than attenuation and triggering volume.

- realized I have things just running. even if varied. there is a lack of space in my patches. no rhythmic space. bleepbloopbleepblapbleepbleepbleepbloopblap. no rests. I'm not sure how "bleep____bloop_____bleepblopbloob_____" in generated.

these are the same thing. VCA is to insert silence under voltage control. V = 0 is silence. also because every VCA has a built in half wave rectifier on the CV input, V < 0 is also silence. here is a little trick to understanding a VCA. a VCA is like a ring modulator but the CV input is always clipping negative CV back to 0v so you will never have audio pass through with -5v CV. a ring mod will phase invert the signal like a mirror image whenever the cv input is negative voltage. the ring mod is the trivial case of A*B=C. you can figure out how multiplication works. easy. because multiplication is commutative A*B=B*A=C. that is why a ring mod has no CV input only two identical inputs. on a VCA, one of the inputs blocks negative voltages and therefor multiplication of negative numbers but only for A*B when B is negative. so A*B!=B*A. therefor B is labeled as the CV input on a VCA to show that it is half dead and do nothing.

this is why a VCA is called a two quadrant multiplier and a ring modulator is called a four quadrant multiplier. perfect symmetry an no dead spots. A*B=C for all A for all B. it is much harder to achieve silence with ring mod because it would be like balancing on some specific precise voltage exactly 0.

[manymanyhaha]

Hey, all you modular folks! I've been looking at modular from afar, almost like a child-less adult looks at people with kids

Have a question about live drum manipulation, meaning I play real drums into loopers, each drum on a separate loop, and then want to manipulate those loops into other evolving rhythms, tones etc. Hands-on with knobs etc, performance-minded . . . .less menu-diving and forethought.

I came across the Intellijel Rainmaker yesterday and it has me starting to explore building a small modular system that would fit on a rack drawer, in a case maybe like this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/ ... orack.html. Because it will take midi and convert it to clock (my loop software generates midi clock from my loops).

For manipulating and modulating the Rainmaker, does anyone have any suggestions of what I might should be looking at? I have played a bit with Softube Modular so I am aware of some modular concepts but there are so many options out there, I'm just hoping for some suggestions, to kind of focus this exploration.

[eatyourguitar]

rainmaiker is a spectral delay. I don't know if that is exactly what you describe. probably a better option is ableton live with beat repeat. that can chop loops on the fly and rearrange loops even if there is no midi on the drums and no gates or triggers in the modular. trying to extract triggers from audio is tricky and mostly not worth the effort. modular does a great job of creating rhythms from scratch and having parameters everywhere that can manipulate those rhythms as they are being created in real time. this is a very different world compared to playing the drums yourself and recording it into a looper. you could say there is no overlap at all. all you need is this pioneer if you want to play with chopping beats in real time.

https://www.ebay.com/i/383630334998

or record beats into a sampler and chop them up not in real time. ER-301 is probably the one module that will actually do this in eurorack but that is a big purchase that fits into a much larger expensive system. same for the rainmaker. you don't simply buy a rainmaker. you sell your car and buy a modular.

[manymanyhaha]

At one point not too long ago, I tried to mess with beat chopping with J74 Sliceshuffler and Buffer Shuffler, just didn't suit my workflow and added too much latency. Kind of a PITA actually, especially while also trying to record with Reaper in the same computer. And actually I can do slicing and shuffling in Mobius, though it isn't quite as easy to control as one of the aforementioned shuffler programs.

Really just wanting to effect the drums but have it evolve over time. Originally was trying a Poly Digit but that didn't suit my workflow. Was looking at Enjoy Electronics Reminder and while researching it, came across the Rainmaker and after watching some videos of it, I'm pretty smitten. If I do this, I know I'm going to want to get a filter and a LFO.

I am aware that what I'm exploring is different from how just about everyone uses modular (effects processor for drums as opposed to synthesis). I'm also aware that I'm asking a really broad question, apologies.

[MrNovember]

Oddly enough, this is the first thing that's kind of making me want to jump back into modular:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fl ... of-harmony

[behndy]

lol. i almost backed that. it's so. damn. enticing.

but.... i don't need it. or have the room for it. MURF.

fucking FUCK. it never ends. finally got the ES-9 setup where each in and out is working and monitoring in stereo to my speakers even without a DAW up (YES) life is fucking GOOD then Os released a totally reworked beta firmware that had filter eq and compression/limiter per channel and buss and mix out. did the FW update, got an error message whilst using the configuration tool, so reloaded the FW and... BORKED. according to Os it sounds like the FW got corrupted or loaded improperly and he said the only option is to reload a FW with a hardware tool. that isn't expensive, but is a bitch to find in stock. sooooo he just mailed one to me.

which. AWESOME. that's amazing support. but. fuckkkkkkkk. it's coming from Edinburgh, so who knows how long.

ugh. i just. want. to make. noises.

[MrNovember]

I kind of just want the standalone Infernal Noise Machine, but it doesn't look like they will be making more of them

[Dandolin]

sometimes i think about how the things we say strike non-gear-obsessed people

[GAS KING]

I would have every piece of gear, if I were rich.

Every hobby has people like us.

[eatyourguitar]

I like that infernal noise machine because I don't like my plague bearer. it is true what they say, you need 3 of them to be any good. if not it is just a really lame hard to use distortion that is also a very subtle bandpass filter. I have not tried the INM but I have a feeling it would fix what the PB lacks. I really wish the demo had it all tuned to make earthquake sounds running through a death metal distortion. all it does in the demo is noises I can almost make with my modular right now. I already have dual joysticks of my own brand in my system. also the PB is too many HP too many jacks. you have to really consider what modulation makes it distort. it can do audio rate modulation but sometimes it has no affect because it is already out of range on the gain or the modulation is too high frequency. I use the snazzy high gain I got from Bendhy if I need distortion.