Episode 30 Q111 Wave Morphing
here’s been some talk and videos on the Modcan scanner. The .com equivalent is the Pan/Fade module which allows either distribution of one input over two outputs (pan) or mixing of two inputs to one output (fade). Under voltage control. In this video I show some fading between a pulse and triangle wave, by hand and under slow and fast voltage control. I use an arpeggio from an Elektron MonoMachine to drive the sound and in the end I goof off a bit by running the arpeggio really fast in an attempt to create a chip tune effect. Not to successfully however. The module is cool though!
Episode 29 Q130 Clipper showcase
The Q130 Clipper Rectifier is the synthesizers.com wave shaper module. It is like someone said, a bit of an unsung hero. Very subtle in its effect it still holds quite a bit of timbres inside, especially if modulated at audio rates. What it does is it cuts off the tops of waveforms, adding some harmonics. Not quite like distorsion that makes waveform more square shaped by amplifying the signal until it clips. And it has voltage control of the clip level which is where the secret lies. In this demo I feed the clipper a sine wave and modulate the clip level with another audio rate oscillator and then sync them together and stuff. Check it out. There’s also a more artsy video where I “play” the patch, also available as HQ audio at soundcloud.
Links
http://soundcloud.com/7thdansound/knobtune1
Episode 28 Steep Decline (72dB Lowpass filter)
You may have heard people talking about poles in the same sentence as filters. I’m no EE but from my understanding, poles are the smallest cells that build up a filter, each attenuating a signal by 6dB per octave. So that makes a two pole filter 12dB, like the old Oberheim SEM, and a four pole filter 24dB like the classic Moog transistor ladder. These poles are added up to the response wanted when a filter is designed. This can also be done with entire filter modules, such as those in a modular system. Just patch them in series and tune them to the same cutoff frequency (easier when self oscillating). Remember also to tune any modulation of the filters so they don’t go astray or the effect will be ruined.
Last night I did this with all the filters I have in my rig, two synthesizers.com Q107, an STG Post Lawsuit Lowpass and an STG Mankato. That adds up to 72dB/octave of meaty filtering! I made a video of me increasing the slope 6dB at a time and then there is an audio file with a 6 minute jam using the 72dB patch.
http://soundcloud.com/7thdansound/72db-jam
Episode 26 Q127 Fixed Filterbank Showcase
This is a showcase of the Synthesizers.com Q127 Fixed Filter Bank, fed with just a single VCO pulse wave. I vary the pulse width a little and add some vibrato for effect. The filterbank is most useful and can either be put to good use for dramatic timbre changes like this or be fine tweaked to emulate resonating bodies of acoustic instruments. I think the synthesizers.com Q127 sounds really good and that every more than medium sized modular should have a filterbank. The bass sound and percussion come from an Elektron Monomachine and so does the sequence driving the oscillator. There is a little delay from a MoogerFooger delay pedal and some reverb from a Kurzweil Rumor.
Episode 19 Fake delay using oscillators
This trick I first did a number of years ago using the Sequential Circuits Pro One I had at the time and my newly acquired synthesizers.com modular synth. I didn’t have a full 44-space cabinet then as I do now but I did try to use the modules I had to their fullest.
I was experimenting quite a lot back then and tried putting all sorts of signals through all sorts of modules. At one time or another I found that a downward sawtooth could work as a crude repeating envelope and if I put it through a VCA and controlled the VCA with an envelope I got something akin to a delay effect.
So this is that patch repeated and recorded for eternity. The feedback of a regular delay is set by the decay/release of the envelope and the tempo of the delay is set by the frequency of the falling sawtooth. Having sync abilities on the oscillator that produces the falling sawtooth is imperative, otherwise the effect will not work. This is a case where the synthesizers.com philosophy of using regular VCO’s for LFO duties works out well.
If you want to me more true to the sound of an analog delay you can put a low pass filter into the chain so successive repeats get more and more filtered. You can actually control the cutoff frequency of the low pass filter with the same envelope that handles the VCA. And for further accuracy, which might be a bit of overkill perhaps, try inserting the analog bitcrusher patch I show in this video [link].
Episode 17 MS20 style dual filtering
The good old Korg MS20 has, among other cool tricks, two filters. One high pass and then one low pass. This is a very flexible arrangement that allows for some elaborate filtering. Apart from the obvious responses of high and low, when combined you get band pass filter responses. Depending on the frequency settings of the filters the band pass has different width and since both filters are resonant you get to peaks. Using the various controls on the synthesizer like envelopes and modulators you can change the response of the filter combination in many exciting ways.
In this video I’ve arranged my two Q107 multimode filters in a similar fashion to try to demonstrate at least part of the effect of this very flexible setup. I feed the filters with different wave forms from a single oscillator and control both width and cutoff frequency of the filters. I’ve set it up so a single knob or voltage can control both filters at the same time. This is the most complex patch of these demo series to date.
The Korg MicroKorg plays an arpeggio on the single oscillator for melody purposes, I’m such a crappy keyboard player. To spice things up a bit I put my Moog analog delay pedal on the output but I keep the effect down pretty much so as not to interfere too much with the patch.
16 Mankato and WaveFolder show case
The Suit and Tie Guy WaveFolder has intrigued me ever since I got it. http://stgsoundlabs.com/products/wave_folder_mu.htm It’s a waveshaper that will twist and bend your waveforms beyond recognition. Using it with a single input isn’t very fun however, nothing much happens really (unless I’m missing something) but when you insert something of audio frequency into the control input it turns into a beast!
I also have the STG Mankato filter, a peculiar kind of low pass filter with no less than 8 outputs of different slope and phase. It has an extremely wide frequency range and can be turned into a multi-LFO when self oscillating. But it tracks nicely and can be used as a regular oscillator with sine wave output as well.
So in this patch I use the Mankato as sound source in self oscillating mode and use one output as the sound input to the wave folder. Then I use another, out of phase output, as the modulation of the wave folder. This creates some nice over tones. To spice things up a bit however, I put the modulator through a VCA and thus I’m able to control it’s amount with, say, an envelope. The effect is a sound with a sine base shape and added over tones as the envelope opens up. With regular settings of the envelope (no attack, slight decay, no sustain, slight release) I get a sort of low pass response.
DATAMASKIN
