This is great! Nice work. I love that super-saturated sound.


Pretty experimental, but quite melodic. I'm finding myself coming back to using 2HP Pluck as a lead voice again and again. I find it's really good at cutting through, and I especially like the lead guitar sounds it's making in the latter part of this jam. This is overdrive coming from Bastl Cinnamon's resonance switch.


Nice! You have a new subscriber. My favourite part for sure is around 5:40 where you hear the two bass sounds slow and separate. Then when they come together again you can really appreciate how they are complimentary to each other when combined. I also like the times when the chaotic swells build up and then cut out to the smooth piano sound. Constantly surprising, but not in a jarring way, just keeping my ears happily engaged.
I look forward to hearing more of your work.
Best, Ryan


Oh man there's just so much good stuff going on here. That bass sounds so fat and lush. It's like a musical chocolate roll.
Controlled chaos, and so much dynamic and timbral range. Beautiful interaction with the piano.
Tremendous performance! I really enjoyed listening. Thanks for sharing.


Thread: Only Pluck

Wow! So expressive. Beautiful runs and trills. You are seriously squeezing the maximum feeling and tone from that Pluck.
Thanks for sharing.



I've always been a fan of distortion, but the closest thing I've had to it in my modular system so far is a bit of white noise mixed in with oscillators. This changed with the arrival of a Bastl Cinnamon, and I'm now having a great time making it squelch and howl...
Patch notes on the video.


Patch notes:

Main weird thing here is that the melody gate, and percussion/VCA triggers, Shakmat Bishops Miscellany (SM), Bastl Kompass (BK) are being clocked by the kick drum pattern which is the main sequence on a Minibrute 2s. The only exception is the snare, which is clocked normally and triggered by 2hp Euclid.

Kick and snare are Samples coming from a Disting. Kick is triggered by BK Altitude pattern and is also being reset by a slow synced LFO from the Minibrute.

Tides is in audio rate fractions mode in the major range, being VCAd (Doepfer A135-2) by BM random gates. The pitch is taking the Minibrute main sequence, and adding with a T43 to random CV from BM, sent through a Penrose gated also by the BM random gates. This pitch also feeds 2HP Pluck, which is gated by Kompass Longditude.

Plaits is doing the reverb washy 2nd snare type stuff, trigged by Kompass Latitude.

Pressure minibrute seq line is triggering BIA for hatty sounds later on.


Wow! What a vibe here. Very evocative with a lot of mystery and intrigue created by just the sounds, and with the visuals supporting. It's incredible what worlds can be expressed through the interplays between harmony, dissonance, rhythm and tension. Thanks for sharing, I think it's really skilful.


Nice little banger here. I very much appreciate the contrasts in sounds I've been hearing since I became interested in modular music, from these fast and full sounds to more sparse ambient, to very noisy and chaotic stuff. All good, and I never know what to expect. Thanks for posting, I enjoyed it a lot.


I really like this. Nice work! Some very interesting visuals in the video, too. I'm not familiar with the work of Syd Mead, I'm going to check out some. Thanks for sharing!


Miaw! This cat module is very fun, except the hissing which is actually pretty scary, and perfect for Halloween!
Congratulations too on finding a Shared System. That's a fab looking instrument, and the one which first sparked my interest in modular.


Hi Garfield. Nice to hear your Blue Marvin! I especially like around six minutes, when it gets slow and very atmospheric. Beautiful tones :)


Hiya Garfield,

Ah that's great. I hope you enjoyed your holiday! No worries about time to reply, but I'm glad you found it!

The effect at 5:16 is the minibrute's LFO being applied to the filter cutoff (the LFO is tempo-synced and I think this was the triangle). Yes that's the onboard filter of the Minibrute 2s. It's got a really lovely sound. Then adjusting the LFO rate to get some vari-speed wub wubs :)

I've been exploring different genres, and did a more ambient livestream recently. I'm still getting to know my modular rig, and I've always liked working in a range of tempos and style from slow to fast and inbetween. Dub does have a special place in my heart though, so I'm sure there will be more when the mood strikes. Thanks as always for listening!
All best, Ryan


By special request. More dub!


Hi Garfield,

Thanks as always for listening, and for your support.

I guess I'm trying to gain some exposure over on YouTube, and thought the lengthy videos may be putting some people off. Colin Benders is doing 3+ hour livestreams and getting thousands of views in realtime, so maybe I'm overthinking it and I just need to find other ways to promote myself.

As my no.1 appreciator, I will gladly create some more dub for you in the next video, and will even name it for you.

Best wishes,
Ryan


Latest in weekly recordings. Wanted to keep under 5 minutes, and be in a major key for once :)


Hi Ryanthegecko,

Yeah, keep it coming! :-) Nice and funny video, I love that kind of underwater effect unless you managed to develop a waterproof system? ;-) Thank you very much for sharing and kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular

Thanks Garfield :) Nice new profile pic!


A bit of a departure from last weeks dub. Industrial and noisy. Enjoy!


Thanks for the lovely feedback! Glad you enjoyed.


Dub is one of my favourite types of music, but I don't often make it. I had the idea that I'd try it with my modular system, and found it a lot of fun.


Started my modular journey a few moths ago, after being inspired greatly by Andrew Huang. Mylar melodies and DivKid have been invaluable resources in choosing modules and approach.

Not sure what I'd call this, genre-wise. It's a hip-hop-ish beat and tempo, I guess.

Enjoy!

P.s. Sorry for the abysmal camerawork!


what a mess
hehehe
maybe instead of the dopefer mixer/vca - something like veils which is both at once would be more appropriate, alm, intelijel and happy nerding make decent alternatives

-- JimHowell1970

Hehe, yeah it's a work-in-progress for sure. It's a little tidier now if clicked through, but looks like there's some caching for these images that are pulled from rack links.

Thanks for the advice. I'll maybe keep the a-135-2 for VCA duties, and look into a 7hp mixer that will fit instead of the Doepfer adder, since I discovered Disting can also do precision adding, as well as so many other things. I'm playing around with the SD card sample playback algos right now. A bit quirky, but what a versatile unit! Any idea why it's called 'Disting'? Sounds a bit like a Jamaican accented 'This thing'. Like - what do I need for this gap in my patch? Dis ting!


Hey @ryanthegecko do you mind providing a link to your rack vs. the image?
-- jb61264

Heya, sure thing: ModularGrid Rack


It'll work as a mixer... but then you give up the ability to use it as VCAs. You could press the Maths module into mixing duty if need be.
-- Ronin1973

Thanks, that's good to know. Is it a case of jumpers at the back to switch between VCA/Mix modes, or is it dependent on how it's patched? If it's the former, I'd maybe be able to live with it, as that's kind of versatile.

Good point about the smaller clones. I'd envisaged the bottom row as a bit more spacious for ease of use and playability, but maybe there can be some compromise.


ModularGrid Rack

Hi all,
I'm a couple of months into my modular journey and having a lot of fun. I've been making electronic music for about 25 years, and going modular has really changed up how I'm approaching it. Much more tactile than a mouse!

This is my RackBrute plan, which I'm 8 modules into completing. Currently have Knit, Pluck, Euclid, Clep, Disting, Penrose, Quant Gemi, and the C4rbn. It's paired with a Minibrute 2s which is a godsend with it's switchable sequencer tracks, and I have an external Mackie mixer that's seeming to be doing ok padding the high gain from the direct outs of Plaits and Pluck. It also has 2 sends, which I have a Zoom studio delay, and EXH Cathedral reverb on. All this comes into Ableton Live for recording and layering, and also adding drums until the BIA fills that space.

Some really nice experiments so far include using Disting as an adder, and taking Clep's randomness, adding to a main sequence from the Minibrute, quantizing it with Penrose, sending to Pluck with the Euclid as a gate (also have combined this with gate from Penrose as notes change). Creates nice random shifting melodic top lines.

I was thinking 3 sound sources was not many for the HP, but then realised today that Tides can be an oscillator. The C4RBN has self-oscillation and v/o. Also there's the Minibrute voice (and the Disting can also be a sampler or oscillator, too!), so I guess it's 6 which is enough if I want to push it.

A question I have is: is the A-135-2 a reasonable solution for sub-mixing? The Mackie mixer has lots of ins, but I'm wondering if I can for example, sum Pluck and Plaits, and get them coming through a single out, to feed to Arhbar, or the C4rbn filter, perhaps modulating this level with CV? Or am I completely off the mark as to what that module is for?

I've also noted that it's quite nice to have a little space between modules, which I've totally not accounted for in my plan. What, if anything, could go to create some wiggle-room?

Any other feedback much welcome!

Cheers! Happy patching :)


I like it. Especially how the harsher, snare/snap type sound comes in very occasionally nearer the end of the track. Nice restraint.