Chysn's Gear Rant Thread...

[Sacred Synthesis]

I'll never be one of those wall-of-modules guys. I expect to make modest tweaks over time (like, I can see swapping out the sequencer, filters, etc.), but the breakneck larval stage is over.

I just thought I'd highlight this comment - you know, for future reference. 

[chysn]

I'll never be one of those wall-of-modules guys. I expect to make modest tweaks over time (like, I can see swapping out the sequencer, filters, etc.), but the breakneck larval stage is over.

I just thought I'd highlight this comment - you know, for future reference. 

Fair enough. My wife, my son, my poor woodworking skills, and you will all conspire to keep me honest!

[Sacred Synthesis]

Oh no, Chysn.  I'm willing to cut you some slack.  You've been bitten by the modular bug.  We all know how that goes.

[Paul Dither]

Chysn is a reasonable guy. He'll stay strong.

[chysn]

Two positive gear experiences recently. Now that my modular is done for a while, I turned toward getting a monitor. I didn't need anything big, so I got an M-Audio BX5 D3 Crimson. For an inexpensive monitor, it sounds nice and balanced: crisp highs and solid bass, without being muddy or overpowering.

When I worked in musical instrument retail, I developed a healthy respect for M-Audio's stuff, and I'm very happy with the BX5.

I also picked up a KMI QuNexus controller. What an amazing thing this is! It connects to everything. It has four CV outs and four presets for saving configurations.

Unexpected thing: The QuNexus's rubber keys are significantly more playable than the mini keys of the MicroBrute. Maybe it's because the "black keys" are wider, or that they keys aren't so close to each other. I can actually play it accurately pretty fast, unlike the MicroBrute, upon whose keyboard I'm constantly hitting wrong notes if I go too fast.

[dslsynth]

KMI QuNexus is indeed a great controller. Very happy you like yours. And its not just a keyboard but can be used as a pad controller too.

Have you seen the Tiptop Audio Mantis case? . o O ( slippery slope )

[chysn]

Have you seen the Tiptop Audio Mantis case? . o O ( slippery slope )

Oh, sure. They came out a little bit after I got into modular. They're probably best for performing musicians because they're lightweight and have a nice bag available.

For another "low cost" option, see the Make Noise Powered Skiff.

At this point, I can't imagine ever buying a case. They're too easy and cheap to build. Sometimes I think it would be a fun side business to build and sell eurorack cases.

[chysn]

It's been a little while since I've done a gear rant, sort of. I made a post pre-crash, which was lost. It concerned the addition of a Tetrapad to my eurorack synth. Actually, it wound up being two swaps:

* Tetrapad (control surface) replaced Moskwa (sequencer). This was somewhat painful, since I love Moskwa. But I really wanted a control surface to increase the real-time playability of the synth.

* Tirana II (sequencer) replaced µScale II (quantizer). Tetrapad has a scale library and custom scales, so it makes µScale II worse. Meanwhile, Tirana II is Moskwa's 4-step little brother. It gives the system minimal sequencing on-board, with the outboard Korg SQ-1 picking up the slack.

Tetrapad is awesome. It's the only module in my system with an even slightly opaque interface, but it's well worth the few hours of effort it takes to learn it. It functions as a highly-customizable keyboard, or an eight-parameter preset manager, or a quad LFO, or a bank of eight switches. It's responsive in several ways (routing CV with up to eight pads, finger pressure, and vertical position), and I'm enjoying its expressiveness.

Now I'm sort of at a crossroads. This year, there's probably a 75% chance that I'll sell my Little Phatty and go pretty much all modular. I'll replace the Little Phatty with one of the following, in descending order of probability:

(1) A Soundmachines (arches), which should be coming out later this year. In this case, the Tetrapad will remain in my case as a preset manager and LFO.
(2) A second Tetrapad. To do this, I'll need to build a new case, either a separate control case, or a larger main case.
(3) A Monome Grid. This is sort of an underdog, but I've been fascinated with Grid for a while. I'd have to replace Tirana II with Ansible, but this is a viable option if I sell the Phatty.

I can't make the decision of controller direction until I have enough information. I need to know the details about the upcoming Tetrapad expansion module. This will add sequencing and CV recording capabilities to the Tetrapad, and various other things. The features and size of this module will inform my willingness to build a new case. I'll also wait until (arches) is released, because I think that's what I really want, deep down.

Another minor gear rant: Korg SQ-1 is a ridiculous value, and a real Swiss Army knife. Sequencer, stored voltage controller, USB MIDI-to-CV interface.

[dslsynth]

Interesting! Have you considered one of Moog's semi-modular offerings such as Mother-32, DFAM and their next beastie once it becomes available? I find the DFAM quite interesting.

[chysn]

Interesting! Have you considered one of Moog's semi-modular offerings such as Mother-32, DFAM and their next beastie once it becomes available? I find the DFAM quite interesting.

I had a Mother-32 a couple years ago. It's a nice instrument, sounds great, but it wasn't the direction I wanted to go, personally.

[megamarkd]

Interesting! Have you considered one of Moog's semi-modular offerings such as Mother-32, DFAM and their next beastie once it becomes available? I find the DFAM quite interesting.

I had a Mother-32 a couple years ago. It's a nice instrument, sounds great, but it wasn't the direction I wanted to go, personally.

As I've mentioned elsewhere here, I'm wanting to start a modular system this year, but I've been distracted/dissuaded by a couple of semimodulars in the way off the Mother 32 and the 0 Coast.  The idea of getting a prebuilt is the big draw card, but then it's also a drawback.  I want to have the flexibility of changing configurations beyond just repatching modulations, which will be the MO of either of the two semi-modulars from Moog and Make Noise.  But the Make Noise prebuilt seems like something I'd be pushing to recreate even buying individual modules....and I'm wondering if I'm passing up some good modulation sources by ignoring either of them (not to mention my mate's mother 32 is one for the greatest synths I've ever heard in person).

I should mention that Rossum's Zplane filter and soon to come sampler are the end goal, but those can be implemented along side either Moog or Make Noise all-in-ones with a small form case.  What is your take on that? 

[chysn]

I should mention that Rossum's Zplane filter and soon to come sampler are the end goal, but those can be implemented along side either Moog or Make Noise all-in-ones with a small form case.  What is your take on that?

My take on it is that there's no wrong way to do it. Mother-32 sounds fantastic, and I can't blame anyone for getting a big old stack of three of them, or two and a BFAM. As for the 0-Coast Make Noise really, really thinks things through, which results in flexible instruments capable of sounds you haven't heard before.

For me, the "semi-" got in my way. For example, the Mother-32 sequencer is hard-wired to the oscillator, and there's nothing on earth that can be done about that. And I absolutely hated the sequencer anyway. It involved weird button combinations that didn't click with my brain, so I always had to have the manual out. And as I listened to more early modular music, I came to love the Buchla approach to electronic sound, and I wanted to work toward reproducing that. My compositional philosophy skewed toward the experimental, etc., etc., and these emerging ideas sort of pushed me away from the Mother-32.

If the 0-Coast had been around in April 2016, I'd probably have bought one. As it happens, I wound up with all of those resources on my own, but the 0-Coast would have fit into my world view pretty well. All of its normalizations can be overridden with cables. The downside is that 0-Coast is hard to rack, if that's part of your plan.

If your ultimate goal is to support the Rossum sampler, a Mother-32 will be a drop in the bucket. That thing's a beast with 24 CV inputs and 8 trigger inputs. It's not like you have to fill all of those up, but you'd be well-served by big modulation sources like Pam's New Workout (clocking, triggering), Voltage Block (8-track sequencer), and Batumi (quad LFO). What I'm saying is, Assimil8or begs to be built around, and it's not clear to me how semi-modular dovetails with that.

[megamarkd]

Cheers for that Chysn, you've helped remind me that the move to modular is, for me, more about playing with new types of synthesis, not recreating the architecture of the many synths I already own.  As much as I want to own a Moog, I would like more to have something which isn't VCO->VCF->VCA.  Pittsburgh Modular's Lifeforms Black Box seems like a great idea as it can be disassembled and mounted in a larger modular rack, but again it's a straight forward subtractive synth.  A very nice sounding subtractive though and a good amount of outputs for feeding an Assimil8r (We are Borg!)
[off-topic] Ooh look at that button next to the post and preview buttons, I wonder how it thinks "colour" should be spelt? I wonder if it thinks that "spelt" should be corrected to "spelled".  It's things like that make me think I'll welcome the Borg when it arrives, they would end all the dumb debates about spelling, whether the seat should be left up or down and which way to hang the toilet paper on a horizontal hanger

[Razmo]

Cheers for that Chysn, you've helped remind me that the move to modular is, for me, more about playing with new types of synthesis, not recreating the architecture of the many synths I already own.  As much as I want to own a Moog, I would like more to have something which isn't VCO->VCF->VCA.  Pittsburgh Modular's Lifeforms Black Box seems like a great idea as it can be disassembled and mounted in a larger modular rack, but again it's a straight forward subtractive synth.  A very nice sounding subtractive though and a good amount of outputs for feeding an Assimil8r (We are Borg!)
[off-topic] Ooh look at that button next to the post and preview buttons, I wonder how it thinks "colour" should be spelt? I wonder if it thinks that "spelt" should be corrected to "spelled".  It's things like that make me think I'll welcome the Borg when it arrives, they would end all the dumb debates about spelling, whether the seat should be left up or down and which way to hang the toilet paper on a horizontal hanger

I's say that it depend a lot on what you want to create with a modular synth... if like me, you want to still be able to PLAY the system as a synthesizer for creating other stuff than bleeps and bloops, then you will most likely find yourself falling into the VCO->VCF->VCA kind of approach... that flow is so integral in playable synthesis because it mimics real instruments with oscillation, decaying harmonics and volume control.

I don't find anything wrong with this, and it's definitely NOT boring, mainly because you can now decide for yourself exactly what oscillator/filter/amplifier you want to use... how many oscillators, their routing in and around the filter and VCA... playing with using BBD delays or digital delays to feedback into the filter or VCA... anything goes, even with the normal VCO->VCF->VCA scheme... that is what I have come to like about modular... all those times people have complained in here about not getting a new hybrid synth with digital and analog oscillators again (Evolver like)... just create your own instead ... and when you really start to take even such a basic system, and patch it up in strange ways you get so many weird sounds out of it that you could not with an ordinary subtractive synth...

Even the smallest and simple patchings can make you smile... the other day I just routed the LFO of my TONESTAR set to square wave, into the ADSR's gate, and shaped some short filter click sound... moving the LFO rate knob was so much fun to listen to, it's almost made me feel a bit childish ... that is one thing I'll love about modular... the weird patchings where you experiment and twist knobs for really crazy FX stuff with loads of modulation going on too...

Guess I'm sort of with a foot in each camp... I want to use it musically, but also in the standard subtractive synth fashion to create melodies etc.

[chysn]

Yeah, there's a ton of value to that signal path. Familiarity is part of it. I can wire up a VCO-VCF-VCA patch in about 20 seconds, even faster with VCO-LPG (because the VCF and VCA are the same, and also I can skip using an EG). But it's nice to be able to totally ignore that recipe.

I'm planning to do a short series of YouTube videos this spring. My Sputnik Dual Oscillator needs a repair, and it has to go to the place of its birth (Portland, Oregon) for a little while. So the idea behind the videos is going to be "My only oscillator is out for service!" It will be a series of pieces recorded in the physical absence of my VCO, with a huge 28HP hole in my case. I'll be actively exploring several kinds of departures from the normal recipe, involving the use of Phonogene, ModBox (which has excellent V/oct tracking), DSM03, Ripples in self-oscillation, etc.

Before I get started on that project, I want to have my controller built. I'll be selling my Little Phatty and controlling everything with a pair of Tetrapads.

[Razmo]

Yeah, there's a ton of value to that signal path. Familiarity is part of it. I can wire up a VCO-VCF-VCA patch in about 20 seconds, even faster with VCO-LPG (because the VCF and VCA are the same, and also I can skip using an EG). But it's nice to be able to totally ignore that recipe.

I'm planning to do a short series of YouTube videos this spring. My Sputnik Dual Oscillator needs a repair, and it has to go to the place of its birth (Portland, Oregon) for a little while. So the idea behind the videos is going to be "My only oscillator is out for service!" It will be a series of pieces recorded in the physical absence of my VCO, with a huge 28HP hole in my case. I'll be actively exploring several kinds of departures from the normal recipe, involving the use of Phonogene, ModBox (which has excellent V/oct tracking), DSM03, Ripples in self-oscillation, etc.

Before I get started on that project, I want to have my controller built. I'll be selling my Little Phatty and controlling everything with a pair of Tetrapads.

Working within limitations is always fun, and a great way to learn alternative ways of doing things ... i did something limited the other day as well... I only have one TONESTAR module at the moment, and was dying to try out the duophonic mode of the KB37, so I used the built in filter in self oscillation mode as one oscillator, with the second 1V/O output connected to the cutoff and full modulation amount (for some reason the filter is perfectly tuned at max setting)... but I ran into a problem when I wanted to utilize the real oscillator as this is permanently routed thru the filter which sort of made it unusable... but the Triangle waveform can be switched to go around the filter, and directly to the VCA... with that switched on, I had duophonic sounds going with a sine and triangle waveform ... that is what I find a lot of fun... working around limitations like that ... and now that I think of it, I could as well have routed any of the other oscillator outs to the VCA just by plugging a patch cable around the filter ... strangely I think of this now, and not then :/

[dslsynth]

So the idea behind the videos is going to be "My only oscillator is out for service!" [...] involving the use of Phonogene [...]

If you feel like being returned to the stone age by having no VCO but still have a sample manipulation module there are fortunately so many interesting sounds out there including this set of ringing rock samples by Richard Devine:
https://soundcloud.com/richarddevine/field-recordings-of-the-mysterious-ringing-rocksmontana-music-made-with-rocks

[dslsynth]

all those times people have complained in here about not getting a new hybrid synth with digital and analog oscillators again (Evolver like)... just create your own instead

There is a price for this flexibility though: cost! I would definitely have some eurorack modules if I had the money for it. Furthermore, integrated voices usually have MIDI control which opens up for a number of interesting creative applications.

[chysn]

I used the built in filter in self oscillation mode as one oscillator, with the second 1V/O output connected to the cutoff and full modulation amount (for some reason the filter is perfectly tuned at max setting)

As you know, you get a sine wave from a self-oscillating filter. Now, if you run that sine wave through a slew processor (like the Pittsburgh Modular Mod Tools) or a wave folder (like the µFold you've been considering), you can distort it to add harmonic complexity.

If you feel like being returned to the stone age by having no VCO but still have a sample manipulation module there are fortunately so many interesting sounds out there including this set of ringing rock samples by Richard Devine:

That's really cool! See also:

[chysn]

There is a price for this flexibility though: cost!

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much controversy about that. I've dealt with that by prioritizing it above other non-essential things. Still, I've got four kids who all need stuff, so it goes slowly. A little at a time spread over two years, and it wasn't so bad.