3am - analog v. digital (literally)

[justin3am]

I'm an equal opportunity gear whore... I will through money at anything that has the specs to give me a stiffy... So, I invested in a Eurorack modular. Here are some of the first sounds that have come from it.

First, a track I started mainly for reference. I didn't even intend on getting as far with it as I did but I was having fun. I wanted to establish how the sounds this thing creates would fit in a mix with other sound sources I commonly use. The results are kinda cheesy but t served it's purpose... Almost all sounds originated from the modular.

bath4

The next is pure wankery. I ran a drum pattern through the two of the filters which received modulation from various sources and then through a Tyme Sefari which is being modulated by Numerology via a Midi/CV converter. One of the cool things about Numerology is it has an assignable quad X/Y controller interface (with velocity and momentum). These software controllers can be assigned to a Kaoss pad, TimeTrip pad, or D-Beams and then converted to CV! Simply describing this causes me to laugh manically <-this is not sufficient.

Beat Sefari

More stuff to come, though I will warn you... it only gets more obnoxious from here!

Check this out, much better demonstration weird sounds!


P.S. Special thanks to Shamman and Chuck E. Jesus for the guidance.

[deastman]

Good to hear you've joined the Cult of Eurorack, Justin! The Tyme Sefari is pretty much my favorite module ever (well, that and the Livewire AFG). Just be warned, buying modules is a slippery slope. Your beast will need to be fed.

[justin3am]

I have money set aside for a Polivoks VCF and an AFG

The Tyme Sefari is really effing cool. Not too much more to it than that.

[deastman]

The Polivoks is pretty cool, but I find it gets very bass-heavy in lowpass mode. I usually opt for the Doepfer Wasp filter instead. And in bandpass mode, I always prefer the Plan B Evil Twin. Not to say I don't use the Polivoks, because it does have a lot of character. The only interesting filter I'm really missing is a Frequensteiner, which I'll probably pick up as soon as I can find one. You'll love the AFG.

[xoxos]

i thought i posted late last night. mysterious.

i can see i'm going to have to suck it up and start distorting and compressing drums. beat sefari just sounds so cute - the first 10 seconds were like "this needs to be a top 40 pop song."

forgive my assimilation - tyme sefari samples at the beginning of the trigger (say 8ths) so the first 'loop' of a step is dry? i did read about the sk-1 stuff too

[justin3am]

Tyme Sefari has two modes, one where it acts like a normal delay (with record and play active), the sample rate knob controls delay time and the loop controls are bypassed. In loop mode you can record a short (I mean short) phrase then use a gate signal to control the play back like a simple sampler (loop end controls the length of the sample buffer) or you can continuously record and playback in which case you can achieve these neat time stretching effects. In beat sefari I'm using the transients of the drum loops trigger record and I'm re-triggering playback every beat or measure (using the clock divider). The loop points and sample rate are being modulated by various sources, mostly sample and hold stuff.

To answer your question, yes. From the mix output you get... sound -> interval of delay ->sound, from the delay output you get... silence -> interval of delay -> sound. Feedback just sends audio from the play buffer back to record. Very fun

[xoxos]

it sounded like a buffer override effect i did called 'atomic' ~4 or 5 years ago that worked this way, cheers

[Jazzyspoon]

Hey, I still occasionally use atomic, xoxos. Loved it (except for the lil folder it made over and over again).

Justin, I am always amazed at the gear you run into. Hopefully, this will lead to more crazy cool sounds. These snippets definitely beckon me to buy, buy, buy these little modules. Fascinating. I am trying to get a Voyager in the next year for live performance, so I'll live vicariously through you/your music.

Cool sonic musings.

[polyslax]

That is just like totally seismic dewd! Amazingly cool soundset Justin! Colour me green.

[runagate]

Damn, I have to admit that this Safari is the most runagatesque thing I've ever, ever heard hardware do, including hardware I myself was utilizing!

I do so wish that my vocals > Alesis AirFx > Lexicon Vortex (w/expression pedal!) recordings made it off the 8-track analog tape that my lazy, lazy, lazy bastard former guitar player has. Or at least I could have exported me 1337 presets

[justin3am]

Runny, you'd love this thing... most samplers won't let you set the loop end before the loop start but this thing will! with some very effed up results. One of the greatest things about the modular scene is that the people involved are very similar to those involved in the VST scene here. The developers are very approachable and the users provide a lot of excellent input.

[runagate]

I can barely fit my Qwerty keyboard, my VX5 keyboard, my p5 receiver and crap logitech speakers on my desk. I say no thanks.

Nevertheless, at work a guy told me he knows 2 (!) DSP designers, one hardware and one hard and soft! I told him I must meet them. I need a "3am stompbox" - I'll steal your sound and put it on guitars!

[core]

Lovely percussion in that bath4 one Justin, very nice sounds all over the place.

[blortblort]

Bath4 -my kind of badass. can't exactly put my finger on why, but this feel
harkens back to early cabaret voltaire (or the way I wish they might have sounded) friggin' awesome sound, justin.

beat_sefari- nice nice nice brokanics. the sound of robots cleaning house. love all but the last couple mins (too much noise and not enough noise )

I cannot begin to become envious of the HW....not enough hours in the day. I already feel quite guilty for not using more of the goodies that I currently have at my disposal! (but secretly- I long for the days of too many patch cords and the smell of solder. there was always a different "feeling of accomplishment" when ya patched up a sound via HW. while I do get that buzz with SW, truth be known- it just ain't the same.)

Thanks for these, Justin!