Hive 2 Shape Sequencer

[krans]

I'd like to throw in a small praise for the FG.
I use it all the time!
Especially for texture in soundscapes, it's great for making odd changes that don't relate much with host tempo, LFOs, other stuff going on.
Something peculiar that breaks with the rest.

A favourite of mine is also to use FG1 with gate as input, and assign Still to Delay's feedback.
So when I don't play or hold a chord, feedback keeps the delay going and going. As soon as I play, delay ducks a bit, avoids the usual mess of a sound that high feedback normally makes.
FGs really are great!

And as this is really a thread about Shape sequencer:
That's one of my favourite ways of modulation. A big reason that Hive is my dearest.
I miss it in Zebra all the time!

[EdSfer]

In for the FG research challenge

The world needs to know what's hiding behind Hive's best-kept secret.

"Still" seems to be the crowd's favourite. "Rise" lovers, please show yourselves

[Urs]

why did you go into the trouble and work required in order to add this feature ?

It wasn't much trouble at all, we had the FGs nearly ready to use from other projects. A bit of tweaking, and off they went

As was mentioned, the FGs and the Shape Sequencer are quite reminiscent of West Coast modular style. That kind fo thinking is aligned with a playful approach to synthesis, offering simple components which can be used universally and e.g. combined in a many ways to create complex behaviour. Well, and Hive was always meant to be a simple and fun synth. So why not look to West Coast instead of the same same that nearly every other synth has an abundance of?

But also, I thought that Hive had become such a fun modular playground with the ModMatrix enhancements prior to that. That begged to be expanded upon.

[recursive one]

Hive is very inviting for makings patches like "the modulators modulating the modulators modulating the modulators"

So it appears that inserting FGs somewhere into these chains just to see if something cool happens because of that is their actual "intended purpose"

[nirm123]

why did you go into the trouble and work required in order to add this feature ?

It wasn't much trouble at all, we had the FGs nearly ready to use from other projects. A bit of tweaking, and off they went

As was mentioned, the FGs and the Shape Sequencer are quite reminiscent of West Coast modular style. That kind fo thinking is aligned with a playful approach to synthesis, offering simple components which can be used universally and e.g. combined in a many ways to create complex behaviour. Well, and Hive was always meant to be a simple and fun synth. So why not look to West Coast instead of the same same that nearly every other synth has an abundance of?

But also, I thought that Hive had become such a fun modular playground with the ModMatrix enhancements prior to that. That begged to be expanded upon.

Got it.

Actually I knew the FG from before Hive, as I first saw a similar version of it in Uhbik2 alpha version (I know that it appeared in Hive first, but I've used Uhbik2 alpha before I got to know HIve).

and in Uhbik although technically quite similar to Hive FG, it's more like exploding the classic env follower being seen in many effects into a monstrous creative potential.

This is (+new filters and rack version) one of the reason I'm waiting so eagerly to Uhbik2, having something like this in an effect plugin (+ the fact that you also have the 4 mod matrix slots in there) is simply mind blowing (and this is without mentioning the mod mapper).

The only issue is that I see in the current threat that even inside a synth, it's quite difficult for people to understand the full potential, in Uhbik it will be even more challenging as it's something which I haven't seen in ANY effect plugin yet (not even close).

[Urs]

Twangström was actually our first effect to add a loopable AR envelope...

Screenshot 2021-01-28 at 09.19.36.png

[PieBerger]

Besides the more obvious/classic, rhythmic MSEG gate stuff, I like to use the Shape Sequencer to control the duration of vibrato depth on my leads, so that it doesn't clash with any glides. If for example, there's always at least 1/16 before any overlapping notes in the phrase, I can set Shape A to 1/16 in One Shot mode with a single cell at max horizontal or a downwards saw with maximum positive curvature, for a more gentle release and assign it to Osc 1/2 vibrato depth via Velocity, Aftertouch, Alternate, Random or whatever to activate the vibrato expression. This means that the vibrato will always stop short before any glide, to avoid the warbling pitch effect, which personally I find a bit goofy sounding.

You could do this with an envelope or an LFO, but with the Shape Sequencer you have more control. If you don't have any free Sequencer lanes, you could also use a FG, since you have control over the curvature, making it easier to create gate signals that are independent of note duration.

[Urs]

You can use either FG on KeyFollow and use the steady / moving Gate to duck out vibrato, or even cleverer:

Use FG1 to follow KeyFollow. Make FG2 follow the Sill Gate of FG1. Use FG2 to control Vibrato Depth. Set FG2 to an Attack/Rise of your choice to fade Vibrato in.

Result: While you're in the Glide Phase, the Still gate will be low, and thus FG2 output will be 0. Once Glide is over, the Still gate goes high and FG2 will climb to +1.

[Howard]

So let me ask this if you weren't sure yourself why is it for, why did you go into the trouble and work required in order to add this feature ?

Function generators have so many different uses that I can't think of a pithy answer. Maybe Urs can.

[ghostwhistler]

Dunno about the shape sequencer, i can't get much out of it, I have yet to try or understnd the Function generator thing, but I'm getting some good results from Hive nonetheless. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point, but it would be nice to have manuals written for beginners and not the assumption I'm not, at least when it comes to the more complex stuff

[PieBerger]

Dunno about the shape sequencer, i can't get much out of it, I have yet to try or understnd the Function generator thing, but I'm getting some good results from Hive nonetheless. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point, but it would be nice to have manuals written for beginners and not the assumption I'm not, at least when it comes to the more complex stuff

OK try this. Draw a long note in your DAW at least half a bar. Set Shape Seq A to 1/16 in Loop Mode, enable the first cell in the Shape Seq A lane. IIRC it defaults to a downwards saw, leave this be and then choose white noise for osc 1, volume up to max. In the Filter 1 section, turn volume down to 0 then assign Shape Seq A to positively modulate it, 100% depth. Press play and voila you have a very simple 1/16 note closed hi-hat type sound.

For this simple example, you could have used an LFO with the saw down shape in unipolar mode at a rate of 1/16. You can think of the Shape Seq as a kind of LFO sequencer. In the above example you only sequenced a single 'flavour' of modulation, but you could have sequenced 7 more, all with different shapes.

You may have noticed that you can click and drag in the editable cell to change the curvature. This can be modulated in realtime. Sticking with the above example, if you enable the same first cell in the C lane, set Shape Seq C to 1/16 and Loop again and then assign the Random source to modulate the Curve destination (by right-clicking an empty slot in the matrix), with say 50% modulation depth, the straight 16th hi-hat type sound, will now have something of a groove as the response of the modulation is affected by the Random modulation. Some hits will be more open and others more closed. Hive has been designed in such a way that the Curve for all 4 lanes is linked/driven by lane C, this is why you needed to enable the same cell in C as A.

[ghostwhistler]

Dunno about the shape sequencer, i can't get much out of it, I have yet to try or understnd the Function generator thing, but I'm getting some good results from Hive nonetheless. I'm sure I'll figure it out at some point, but it would be nice to have manuals written for beginners and not the assumption I'm not, at least when it comes to the more complex stuff

OK try this. Draw a long note in your DAW at least half a bar. Set Shape Seq A to 1/16 in Loop Mode, enable the first cell in the Shape Seq A lane. IIRC it defaults to a downwards saw, leave this be and then choose white noise for osc 1, volume up to max. In the Filter 1 section, turn volume down to 0 then assign Shape Seq A to positively modulate it, 100% depth. Press play and voila you have a very simple 1/16 note closed hi-hat type sound.

That really helps thanks!
But waht I don't understand is why are only two cells per row active? What decides that and the order of which are activated? It looks like a cool arcade game display, but the cells/steps themselves throw me completely

[PieBerger]

Two cells active per lane is just the default, probably because it allows the typical rise and fall stages of an LFO to be dialled in quickly. You can enable/disable the other cells by clicking on them. They don't need be adjacent to be read either. For example you might only have cells 1, 3 and 5 active in lane A but the sequence would move through all 3 cells, depending on the selected playback mode ie Loop forward (default) pooL (reverse loop), Random etc. The different playback modes are all explained in the manual. The Shape Sequencer always retiggers for each note, unlike the LFOs which can be set to a number of trigger types including free running, just something to remember.

[nirm123]

So let me ask this if you weren't sure yourself why is it for, why did you go into the trouble and work required in order to add this feature ?

Function generators have so many different uses that I can't think of a pithy answer. Maybe Urs can.

Urs has already answered and the question wasn't what FG is good for.
U-He by now has a huge ecosystem and lots of knowledge and experience. Judging from a specific reply which Urs has provided is seemed to me that he wasn't sure himself what were the ultimate FG usages so I thought we have an opportunity to understand a bit more about the thought process going into designing a new synth (or upgrading an existing one). When you have so much to choose from (either picking an existing code in other products as Urs has mentioned or the knowledge and experience to add amazing new components) how does the developer choose what must be in and what would be nice to add, but this time, will stay out.

I just figured out that it's an interesting process and probably the most crucial for synth design: choosing what to focus on, what are the most important elements the developer decides that should be in a synth, because that the possibilities are almost endless, but in the end of the day, these decisions and focus, will be the "make or break" of the synth and will set its direction.

I've used FG in Hive as an example, because it's an important feature which gives Hive some of its character.

[Urs]

If we're talking thought process, I think you just need to watch my little assortment of videos I made from minimalistic, mostly self-playing Eurorack patches on my Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 9tddXK9XR9

Each of these patches amounts to a more or less endurable tune based on a musical idea that inspired the modular setup.

Quite literally, the thought process that put the Hive 2.0 update in motion is the same thought process that made us create CVilization (our first hardware product - a Eurorack module).