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Was asked to play a small label fest for the autumn equinox and put this thing together:

https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/track/live-at-fire-is-free-autumnal-equinox-september-22nd

Using the same rack as last time, -MCO, +Pluck and +DTF to help explore some different textures.

Perhaps surprisingly, Clouds is really the star of this one. I read an interview with Emelie Gillet awhile back where she shared some of her disappointment around the lack of randomness and modulation that folks use with Clouds, so I picked up the Doepfer A-118-2. That plus Ochd can really take things in a texturally varied, almost 20th century classical direction at times. Eurorack... very interesting format.

Anyway, hope you enjoy if you give it a listen!

Yes @GarfieldModular, all live, though I patched it in advance, I'm not ready for live patching yet! I was mostly just controlling levels, sequencing chords, and using the ResEq to shift the focus and depth of the sound. It was fun, and practicing live is a good exercise I think, emphasizing a different approach to the synth which is always good. Anyway, glad you liked it and thanks for listening!

A friend asked me to do a live set at a venue in Columbus yesterday, streamed of course as they all are nowadays, so I put together a quick drone piece working through some Just Intonation and 12Tet chords and drones, and I think it turned out pretty good if you're into that sort of thing!

https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/album/live-sets

Made with the below, the MCO was a last minute addition but I wanted a third sound source to add a little extra texture and bass underneath everything, which I was pretty happy with.

@croute I have an AC and it's one of my favorite modules. That said I'm not familiar with the synths you listed here, so maybe you could link us some videos to compare against?

@fathomsmoire I use an ES-9 which can send info two ways, but not sure it's really the best idea and it takes up a good amount of space (in fact I got a 4MS Pod just for it). So, I'm curious myself what other people suggest.

Will just chime in to agree with Jim, Lugia, and baltergeist, Maths has gone from a "Why did I even buy this?" to one of my favorite modules pretty quickly.

Good guess @GarfieldModular as it is a four note melody, but it's coming out of my Keystep, from there it's an NTO into the Wave Multiplier, into the VCFS, and then into the Mimeophon. Glad you enjoyed it, I'll keep em coming :)

Was messing around trying to find some good acid textures and got distracted by this weird thing and thought I'd roll with it, happy accidents as they say!

https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/track/tuesday-lullaby

Made with:

LOL @GarfieldModular, I think that's a great idea, not to mention frogs are big mosquito munchers, good friends from my POV 🐸

Great recommendations, thank you @baltergeist.

Yep @baltergeist, it's a fair point. Lots of turmoil in the world at the moment. Totally agreed on Turkey though, incredible country at its core.

Re: Nonlinear Circuits, I keep looking at their modules and haven't pulled the trigger on one yet. Any recommendations? What's your favorite, or what would be most interesting?

@GarfieldModular, saw this today and thought of you, if you really wanna get serious about frogs! http://www.fonozoo.com/fnz_ranas_mundo2_eng.php

Great piece @baltergeist, and Nevşehir's a cool town too, visited in like 2010 I think. The drones in the background are especially nice. Kudos.

@GarfieldModular, Coquantus is made by Ciat Lonbarde, so it's not a Eurorack synth. You can learn more here: http://ciat-lonbarde.net/cocoquantus/

Nice, thanks for sharing. I'll try and aim in that direction and see how it goes.

Nice one @GarfieldModular, that groove is pretty funky for a frog lol, good depth too! Well done.

I need some patch notes on string machine style pad state, that sounds rad 🕵️ The style I was referring to above is kind of pad-y too, spread up, root low-ish, put an analog osc underneath it for extra weight, add a pinch of the FM, and then run it through a smooth lowpass filter with just a bit of resonance.

@senor-bling in the less melodic modes (high spread, many oscs, FM up) I mostly end up using it as a drone noise source. That said with the right filter you can tame the crazier modes and get some really interesting full but melodic textures, ones that I haven't seen elsewhere in eurorack, it's just a lot of work to get there.

EDITED Sep 13th 2020, 19:27

@nokulture, I think you'll find if you try a Maths out that it's super intuitive and solves so many problems, especially in a rack this size. That said, we're all on our own journey, do what makes sense to you and let us know how it goes!

@Quantum_Eraser thought I'd share that you prompted me to reread the manual and to watch some more vids, and I'm finally getting some melodic stuff out of my EO to go along with the craziness, thanks for the inspiration!

I am guessing Jim will likely tell you you don't have enough utilities, which I'd agree with.

What I'd suggest, in order of importance:
1) Upgrade the Function to a Maths
2) Add either a Batumi or a Zadar, depending on your end priority here of modulation (Batumi) or expression (Zadar)
3) Add a Doepfer A-118-2 for your Clouds (and for #2, keep in mind that this needs a square cutoff to trigger)
4) Add a Kinks
5) Add an Ochd

To do all that you'd have to cut a module or two (downgrading a Veils for a smaller mixer is one idea to make space) but I think you'll get more out of what you leave in the case.

Sounds like a good candidate for my utility pod, thanks @Lugia 👍👍

Good point @JimHowell1970, White Knobs Maths >>>>>

EDITED Sep 12th 2020, 18:20

It is @GarfieldModular, maybe that's why I'm disappointed in it 🤣🤣 Enjoy your weekend too, and thanks for listening.

Mixing is super hard @mowse, keep us updated as you keep using the SoundStage, I kinda want one myself!

I do agree @JimHowell1970, a reset's the one thing I think it's missing (fyi @DivKid 👀)

@JimHowell1970, we gotta get you on the Ochd train, the control is in what you patch where as each output is in relation to the others. Using outputs 3 and 8 will get you a very different result than 7 and 8. In the end it can be pretty expressive c.f. this piece where the Ochd is driving the whole melody https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/track/akemies-drone

Nice one as usual @mowse. I'm curious how the SoundStage helped out here, is it mostly to do with the relation of the different elements dynamically?

I've been wondering about this module, will give it a listen.

Good convo here! I feel like we need a pinned thread, "So you're gonna build your first rack? Take a look at these suggestions." Would help a lot of folks start off on the right foot.

Nice recommendations @Lugia, I'll check em out. Would those take euro voltages, or would I need to send and receive at line out level? 🤔

Nice, I'll take a "not bad at all" from you @Lugia 👍👍👍 I had actually been wanting to get your opinion on this rack. What do you think of it? I'm not sold on the Quadrax yet, might swap it with a DUSG, but I need a compressor too... so many problems to solve!

This is lovely @Quantum_Eraser I can't seem to get anything melodic out of my Ensemble Oscillator and instead end up making creepy drones with it (edited to add that this is fine too lol), but you've inspired me to give it another shot.

EDITED Sep 11th 2020, 00:22

https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/track/outtake-acid

Don't think I succeeded exactly, and as opposed to my drone stuff where I'm not so picky, the bar is quite high here! Acid needs to be special, and maybe this isn't exactly acid anyway. Practice makes perfect though!

Made with:

@funbun Reich is getting a deservedly hard time on twitter at the moment, and I'm not sure his reputation will (or should) recover, but I can hear the influence of his work here and setting aside the man, it's quite lovely. Well done!

@toinouvltn the Maths does a crap-ton of things you don't think you'll need but you'll be patching one day and I think "I wonder if I could do this" and Maths will be sitting right there ready for you. To top it off, I prefer its envelopes to the Zadar a good bit, very responsive to wiggling, which is one of the joys of modular, and with a nice expressive range. I'd say this second case looks pretty good!

That said, I somehow missed that there's no VCAs here, so you'll need to fit those in as well.

Lots of interesting modules here @toinouvltn. My personal suggestion would be to get a powered case, remove the RackBrute and the Quad Buffer, and add a Maths. It'll open up a lot of the other modules here, and its enveloping and LFOs will be a nice contrast to the Zadar and the Batumi (and I'll edit to add that that's not even mentioning all its other functions, attenuator and mixer especially coming to mind).

EDITED Sep 7th 2020, 17:54

Nice one @GarfieldModular 🐸🐸🐸

I'll chime in to say that I didn't like the Mimeophon at all at first, but it's grown on me a lot. It can subtly change the timbres of instruments in pretty organic sounding ways, or it can turn everything polyphonic and crazy. My main problem is trying not to use it too much.

"If you construct this build, my bet is that you won't feel a pressing need for anything new for a hot minute. At least. You'll be finding new tricks for YEARS. Or so I hope..."

That moment when we learned @Lugia is actually an optimist at heart 🤣🤣🤣

Looks pretty nice @Realactualme! I'm curious, how do you like the Fold Processor?

Might consider dropping a System 100, not sure you'll really need two? This would let you fit in an STO and a Dixie II+ both of which both bring nice features to the table.

This one definitely won't be everyone's cup of tea, but as always I appreciate the kind words @GarfieldModular!

https://stevehand.bandcamp.com/album/doin-dishes

Very long, and pretty crazy, but I was listening to this as a generative patch for about 4 hours while working today and figured: Why not just make it an album? So here we are. If you are into drone and noise, check it out!

Made with:

My 2 cents as a relative noob:

1) If you go for two sequencers, make one of them more playable, i.e. a Metropolis (unless the Eloquencer fits this bill?)
2) I had similar synth + computer visions to you, but I tend to totally forget about my computer when I'm playing my synths, they have a lot of magnetism and computers are terrible in comparison, so there's some chance you may not really want to use your ES-9 all that much
3) With a rack this size I would absolutely want at least one and maybe two analog voices, they just sound so good and they do a great job supporting your digital oscillators and adding weight (Ensemble Osc + a Dixie bass sine underneath it 🔥)
4) Realistically I'd throw another Maths in a rig this size, or a Serge DUSG, or a FrapTools Falistri, to keep things interesting, and tangible, but moving.
5) I'll second @farkas's suggestion to make sure you have some filter variation, and personally I haven't been blown away by this year's Ripples.
6) As always @jimhowell1970 is right about utilities.

Gonna throw this out there even though it might not exactly meet your criteria, but I've been considering buying a Crow by Monome to make a flexible microtonal quantizer, and similarly you could make a multichannel one, though given the number of inputs and outputs a multichannel one would require you to update the script to switch scales or change notes.

I think I'll second @JimHowell1970 here, add a Maths.

Morphon I have two Pittsburgh Modular cases (an EP-208 and a 360) and I'm curious how maxed out you're talking, I've never noticed this before.

Well done @mowse, digging this one a lot

Personally I'm a huge (huge) fan of the Serge Wave Multiplier. Wow 😮 Might not be worth it in a smaller case though.

EDITED Aug 25th 2020, 23:24