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This began as a metal project, and went way off into something else. I said to Markus at Noise Engineering that I was thinking of making a metal track, and he mentioned that he had made many 'blast beats'. Having no precise definition of this - but a feel for what it might sound like - I decided to simply start with the Enter Sandman riff and go from there. It's totally lost in the wild envelopes and filtering, but that's probably for the best.

The WMD C4RBN was the obvious filter due to its natural propensity for aggression, and the Basimilus was always going to wind up in the mix. The Desmodus gets a more leisurely outing this time, but it's still pretty active. The rest of the patch is really a mass of multed envelopes and LFOs sending everything to the threshold between music and noise, and beyond it.

Hi,
There is a video from Omri Cohen explaining how to use ES-9 with VCV RACK.
https://m.

I don't use any daw but maybe there is useful informations in this video for you.

Cheers

Thanks to all for yours advices.
Stages of Mutable Instruments is very interesting but I’d like something more easy for take practice with the roots of eurorack.
Top tap z400 or Erica Synth seem like a good starting point.

Thx glitched0xff
👍🍻

Thanks GfM :) This started out as some background sound at first and was very easy listening.

Okay good!

End of night here soon so a shortish post for now.

COMC#2 will have some stuff you don’t need. But it’s great overall. The “63 rules” of counterpoint he has, I take as “tendencies” eg what follows them tends to sound good and what busts them tends to sound bad. But it’s not clad in stone. Parallels, for example, are openly admitted in some styles of music. BUT the “63 rules” will give you a very good idea of if something sounds bad, why it does. And reducing the number and severity of flaws, what is left is much improved! Yes COMC books are “heavy lifting” but I totally needed these to get some command over writing pitched parts. COMC2 is a godsend IMO.

You mentioned Getting contrary motion might be a problem. Here’s a suggestion: drive a lane of Maestro’s CV through a quantizer. Take the same lane of CV and invert it, shift and scale it as needed, quantize that. Boom! Perfect contrary motion! Or same idea but just use a 2nd lane of Maestro going down or up, paired so it is contrary to the 1st voice. If using 2 lanes you can run them at different rates. If using a switch, you can toggle/switch in DC to give you oblique motion.

My Maestro won’t arrive for a few days so I haven’t implemented exactly this idea yet but I’m soon to test it IRL. In idea form it should work.

More later. Glad to have offered some help and stimulating ideas. Cheers!

EDITED Aug 8th 2021, 06:30

I've just realized the Metropolix can reverse the sequence for one voice while playing normally for the other voice. This should allow me to provide a nice amount of contrary motion so long as I program the sequence to 'advance' upwards or downwards in pitch. Very very good, as it's proving somewhat difficult to jam a Scales and a Switchblade in; it's doable, but requires sacrifices.

Good gracious, 'The Craft of Musical Composition: Book 2' by Hindemith has achingly specific instructions on what exactly to do within melody-crafting. Frankly @nickgreenberg, I'm impressed that you can recommend a book like this. I'm just trying to craft a system that won't get me booed off the dance floor. Thank you, I've ordered a copy and I'll see what I can make of it.

I imagine contrary motion will be somewhat more difficult to pull off with something like the Metropolix, but I think I could put together some oblique counterpoint in a fairly non-complex manner. I'll have to do some testing, and some deeper research into counterpoint music theory.

Running the Maestro through a quantizer like Scales is something I hadn't thought of, excellent. Let me see if I can fit in a Switchblade and Scales to switch between the Metropolix and the Maestro; that could provide me with some momentary controlled contrary motion before switching back to the oblique and (hopefully short) moments of similar motion.

Your post doesn't read as condescending in the slightest, quite the opposite; it has been intensely helpful. One of my weaknesses is my novice grasp of the theory behind music. I appreciate any tips others have to offer, so again, thank you.

Apart from the “what modules” question there are some important music theoretical underpinnings to this effort.

2 moving pitched lines (here bass and lead) invokes all the problems of counterpoint. If you’re not already comfortable in this area I recommend Hindemith’s book. Not sure the exact title but you would find it pretty quick. COMC Book II if I recall…

From that, my ultra short counterpoint summary guidelines are: contrary motion sounds best, oblique next. Similar motion is good only in a small set of circumstances, usually over small distances. When both voices move, they usually need to go from consonance to consonance. Dissonances need to be carefully controlled. Beyond that are a lot of details that would basically require to read the Hindemith book and a lot of time at the keyboard hearing counterpoint problems and how to avoid or resolve them.

Practically, for your application:
— control of available notes (Pitch class sets) will be very important so your sequences are limited to tones that will pair well with the other line. I use Intellijel Scales to for this as I can set an arbitrary set of tones and CV switch between those sets.
— control of the motion of the 2 lines relative to each other (so that they are not in similar motion too often)

SO I can recommend you consider some modules including:
— Scales, or something like it, so you have definitive control on what pitches you’re allowing through
— Acid Rain Maestro or something like that. Six channels of time synched CV. Very jam-able. This way you could have for example up CV for one voice and down CV for another voice. Flow those through your quantization. That gives you complementary pitch values with controlled counterpoint! ARM is in your MG rack above, okay, good!
— some playable switching like Acid Rain Switchblade or Verbos Sequencr selector. That way you can have multiple “feeder” sequences and you play them with the switch. Of course the switches can also be CV driven.
— handling trigger/gate needs separately from pitch, or at least thinking of these as independent. You have Merton, that gives you a lot of options. Running your pitch values from independent lanes, and trigger / gate values from other lanes, that gives you huge flexibility.

BTW I didn’t scrutinize your MG draft rack too closely, just wanted to put out some ideas of what I would need if trying to do what you want to do.

I hope at least some of this is helpful. I hope my post does not sound condescending; I’ve struggled with a lot of these topics before and wanted to share a few of the helpful points I’ve learned. I’m interested to hear how this develops for you. I’ve been working on some similar directions and am curious to hear how this develops for you.

Cheers,

Nicholas

EDITED Aug 8th 2021, 02:26

Hi Funbun,

Nice video as always and nice to know your music is made by your modular system :-)

Can't wait for the next video how this canoe story continues! Thank you very much for sharing with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Yes this is a lovely, nice, long jam :-) So beautiful and relaxed, music like this I could hear all day long!

Makes me think about getting a Chainsaw too :-) I put it on my wish list. Thanks for this great demo of the Chainsaw :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Glitchedxoff,

I have the Doepfer A-140 and I like it, it's good quality for a good basic ADSR. I love the inverse output on this module that at certain times comes in very handy.

The Erica Synths Black HADSR EG and the Black VC EG modules are great too. HADSR gives you one more stage, the hold stage. The VC EG gives you control on a per stage level by CVs, lovely module this is. Both of these modules have extension modules available that can be used to give you even more control (and outputs).

Good luck for the search for a great EG and kind regards, Garfield.

I know this is an old thread, but I've been wondering about this myself lately.

I rarely see them mentioned in the modular discussions and channels I've followed so far. They always have modules available that seem pretty affordable for what they do, with an interesting design aesthetic, but they just seem so glossed/passed over for the most part. I briefly had a Mini-Shimmery in my "first wave" of modular purchases as I was getting into it and setting up an initial rack, and while I didn't hang onto it for the long term, it was a cool enough little unit for its price.

If anyone else has good/bad experiences with Blue Lantern or their modules, I'd be curious to hear impressions.

Cool, Canoe Modular :)

Thanks for the input above @Lugia and @klodifokan.

Maybe this is not as tricky as I thought it would be? I'm still chewing on the topics at hand, while searching for modules that might fit my need and be in stock. Expert Sleepers modules likely would work for me (esp the Lightpipe versions ES3&6) but stock is out on that stuff.

I am still wondering, assuming you get CV into the DAW, then what? Route / process it with Silent Way plugins? Certainly I'll find more info via additional Google & Youtube searches. But if anyone who's already running this in DAW has comments, I'm very happy to hear them!

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 21:19

07 Aug 2021

Currently the Elektrofon Klang is not being produced. I have spoken with Rune Waruus numerous times over the past two years. Klang was a sideline during his normal job up until early 2021. He has been busy staring up a new company with the financial aid from Norway. The primary obstacle facing Rune in trying to bring the Klang back into production is the shortage of electronic components and supply chain necessary to resume production. The pandemic has desperately hurt many companies forcing closures due to shortages. Rune is still focused; however, on other developments for Eurorack user’s in the meantime that do not require the chips required by Klang. I won’t disclose what he is working on; but, it will be a game changer for us enthusiasts.

I will say that if you visit any of the Eurorack & Synth Groups on Facebook and advertise a request as WTB, you may be able to buy one used from someone and I’d be prepared to pay a premium for the module if you are desperate. I recently picked one up third hand at around $105 above the new price in 2019.

I should say I'm trying to build a portable techno system myself right now, getting a lot of great advice from others here.

One particularly transformative bit of advice: the Metropolix is a beast of a pitch sequencer. If you're trying for two voices (maybe a lead and a bass line), the Metropolix is a solid answer. I'm buying one myself.

Another transformative bit of advice: an external drum machine works really really well. You have a lot of space with this case, but my guess is you'll find space runs short incredibly quickly. An external drum machine saves a tremendous amount of space, and a tremendous amount of money as well. Plus, you know, they're fun.

Are you sure you want to have a dual purpose of melodic techno as well as ambient with this build? It seems like one of the consistent pieces of advice I run across is to focus your build on one area; build it to do one thing really really well before trying to cover more bases. Noodling around with modular is plenty of fun, but if you want your build to actually make good music in some specific genre, build for that genre in mind.
-- CardiacTasty
I have one microbrute{external Drummachine], techno and some experimental music That is my ideia].
It was very helpful some tips from the ones have murcha more knowlege.

I should say I'm trying to build a portable techno system myself right now, getting a lot of great advice from others here.

One particularly transformative bit of advice: the Metropolix is a beast of a pitch sequencer. If you're trying for two voices (maybe a lead and a bass line), the Metropolix is a solid answer. I'm buying one myself.

Another transformative bit of advice: an external drum machine works really really well. You have a lot of space with this case, but my guess is you'll find space runs short incredibly quickly. An external drum machine saves a tremendous amount of space, and a tremendous amount of money as well. Plus, you know, they're fun.

Are you sure you want to have a dual purpose of melodic techno as well as ambient with this build? It seems like one of the consistent pieces of advice I run across is to focus your build on one area; build it to do one thing really really well before trying to cover more bases. Noodling around with modular is plenty of fun, but if you want your build to actually make good music in some specific genre, build for that genre in mind.

I'm pretty new myself, but I can already say any modulation source (lfo's, envelopes) almost needs attenuverters/vcas to tune how deep the modulation will go. This is particularly true for voices that have a wide range of responses across a single knob (Noise Engineering modules almost always have wild responses to tiny knob adjustments, for example).

For attenuverters specifically, I think the Steady State Fate's Quad-Atten looks great. I have ALM Busy Circuit's ALM010 - O/A/x2 and it works like a champ for so many things (pitch before a quantizer, normal variables).

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 19:46

Great idea! I'll order one and play with it to see if it'll work. It would be nice to use the Metron more.

Check out the Low Gain Electronics Short Bus for a good trigger sequence combiner. It's passive, cheap, and fun. You could probably use it to switch between and combine multiple channels of Metron, allowing you to avoid buying Grids. You could have a straight pattern set up on one channel of Metron and a fill pattern on another channel, and then switch back and forth or combine those trigger sequences with the flip of a switch. Switchblade would allow something similar as well.
On a related note, I just checked out a demo for Metropolix. Wow. Awesome.

Good point. Okay, I've updated the rack to the following:

I've added the Metropolix, it's definitely what I'm looking for. I also dropped the Javelin single VCA-envelope in preference for a full quad rack of envelopes and VCAs, so that I can gain some sustain for the Manis, the Ataraxic, and the uPlaits.

I'm also thinking that I'll augment the Metron with uGrids for the snare, hi-hat, and clap (via some logic OR modules, I'll be able to send gates from both Grids and Metron). That way I can generate entirely new drum patterns with the twists of a few knobs while still retaining much of the Metron's ability to control what's going on (particularly with the kick).

Wonderful. Now comes the painful part; the eons of waiting while I buy modules bit by bit.

What Type of utility modules?
-- darksoul

if you are referring to my signature - effectively all of them - mixers of all sorts, vcas (especially cascading ones), switches, attenuverters etc etc - use for modulation and triggers as well as audio - doepfer almost always has a reasonably priced version of everything (but it looks like you know that already)

-- JimHowell1970

Can you give some ideias, the first ones o should buy first?

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 18:48

You already have one of the best trigger sequencers on the market (Metron). I would really recommend keeping that and adding the Metropolix or something similar to it. That would be a very powerful combination.

The more I research about the Metropolix, the more GAS I fall prey to. I'm growing convinced it's exactly what I'm looking for.

This leads to a central question: Do I keep the Metron? If not, should I transfer to an external drum machine? How do I sequence drum modules without Metron, maybe Grids? Do I keep the Metron but mostly not use it in preference over other rhythm generating sequencers? Could I somehow augment the Metron with other trigger generators?

Can I just say how fun this all is? I absolutely love a good optimization problem.

What Type of utility modules?
-- darksoul

if you are referring to my signature - effectively all of them - mixers of all sorts, vcas (especially cascading ones), switches, attenuverters etc etc - use for modulation and triggers as well as audio - doepfer almost always has a reasonably priced version of everything (but it looks like you know that already)

Thanks :) This was certainly a fun patch.... fairly sure the Moon Phase filter from Patching Panda might be my next DIY build to compliment the Chainsaw & ST Modular SVCA (though the latter is a weird VCA, quirky is probably the best description).

Wow. This is beautiful. Gives me Yamaha CS80/Blade Runner vibes.
I'm now regretting selling my Chainsaw. Unfortunately, I never got around to using it as creatively as you. You're inspiring me to consider trying it out again.
Keep sharing!

Just a mellow filtered thing....

There might be a couple of mins of Silence at the start of this as the audio capture didn't start in OBS.
Second patch with Acidrain Chainsaw, heading through HNVCF and Omsonic FLF on separate channels going into Monsoon Clouds and I've got the Rebach VCF-AB being fed some noise and self resonating with the Befaco Burst plucking and envelope ratchet triggers.
I literally just found the most simple fun too, Noise out of the Disting, into a VCA then into a Channel of the ADDAC103 and ride the 103 as a filter with the VCA for all manner of lovely blippy sweepy grunge from a simple noise source :) then thru the Pico DSP.

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 15:31

Looking at the Metron, it does make sense that you'd have some trouble since it's primarily a trigger sequencer. Thinking through the original question a bit, the Intellijel Scales can function as a dual quantizer and also as a sequencer I think, worth checking out along with the Metropolix.

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 14:46

What Type of utility modules?

I have all already with MDLR PORTABLE 12U/104HP box, I need some bases to start.
Music Techno more melodic ambient.
Have some voltas micro freak, some delay and reverb pedals. This type of gear, nothing modular.
Have already made some music with the módulos i have.

what sort of tips?

which of these modules do you own?

what sort of music are you making?

what other gear do you own?

Hello , im new in the world of modular.

This is my set up, its possible some tips.
Thanks

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 12:15

Thank you @GarfieldModular. I know techno isn't your favorite style of music, so I appreciate your time and feedback. :)
I use the term "jazz" very loosely in the sense that this is music fully created in the moment. Haha.
Have a great weekend.

Sounds interesting and looks like fun to me :) As I understand you finished planning and did not buy everything yet so here are some thoughts:

• I recently got the Harmonic Oscillator and although it takes up quite a lot of space in your system I think it’s absolutely worth it
• Did you consider having a Tete and Tetrapad Combination instead of a second Pressure Points? I don’t have Pressure Points but Tete and Tetrapad would offer a great number of additional functions
• The Mimeophon is definitely a good choice (clocked, freeze function, filter…) The reverb is also ok but I would think about adding a separate one with more controls. I really like the Tiptop Zverb - sounds huge and has only 8hp
• An alternative to a separate reverb could be MI Beads for granular textures. Would be interesting under the plucky shamisen
• Rings also is a nice idea. I don‘t use it that often any more to be honest but together with the Shamisen and manipulation via Pressure Points (or Tete Tetrapad) I can imagine it to be a good way of bringing additional character to the sound
• I don‘t know the Periformer but it has almost the size of the Five 12 Vector Sequencer which is really amazing. Maybe overkill for the system at the moment but they have the tendency to grow fast ;)
• Did you think about a 1u row in your case? You could put a small mixer or maybe the Intellijel Multi FX in there. I like the Intellijel 1u 104hp performance cases because because you already have the Power supply in it and there are in- and outputs integrated on the backside which you can connect with their 1u Input/Output modules (do you already have a power source / external mixer with headphone outputs?)
• Pam’s New Workout also is a also good choice - so much function on small space and easily accessible clock division - I doubt that having it you need the additional 2hp Div

Just some inputs…. In the end it highly depends on your taste and the way you like to interact with different types of control and this is just one approach of many. I think one of the most important things to know in the beginning is that if you ask four modular doctors you get five different diagnoses ;)

Edit: checked out the public rack and saw that you added a filter…. missed to mention that - definetly makes sense

Cheers and have a nice weekend

EDITED Aug 7th 2021, 11:11

make your rack public and cut and paste the link - helps us help you!

Hey guys,

I almost finished my case for eurorack experimentation both with an external acoustic japanese instrument (Shamisen) and with the eurorack itself.
I was wondering what you, people expert in this world I’m entering in, think about this rack and what it’s missing for its last 18HP of space.
The filling plate is for a preamp for the shamisen a friend of mine (inventor at Unwndevices) made.

Thanks

https://cdn.modulargrid.net/img/racks/modulargrid_1539626.jpg

This should work: https://www.modulargrid.net/e/mutable-instruments-stages In this case, you can assign the time/level jacks as needed, and even break out the EG segments so that you can also use this as a sequencer. Not your basic ADSR, and it IS a tad spendy, but if you want that level of control, it doesn't get much better than this...even at $359.

Hi Farkas,

Brilliant! In that sense that I admire your courage to just get started, recording and yes, really getting started, getting into it :-) That's nice to hear and to see in the video. The jazz I am missing a slightly bit here in this jam, other than that great work!

Thanks a lot for sharing this, have a good weekend and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Nickgreenberg,

Sorry about my rushed-off reply from yesterday night, I was about to go to bed but I wanted to give you a first reply. Thanks again for your feedback as well as for your kind remarks, much appreciated :-)

Regarding your first point about shortening the report, indeed that seems to be the good way forward, similar feedback received already and together with Plragde looking into this. I think I follow up here on the advice from Plragde to split the document; I still need to work out that idea a bit more and I might need to update my website for that a bit but I think I will go that road yes. Still the contents of it I will leave for the moment about the same, naturally feedbacks that I receive and those that I consider worthwhile to implement, I will do so accordingly.

Then about the speed... hmm yes, what I did is, I made a very extensive template for my review reports. So the large "text" work has already been done, so that part is mostly copy/paste however for every module I have to check the about 200+ parameters that might be different for each module. Then the functionality (chapter 5) is different for each module or might be different and that needs to be fine tuned to the functionality of the module that I am reviewing. Similar for chapters 4 and 6 and of course the summarise chapter 2.

About your second point, I explained that already yesterday to you. Yes, if I would have more time I could do a video as well. On the other hand, as already explained, I do think there are already enough videos available on Youtube ;-) But perhaps in the far future I might change my mind about this matter. Let's see.

Your third point, has some overlap with the speed matter from your first point; so for that please refer to my reply to your above first point. About more interesting modules, ha, ha, yes I certainly understand your point here, as also already explained yesterday, over time I will build up my experience (I hope at least I will) and then slowly and step by step I will look into the more interesting and complicated modules, however that will take its time.

Yes, that list of Doudoroff's sequencers is great, isn't it? Very good point :-) That's in the future "already covered" in my review reports in paragraph 5.5 - Comparing this module with other modules; currently marked as a placeholder only. Once I have more time, I am going to look into that and come up with a template for that paragraph as well as I need to have enough modules with one and the same functionality to be able to compare them with each other. This is something I definitely want to work on, not sure how soon but that's one of my priorities! Thanks a lot for pointing this out :-)

He, he, 15 minutes to check out a module? :-) Isn't that a bit (too) short? :-) Not that I want you to force into anything else other than what you prefer to do of course. For a simple module like a Doepfer A-140 ADSR or Doepfer A-145 LFO I might indeed also look only an hour or so into it, however for me at least, the other extreme is the Vector (Five12) sequencer over more than a year-and-a-half time span I think I spend certainly a month perhaps even two months (in total and let's say a few hours per day) time to investigate sequencers, checked that Doudoroff's list and checked almost all interesting sequencers. For me choosing a good sequencer was so far the most intensive research and most difficult decision. Luckily the Vector plus expander doesn't let me down, it's a great sequencer by the way.

Don't get me wrong here, point taken from you, this is very valuable information for me to understand the reader better. So lesson learnt for me: I need to focus on keeping the review report as compact as possible, so a quicker check for the reader is easier and better possible. In that sense, thanks a lot for your input :-)

The "what's in it for me" I answered already, to summarise that, this is for me a fantastic hobby and for a fantastic hobby I don't mind to spend tons of time :-)

Thank you very much, I hope with my style of answering I don't frighting you off and I hope you keep coming with your feedback in the future if you notice anything that's worth letting me know. Till then, I wish you a good weekend, enjoy modular and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

Thanks a lot for your reply. As already mentioned in my previous post to you, I added the "Reverse power protection" parameter, you might have missed it :-)

Those voltage ranges for each output and/or input, is actually a good one. The part that disturbs me a bit here is that for this kind of information most manufacturers even don't bother to provide such information neither on their websites nor in their manuals. Yes, I know there are a few manufacturers who provide this information, then again not consequently over all their modules...

That makes it even more difficult for me to provide a consequent stream of "equal information" (as that's what it seems to me you are looking for, and I actually do look for that too) regarding that matter. I added the reverse power protection parameter since I do think that's indeed good to have that information quickly available, you got a good point there and thank you very much for that.

Regarding the voltage ranges for the jacks, yes it's a very valid and good point too however for the moment I do see a practical issue about that (since the manufacturers barely provide this information, i.e. as explained above) that I am not going to include that as part of the parameters in chapter 3 however the little good news for you is, for those modules where this information is provided, I usually add that in the flow diagram in paragraph 5.4. So what you could do for the time being till the manufacturers will provide more regularly this information, is to check out paragraph 5.4, if a module has been provided with this information then you can find it in the flow diagram.

Thanks a lot for your feedback, have a good weekend and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gumbo23,

Ha, ha, this is cool, dub music done by a modular system! Bravo! :-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this and kind regards, Garfield.

Thanks @wishbonebrewery. I don’t live too far from Detroit so I probably absorbed the whole minimal thing by osmosis.

Thanks for all the input above guys! I think I'm narrowing in on what could be good next adds for me. Much appreciated!!

Nice work, and way more restrained than i would have managed, good stuff :)

Garfield, glad my post above gives some helpful input / food for thought.

Sounds to me like you're doing the reports mainly for your own learning process. Makes sense to me.

Yes, lots to chew on, we can pick it up later.

Cheers, NG

I succesfully avoided an scam attempt the past week from a guy living in Rotterdam, be aware of trading with whichever that uses

***@aoutlook.com as a paypal address

There are other users that were scammed for this pig
-- franq

I am aware my response is over a year later. The dude mentioned is still active, I believe mainly on Facebook groups where I read about him several times. He ‘sells’ under several names, so be aware.

EDITED Sep 27th 2022, 15:17

Thanks for checking it out @troux. I was sort of practicing restraint. My natural tendency is for "more". More drums, more transitions, more distortion, more abstract, more more lo-fi, more experimental, more, more, more... Haha.

Well done @farkas, I'm a big fan of exploratory jams and this turned out great.