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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread
- Thread starter ttasselm
- Start date
Alright - I experimented with external audio thru the Clouds section of the Maneco Grone. It worked! Took a Subharmonicon track and put recorded it through Clouds - could hear a nice reverb around the notes, and then these weird echoes. I recorded three takes - I need to work on the tuning and experiment more. The third take I managed to access the reverb of the Parasites firmware - first time! There's lots under the hood in this thing. It's not crystal clear - I believe the Clouds LEDs are reversed from the manual for example. But with the right web assistance I'm accessing the stuff I was looking for. I really like the tabletop format too - I was able to use a 1/4" cable from ProTools to go in, then my 1/8" to 1/4" patch cables to go back in to ProTools. I only have 3 of those cables, and one is plugged in to my DFAM getting the clock from the MAQ - I was going to try and unplug it, so glad I realized I didn't have to!
I'm realizing that the Subharmonicon and Clouds may be the perfect partners - the SubH introduces a kind of harmonic/rhythmic chaos (that doesn't necessarily come across as chaotic when incorporated into other more rhythmic sounds), and Clouds amplifies that with its random reiterations of that which came before. It fits my worldview, since I was exposed to Ornette Coleman's harmolodics and Frank Zappa's xenochrony at a critical time in my musical development.
I'm realizing that the Subharmonicon and Clouds may be the perfect partners - the SubH introduces a kind of harmonic/rhythmic chaos (that doesn't necessarily come across as chaotic when incorporated into other more rhythmic sounds), and Clouds amplifies that with its random reiterations of that which came before. It fits my worldview, since I was exposed to Ornette Coleman's harmolodics and Frank Zappa's xenochrony at a critical time in my musical development.
I did some traveling over the last few days, and couldn't make music but could definitely think about gear and do some web surfing.
West Pest and Minibrute 2S work well together... and oh hey, there are a couple Eurorack cases designed specifically to mount on the 2S, which will make things much less awkward. And I kind of want to make that combo into a semi-independent little modular, the BrutePest. It just needs a little more modulation and utilities to shore up West Pest's weaknesses, a bit more in the mixing department, and a delay to make it feel really complete to me.
- I've already got Inertia which I've been trying to sell. That'll do for an extra envelope or LFO, the occasional extra VCO or filter or wobbly slew.
- For utility I can grab a Warm Star The Bends -- unconventional but capable for the various stuff I want to do, and I like the idea that it'll encourage me to think a little differently. Also I can move over the Mystic Circuits Ana from the main rack.
- Mimeophon would be perfect with it I think. It's got the right character, lots of flexibility for non-end-of-chain delay uses, and it doesn't need much else except the occasional simple modulation to sound great.
And that gives me space in the main rack for a Verbos Multi-Delay. I was watching videos and was really blown away by the possibilities. It broke my streak of "I don't want any new modules"
:cough:: not counting West Pest as a "module").
I still need to decide between the RackBrute 3U, which would be enough for this plan, or the 6U which would give me a little more leeway for more expansion but costs almost the same as the 3U on the used market. I'd hate to get stuck feeling like I'm just 4HP too short... or decide that the Multi-Delay also calls for a Verbos Bark Filter or something and I need to shuffle more stuff. But I also don't want to be tempted to expand further just because I'd have the case space. Hmm.
West Pest and Minibrute 2S work well together... and oh hey, there are a couple Eurorack cases designed specifically to mount on the 2S, which will make things much less awkward. And I kind of want to make that combo into a semi-independent little modular, the BrutePest. It just needs a little more modulation and utilities to shore up West Pest's weaknesses, a bit more in the mixing department, and a delay to make it feel really complete to me.
- I've already got Inertia which I've been trying to sell. That'll do for an extra envelope or LFO, the occasional extra VCO or filter or wobbly slew.
- For utility I can grab a Warm Star The Bends -- unconventional but capable for the various stuff I want to do, and I like the idea that it'll encourage me to think a little differently. Also I can move over the Mystic Circuits Ana from the main rack.
- Mimeophon would be perfect with it I think. It's got the right character, lots of flexibility for non-end-of-chain delay uses, and it doesn't need much else except the occasional simple modulation to sound great.
And that gives me space in the main rack for a Verbos Multi-Delay. I was watching videos and was really blown away by the possibilities. It broke my streak of "I don't want any new modules"
:cough:: not counting West Pest as a "module").I still need to decide between the RackBrute 3U, which would be enough for this plan, or the 6U which would give me a little more leeway for more expansion but costs almost the same as the 3U on the used market. I'd hate to get stuck feeling like I'm just 4HP too short... or decide that the Multi-Delay also calls for a Verbos Bark Filter or something and I need to shuffle more stuff. But I also don't want to be tempted to expand further just because I'd have the case space. Hmm.
In my perfect world most synths would come with a built-in delay and reverb of some sort. Something that can be voltage controlled and synced to a sequencer. I'm imagining this built into a Moog Mother 32 or other semi-modulars, for example.
Interestingly, the Volca Keys has a built-in delay. Cool feature for a dirt cheap synth.
No, unfortunately. But IIRC there is a sync to clock feature, since the Volcas all have built-in sequencers.
If Korg were to make a slightly larger version of the Volcas with patch panels I think some of them would be competitive in the semi-modular game.
Of course it wouldn't be a Volca anymore...
Interesting. Perhaps because I'm old (LOL!) and learned analog synthesis back when there were relatively few options, to me delay and reverb are completely separate layers of sound design that get applied after the basic timbral construction is realized. Not that I can't imagine cool stuff to do with voltage- (or other paradigm) controlled ambience...it's just that I don't even envision how ambience factors into the whole sound until after the foundational timbre has been developed, and only then do I start to think about "should this object be wetter or drier...and, which parts of this object?"
the reason i brought up the hydra is that it *does* accept cv for some of rhe effects parameters (iirc).
I imagine for the price of a Hydra you could get an armload of Volcas, so that makes sense.
Makes sense, but I rarely use a synth without at least a bit of delay or reverb. That means more cables for power and signals, another power supply (usually a wall wart), all of which is a PITA to move around and set up / take down. Put the effect in the box with the rest of the instrument and all that gets solved.
In theory, anyway. In reality the effect is often not going to be the version of delay/reverb the user wants so he will find himself going outboard after all. I'm guessing that's why it's rarely done.
well you said you wanted something that did it. hydra is a pretty deep synth, with an easy ui, a delay, a reverb, two assignable efx slots, a big mod matrix and cv in/out.
dunno how many volcas it would take to do that. and, of course, taking one thing is often easier than taking many along with their attendant power supplies. the desktop seems pretty affordable.
btw, i’ve read that the reason that there are not a bunch of synths with great reverbs is that reverb is very cpu-intensive. so it’s probably amount of prive point. for instance, if the hydra seems expensive to you now, it would probably way worse with a *great* reverb (i’ve seen people slag its reverb quality cause it’s not as good as a strymon.)
Last edited:
- Mar 8, 2011
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- Disclosures
- Authorized greenboy designs builder/Owner of BNA Audio
How do you like it?
With a lot of the abstract/cloudy stuff I've been doing lately, the reverb is part of the sound design. A thing I do quite a bit lately is create a complex arp sequence on the Iridium, then I smear the hell out of it with some extreme settings on my Blackhole verb. Gives it a nice, shifting texture.
But for the more vanilla stuff, I generally just put a little bit of verb on it from the start and then dial it in once the sound is how I like it.
I discovered a similar trick awhile back. I’d been using a granular texture for one of my post rock band’s songs but I wanted to run only the Micromonsta which has no granulator. It turns out that a fast enough arpeggio through reverb gets really close. The envelope shape is the “window.”
I’m a different person but I have mixed feelings on mine. I really really wish it was a little bigger and had attenuators on the CV inputs—you basically need to run attenuated voltages into it somehow.
But it sounds great, and is a bit of a cross between a harmonic oscillator and complex oscillator. I haven’t messed with custom scales but it’s nice that it can do that. Harmonic oscillators are of those weird modular “workarounds” for polyphony that turns out to offer a whole other creative direction. Very excited for the new firmware where you can lock the tune knob.
I'm not a huge fan of standard Karplus-Strong plucked string stuff, but getting delays to resonate (especially with things like a tilt EQ and reverb in the feedback path like Mimeophon has) can still be a really nice synthesis technique. Some of my favorite demos of the Verbos delay were using it as a sound source rather than an effect.
Also, with no feedback and a short delay time, if you modulate the delay time at audio rate you can do phase modulation of any input signal, which is the kind of thing I like to do for fun
...
That said, I'm rethinking this. I realized how slippery the slope was from "no more stuff" to "add a really cheap semi-modular" to "add a $350 case and $200 utility and a $600 delay and then I'll have 80HP for another $1-2K of stuff."
Also, with no feedback and a short delay time, if you modulate the delay time at audio rate you can do phase modulation of any input signal, which is the kind of thing I like to do for fun
...
That said, I'm rethinking this. I realized how slippery the slope was from "no more stuff" to "add a really cheap semi-modular" to "add a $350 case and $200 utility and a $600 delay and then I'll have 80HP for another $1-2K of stuff."
re reverb as part of sound design:
imo/e, a short reverb can be pretty great. and i really want someone to do a reverse reverb algorithm cause would be very useful for sound design. roland could do it in the 80s. why not now? i think the happy needing fx aid pro has it and i want one.
polyphonic osc:
apparently the expert sleepers disting ex plus alpha (too many words this early) has a legit 4-voice poly osc buried in it. looks like each osc can be its own distinct sound.
imo/e, a short reverb can be pretty great. and i really want someone to do a reverse reverb algorithm cause would be very useful for sound design. roland could do it in the 80s. why not now? i think the happy needing fx aid pro has it and i want one.
polyphonic osc:
apparently the expert sleepers disting ex plus alpha (too many words this early) has a legit 4-voice poly osc buried in it. looks like each osc can be its own distinct sound.
I just racked it up and started noodling around last night with some simple sequences. I turned a bunch of knobs and flipped the switches to see how intuitive it would be and what the range of sounds was. I feel like I got some good sounds out of it and it has plenty of potential, once I get my head around how to modulate it. It doesn’t seem overly complicated, but there’s lots of new information to keep track of.
The module takes up some space, so I’m considering how to get a second voice in the rack, and currently considering the Erica Bassline module, which has some familiar sounds and is fully contained with VCA/VCF/Sub/Detune.
