A VCF I've been working on... a state-variable filter based on the J. Haible/R. Schmitz discrete 2040 gain cell. The original filter core was designed by Scott Stites and has been enthusiastically developed by myself.

VCOs used in 2-oscillator patches are TipTop Audio Z3000, in 3-oscillator patches I add a Synthasystem re-issue. VCA, when in use, is integrated. 

Apologies for the hi-hat bleed/poor recording in some of the patches, this passed through an ad-hoc signal chain as my recording interface is currently out for repair. I'll be replacing the file with a better one as soon as I can record one.  (Ok, I added on to the end rather than replace, but my interface is back!)

Discrete SVF Test 01

This is the ultimate evolution of the "8-09" track that I posted as a work-in-progress last year. I'm not sure why I never put it up. Probably had something to do with the awkward transitions in a couple of spots. Still, the title seems oddly appropriate, considering...

As usual it's the 606 driving the Eurorack. It's been so long I don't remember if I was playing one of the vintage boards in this one or not... lack of obvious mistakes suggests that I was not. =)

You Were Never Part of the Plan

Another track I dug up from the dregs of my Ableton folder... I'm really not sure why I never posted this one. I rather like it.

As always this is recorded live, in one pass, on my eurorack modular. 

Repeating My Favorite Mistakes

 All modular, save a TR-606. Self-running, unedited, one pass. (I hit record and wandered off to do something else. Everything's tracked in Live individually for editing later.) Hope to edit for structure later, but I'll probably get sucked into building more modules and forget about it. =)

Low drone is a Triple Slice through a Yusynth Diode Ladder VCF. VCF is set just below self-osc with an LFO applied to the VC RES input such that it drifts through and into oscillation, then back out.

Bouncy synth line is E350+Z3k -&gt; Yusynth Arp 4072 -&gt; PS-3100 Resonators. Percussion and FM noises are various other modules.


8-20

606 driving the 18U Eurorack modular. (My '606 expander' as I always say.) One pass, just a quick rough draft of a track. No structure, no hands. Little hint of resonator on the drums in Live.

Ran out of patch cords and VCOs and it needs just a little bit more - I guess it's time to build some VCOs and order some more damned cables. Would be nice to do the individual-outs mod to the 606 as well, I miss that about the pair I used to have.


8-26

Another 'this is what the modular's doing tonight' patch driven by the 606. I was actually trying to tear down the previous patch (8-26) and start anew, but I did it with the audio running. Halfway through it started to sound kinda nice, so I resolved the messy parts, tuned a couple of VCOs and came up with this. No human intervention, it just runs along by itself as usual.


Best toy ever...



9-07

Another '606 expander' session. This time it's basically all about the Toppobrillo Triple Wavefolder. The drums are the sole audio input to the TWF, the 'melody' is actually the CV signal for the first stage of the folder. Both other stages are also modulated, though not at audio rate, and then the output is run through a Buchla 194 clone set up to function as a sort of EQ. The TWF and 194 are new builds, this was the end result of their initial 'run-through' 

The springy, bassliney thing is the E350 through an AmSynths AM8023. My shiny new TimeLine is handling the delay &amp; the MPX1 is reverbing as always, because the patch select button is broken and that's what it's stuck on. =)


10-13

This is 10-13, cleaned up and tweaked a bit. A lot of what was there (especially in the sequence and timing modules) was left over from previous patches and settings.

10-18

Holy crap it's been WAY too long since I added to my track list here. 

I was going through some really old files and ran across some recordings I did the mid 90s when I was in high school. Most is still locked away on cassette tape but I did digitize a few back then. 

All this stuff was recorded solo between 1995 and 1998, live, in one pass, in my home studio. Usually on my headphones so I wouldn't wake my parents up. 

This one was rescued from a RealAudio recording (remember those?) so please bear with me in terms of audio quality. And let's all be thankful for modern software, which was able to find a lot more of the missing frequencies in this piece than I'd imagined possible.  

Gear list is an OSCar + SH-09 on the melodic side with an Oberheim OB-1 doing the bass drone. Drums are my trusty modded 606 through either the modded 202 or the Sonic 6 filter. And the kick sounds like my 909? (I think. It's been a while and the rest of the drums are heavily processed...)All the sequencing would've been done on an Ensoniq SQ-80 with a Kenton Pro-2 for MIDI->CV and DIN Sync. 

Probably my own personal favorite piece, ever. This recording was just an impromptu sample I sent over IRC to a buddy for critique. Sadly the "real" recording of the piece has been lost. This was my only surviving record.

Contact

Another one from my archives. This one does not suffer sound quality issues as it was recorded straight to DAT in the extremely well equipped TIMARA studios at Oberlin College, during a summer program I attended there in 1997. 

I took some of my own gear with me, so this is a mix of Oberlin's and my equipment. Notably my 303 + modded 606 and their EMS Synthi. (Still the only time I've ever laid hands on one. Glorious.) 

This was recorded live in one take as usual for me, but then I ran the L and R channels separately through the Synthi, one side dry and the other through the ringmod and filter. I recall having a wet/dry crossfade mapped to one of the joystick axes and ringmod depth to the other. It was then re-recorded with me playing the joystick and knobs. (Mostly filter cutoff IIRC.) 

Aeolus is the Greek god of the four winds. Janus is the Roman god of beginnings and endings, of transition and movement and time. Working with the joystick inspired the title - Aeolus for the n/s/e/w layout of the 2-axis joystick and Janus for the constant movement, transitions and intertwined beginnings and endings it introduced onto the original recording.  

Super good times, those.

Aeolus & Janus

Mostly driven by the E.A.S. Miss 10 - an MS-10 VCO and VCF clone I'm working on developing Eurorack-format panels for. This is what 'testing' ended up sounding like after I was done patching up my finished pair. There's a 606 doing drums and providing the master clock, of course. Its audio is split between a dry signal and one filtered by a Tiptop Z2040, then run through a Serge Resonant EQ.

The Miss 10 (doing the main melodic line) is running through a clone of the PS-3100 Resonator section and then into two LPGs in series, the first in VCF mode and the second in LPG mode. The 'melody' is from a Buchla 208 Random CV clone run into a uScale.

Delay is a TimeLine, reverb's the MPX-1 as usual.



11-23

Just messin' around... patched up and tossed together in a couple of hours. Insipid little tune, but I kinda like it. One pass, no post.

12-05

Patch on the MSU panel. E350 output into CGS '73 Serge VCF. LP out into CGS Steiner LP in, BP into BP in, HP into HP in. Cutoffs modulated independently, one with an LFO and the other with a random voltage from a Buchla 208 Random clone. Both filters set to high (but not full) resonance. 

Interesting effect...

CGS MSU [Cascaded VCFs]

All audio from the Eurorack modular, save a tape-delay from the Timeline. No reverb, believe it or not. All basically self-generated with a Buchla 208 random CV source at the core. I'm working knobs and faders, nothing more.

The Wingless Flight of the Delta Wave

Unusually minimal patch from me. I just bought a Moog Sonic 6 and this was my first pass at integrating it with the modular. 606 has the beat and I used an E350 through a Yusynth diode ladder for the melody. Buchla 208's picking the notes again, except on the S6 which is doing the pad. (I'm playing that.)


Theta Rhythm

Needs a little more spice... this is one pass live from the modular. No drum machine, all sounds from scratch. (It's more drum-driven than the stuff I make with a drum machine, wtf?)

Blender Pump

Bit of a live jam on the modular from this evening's patchings. Breaking in the new DrumDokta while testing out a filter build for a customer. Wishing I had the Mutinator prototypes in my rack, but they're just Gerber files right now. 

The Odyssey makes an appearance, otherwise this is ALL MODULAR. Best toy ever. Have I said that? I've said that.

1-27

A short exploration of the MA35 VCF/VCA's behavior at high resonance settings A little LP wiggling, a little HP wiggling, and then a bit of self-oscillation at the tail end.

Manhattan Analog MA35, resonant study

Alright, I have to give a huge thanks to Brett Naucke who put this demo together for me. (Unfortunately my recording capabilities are in limbo owing to PC hardware conflicts.) I think this should give a pretty good idea of what's going on with this module!

Audio Source: Make Noise STO 

Low Pass Sweep

00:00 - 00:58 Various up to 50%
00:58 - 50% Resonance
1:42 100% Resonance

1:51 BandPass Sweeps
2:37 50% Resonance
3:10 100% Resonance

3:20 HighPass Sweeps
3:54 50% Resonance
4:11 100% Resonance

4:30 Envelope Modulation from Sequencer in Low Pass mode
Slowly adding decay from envelope with varying resonance

6:27 Example of kicks and extremely resonant punches with envelope modulation

6:54 Envelope Modulation from Sequencer in BandPass/High Pass modes

9:05 Examples of heavy modulation. 2 LFO’s from low frequency to audio rate modulation  in all modes.

12:02 Chord Drone from Make Noise Telharmonic. Filter sweeps in each mode, and heavy modulation from 2 LFO’s from low frequency to audio rate modulation.

Manhattan Analog Steiner Synthasystem VCF - Audio Demo

Another little off-cut I found kicking around in the Live folder... not even sure what I meant this to be, but I like it, so here we are.

Fig Jam

My first patch with the new Rene; a quick little jam with the Euro + 606 + Odyssey. A one-shot, realtime recording.

I sync, therefore I am.

Very rough first stab at this one... the transitions are off beat and off measure & there's no 'structure' but I wanted to mull it over a while. As with most of these really complex patches, I need to practice with it until I can 'play' something coherent with it. (All my tracks are recorded in one pass, all live in studio by just me.) 

Not sure on the mix either, planning to listen on a few systems now that it's posted. 

8-09

This is another one from the offcuts and outtakes folder. (A few more things in there I may release as time goes on.) Please excuse the occasional poor transition, volume adjustment, or structural problem. 

This is from the same patch as a couple of other tracks I've posted, just variations on a theme. Everything I do is recorded live in studio, in real time, so each take is different.

Still Not Part of the Plan

Here's another quick demo of the Manhattan Analog MA35 VCF/A. This patch is super-simple, consisting of only 4 modules - Rene sequencing a Z3000, sawtooth out through the MA35 with a VCF303's envelope output shaping the filter. (Triggers for the EG also provided by Rene.) There is some reverb and delay, both from Strymon pedals. 

There's some areas of high resonance and areas of low or no resonance. The idea of this demo is to show :

1) how it reacts to lower input levels than in the 'Resonant Study' I've posted, and 
2) how it sounds in a more musical context than said other demo.

Note the second 'phantom melody' that shows up in a couple of spots as the resonance is set just to the edge of oscillation while the input level is below the distortion zone. 

I hope this helps you get a better idea of the range of sounds available from this filter. It really is a versatile little machine; equally proficient in music as in mayhem. 



negativspace

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