#cv: octave

[chasingvelocity]

hi i still have backlog i just forgot to post these bc i was playing frontiers! oh hey time for some random side characters saying incorrect quotes

Terra is a seedrian! she looks a bit different now bc for a while i wasn't sure how i wanted seedrians to look in CV whoops. my updated notes on her are also currently misplaced so i can't.. actually say much about her.. because everything i remember is out of date! hooray

meanwhile Octave is fairly straightforward: she's a minor antagonist, she's a petty jerk, and the only person she gets along with is.. maybe the only human oc in CV so far

[patchdotexe]

second comic successfully remade! will i make more of these? yeah probably.

somehow this is an average conversation between T1 and rocket. mostly because T1 has been around long enough to remember KG's old shames and remind her of them. (also including: cvtails questioning his choice in new friends.)

[synths-and-sensibility]

Guess who's got 4 channels of midi to cv covering 8 octaves!

It's an Adafruit Itsy Bitsy 32u4 with a couple of MCP4822's and then non-inverting amplifiers. It's kind of a hot mess behind the panel and I had to do some extra steps in code to map out the outputs to the different channels, but hey, it works!

[spiritualdirections]

ADVENT IS NOT THE CHRISTMAS SEASON!!!

Lots of people today refer to the period when Jingle Bells is playing in the CVS as “The Christmas Season” or (more frequently) “The Holiday Season.” It’s the time when we are supposed to be “festive.” There are so many parties and cookies and cakes that the average American adult gains one pound each year during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and keeps it on the next year). It is the time of year when people spend so much money that it’s an essential part of the business model of many retailers.

   None of this is thinking the way the Church does. Rather, it serves to undermine the meaning of Christmas.

   The season of Advent is a time of preparation; the season of Christmas is the festive time. The season of Christmas begins...on Christmas, not before. There ought to be a marked contrast between the tone of Advent and the tone of Christmas:

The Season of Advent

Time to prepare for the Second Coming

Time of fasting

Liturgical color: violet (like Lent, funerals)

Don’t sing the Gloria at Mass

Time of Penance and Confession

Theme of readings: world is passing away

Time of almsgiving, sacrifice

Time of quiet prayer, meditation

The Season of Christmas

Time to celebrate the Birth of Jesus

Time of feasting

Liturgical color: white (like Easter)

Angels sang the first Gloria to the shepherds

Time to celebrate birth of our Savior 

Theme of readings: Peace on earth

Time of family, good cheer

Time of louder prayer, singing

Keep in mind that the preparation for Christmas is really limited to the novena before Christmas, starting on Dec. 17. The majority of Advent involves praying for Christ’s second coming, rather than remembering his first coming.

Some practical ways to celebrate Advent: 

Call it Advent. That’s the proper name for the liturgical season, so actually use it.

Choose a mortification for the season, a lesser version of what you choose during Lent. This coincides with the nickname of Advent--the “little Lent.” Perhaps you could give up alcohol or cookies or other sweets, so that when you go to “Christmas” parties, you maintain an appropriate mentality.

Do something special on Sundays. Light Advent candles, for example, or do something analogous that marks the progress of the season with your friends. 

Spend some extra time in prayer. Perhaps make the effort to go to daily Mass, and say the rosary.

Make a special effort to perform works of mercy, which in certain contexts might simply mean smiling more and sharing your Christian joy with those who are stressed.

And then, when Christmas comes around--really cut loose! The Octave of Christmas is 8 days of celebrating the great mystery of Jesus’ Incarnation, so celebrate it accordingly. The contrast between Advent and Christmas should help to make the Christmas season not just a continuation of a month of getting fatter, but a special season focusing on the fact that God became Man in order to save us from our sins. Rather than being exhausted because of weeks of excess, we are prepared to welcome the King of Kings with excitement.

[taperwolf]

So this is what Hatsune Miku would sound like singing through a Moog Subharmonicon.

The little white synthesizer is the Gakken NSX-39 "Pocket Miku", a stylus-based synth using the NSX-1 Vocaloid chip. It's in a mode where it uses Miku's voice to sing solfege — "do", "re", "mi", and so on — based on the tapped notes. If the volume of one of those sung notes is loud enough, it triggers the two Sigma slew limiters, which are tuned to output different subharmonics of that starting note. Which subharmonic is playing changes in time with the s&h module. (A deeper explanation for that is under the cut.) The three tones — Miku's voice and the two divided down signals — combine to create randomly changing chords.

We're exploiting the Sigma's Trigger input. When that input receives a trigger — the front edge of a high enough signal — the module produces a signal that's then slowed down by the Rise and Fall settings: the output goes from its lowest point to its highest point over the duration set by the Rise knob, and then back down over the duration set by the Fall knob. This process is how a function/slew limiter works as an AD envelope generator or an LFO.

To work as a frequency divider, you pass a repeating signal into that Trigger input, and it again does its rise and fall thing. Because the envelope isn't retriggerable, if the rise time plus the fall time is greater than the duration between the input triggers, it starts skipping them. The basic case is that you're skipping every other trigger, and your output now has a frequency of half that of the input — or, if you're working at audio rates, the output is one octave lower, because those are really the same thing.

The CV inputs are set to lengthen or contract the whole cycle proportionately to their input voltage, so when the random voltages of a s&h are given to it, the cycle changes the factor by which the frequencies are divided. Since the CV is attenuated to different degrees on the different Sigma modules, you get differing amounts of frequency changing.

[stellamancer]

here for my (idolish7) assigned song 🫡🫡🫡 i await ur judgement nikoo

what if i just assigned you taiyou no esperanza since it changed your life.

i know there are like 16 versions of this song but it would be inappropriate for me to give you anyone other by moom's.

cheery happy song for the cheery happy moda!!

[send me an ask and i will assign you a song that is probably from idolish7]

[apurikottotii]

feburary song recs!

this month was also CRAZY. first few days of the month were incredibly sinusoidal. i got really close with some friends, because some friends were being incredibly distant. almost threw up from disgust/stress at one point lol. but it worked out fine and the middle of the month was really fun. it reassured me that things were going to be okay. unfortunately things aren't always perfect so that doubt and mistrust keeps creeping up on me, but to be honest i don't really care much anymore. is it alright to let some things fade away?

--- newton dance - nayutalien x chinozo

okay so i heard this ruinene cover- from project sekai: a new voice, i think- on youtube and it's so cool. the voices fit so well (BOTH OF THEM) and the song is perfect for them and so cute. i love the theme of sciencey space love songs nayutalien does. it's SO CUTE. "can't fight your pull of gravity!" is so sweet. the tuning style makes it even more cuter. dfnisdfjnasdjfnadk. and nayutalien has a way of writing songs that scratch that itch in my brain- maybe it's the harmonic minor lol.

--- speak now - taylor swift

listen. i don't listen to pop. i don't like pop. i hate taylor swift. however. however. i love the story this songs tells. it's such a stereotypical straight story, I KNOW. but who doesn't love a stereotypical sort of sweet love story once in a while. the instrumentation is simple yet unique (for pop lol). the way she structures the chorus is different from other songs i've seen.

--- kosho yashiki satsujin jiken - teniwoha

otherwise known as "murder case at the mansion of antiquarian books". I LOVE SONGS THAT TELL A STORY (can you tell??) ESPECIALLY. MURDER. CASES. THAT. IS. SO COOL. sadly the lyrics are hard to understand but i still love it anyways. i especially love the wonderlands x showtime cover because the "sho" and "lie" parts are emphasized when you have several different voices, in different octaves, with different timbres. I LOVE EMU'S VOICE IN THIS. her cutesy voice is mixed with her lower register and it sounds GREAT. this is one of the (few) songs that work with her very cutesy childish voice. the line distribution makes this song so delicious. and oh my god. EVERY CHORUS. PUSHES. DOWN. A HALF STEP. THAT. IS SO COOL. it keeps dropping when you expect it to end or go higher. SADFNAISDUFNAISUDFIU. teniwoha, thank you.

--- sobakasu - judy and mary

ANOTHER recommendation from a friend. took some time to grow on me. what i find interesting is how the verses and instrumental breaks sound very different (pop vs. rock). my favorite part of this song is how raw and genuine it sounds. it's so catchy i hear myself humming this throughout the day. it's really just a sweet song (about love i think... something like love is like a freckle you can't get rid of ...?). the chorus loops in my mind. the way the singer sings it is so aosdfnasdfnjasdj. makes me smile.

--- new rules - dua lipa

okay i swear i don't like pop. i swear. i just heard it in my dance team's playlist and was like "wow i hate how much they play this song" then proceeded to loop it. i'm NOT going to say it's relatable. i'm not.

--- this is how to be in love with you/umbilical in milgram project

mahiru's cv works so well in this song. and i love the es cv cover too. this song itself is so sweet and makes you feel very warm and fuzzy though it's a little sinister lol. like... this is HOW TO BE IN LOVE WITH YOU?? what an awesome title. i really love the line that goes "if you're kind to me, i'm going to start relying on you, so thanks" or something. it's just such a fun vibe. i love when she sings "o-ver-heat" and "AI NAN DESU YO".

it's getting late so i will just say: yuno is relatable. let's reload the warmth y'all. light the oxygen on fire. or something. "i hope i can be someone you like."

honorary mentions: ke mu san (this meme song SLAPS my #1 listened to lol. the dance is addicting to watch)

[mega1232]

A conversation from BIG HERO 6 season 4, episode 1, that inly exists in my head:

(I’m not a writer, please be kind)

We join our heroes at the Lucky Cat Cafe, victorious after defeating precredits villains Steamer.

Fred, in his over the top, heroic way of being: And THAT, is how Big Hero 6 continuous it’s Steam Roll (pause for laughter-none is given) our latest villain! We are crushing it!!

Baymax, stiff as a robot, with the innocence of a child: Fred. We did not crush. Steamer. A scan showed he sustained. Zero. Injuries.

Hiro, always ready to correct His big inflatable buddy: Fred means we defeated him easily. I’m fact, everything has been easy lately. I’m all ready for the new semester-

Honey Lemon, cheerily chipping in: - and the three of us (giving side hugs to wasabi and Gogo) we’ve had enough time to find actually look for jobs!!

Gogo, cool as a cucumber, dim as midnight: if they actually hired us.

Wasabi, actually happy and not freaking out (shocking): c‘mon, Gogo, it’s not like we can put “world saving superhero” on our CVs. And-Fred is right, life is good.

Gogo: Fred-right? Batten down the hatches-we’re doomed.

Wasabi: I mean, he is! Who imagined phase 3 would be so smooth

Fred, standing up, striking a pose as if he’s the worlds most dramatic instructor: Incorrect, my dear, sweet and somehow not spicy Wasabi! We are in phase 4-cruising time! Our villains have been established, our skills are on point, and life is good.

Wasabi: well I can’t wait for phase 5 then!

Fred, PULLING WASABI CLOSE, grabbing his mouth and closing it shut: NO!!! No mention of phase 5!! Phase 4, goes on forever!!! You here me! Forever!!!

Honey Lemon: whoa, Freddy, calm down

Hiro: yeah, what’s phase 5?

Fred, pulling his hand away and dropping an octave as if he was a member of the midnight club: phase 5. I have had many a sleepless night of phase 5. (He pauses for dramatic effect. Everyone but wasabi, who has begun to freak out-his normal state) phase 5 is the exact opposite of 4. New, more terrifying villains!! (Wasabi quivers) a long, mind bending plot!! (Wasabi shrinks down, and pulls his knees in) and…a final battle that will end BIG HERO 6 as we know it-THE END OF ALL!! All is lost!!!

Wasabi, completely off his rocker: AGGGGHHHH!!!

Gogo: nice going, Fred-after a summer of chill, you broke Wasabi in one sentence.

Baymax: Wasabi. You are experiencing. Turmoil. Please take long, deep breaths. There, there.

Hiro, as Wasabi tries to get under control as Honey Lemon runs his back: Yeah, Fred. Calm down.

Fred, less dramatic, putting a reassuring hand on wasabi: sorry-sorry!! It just, a lot of heroes never hit “phase 5”. But if we do-I’m just a little worried guys-but it’s not gonna happen Wasabi. Probably

Wasabi, whimpering: well-how will we know if we’re in phase 5.

Fred: something dramatic that will change the dynamic will happen. A new, overpowered villain. An old character that returns. As long as we avoid that, we’re fine, buddy.

Wasabi: yeah. Yeah, we’re fine. As long as nothing like that happens, were fi-

*ding-ding-ding* goes the lucky cat door, and everyone turns and goes slacked jawed (well, not Gogo, because she’s Gogo. She does look surprised. And not Baymax, because-well-no jaw), and Hiro breaks the silance: K-K-karmi!

Karmi, best selling fan fiction author, young genius, and girl that is crushing on Hiro (and Hiro crushing on her), as awkward as possible: Hiro! (Pause, as the camera goes back and forth between the awkward teens, trying to get out a word and not wanting to interrupt the other) I’m , well, I’m back!

Hiro: oh. Hi.

Karmi: yeah. So.

Hiro: Um. Wel-welcome back!

Hiro and Karmi: *awkward motions to determine if they should hug or high five*

Gogo: *noncholant*

Honey lemon: *full shipper mode*

Baymax: *Baymax*

Fred, eyes narrow, turning to wasabi: phase 5

Wasabi, sputtering like a broken sprinkler: no. I mean. No. I can’t be. Right. RIGHT?!?

Across town…

An empty, dirty alley. A spark of purple energy speaks in the air. Another. Another! A portal of purple energy rips open! A dark figure begins to take form in the portal. The camera pans down as a giant, mechanical, black metal foot crush down.

The camera cuts to the side of the alley. A giant shadow emerges. The shadows head opens to unleash a long, loud guttural, mechanical roar!!

Title sequence.

If this short writing gets enough notes, I’ll write the episode titles and what happens in each episode in another post and edit this one to link to it. (I’ll try to do that. It might take a bit). If not, at least I wrote it down.

[depthbuffer]

On the one hand, I am once again wide awake at 1am because my belly hurts, the latest in a long line of unrelated ailments that seemingly insist on forming an orderly queue and playing out one after the other over years, instead of being mostly well with the occasional bout of sickness here and there like a normal person.

On the other hand, I just scored a barely used second-hand Keystep Pro, and a massively discounted B-stock DSM-03, a module I didn't even know existed until I stumbled across the listing. (In fact, I never even knew Dave Smith Instruments made modules, however briefly.)

The basic concept is Karplus-Strong in a box, but because it's Eurorack, all the building blocks have their own inputs and outputs. Karplus-Strong is a "plucked string" synthesis technique that works by feeding a short noise pulse into a feedback loop consisting of a low-pass filter and precisely timed delay, so you end up with a repeating wave with frequency based on the delay time, and decay as each repeat goes through the filter. Breaking that into its component parts, this module lets you feed in any audio, not just its internal noise pulse; the attack & decay of the noise pulse can be tweaked; and the filter cutoff & resonance, feedback loop gain, and delay length are CV-controlled. I particularly like how, with a smeared long attack noise pulse, it starts to sound panpipe-y.

The Erica Synths Pico Voice has a Karplus-Strong mode, which I used for the "guitar" on this track - along with overdrive for grit, a dash of volt/octave tuned squeal from a self-oscillating filter, a touch of reverb, then feeding the whole post-oscillator signal chain back on itself and blending back in with the dry stopping *just* before the point where notes would devolve into feedback whine rather than fade away, because why use real hardware if you aren't going to abuse feedback loops in ways DAWs can't do?

But I kind of like having the "real thing" in a module. Plus the thrill of having scored something slightly rare for a bargain price. The Pico Voice, being a fully digital, 3HP module, is awesome at doing exactly what it is advertised as doing, but has no patching potential beyond being an oscillator.

(video not mine)

However, it's 10HP I hadn't planned to fill this way; I had a plan for the remaining space in my case and this wasn't part of it. Oh well. A problem for future self. 🙃

The Keystep Pro I had planned to get for a while, because up until now I've only had a cheap keyboard with USB MIDI out, and only a single channel 16 step hardware sequencer, so I've had to have my PC on & DAW running, relying on MIDI-to-CV to actually pay my modular rig. Which kind of sucks for experimenting/meditating, and rules out live jamming, when you only have two CV outs and no expression or pitch bend. So I might start streaming at some point, just casually on twitch maybe.

[pizzatheif]

two machines appear in town within days of each other. one, a bright blue with illuminated butterfly wings and MORPHO in bright bold letters at the top ; the second, black, blank. the only illumination coming from the screen tucked behind a curtain — it felt like stepping into a photo booth going through its goth phase.

hugo had seen both. hell, the blue one was hard to miss considering it had turned up in the old borders-turned-cvs that sat neatly next to that one bagel place with the thin-sliced taylor ham; his fave. in a matter of days, he’d had to start taking the long way if he wanted breakfast. traffic down that street was a nightmare — worse than usual and that’s saying something.

he decided he wasn’t gonna buy into that crap, though. a matter of principle, he’d claimed ( though he’d probably misspoken ). what did he care that some stupid machines were telling people’s fortunes? he’s content where he is, anything else needed work or schooling and when would he find the time for that?

it eats at him, though – subconsciously plagues his dreams. especially when he finds tony’d gotten his done. ❝ ey, 'ugo, lookit this shit. ❞ the blue card is shoved under his nose and hugo squints at it, narrowed eyes darting upward to meet tony's in the space of a breath. ❝ i thought we thought this shit was bull? ❞ to which tony shrugs, tucking his potential back into his pocket. ❝ you do the death one too? ❞ gaze averts and hugo holds out his hand, ❝ cuh'mon, tone. you holdin' out on me? it's me. ❞ but tony won't let him see the card and hueg don't like the feeling that settles in his stomach because of it.

a couple of days later, he follows his feet to breakfast but he ends up in front of that damn blue machine. his tummy grumbles — he ignores it.

sweaty palms are pressed to the glass when prompted. he almost leaves the stupid butterflied blue envelope that pops out.

he doesn't read the card for a week.

there’s nothing he can rationalize as to why he’s so nervous for it, only that he’s been disappointing people since he was born. what if this card finally means he’ll be disappointed in himself? what if it means tony’ll expect him to change? what if he don’t like who he’s supposed to become?

he knows the thoughts are silly. especially when he gets the call from eloise because she’d gotten her blue card and she wanted to jabber about some conspiracy theories she’d read online that the potentials aren’t what you’re supposed to become, only that they’re supposed to show you a path forward. maybe she won’t become the next picasso, but now she knows wendy doesn’t have a leg to stand on when she criticizes lu’s choices. if she hadn’t gotten an artistic path, she says, then she’d be able to explore what that might mean.

it bolsters him. at least enough to slide the card from his envelope. a cold sweat breaks out when he reads the word.

RAT

hugo flips the card over to see the silver embossed butterfly on the back before rereading those three little letters. fuck.

a rat? his life's potential is to be a fuckin’… nervous gaze darts to the empty spot on the couch, half-relieved that he’d chosen to read his card when tony wasn’t home.

a wave of anxiety shoots through him as he stands, throwing on the green jacket he’d commandeered from tone ages ago. thoughts spiral with each step out the door — who the hell would he rat on? how’d they get him cornered enough to get him to squeal? what if it’s tony he gives up? god, he’s sick to his stomach until he looks up and finds himself at the blue machine, again.

maybe it's a mistake. yeah... yeah. hugo wipes his hands on his jacket, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was tailing him. laundry quarters are slipped into the slot and he goes through the motions to get another card.

RAT

❝ fuck! ❞ he jumps out of the booth and slaps a five on the counter. ❝ can i get change? ❞ is his voice cracking? he clears his throat, voice dropping half an octave with the follow up demand of : ❝ quarters. ❞ hands are clammy, again, as he punches in his social, again, to draw another card.

RAT ( again ).

he sits in the booth, this time, world crashing down around him. how would lulu spin a card like this? his phone is in his hands as he hovers over her name, hesitation stalling him until there's a knock on the booth that rouses him from his panicked thoughts. a mumbled apology falls from him as he pushes past the person waiting their turn and he shoves the three identical cards into his pocket, as deep as they'll go.

he shoulda never read the card. he shoulda dumped it or maybe never tried it in the first place. how're you supposed to come back from this? is he just supposed to give up crime in favor of a boring-ass nine-to-five? you can't be a fuckin' rat and not expect to get got because of it.

he doesn't realize where he's going until he walks into a dude at the end of a line and almost gets himself punched because of it.

he’d heard the news label it the machine of death. hugo swallows thickly, stepping gingerly behind the dark curtain when it's finally his turn. he’s gotta know if they’re related – is he gonna pull cement shoes? is he gonna get whacked just for pulling RAT? the white card slips into the slot and hugo all but rips it out in his fervor.

PIZZA

❝ wh... what the fuck is that s'pposed'tuh mean? ❞

[thenightlymirror]

So, the idea now is: figure out how to get a midi clock out of Ableton, send midi to 0-coast, send that clock to eurorack.

That should be pretty easy, honestly.

It would be nice though, to be able to record whatever cv is pumping out of the sequencer into Ableton. Because you twist the knobs around and really have no idea what's playing, then it becomes something great five steps down the line that becomes important.

But, realistically, if you are recording what you are doing, what matters is that it's in tempo. So, you can record it, sample it, edit it. Whatever weird voltage was serendipitously pumping out of the knobs, fuck it. Once it becomes a sample, that's it.

The alternative is, just make sequences in the DAW. That would be smart. But what makes the SQ-1 better than all the other sequencers out there, is just having a simple 2 octave range, twisting quickly, randomly, into a space you like, and that's it. With the Arturia, you twist it somewhere, and it honestly doesn't matter. You have to be deliberate. It's not just an intuitive, physical process. That's the whole game.

[deepnerdblog]

nerd shit redux

Reaper has a looper program called Super8 that basically lets you set midi trigger pads to turn Reaper into a livelooper setup, basically a script to enable looping features. I plan on learning it because I love loops and loop based song writing. So each trigger can set a lane active, or mute a lane, or maybe set a lane to be 4 times longer, or jump to a lane that has fx for lead or drum, or what have you. I have a usb keyboard that used to let you assign midi signals but the software currently stopped working. Old Axiom keyboards had awesome customizing software so each knob could be assigned any midi variable. Be cool if it worked but now I have transport tape style buttons that give Midi instrument change sequences instead of easier to use Midi CC code or some such. Solution? Either find a way to filter those midi codes and turn them into Midi CC, or simply label actual black note keys at a specific octave for my live loop controller. I really am curious if there is a good generic control footpedal pedal that can output ctrl voltage for eurorack, midi CC, on/off, sliding pedal CC, all the bells and whistles in a convenient pedal box. I know there are good utility midi foot pedals, but when you add in voltage out and whatchamacallit, the voltage that sets the amount on pedals/multifx (similar to eurorack CV but not 1 to 1 the same). So yeah, going to tap a keyboard and set it up for looping synths, guitar, drum machines live into reaper with the Super8. *But wait there is more fiddly bits*, there is a secondary recording medium. QSC mixers can have external midi to trigger transport buttons like rewind, record, and goto time, as well as arming and disarming channels- so that with super8 can mean I can have one surface triggering recording on both devices. Also reapers super8 can't record midi if i read that correctly, so maybe i can make a setup that puts midi in the laptop but also syncs the recording/tranport buttons on both devices (which is nice to have regardless of live looping). QSC made the firmware for their entry level digital mixer do a lot of the cool shit the fancier models can do. I love the sound of a SM7b mic recording a acoustic guitar into the QSC mixer/recorder with Kush Omega series vst to give it that teeny bit of mastering. I realized a little bit ago that suddenly I can record guitar and not hate the sound, and it's been a challenge how to make that fit into synths, drum machines, and 'writing music in the box'. Thus I need to learn super8, and also having both recording systems start on one button press is pretty sweet. (ideally sync doesn't shit the bed and i don't have to use LTC/MTC timecode as a master clock or anything).

so that's an ongoing project - meanwhile I also need to learn more songs on guitar and piano and improve my sense of pitch. its coming together nicely but it behooves me to be both playful and architectural in my approach. building a framework to vibe out on, but also improving the application of playing keyboards or multitracking things without having to fuck with it in editing.

multitracking

whats been useful is multitracking without headphones, as well as having vintage headphones with a really warm ear soothing midrange tone. i believe i saw concert footage where J Mayer was wearing vintage headphones. trying different things and the options help prevent ear fatigue. i've been making forays into mixing miced guitar with amped electric guitar. At some point I'm probably going to tackle full tracks with arbitrary limits to instruments, and layer classical, acoustic, electric tracks. Even a doubletrack of the same instrument sounds nice and 'phasey' thicc, but switching up instrument timbres and layering them is just appealing and feels musical. meanwhile i've tried layering piano chords from the triton behind acoustic guitar and it also sounds 'thicc' and charming. it is also finicky as all get out as a skill.

fucking with a odd idea wearing headphones until my ears hurt this morning.

i've been trying to fuck with some crazy not quite chocolate and peanutbutter type mixing elements to loop a particularly swingy classical sample with a improvised beat. i hit an entertaining wall this morning because i was trying to shoehorn a loose recording of this piano genius into a eccentric beat along with snips of riffing on guitar with a chewy bassy guitar humbucker sound. Competing tinny and shiny piano (with a elegant recording from fifty or more years ago) versus Triton drums versus the trimmed out random guitar pulsing experiment. And I kind of liked it, but the piano had been tweaked to fight a accelerating swingy performance, and there were some neat edits, but between the goofy beat and a lot of time stretching and trimming, the whole thing is chaotic af. Will have to return to it after resting my ears. years ago i filtered a movie sound track theme and alternated the filter and the sweeping sound of the chords slowed down and then added a buzzy detuned bassline - which didn't suck, but it didn't not suck enough either. why didn't it not suck? partially because i chopped it up, made three unrelated loops out of it that didnt glue back together as a song, and also because the buzzy detuned bassline was *not in key*. So now I'm fucking with a genius spanish piano sample and in the back of my mind I'm thinking 'should i learn to play a simplified version of this on piano? or do i just run this thing through melodyne and write out the main part of the theme so i can verify how things fit note per note.

One thing that really stood out as i time stretched and trimmed these loops is that when the edits were nudged 'just so' the beat underlaying the loop really would give a 'driving feel' or nudged the other way would be backbeat style off but in a close groovy kind of way.

[synths-and-sensibility]

Me: "ugh, it's so annoying having to convert V/oct signals down to 0-5V for digital systems. It would be easier just to stick with 5 octaves and deal with that limitation"

Evil me: "Have you considered half-V/oct CVs?"

Me: ...

Evil me: ...

Me: "...what?"

[rofilmmediamodular]

Teaching Generative Music With Modular Synths – Part 14

Chapter 4b: More Diverse Special Random Operations

The next example is with words. The words “love – and – hate – children – same – mother” are fed into a random mixer, each in its own channel (the word “mother” occupies three channels, and the word “love” is sent through a delay). The mixer randomly blends the channels in and out. Using a trigger pulse (second part of the video) the blend changes only when a trigger pulse arrives. We can achieve the same even without a special random mixer module by using random switches and VCAs. The preset is called “chapter_4_preset_1”, and the video is hiding behind the following link: https://youtu.be/xatc-VqmZlo

An alternative to a random mixer is a random gate. Here the parts are not blended into each other but activated in random order. We hear only one word at a time. The preset “chapter_4_preset_2” and the following video demonstrate this: https://youtu.be/lLmZByUENUg

I did a social-acoustic survey to get random looking results with sociological meaning. Or in other words: How does the sociological structure of my town sound like?

Well, let me explain. I took a picture (you can take any picture) and showed it to the people. I simply asked everybody - in fact I asked only 4 people (I´ve got 5 adult children, but 1 of them lives abroad - it´s about the principle, not the result). The first question was: “How do you like this picture on a scale from 1 to 10?” There was also a second question: “How often do you drink beer in a week? Every day? Every second day? ...” I took the numbers I got from the first question and transferred them to notes on a scale/octave, and the numbers from the second question (always both from the same person) to set the length of the note. I did this twice to get two different patterns.

What I got was the preset “chapter_4_preset_3” shown in the video clip behind the following link:

In the preset the patch switches between the two gained patterns. I could have made the rate of switching dependent on another survey, but I didn´t.

Alright, this was not a serious sociological-random-generative-sonic experiment, but I could have been! Choosing meaningful pictures, choosing certain groups of people (and more than only 4! And no relatives!) and comparing the sonic results may well be an interesting experience.

Some words about the patch now. The BUTTON module makes the two LFOs as well as the two sequencers start and run synchronously. And the VCA between the switching LFO down on the left side acts as an attenuator taking care, that the sequencers switch only between the first 2 patters (I produced only 2 patterns as I told you above).

The sequencer in the lower row modulates the rate of the (synchronously running) LFO in the upper row, which delivers the clock for the sequencer in the upper row (which delivers the pitch CV). And so the sequencer down there sets the length of each note by determining how long the sequencer in the upper row stays at each individual step.

With more and longer patterns, real surveys and interesting pictures to show the people we can get musically nice results, which are random in most of their aspects, but nevertheless (kind of) based on sociology.

And in case we wanted less sociology based and more changing results, we can remove the button module and stop make things run synchronously.

Alright! I think it is time for less off-the wall methods and thought now. There are a lot of basic (and perhaps more serious) strategies left to talk about before we are prepared for “extensive patching”, prepared well enough to not get lost.

… to be continued

Stay creative and enjoy your day!

Rolf

or what about visiting our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/rofilmmedia

[taperwolf]

So one of my most-used Eurorack modules is a device I designed myself and fit into a 2HP panel: my attenuverting mixer. It's the little guy depicted below in both its current state and a (poor) mockup of an enhancement I'm considering making.

An attenuverter, for anyone wondering, is an attenuator that also inverts. Like a volume control, if you put a signal through while the knob is fully clockwise, all of it gets through. As you turn counterclockwise, less and less gets through until the midpoint, where nothing gets through. Then, as you keep going counterclockwise, it starts to increase again, but now it's inverted — if you displayed the signal on an oscilloscope, the highs would now be low and vice versa — with the full counterclockwise position yielding full again, but upside down, scopewise.

When nothing is plugged into the input jack, it's normalled to +5V, which means that the knob can select any voltage between -5V and +5V. This is useful directly as the control for any other CV input, but it's more broadly useful in a mixing context: the outputs of the two attenuverters and the signal at the unity input are added together and output at the Mix Output. In addition to audio mixing, control voltages sum this way. For example, the MIDI to CV adapter I have outputs the signal from the connected keyboard's pitch bend as a voltage between 0V and 10V. When connected to an oscillator, that's always increasing the frequency no matter where the rocker is, and by up to 10 octaves, which is way too much. But by patching it into one attenuverter and setting it to a swing of 0V to 2V, and setting the other to -1V, you can calibrate it to a nice, constrained octave up and down.

But the point I was making here is that because it's a skinny little module with flattened knobs (really just the pot shafts), it's difficult to tell at a glance where they're set. So I'm considering modding those by marking them as seen in the second image — painting red the flat side (the one that's upward when the pot is in its center position and the attenuation is all the way down), and etching and painting a red line across the face. (I should probably also clean up the panel area around the Unity Input jack.)

[utau-bowl]

Paradise ~FLORESCERE~ Review

Hello everyone! I’ve taken a huge break from reviews since I’ve been focusing on myself and bettering my own life, hope the suspense wasn’t too much.  This voicebank also took a long time for me to formulate my thoughts on, since there’s so much in it. There’s also four(4) requests in the askbox right now, which could give me review material for months! This review was requested by an anonymous user. 

*Art by Annuntium

Hear a Sample of Paradise

Bio

Name: Paradise (パラダイス) - Enomoto Paju (榎本パジュ) Age: 18 Height: 6'0 (183 cm) Weight: 161 lbs (73 kg)

An affluent, eloquent idol who's also extremely charming. Although very rich, Paradise still does his best to remain kind and humble. He is also cousins with Orchid. He sings with a warm, husky toned voice. Paradise is a part of World’s End, an UTAU idol group with 11 current members.

Official Site

Paradise has a toyhou.se page and an UTAU wiki page - the UTAU wiki one is the one with his actual download. He is 378 MB when unzipped and has fully generated frq and pmk files.

First Impressions

Paradise’s voice is like a caramel covered melon with those sour sugar crystals on it- it has an edge to it but isn’t without this underlying gentleness. If  Annuntium was the one who requested this, you seriously nailed the voice acting. Not even I can do it that consistently for 4 pitches! He is a little androgynous, but I personally like it and I think it fits the character.

Configuration

Paradise is recorded at F#3, A3, and D4, with an extra falsetto pitch at C5 (and I do mean extra, it’s isn’t even included in the prefix.map by default!) The usual extras like glottal stops and end breaths are there, but he also has English Rs and Ls.

The readme recommends adding g flags to him, but I don’t think he needs it. He sounds boyish enough.

The one thing holding Paradise back is that his samples are extremely quiet. The high pitch is meant to be powerful, but often ends up with tons of artifacts from UTAU’s resampler, weakening it. Paradise is very tricky to make sound good with any resampler outside of doppeltler, anything else either makes him downright grainy or bawl like a shrieking gremlin. The lowest pitch is especially quiet, which makes it downright unusable outside of its small niche. Despite being recorded at F#3, it doesn’t actually kick in until you go as far down as A2, almost a whole octave lower. This is also kind of a nitpick but the V CV parts have a bit too much cutoff a lot of the time, as in, the sample seems to cut off too early? It’s not an issue 95% of the time, but in fast songs, that sort of thing can be really annoying to work around.

My recommended flags: B10

My recommended resamplers: doppeltler

Final Thoughts

Paradise is a very well rounded and great bank - especially for one that’s only the voice actor’s third attempt at an UTAU! I would really recommend to any UTAU user, especially an experienced one. Also follow annuntium right now

Got any other UTAUs you want me to review? Send an ask!