#630

I thought 0-Coast was quite good for bass – mostly using the triangle without much folding, just a bit of saturation.

1 Like
#631

Ouch my ears :blush:

#632

Ahh but the multiplier section is where all the interesting overtones come from! Another modular lesson: “I don’t want to was x on y because it excels at z.

:rofl:

#633

I think this is the opposite of a good idea! Multitracking lets you try everything!

#634

I can only second Starthief in praising the 0-Coast for it’s bass capabilities, ‘balance’ all the way CCW and maybe a bit of FM through self patching the sine back into LIN FM.

Big fan of the Tides and can only recommend. Excels in both, modulation and as voice.
Bit hard to suggest anything without a clear idea what you are aiming for, but Tides is very capable once you got beyond the obvious.

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#635

got you covered (a bit), click through for full post:

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#636

What I’m aiming for would probably be music in the stylings of r beny and @stripes, with a little more emphasis on pop-structure and rhythm.

ann annie is probably my biggest inspiration right now, I’d like to try and emulate her style and wonderfully melodic composition while still maintaining my voice and staying true to myself, something I feel like I’ve been pretty good at doing since I started making electronic music in a trial version of FL Studio ten years ago.

I feel like you can hear “my sound” in everything I’ve made. I take a lot of pride in that feeling, even though I’m not necessarily technically proficient and I don’t have “a producer’s ear”. The latter being a big part of the reason I stopped working ITB. I always worry that someone will scoff at my lack of production chops. Maybe I read to much g*******z? Maybe I just like being able to turn knobs.

I want to build a 6u with four voices focused on live performances. I think I’ve realized that I’ll be using the Electribe 2 as my main sequencer for this duty because it’s so immediate and it works well in a live setting. Right now my live setup is the E2 and a Volca FM and I find it plenty useable for my current needs, but I’d like for my sound and process to evolve a bit, hence the move to modular. O_C and maybe something else down the line will add some random aspects to sequencing to keep the sound interesting.

I think the end goal is for me is to have somewhat repetitive themes and melodies that evolve and morph together using gates and timed LFOs to trigger effects and events. I’ve really enjoyed Clouds for this type of use and would like to add some other looping/direction-changing delays to push that aspect a little further, possibly a DLD or Magneto and maybe a Chronoblob. These will probably come later, as I still have a lot to wrap my head around with Clouds.

Okay I’ll take a step back from my verbose posts about my philosophy and goal as a modular synthesist. Sorry if I’m too long-winded, but I want to share my experience with this community and grow with it. I’ve been involved in a number of forums in my life. Lines seems to be a place that fosters artistic (and personal) discussion and growth in a way that makes me feel compelled to share my story.

TLDR: I really like ann annie and run-on sentences.

2 Likes
#637

I found I prefer other wavefolders over the 0-Coast one. uFold is good, Antimatter Audio Crossfold is better :slight_smile:

I often used Slope triggered at audio rates for “waveshaping” on the 0-Coast.

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#638

Hey thank you for the nice write up. Cool to read …

But, phew …
The references you mention, I would not necessarily connect with characteristics of the Tides.
As Infovore mentioned, this module is great for complex but tightly controllable envelopes/function. Not necessarily super important for the sound of the referenced artists.
It’s sound signature in VCO mode is actually quite ‘rough’ for lack of a better word in my vocabulary, especially via the BI out, a bit more tamed via the UNI out. Can be super rich in harmonics when self/cross-patched. Trigger input allows for hard sync. — So, all sounds I would rather place in the direction of pure/raw west-coast style (akin to A. Cortini or Hypoxia, both from the Make Noise territory).

Maybe not necessarily a module that would make you happy out of the box, considering your elaboration …

1 Like
#639

(edit: I got to the bottom of this, and it basically came down to hot signals, clipping, and unity mixers not being particularly good at mixing audio. Eurorack: ask questions here)

I have a really basic question that I feel I should know the answer to, but don’t. So, I have a “proper” mixer (a K-Mix), and I also have some modules that can theoretically act as mixers (Vnicursal VCA, Veils, Malekko Unity Mix, etc).

I’m finding that when I use the VCAs or the unity mixer to sum audio, that they sound distorted when more than one voice is sounding at once. This is true even if the channels are heavily attenuated. When I monitor the signal, I don’t see that I’m flattening out (though I can certainly do that by running hot enough signals together), but they still sound kind of gross. Or at least, I’d like the option to choose gross/distorted, rather than having it be default.

When I run the same signals into the K-Mix, they sound fine together.

Does this have to do with them being DC coupled rather than AC? Is this just a poor use of these modules? I’d thought that one of the upsides of many VCAs is that they can act as mixers, but I’m not finding that to actually be viable.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks!

1 Like
#640

Good to know! I had made assumptions about the way I sounded purely based on the aesthetics and name of it, without actually listening to that many sound demos :sweat_smile:

I’m still interested in one, but maybe down the line. Between Maths and PNW (which is quickly becoming my favorite module!) I’m pretty set on modulation, I should look into some more utilities before another voice I think.

It might be cliché at this point, but I really wouldn’t mind having a second Rings. It’s just so pleasant and versatile and responds well to modulation. I also like the fact that you don’t necessarily need to plug anything into the Strum input. I could get down with an Elements as well, it’s kind of an hp hog, but when I get a bigger case I know my gas is going to be kicked into overdrive, so big modules are welcome… for now :yum:

1 Like
#641

I easily get that too, i think you also use Just Friends? Maybe it just puts out very hot signals.
I have the Koma attenuator cables wich are handy but having thier own idiosyncratics. Like better not do live attenuating.
I dont think its vca or mixer dependant. You have the V2 unity? Because that has the db lower jumpers. I just placed mine in trades as i need 18 hp for a big ass module…

It worked okay for me. Not perfect tho so i am keen on someone answering too

#642

I have a Just Friends on order, but it is not here yet. This happens with any audio signals I combine this way. In my current test I have a pair of Mangroves and a pair of Three Sisters in self oscilattion (low out), all being triggered and pitched by Ansible/Meadowphysics. But, I’ve observed it on pretty much any combination of audio being summed via VCA or the Malekko Unity.

With the VCA, if I turn down all voices but one, it sounds fine. And, if two voices are allowed to sound, but they are not sounding at once, they both sound fine. It’s only when they sound together that they sound distorted.

I assume this is something about gain staging that I need to learn? It just seems odd that no matter how far I turn down the gain on the VCA, it sounds distorted, and also quiet; but if I do similar mixing in the K-Mix, it sounds fine.

#643

My Malekko Unity Mixer does not have jumpers for changing gain. I don’t see that as a feature they talk about on their site, but there may be a V2 that I don’t know about.

#644

Oh mine is the Intellijel. They brought a V2 for probably exactly these reasons. Worked for me, but not the end ticket, neither are the koma cables, they are rather funny but i need them (space)

You do use the individual outs i suppose!? Yeah i am sure you do

#645

I’ve recently become somewhat intrigued by Akemie’s Taiko. The FM drums have a certain ‘chiptune’ quality and the idea of combining a melodic voice with percussion seems very interesting and fun. Anyone have one that they’d like to discuss? Would it be hard for a beginner to figure out?

#646

Maybe look into Plaits instead (of a second rings)? It has a rings mode but can also do so so much more! It’s my only oscillator in my newbie setup right now and I couldn’t be happier with it.

1 Like
#647

Indeed, plaits and rings are brilliant together. Just put something dirty in the signal chain to roughen it up (in my opinion)

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#648

For chiptune drums I’d recommend an Irukandji by Beast-Tek.

Akemie’s Taiko is an amazing module and I love it but it only does chiptune stuff in a very narrow range.

#649

Bumping my own question. I recorded a couple of simple examples to hopefully demonstrate what I’m talking about.

The source is 3 sines, from a Livewire AFG and both sides of a DPO. This is the audio recorded into 3 channels of a K-Mix. I can hear each voice distinctly:

This is the same 3 sines, mixed in a MI Shades, each source attenuated most of the way. The sound combines into a single voice, at least to my ears:

This sort of distortion / combined complex waveform sound happens with any euro-based mixing I try:

  • Shades, even with the attentuation very low
  • Vnicursal, even with attenuation/gain very low
  • Veils, even with attenuation/gain very low
  • Links, through the 3 -> 1averaging mixer (so 1/3 gain per channel)
  • Malekko Unity Mixer (I would be more likely to expect clipping here maybe).

The combined sound is actually kind of cool! I like it. But I also want to be able to hear all my voices without distortion.

Is this a gain thing? A DC-coupled/AC thing? A mono/stereo thing? I did take the K-Mix audio and panned everything to one side to get “mono”, and it continued to sound clearer, like I was able to hear each voice.

Any advice appreciated. Thank you!