#981

In terms of keeping everything together harmonically?

How about through-zero fm? I was reading into it the other day, and it seems to make so much sense as an option on an oscillator. I’ve not got any oscs in my rack, but think I’d like to try one that supports this before committing.

Having said that, I love some of the wavefolding sounds from these Instruo oscs here:

#982

Linear will track pitch as long as you keep both oscillators at harmonic ratios to each other, assuming there is no DC offset or the FM input is AC coupled. (Thru-zero lets you modulate more deeply.

Exponential will track too, but is dependent on modulation depth as well as relative frequency. Finding a sweet spot isn’t too hard, but then tuning the pair to other voices can be tricky. Also unlike linear, you can’t dynamically change the timbre through FM; you’ll need a filter, wavefolder,
etc. or crossfade to a different oscillator if you want to do that.

(You can sequence the modulation frequency and depth together for some interesting effects, though.)

3 Likes
#983

Yes, linear is certainly easier in this regard.
There are some oscillators, such as Modcan’s VCDO, that have fixed FM ratios so the modulator is always “in tune” with the carrier.
http://modcan.com/bmodules/VCDO.html

My own preference is exponential as I like all the mad sounds you get and the stuff I do is much more about timbre than it is about notes.

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#984

I have a Bastl Tromsø that I haven’t used for a while, I think mostly because I was short of ideas for what to do with it. The downsampling is fun, but not so useful for what I’m doing at the moment. Any patch ideas for the S&H and comparator sections? I’m a utility noob.

(mods: maybe a patching techniques thread is a good idea?)

#985

I use one. I have no real intentions of improvising and it seems that using it for composition is a real strength. I like the ‘modules’ that can be stacked for some nice effects.

These were pretty useful.

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#986

Running two oscillators into the comparator can give some fun results. I thought I had some notes for a Tromso patch or two but apparently not.

#988

I am considering a trigger/gate programming module to compliment the Grids in my system. I’m considering the Varigate 4+ and the Knit Rider. Obviously very differerent executions. My purpose is improvization and I want something to be able to quickly get a specific result to provide contrast to the ambiguous “scanning” of Grids. Varigate seems faster, but is obviously limited to 8 steps with variable timing. Knit Rider lets you get hyper granular with more channels and wildly more steps, but I don’t have a good sense of how it is to use in practice? If anyone has used both, I’d appreciate some perspective.

@nutritionalzero - You could use re-amp pedals. The Pigtronix Keymaster is mono, but can handle the job. Can also be used to handle levels for external effects, when I would normally recommend it.

#989

This is an option: https://www.hungryrobotmodular.com/output-module

3 Likes
#992

Yeah, though Knit Rider definitely has more of a combo-keys mentality, which always takes longer to learn. I haven’t really seen anyone write about it, but videos make it look neat.

The CV control on Varigate seems nice, but really I’m just looking at it for triggers. The multipliers and dividers help with the step limitations, so you can fake some stuff. The Varigate also seems more readable at a glance.

#993

If you are only really looking at it for triggers, the varigate 4 lets you delay steps, which I think was left off of the 4+.

#994

Good note. I’m considering that as well. Almost picked up the one for sale right now. The only major downside is you don’t get clock mulitplication at all, and division is global rather than per channel – which is probably why they took out the gate delay. I imagine it manages its clock differently.

#996

My personal issue with the Varigate 8+ and the Voltage Block is that it’s really hard to read your sequence state from the interface. Since you use the same sliders to set probability of triggers on all channels of the Varigate, your sliders very quickly no longer correspond to what you’ve input. With the Voltage Block you literally have no way to see what your sequence is after you’ve entered it.

They’re very powerful and compact but I never got past that, even though I tested them and was enjoying playing with them just prior to shipping them off.

This may not bother you! But for me I prefer something like Pressure Points where it’s literally visible in front of you, or Kria where it can be called up on the Grid. Or a DAW for that matter. Just something to know going in.

(I’m assuming the 4/4+ has a similar interface paradigm… I’m not sure how it could show you more info given the size.)

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#997

This is probably a really dumb question that I’ll probably regret asking but…

Is it uncouth (for lack of a more apt word) to filter wavetables? I know this question leaves me vulnerable to a very IIIIIII response of “it doesn’t matter what gear you have, but how you use it.” But seriously though, say I send a e352/orgone/wavetable vco, which essentially can mimic filtering to some degree, to a filter thus removing some of that harmonic content–does the filter basically cancel out what the wavetable is able to achieve somewhat on its own?? Been curious about this for a while.

#998

Au contraire, I think that could be a very fruitful partnership, since if you filter a wavetable oscillator, you’re basically giving yourself two dimensions of control over the harmonic content, especially if you modulate them with different envelopes or LFOs!

I could imagine modulating the wavetable position with an LFO to create a morphing timbre, and then using an envelope to modulate the filter to help create “notes” out of your morphing sound, for example.

8 Likes
#999

very nice way to explain it, completely agree.

In a way it’s similar to chaining filters, which is a big yes in my book (and with modulation there’s a lot of nice things to do). I think it’s very common to do, and sometimes without thinking of it :if you pass a filtered content to a low pass gate you are chaining filters

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#1000

Consider this: most of the classic wavetable synths from the 80s had analog filters!

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#1001

Thanks @alanza & @electret! Something I’ve been doing for a while now–just wanted to make sure I’m not missing out on anything.

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#1002

As you said we might say: if it sounds good to you, do it :slight_smile:

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#1003

As long as you’re trying to combine things together, listen the results and learn from it you’re not missing anything :slight_smile:

That’s a big part of what makes modular workflow interesting, and depending on what you have in your case I’d try other combination too. As said before, try modulations on various parameters, maybe put another processor between, or try to combine things in parallel or series. For example, split the output of the wavetable, put different envelope on the clean and filtered signal.

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#1004

Oh it absolutely does!

1 Like