Eurorack: discussion, advice, learning, questions

[simonvanderveldt]

Nice setup!
Love small (palette) setups

I’d check some of the videos/video tutorials on Mangrove to get a feel for the sound and for what its manual and CV controls can be used for.
And do the same for the A-111-6, mainly for the sound, not really for the controls since they are pretty standard for a subtractive synth.

It will also depend what kind of sound you’re looking for for your bass, just to name some examples 101 like or moog like? Or something else? There’s a lot available both with regards to oscillators and filters in eurorack

[varispeeder]

just throwing it out there…if you’re doing a lot of straightforward monophonic basslines, you might want to consider a used Moog Minitaur. It can easily be had for $300-350 with patience, sounds amazing, and will save your limited Palette space for more interesting aspects of modular.

[Henrycarden]

Thank you! I’ve been watching a lot of videos on Mangrove and have been really impressed by its range of sounds, as well as how it can be manipulated. Seems like an analog complex oscillator with waveshaping and more.

I wish I was better at explaining what kind of sound I’m going for, but perhaps some short videos could better explain how I incorporate/plan to incorporate the Palette, if that’s alright with everyone. The first is a simple Dixie square wave and sub with some pwm as the bassline alongside a chord progression from Tides, and the second I use it for a plucky melody. So, I don’t exclusively use it for monophonic basslines, but it often depends on the direction of the track I work on.

@caboblanco

@caboblanco

@varispeeder Thanks for the recommendation–the Minitaur does sound awesome. As I’m new to modular, what are some more interesting aspects of modular that you would recommend for such limited space?

Thanks for your tips, it’s really helpful in navigating such a massive space!

[renegog]

Based on the clips I could imagine you liking mangrove a lot (I loved mine so much I ditching a dixie in favor of a 2nd one ). Just fyi (I know what you mean and it doesn’t really matter, but…) it’s not technically a complex oscillator (which means something specific, basically a single module containing two oscillators with certain fixed cross modulation paths—check out the Make Noise DPO as an example of this if you’re curious). You can create something like a complex oscillator with dixie and mangrove and some of the attenuators you’ve got It does contain a lot of sounds though and I think it’s great for a small system because of the waveshaping and modulation potential! Would recommend, if you like the sound!

[mdoudoroff]

I suppose I would characterize Mangrove’s as “brassy”. For a fairly overt demonstration of its innate character, check out this track.

With “standard” oscillator wave forms, your focus tends to shift to the filter to establish the timbre you’re looking for. (For the most part, a saw is a saw is a saw, etc.) With Mangrove, you can still turn to filters, but you do have three other parameters to work with, and they interrelate quite a bit.

Do note that while AIR is VCA-like, it’s intended as a control over harmonics and dynamics, not as a way to turn a note on and off—it’s leaky. You’ll probably still need a VCA downstream.

[Henrycarden]

@renegog @mdoudoroff Appreciate the explanations! I think I’ll enjoy Mangrove. Can’t wait to get my hands on one!

[ElectricaNada]

@mdoudoroff

suppose I would characterize Mangrove’s as “brassy”. For a fairly overt demonstration of its innate character, check out this track .

Great tones. Where does the saturation come from?

[Joseph]

Like mdoudoroff said, Mangrove excels at brassy material, and woodwind - especially oboe sounds.

It can also do plucked bass well, or more nasally pinched almost pizzicato sounds (esp. in constant formant mode), but definitely has more of a midrange plaintive voice, not a ton of low low end, and not for clean flute sines.

A complex oscillator is much more flexible for FM percussion sounds and bell sounds, and anything like thicker double-bass (Verbos HO I find best for cello sounds though) or heavier bassoon sounds with AM or FM partials. Some of the complex oscillators in euro can also do ring-mod or through zero sounds as well, a range more metallic and alien.

FM with the Mangrove I find edgy and unstable, which of course makes sense because it’s not a sine carrier with a matched sine modulator.

As a general observation, it may have waveshaping, but to me it doesn’t operate or sound like a complex oscillator. The complex oscillators tend to have several taps of different waveforms across both carrier and modulator, whereas Mangrove gives you two and has a very different self-patching and barrel/air craziness rather than say more typical cross mod function (although that’s technically possible with an external oscillator). So the patching is totally different.

Really on any deep level, Mangrove is nothing like a complex oscillator. But as a single melodic voice it is hard to beat.

[lilskullymane]

such a wonderful range of sounds on the mangrove. especially paired with a three sisters but I’m preaching to the choir on that

@perbarfot

[renegog]

The air circuit saturates at higher levels, from the technical map:

The output of the VCA is sent through a waveshaper, implemented by mis-using a classic sine-shaping overdrive. As amplification increases, the shaping begins to take effect, changing the waveform and timbre. The pure linear slopes of the impulse generator are heard at lower levels, approaching a ‘sine’ shape around 9:00, before squaring off at the maximum (CW) with strong odd-harmonics.

(this is also how you get lowpass gate type sounds out of it because the waveshaper is a bit like a reverse filter—adding rather than subtracting harmonics)

[21echoes]

I’ve seen a few piano-like videos from Mangrove, but never been able to get the sound myself. Mind sharing a bit more about how you approached it? And is the Three Sisters an essential part of that, or if we only have a simpler MMF is it still possible?

[lilskullymane]

not my video, but patch notes here! also looks like he’s on lines if he wants to chime in @perbarfot

similar mangrove patch notes on a @stripes youtube video I’ve seen before but can’t seem to locate atm

[Henrycarden]

Wow! You guys are blowing my mind (and teaching me a great deal). Good to know the differences between Mangrove and complex oscillators.

I’ve heard brassy examples of Mangrove, but never one that sounds like a piano! Incredible, @perbarfot!

[rstn]

A few more modules that could qualify as “self-contained” voices are Akemie’s and Dinky’s Taiko, Rings, Plonk, or even something like Chimera or Fracture.
(Seems like “self-contained” describes a voice that doesn’t need to be fed an envelope or put into a VCA to generate a distinct note with an amplitude envelope)
I imagine many other voices that billed as “percussion” voices can work that way.

Kermit can also work like this with some self patching if you have one channel working as a triggered envelope fed into the VCA of the other section.

[casualdecay]

I have rings and fracture. Fracture has a frequency input but doesn’t really do V/O so I personally wouldn’t really call it self contained. But rings is one of my favorite synth voices all by itself!

[Noisetrees]

Hey hey that’s me, asking about the patch notes

[simonvanderveldt]

Thanks for the pointers! Do you know if these can be used as normal voices as well or are they only usable for drum-like sounds because they only support short decays/don’t support long or infinite decays?

[a773]

A nice and simple, all analog, semimodular-ish, subtractive, not too big voice is the frequency central product.

I use it a lot, both on its own and together with the rest of the system, sometimes adding a second oscillator to it, sometimes using other more powerful envelopes.

https://frequencycentral.co.uk/product/product/

[encephalitislethargi]

just reluctantly pulled the trigger on the cre8 niftycase even though it’s ugly as shit because it’s bigger than the pod48x and it has midi built in. also went for a used nebulae v2. for now, before i’m able to get any other modules for a little, should i go with ornament and crime for modulation source and nice utilities or a crow? i’ll already have midi in with the case so i can send midi to the rack via norns midi out but i’m not super familiar with everything crow does. did briefly skim some threads last night but still not 100% on it.

from my experience with vcv rack, i know that i will have the most fun with utility modules, shift registers, lfo sources, s&h, sequential switches, attenuverters, bernoulli gates and mutiple clock sources for polyrhythms . o_C has some of that, right?

any thoughts? will i be missing out much if i dont have crow for now and just use midi from norns? i plan to get something like mangrove & uRings eventually as far as vco’s go but im thinking for now, just something to play v/oct and modulate multiple params on the Nebulae will keep me happy for a little

[Noisetrees]

If you have clocks/trigger generators, LFOs and attenuation with Neb v2, you’ll have things to explore for a long time, even if you had no MIDI. It’s a beautifully deep and playable module.

Having something to play with amplitude is nice with the Neb v2 too. Like a VCA+EG or just an LPG like a DPLPG for instance.