#13

Exactly my thought process at the moment!

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#14

since maths has the only attuenverters in my system, I’ve recently been using channel 1/4 as an envelope but with the attuenuverter all the way to the negative side to close a fully open VCA so that I can eliminate the hard initial pluck from the gate in on the 2hp pluck. Then I let the last note of the 4 note poly ring out while changing pitch CV for a subtle after effect. It’s a very simple use of maths / attenuverters, but I feel like it’s opened up quite a few new ideas in my rack thinking about how to use VCA’s “in reverse” of the typical opening for an envelope. Of course this could also work for CV going through the VCA!

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#15

Good tip. As I want to do similar with pluck. Thanks. :grinning:

#16

Have you seen the hashtag #mathspatch on Instagram? I love trying out those that Make Noise are showing, but there are some other goodies in there besides those.

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#17

I just generally like MN’s ‘stateless’ philosophy that one can see very well in Maths.
Not a one trick pony like some other modules, but almost endless and open to intuitive experimentation w/o menu diving.
Some very clever decisions done while designing …

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#18

It is an EXCELLENT utility module, but I tend to use it and (in patches I super love online/conversation in this very thread) see it used for its base functions more than its more hyped self-patching possibilities.

Maths is like Exhibit A, B, and C for me that I should really spend way more time learning the modules I have - which includes spending the requisite # of hours with them until complex, arcane functionality becomes simple muscle memory - before I think about expanding my rack. It’s certainly a module with seemingly endless exploration possibilities, and that illustrated guide is just scratching the surface.

(Edit for clarity: I’m saying this mostly for myself, not anyone in this thread. I assume most everyone here is a deep sea modular diver)

I found this well-written and helpful, with lots of links to dive into:
Make Noise MATHS for Beginners

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#19

Not sure how you describe this as a lo-fi filtering method. Maths doesn’t pass an audio signal out if you patch audio into the signal in…

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#20

I HAVE gotten it to pass some audio, actually, but not much. In fact this makes sense, since if you “listen” to one of the channels with Cycle engaged, Rise and Fall at minimum and curve to Exponential, you do hear a tone, but a fairly low one.

#21

So a slew-limiter just limits the rate of change in a signal. If you do this to a pitch for a voice, that’s portamento - but you can do it to any signal in eurorack. With Maths you can just run a signal through channels 1 or 4 and use the rise/fall knobs to control how fast a signal goes up or down.

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#22

Thanks! That makes sense. Can you make an example where this is useful with voltage instead of pitch?

#23

Sure, but that’s closer to what most people consider to be audio bleed. You could re-amp it, ad some interesting effects and make it useful, but I wouldn’t describe that as a filter.

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#24

Sure - let’s say you want to use an envelope follower on an audio signal to control a filter. Your envelope won’t be smooth at all - it’ll likely be a jittery mess. If you run this signal through a slew-limiter you can reduce the amount of movement to something less “wattery” and more musical.

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#25

Nice! Thanks for the explanations

#26

hummm. only got a MN function here right now, but if if have rise/fall ccw and log/exp on lin, i get a perfectly fine version of the audio signal i’m piping in (maths should do the very same). now you increase rise or fall or both and the slew of the audio rate waveform takes away overtones. same as with a slow cv signal such as v/oct pitch, just very fast. — or am i missing something?

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#27

There’s some discussion on slew limiters v. LPF on MW, and essentially you’re right: you can use a slew limiter as a LPF of sorts. It doesn’t function the same way, but it would certainly lower the fidelity of the wave(s) you send it

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#28

Agreed. Excellent reminder that patience persistence are key here.

But I’m curious: have you found any arcane maths patches that you consistently return to that can’t be duplicated by other, smaller, more straight forward modules?

love love love maths – just mostly as a utility bank.

#29

No, because I don’t approach Maths or modulars with much intentionality, to be honest. I can’t scientifically explain what I’m doing most of the time, let alone reproduce it. I’m very much a “what happens if I try patching this into this? Now is that doing something interesting and musical?” sort of person and in the moment I usually don’t have a specific sound design goal that I’m trying to problem solve, or if I do it’s more of a feeling than something articulable. That has its charm, and can lead me down some strange and wonderful paths during a good session. But I know that having a real familiarity with the module and how to route it will get me into galaxy brain mode.

It’s hard to explain or defend, but I feel like having a discrete set of small utility modules instead just wouldn’t engender that kind of intuitive musical exploration in the same way. Maths has one of the most well-thought-out layouts I’ve seen in all of Eurorack, and the way that layout encourages cross-modulation is really noteworthy. Even if your hands are moving faster than your brain is processing, the musicality and instinctuality is high with this one. Routing the output of one channel into the trigger of another will usually create a self-evolving feedback loop that you can further adjust or modulate organically. It approaches that philosophy of an intuitive modulation ecosystem that people find so inspiring about Buchla systems.

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#30

I have a question on how to accomplish “glides” with Maths, if it is possible at all.

I am sending CV changes from a sequencer to an oscillator (changing wave shape) and with each step the CV value jumps instantly from one value to another. I’d like the value to morph, or glide, or slide from one value to the other for each step.

Is this possible with Maths? I know you can accomplish slope with it, but am unsure if that is what I need.

thanks for your ideas!

#31

yep! patch through channel 1 or 4’s signal input and adjust rise/fall/curve to taste. you can even get funky and sequence the changes by controlling the amount of glide with CV :wink:

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#32

Cool, I tried that but it didn’t seem to work so I thought I was doing something wrong … but I’ll try again when I get home tonight! Glad to know I’m on the right track.