Make Noise modules: design, usability, theory, philosophy, etc

[Martebar]

No no, it’s the only solution I’ve found to tackle the touchplates not working properly due to the lack of grounding of my modular.

[TelevisionName]

I had the same problem and ended up using it as an excuse to upgrade to a bigger case with a compatible power supply. It is really kind if frustrating that there isn’t any info or warning about potential incompatibility listed anywhere. When I emailed make noise they gave me a list of PSUs that are incompatible so they are definitely aware of the issue.

[Martebar]

Wow, knowing this makes me think I should have considered a refund.

[Zifor]

I think in their videos for Rene v2 and a lot of the Press they mentioned they tested it with various PSUs. But i agree it is a bit of an annoyance. I think it’s one of the disadvantage of Eurorack. There are a lot designs and designers with different specs. There are always going to be some teething depending what module brand you use with what PSU for power , or for touch plates in this instance or what CV standard they use to interact with other modules.

Out of interest. What power bus board are you using?

Another good example of this is with LZX modular , a video synth company. Their modules ideally worked with Malekko power supplies. Otherwise the video would ripple/distort a bit. Now they make their own PSUs and are specifically for video , so even better again. Now they are doing standalone designs that work either racked or externally to surpass the PSU issue. Its just its an open standard and with open standards there are pros and cons.

[TelevisionName]

I was using a Trogotronic PSU and case. Now I am using a Doepfer case with the Doepfer PSU-3 and everything works as expected.

[jasper_ryder]

I’m using a Trogotronic busboard and have the grounding issues as well.

[walker]

This week’s video: Transient Sculpting!

“Let’s use MATHS to transform the transients and tails of a sound to create rhythms and shapes that were not there before.”

Transient Sculpting

[Hovercraft]

[Martebar]

Yup, it was this all along, I bought the GSM version of my Mean Well PSU (the one provided was a GST) and everything works perfectly now, thanks a lot for your help!
What a joy of a sequencer (when it functions) !

[vicimity]

I need to pick that up aswell!

[Quru]

I ordered a 0-CTRL and should be getting it tomorrow. Really looking forward to more free and hands on sequencing, Octatrack (and Reaper, I guess) has been my only sequencer for a while. I’ve been thinking about putting together a “Make Noise Easel” with Wogglebug (missing that one), DPO, Maths, Optomix and Morphagene, plus Cold Mac for some more cv processing and now 0-CTRL so that’ll probably be my approach. I’ve had DPO for some time now and it’s so nice, such a lively sound with a lot of versatility. Modulating fold gives great character and there’s something magical in the sync of DPO.

[Quru]

Few 0-CTRL patches

Four patches with 0-CTRL. Great piece of gear so far, very playable and while simple on the surface it can get pretty deep with patching. Very good job with the features, dynamic envelope makes patching up a simple sequence very quick and everything seems to work wonderfully together, at least on Make Noise-centric system.

[galenbaby]

Love it. How does it interact with the morph?

[Quru]

Hadn’t played with it yet, but went ahead and tried. Patching strength to morph, heavily slewed pitch to varispeed and clocking from the pulse out (not clock out) and working with pitches and time row gives pretty nice tape wow and flutter when running 0-CTRL with high speeds. Matching up the pitches from 0-CTRL with Morphagene Varispeed seems quite difficult but that’s been my case with other cv sources as well, I’ve always found it easier to attenuate the incoming signal on the way instead of with the Varispeed attenuator and just keeping it at either extreme. Pitch to organize could be really powerful with suitably preprepared reels, but I don’t have any at the moment.

[varispeeder]

@Quru

Matching up the pitches from 0-CTRL with Morphagene Varispeed seems quite difficult but that’s been my case with other cv sources as well, I’ve always found it easier to attenuate the incoming signal on the way instead of with the Varispeed attenuator and just keeping it at either extreme.

do you have a quantizer handy? a Disting would do the trick! if you want to play the 0-Ctrl in tune with other sources, it will save you a lot of time fine-tuning!

[Quru]

No quantizer in my system at the moment, just sold my Noise Engineering Mimetic Sequent that did that duty. I’ve used Octatrack through Poly 2 for sequencing, and will still for quantized pitch sequencing, but still rarely sequenced Morphagene for melodic work in the traditional western scale form. In regards to Morphagene it’s more about getting proper scaling on the modulation cv going to Varispeed, not really about hitting particular voltages. Attenuating does solve it of course, but it’s still quite trial and error with setting Varispeed baseline, voltages going in and attenuation, if that makes any sense.

[xenus_dad]

@return_from_zero

I do have one reservation about the module and it’s that it’s not hot enough. It could be seriously twice as loud. Seriously, I want it to clip at the edges. I find it very quiet. I’m certain it’s not that my PSU is overloaded and that I’m starving the 8 or 12 VCAs in this—power-hungry—module since I’ve tried it in 3 different cases.

My experience with X-Pan was that the maximum output of each section was quieter than what was input. I’m assuming this is to avoid a scenario where three channels mixed together at output would clip. I did like X-Pan but I remember feeling similarly to you. A nice-to-have might have been jumpers on the back to change that behavior.

[Raoul_Papazorgl]

same for me. I was always wondering if missed something with my gain management.

[mdoudoroff]

According to the manual, summing is supposed to be unity gain, but the X-PAN is consistently attenuating the signals by around 20-30% whether AC or DC.

[eblomquist]

I have been experiencing this as well.

My solution has just been to pump up the overall system output but it is weird.

I like the module overall and want to explore more with the panning and crossfading.