#1

Hi all,

After six years, I recently completed my Shared System* and have been creating patches that focus on it, without the use of my larger system. With Covid, and the fact that I am no longer instructing university courses, I decided to experiment with some videos on the shared system. It’s all very rough and put together fairly quickly, but the idea is that I will establish a workflow over time and these will gradually improve.

Anyway, ignoring the camerawork and editing for a minute, I wanted to share this video I made showcasing a patch where I “misuse” every module, as a way of getting to unexplored sounds. I’m sure most of what’s included will be well known to everyone here, but I personally found this to be a fun challenge, and hope to end up with some useful material for folks by the end of this process.

I have a few ideas for videos, and I’m hoping to share them here, but I am also cool with just using this as a thread to share shared system patch ideas, especially those for the MK1 shared system, which has less video documentation/and is discussed less now that many of the modules have been replaced.

*Verbos CO and ATC modules are in there because I learned synthesis on the prototype Buchla System at Mills College and wanted that specific sound. I keep thinking about a DPO and an optomix and might still make that happen.

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#2

Awesome video! I’m very excited to see how this thread develops.

Figured I’d start by sharing some of my favorite SS videos, other than those produced by Make Noise themselves (which are :100: obviously, but I think much more well-known).

Caspar Hesselager

Caspar has a very musical voice that shines through his work with the Shared System. His performance and patch from scratch videos always inspire me and give me something to think about.

Honestly I’d recommend listening to all of his performance videos too.

Cinematic Laboratory

On the slightly more noisy end of the spectrum, Cinematic Laboratory has been putting out a series on the Shared System module-by-module, also exploring what each can do as a sound source. I’ve just started watching these, but have been enjoying them greatly.

9 Likes
#3

Love it. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. The shared system is such a great instrument, and it would be nice to have knowledge about it collected in one place. I’m thinking I might do a video on the phonogene next.

#4

Not sure if this is the best place to post this but while we are sharing patches on systems that slightly deviate from the stock shared system, I’d like to suggest a patch for anyone who has added an x-pan and qpas to their shared system containing a tempi:

Patch the 50% duty cycle clock outputs into Xpan’s signal inputs

Patch X-pan’s left output into Qpas Left signal input

Patch X-pan’s right output to modulate Qpas left Radiate input (which is normalled to the right Radiate input)

From here, it’s really fun and rewarding to patch combinations of additional clocks from Tempi or spare audio outputs from Qpas to modulate panning or crossfading of the signal inputs on X-pan. Any small change of the knobs on X-pan will result in different dynamics and pitch sequences, different clock relationships will create a variety of rhythms (qpas is pinged on the rising and falling edge of a clock).

Taking another Qpas audio out into the X-pan stereo input is awesome for feedback sounds. This combination of modules is like a feedback patching world full of sweet spots. I really love Qpas’ simultaneous outputs for this and for the fact that it responds equally well to gates and audio signals at all inputs. Finally, the extra gain at Qpas’ input gives a wide range from subtle feedback pings to distorted oscillations.

I know none of these ideas are new but I just wanted to emphasize how inspiring it is to patch x-pan between Tempi and Qpas. To me this arrangement really makes use of the flexibility afforded by the way these modules were designed vs other panning modules, clock sources or pingable filters, though I’m sure it can be implemented with other modules as well.
The main idea is directly taken from @walker ‘s
Qpas and Tempi patch from scratch video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e_GP_6Q8zgo
and
“Tempi Science” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZotmdeKUSzA

5 Likes
#5

So yesterday I was looking at filters online, thinking that it could be a nice add-on to my vanilla Shared System, when I had this patch idea…

Faux Screaming Self-Oscillating Filter

The TL; DR is to monitor the sum of both DPO oscillators, FINAL is filtered audio and SINE of the secondary oscillator is the self-oscillating resonant feedback point.

  • DPO primary oscillator FINAL to Optomix channel 1
    • Primary oscillator pitch sets base pitch of note
  • DPO secondary oscillator SINE to Optomix channel 2
    • Secondary oscillator pitch is the filter’s resonance
  • Monitor Optomix SUM output
  • Take a control signal to animate the “filter”, and mult it on the CV Bus
    • Use Maths channel 1 for LFO or envelope behavior
    • Use Maths channel 2 to control by hand (recommended at first)
  • Patch multed control signal to DPO primary oscillator FOLD
  • Patch multed control signal to DPO secondary oscillator EXP IN
    • Ensure attenuators for these inputs are greater than zero, so they are in effect
    • FOLD simulates a filter opening, adding more harmonic content
    • SINE simulates screaming filter resonance at the cutoff point
    • Play with secondary oscillator pitch and attenuators for all signals to dial in the sound
    • Play with SHAPE and ANGLE (I found SHAPE at ~10% and ANGLE at ~50% sounded great with this patch, a little buzzy but also the low-ish SHAPE still lets FOLD have an effect on the sound)
    • I think I played with setting SYNC on/off, can’t remember which I liked more without my system in front of me

I made a ton of cool droning sounds with this last night. Might record something to show off the patch and upload later.

4 Likes
#6

Thanks for the patch. Will have to try this out.

The Balance input on the 0-Coast can be used in a similar way. Contour or Slope out for “filter” modulation. This is of course without any resonance.

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#7

Here’s a recording made with the patch. Also has some Optomix-based feedback, which is another thing I’ve been doing a lot of exploring around.

1 Like
#8

It started a shared system patch from scratch „show“ on YouTube recently.
Maybe it’s fun to watch for some of you. :blush:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNPWqSbfAS3Cys7r03ayLGA?view_as=subscriber

More videos coming soon!

2 Likes
#9

Awesome - thanks for sharing!

Liking “patch from scratch III” in particular - a good reminder that I need to play with external audio processing some more…

1 Like
#10

Thank you!!
Glad you liked it!!

#11

Love these so much. Hoping to put a new, less janky video together this week. Thanks for contributing.

#12

“rubberband.m4a” – Practice using Morphagene as a looper… (godawful mic warning)

Process:

  • Create a patch, record into a long Morphagene buffer
  • Connect Pressure Points Gate Out => Morphagene Play
  • Tapping Pressure Points now begins playback at the beginning of the loop
  • Alter patch to create an accompaniment, mix 50/50 between loop and live in Morphagene
  • Tap Pressure Points to begin loop playback, play live to your recorded base loop

Listening back to this, some ideas for further experimentation in this track:

  • Instead of a cycling Maths channel to create each “rubber band fall” manually trigger it via Pressure Points for more variety in timing/rhythm
  • Use Pressure Points stored voltages to vary envelope curves, etc. further adding to the above variation

I vastly underuse Pressure Points on the regular…

5 Likes
#13

Me too, me too… it is the least used module in my shared system

1 Like
#14

Another batch of Shared System recordings - weird lofi/kosmische/drone/improv/noise/experiments/trash :slight_smile:

One technique I’ve enjoyed lately is creating MATHS “bugs” or “creatures” as I’ve been calling them. It’s really just a silly name for self-patching the module at audio rate… but it tends to have weird unpredictable insectoid behavior to me, unique to each patching configuration. I really like letting one channel play high pitches while the other plays weird low drummy clicks.

13:50 in “Live from Home” is an example from the recording above…

4 Likes
#15

So happy to see this thread!

I’ve got a million Shared System recordings on my YouTube but here’s the latest, filmed at the beautiful Christina Lake in British Columbia :black_heart:

A MATHS cycle clocks the patch and “sequences” a channel of Rene via the CV input. Morphagene has some pre-recorded & pitched down notes from the Rene scale.

Woggle is clocked by tempi via the MATHS clock and the burst out is used to clock a channel of Rene. This sequence has a deep amount of pitch shifted delay from Echophon and is the highlight of the patch I’d say!

Stoked to see and read more :raised_hands:

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#16

Here’s a brand new EP using the shared system. I have been obsessing on using the morphagene to create washes of texture. And I’m continually amazed by the range of timbres possible with the DPO. Enjoy!

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#17

when running the dpo through optomix I really enjoy the sound of keeping the level knob around 50% to filter down some of the final output’s harmonics - but this often results in a quiet signal when monitoring the sum output. This may be obvious to many but I just realized today that the easiest way to bring the level back up is to feed the filtered channel’s output back into the aux input. So if you’re using the strike input on the other channel (which can be loud) your filtered dpo final out will not be totally drowned out :slight_smile:

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#18

That’s a really helpful tip thank you!

1 Like
#19

I have one for systems with a Brains installed:

Clocking Brains from the square out of DPO using it as a /2, /3 or /4 audio divider.

Then use this to modulate shape/symmetry/timbre for some almost-Karplus Strong-like sounds

5 Likes
#20

It took me way too long to find a way to replicate Réne v1 pendulum mode with sequenced chords/arpeggios.
I saw this technique in multiple videos from Caspar Hesselager, where the sequence moves in x direction back and forth and only after a number of repeats it steps in the y direction to play the next arpeggio. You can create nice compositions if you have different chords for each y step. Here is an example starting with two chords, but extending later.

I was now able to replicate this technique with Réne v2 by self-patching the Y-CV out into the X-CV in with FUN.CV.LOC enabled (make sure X channel is reset and stopped when “tuning” the location via the Y channel). For the pendulum movement in x direction I use clocks in X-CKL and X-MOD (clock divider 6) with FUN.MOD.DIR enabled.

It’s also fun to mix the Y-CV out with a slow LFO that is attenuated to move the location in the x direction (instead of the clocked pendulum). Makes the sequence more organic. Don’t forget to play with the GATE page.

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