As discussed in the aforementioned thread, we should have a dedicated thread to discuss Mannequins “complex oscillator” patches, as it seems to be something a lot of people are curious about or looking into. I think it’s safe to say most people around here who are into euro have a couple of Mannequins modules, so I don’t think it’s an issue if your patches also include a Sisters/JF/CM, but I think a handful of people are especially interested in using two Mangroves together.
I’ll kick us off with some simple ones, like patching the square output on each Mangrove to the other one’s AIR input, which is mentioned in the manual. I’ve got some really nice bongos from sending this into a LPG (Optomix or Meng Qi DPLPG).
Another one I like is patching the formant out from one Mangrove to the FM other and sending some attenuated modulation from Just Friends, or manually sending contrasting voltages from Cold Mac, into both the Formant and Barrel ins. If the oscillators are in tune with one another it’s a bit vanilla to begin with, but you can get some crazy unstable stuff when you get down into the pitch divisions.
These are just some simple ones as I’m a relatively new dual Mangrove user, and I haven’t really had a chance to explore with Cold Mac because I like using it for other things. Guess I’ll need to get a second.
My personal favourite is sending Formant out of the modulator to the Formant CV input of the carrier. Set the carrier’s Barrel control to 12:00 or CCW to get close to pitch divisions. Match the pitches (or set them to multiples). You can then use Air, Formant & Barrel of the modulator to control the ‘FM’ quality. It’s less extreme than FM (which I usually find too cheezy), but instead can create beautiful rich timbres with different harmonics / divisions coming through.
The same patch but modulating the carrier’s Barrel is also nice for more subtle variations (great for drone / textural things).
I tried a couple of @Galapagoose’s suggestions out with various routings on Cold Mac today with some excellent results. Firstly, sending the formant out of the modulator into left on CM and then having the left and right outs going to barrel and formant CV on the carrier, respectively. Subtle changes between 11 and 1 o’clock on CM can have quite a drastic impact on the timbre, when the modulator’s signal is being sent to both barrel and formant simultaneously. It’s definitely more subtle than FM, but it is really easy to create nice slowly evolving drones.
I also tried the same idea, but going into OR on CM and using the OR & AND outs. Sending the square from the modulator to air (attenuated!) on the carrier in addition to this gives some really nice sizzle. Sending the other outs from Cold Mac to various parts of the patch – Sisters FM, modulate barrel/formant/air on the modulator – and then sending a slow, smooth random (I used R-Flux on the URA) to Survey was delicious.
Sending the modulator’s formant out into slope/crease and then taking the crease out to formant CV on the carrier was also really interesting whilst modulating parameters on the modulator, because the audio drops out below a certain level. V glitchy at the lower end, where the audio drops in and out.
I find modulating Survey in a patch like any of the above with Just Friends (or any unipolar modulation source) gives me really good results, because you can set a “floor”, of sorts, where the sound of the carrier basically bottoms out (in my case this was the bottom of the range I wanted to reach in the pitch divisions). I’ve also found with Just Friends that, with a bit of self patching – particularly from some of the inner Ns being sent to ramp, curve, or intone – you can create really slow, organic and evolving cycling envelopes which are great for fading modulation or audio in and out within a patch. I realise that sounds a bit basic, but it’s one of my favourite ways to use Just Friends!
For you, @le_palace: a slightly tangentially relevant shitty phone video I took just for myself, for reminders.
The Mangroves are the mid-range line, being sequenced by Brains+PP. Formant from both Mangroves is going into Cold Mac Left & Right, respectively, and then to Sisters Low and Centre. Mac is going to Barrel and Crease is going to Formant on Mangrove A. Slope is going to Barrel on Mangrove B, which is being AM’d (Air) by the Square wave from Mangrove A. Survey is being modulated by a slow Sine from Batumi.
This was just noodling after my Mangrove(s) experiments mentioned in my previous post, so it wasn’t meant to focus on those possibilities. For anyone curious about the rest of the patch, I recorded some scratching from Ears into the Phonogene, lots of modulation, out to Clouds, which was being modulated by the URA, and then into Rings, out to K-Mix. The pedal point drone which fades in is Just Friends FMing itself, with Curve being modulated by the self-oscillating Befaco Crush Delay. EOS from the Phonogene is clocking a Turing Machine via Maths (as a gate delay) which is being quantised by an ADDAC207, sequencing a self-oscillating uVCF. Reverb is an H9. https://streamable.com/vue3l
Do any of you Double Mangrove fans have other Mannequins doubles? I have a double Mangrove, but only one of the others (Mac, Sisters, Friends). Are there amazing possibilities awaiting if I make room for more double Mannequins?
I have double Mangroves and double Just Friends. I actually doubled the JFs first. To me, that pair is as essential as a pair of Mangroves; maybe even more. Use one with Run engaged, the other without.
I will probably end up with a second Cold Mac and 3S as well.
I’ve been playing with 3xTS in my case for a while and honestly don’t find it that useful to me… My style of playing is typically focused on a single voice, then sampling / layering, and I’ve rarely found patches that warrant multiple filters. The only exception is JF (particularly in impulse mode) feeding 2xTS both in formant mode. Makes me want a 6channel Sisters, though I can’t say this patch is worth the expense & real estate…
At some point I’d love to make a little case with just 5 or 6 Cold Macs, and see what kind of crazy patch programming is possible. Might be the key to actually learning how the thing works, and discovering the illusive oscillator patch…
I know this doesn’t actually picture Mangroves use, but I got in to that later–a lot.
This is the first time I patched Mannequins with NLC, and the team is absolutely fierce. Two Mangroves coming off combos of a Squid Axon and 4Seq was astonishing. Almost getting in to physical modeling type stuff. Totally fucked. Amazing stuff. Groaning submarine bulkheads. Tortured ships. Pretty deranged.
Also, finally spent real time with Three Sisters self-oscillating. What sheer tintinnabulating joy. So clean and beautiful.
Again, I can see having two, almost for this alone.
Recently got my second Mangrove, and created a fun patch with a scene I wrote for Teletype that does a 4 tap cv delay on pitch. Using Microbrute as a midi controller with velocity controlling the air of one Mangrove’s formant FM-ing the other Mangrove. The pitch of the first Mangrove is determined by a several second CV delay of the pitch, so the tone of the notes your playing at any moment are determined by the notes that preceded it. The second Mangrove runs into Ripples which has some slight self-FM, and the square outputs of both Mangroves run into High and Low of 3 Sisters. The two filters cutoff frequencies are also determined by the other 2 taps of the CV delay. All of this runs into Chronoblob and DLD, with a bunch of modulation coming from Just Friends’ envelopes.
Let me know if I explained that well enough, and apologies for the phone recording sound quality. I should probably record something in the low-end too, it sounds pretty great. I found myself playing with this patch for about an hour
Anyone able to get sounds like this from their Mangrove(s)? But more in a way that can be played by a keyboard?
I’ve been trying to get an extended-technique saxophone / bass clarinet type sound a la Albert Ayer or Eric Dolphy or something. Any patch ideas that would get me some squeaky reed type sounds would be much appreciated
