Thanks for the tip. Had no idea there was a low pass gate sound just sitting there hidden in the air input ! So cool

Here is another noob question. In my constant journey in trying to make my mangroves sound like a melodic yet free jazz horn / bagpipes, I’ve been messing with sending different envelopes in to air input. I really like the sound of the mutable elements “blow” exciter so I’ve have been messing with putting it in to the air input on the mangrove. I put the blow output through an envelope follower then the cv in to the air in. I’ve gotten some really cool sounds but I have a lot to learn and fidget with. Haven’t quite figured out the right combination of air setting and envelope follower settings. Does anyone have any advice as far as using a setup like this ? Really just trying to get the volume to move around in the shape of the blow output if that makes sense ?

Also, does anyone have some cool ideas for getting those reed / horn / bagpipe sounds in general out of the mangrove ?

4 Likes

Run your envelope into offset and attenuation and fiddle about. Ideally you want attenuation of the envelope, an offset added to / subtracted from it, then attenuation of that signal (the air attenuator). That way you can really dial things in. Maths or SPO work well for this.

I’ve also found using multiple versions of the same envelope into mangrove (or its modulator / filter) to be useful / fun. Remember to modulate the envelope shape as well, since variable expressivity is key to horn playing. Horns have such a wide variety of timbres, and mangrove is so good at producing them, that quickly iterating on different signal routings and dialing things in will almost invariably bring the brass out

4 Likes

I’ve been mixing grey (any) noise into a vca with an envelope (and/or lfo sometimes), then that into the Air Input. Attenuate Air, Formant and Barrel to taste. It’s been my go too sax / reed / bassoon / clarinet / trumpet maker

Here are a couple examples - all lead solo voices are the Mangrove.



19 Likes

I find that the magic happens when modulating barrel, air, and formant. Like others have said, envelopes that are related work nicely. Just Friends is a natural pairing, obviously, but I am planning on playing around with a Quadra for this.

3 Likes

thank you for the tips everyone! i’ve been messing around with these ideas. been getting some sounds i really love. some real howling sax / bagpipes / screeches / windy flutes and all types of wonderful weirdness in between. using more organic sources for envelopes has been a revelation. i’ve been using the blow exciter from mutable instruments elements in vcv rack through an envelope follower to modulate the air and barrel along with an external vca. here are some examples from from my instagram.


28 Likes

My go to modules for ambient stuff - Mannequins

22 Likes

I love everything about this, really nicely done

1 Like

so i got obsessed with this patch and had to have a go at it. i used cold mac to crossfade between this and a weird sax sound. love using the asynchronous lfos to modulate the vocal quality of this patch. tried to sync the lfos by ear but ya know, happy accidents are much cooler

11 Likes

That is absolutely wild. Thanks for this.

I just picked up a Mangrove, and will have to try this method. Was experimenting with it over the weekend and was really pleased with a lot of the cello like sounds I was getting out of it.

Now to just add a Sisters and Cold Mac, and probably another Mangrove to the setup (if and when they’re eventually back in stock).

2 Likes

When racking mangrove + just friends but using JF as oscillator, are there good ways of using mangrove as modulator (shaping envelopes)? Or even as modulator + vco?
I mean besides square to fm

1 Like

This is from the 2x Mangrove vs Complex Osc. thread but @Galapagoose had some fun suggestions on using a Mangrove as a modulator. Cheers!

13 Likes

Hello, just to share with you my last patch. I’m still at the beginning to learn the Mangroves ( yes take two directly ). Here one mangrove is the bass and the other one provides additional sounds at the end. There are really great and unique ! Main voice is form Verbos HO into Three Sisters :slight_smile:

17 Likes

Was ever discussed without wishing to break the wonderful magic of the mannequins module, what the barrel, formant and air functions are if you would try to patch that to another voice like just friends? I am right now looking at some diy waveshapers from „fricko“ in australia and at least by description i am quite fascinated. I understand formants okay, but is barrel sth that can be described in other modules? And what makes air different from a nicely distorting vca, are there internal connections that are rather one of a kind?

Just trying to educate myself btw. I ve upmost respect and love for all of the mannequins modules

Hola.

Formant might be a bit misleading as in it is not the vowel type of formant meant here.

Barrel is controlling the angle of the ramp waveform, where turned counter clockwise it does not retrigger until the end of rise is reached, thus can create subharmonics.
Formant is akin to a pulsar VCO, where you can influence the duration of the actual wave shape w/o changing the fundamental.
Air is a nicely saturating VCA with an exponential response, which makes it great for audio rate modulation.
The elements themselves are all kind of known, but the sum and combination make it a magical module.

Further reading: https://rabidelephant.com/blogs/general/mannequins-mangrove-guide

2 Likes
1 Like

I’m guessing you may know of them, but if not, the Mannequins Technical Maps are the best module manuals I have ever seen and answer these questions: https://github.com/whimsicalraps/Mannequins-Technical-Maps/blob/master/mangrove/mangrove.md

3 Likes

I am also have this issue as of a few weeks ago. Any insights from you both? I am going to try inspect it and see what I can find.
I’ve had it for 2 or 3 years with no issues other than the warm up time.
I’ll remove a couple of modules from my case to see if its power related… I dont have a second case to try

The issue hasn’t recurred since I reseated the boards. I have no idea what caused it!

Editing in December to say that it was not a fix and I am still trying to solve the issue
Thanks reporting back that the board was slightly loose and I reseated. It didn’t seem to fix it straight away but I again left it running for a couple of hours and absolutely no drift in that time and perfect stability. Seems the board coming loose is the culprit. It would make sense given the age and the fact that I had done a little bit of traveling with it recently