#38

One technique I’m using in one set up is to have a global reset using a clock division coming from Pamela’s Workout. PW offers probability over skipping a clock tick. I plug a 1/4 or lower division of this clock to a manual switch and then mult it to all reset inputs in the patch. When the switch is pressed there’s a chance that the reset will get fired or not; holding the button down means the current phrase is played either whole or in part (depending on the division, could be a whole meter, could be less).

This not only gives the impression of an intended break, but of multiple parts being extremely in sync doing timed cuts of the phrase.

Tweak to taste!

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#39

I’m not sure if Chris Meyer from Learning Modular is a member of this forum, but he’s been putting together a really excellent rundown of his live, beat making case for his Patreon supporters. Lots of well thought through info about his experiences creating beats in modular: combining euclidean beats with other types of rhythms, sound sources, ways to introduce variation in patterns, integrating modular with other musicians, etc.

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#40

Hi can someone help me to figure out how to program non linear (not 4/$) drum beat with a modular synth?
for example how to achieve something like that:

kick kick snare pause kick pause snare pause

thanks so much!

#41

well this would be tough w/o knowing your system

if you have multiple unsynced sequencers you probably dont even need to try to make things non linear

even with just one seq
use of logic utilities (for probability/variation) or modulation should help achieve results you want

#42

@glia I have tempi and renè (I know that I can use it to make non linear beats), so I’m wondering how to make it with something like tempi or maths eoc/eor

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#43

There are so many ways to do this kind of thing so I’m sure you will get a ton or replies

Some simple tricks - use a clock divider that has something other than divisions of 2 - so every N beats you get a different type of drum

a lot of sequencers have a reset input - you can use this to get different pattern lengths

Using logic like And and Or will get you interesting patterns from trains of gates (even simple square waves)

Anything that does Euclidean patterns will be your friend

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#44

Ciao Claudio, I’d fiddle with a gate pattern with rené, and then rotate the outs of tempi. It’s quite fun.

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#45

ciao alessandro, so you are suggesting to create a pattern with rene and rotate the ch1 of tempi with different timings?

#46

Here some experiment with tempi driven disting as drum machine

#47

i have a couple of techniques, and those usually involve both sound generation and rhythm composition\generation.
one of my fave is using the hertz donut 2 (but really any complex vco) for doing almost all “drums” sounds.
i start with crafting a kick sound with a vca, one envelope for vca and one for pitch cv, usually using maths for pitch cv and streams as enveloped vca. expo shapes.
then i send other envelopes or even just gates (curiously i often prefer gates) to the waveshaper and the fm index cv inputs.
then i have to send three different gate patterns to the main envelopes (vca and pitch) and the other 2 inputs.
this i usually do with monome grid\ansible both on kria or earthsea (for a more hands on, live performance approach, with fast retriggering of the loop).
but i sometimes use MI grids (both in drummer mode or euclidean mode) or the zorlon cannon gate outs for a more generative\pseudorandom approach. lately i’ve been experimenting doing it with sapèl and falistri too.

another method is with the er-301, crafting drum sounds with internal oscillator, mixing\layering them with samples or just playing samples i recorded from the other modules (so i can keep always a consistent, cohesive sound). then i can both generate random or less random patterns inside the 301 or drive it from the usual suspects above.

another way is slicing. i slice and dice some loop (both breakbeats or loops i recorded from the other modules). the 301 offers a vast array of tools to mangle and process looping samples, randomly or less randomly choosing slices etc…

i really don’t miss both mpcs or octatrack, i can keep the whole of my performance (excluding external mixer and a big sky pedal) inside the eurorack rig, more compact, less fuss ( midi clock, midi to cv, etc…)

another thing i often do is mix\switch\interpolate between different rhythm parts using both a doepfer a-150 vc controlled switch and\or a MI frames.
ah, and tempi is my clock manager, and sometimes i end up programming rhythms just on the tempi. the channel shifting is a very cool feature!

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#48

I had some success recently using this method:

  • Used a Zularic Repetitor to clock Marbles.
  • Used the clocks from both modules to trigger sounds for the beat.
  • Mangrove for kick, Piston Honda for snare, and field recordings in a Morphagene and Nebulae V2 for extra sounds. Lots of envelopes to shape all of these sounds.
  • Recorded a long stream of ever evolving beats into Ableton. Converted the kick and snares to MIDI and then layered some drum samples over the original sounds to add some texture and punch. Mixed the drums fully.
  • I then bounced the entire beat to a stereo audio file and imported it into Simpler.
  • I used a Skinner Box Time Sting to randomly trigger slices of the beats. At some points I layered two or three instances of this to create crazy polyrhythmic beats.

I don’t have the raw recordings on hand right now but this is something I threw together using those beats:

“https://www.dropbox.com/s/nps62of9l3hbdit/Shunker%20Beats-1.wav?dl=0”

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#49

will have to try that with a switchblade! Great patch idea :slight_smile:

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#50

I love the Zularic Repetitor. CV over pattern offset is a very unique feature in the beat/clock generator module category. I use an SSF Propagate to delay and shift other beat generator outputs. Often next I’ll mix with switches and logic modules. Intellijel Plog and the RYO logic modules are my favorite.

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#51

As far as generating gates and triggers I enjoy “or-ing” different combinations of 4ms rcd/scm. Makes for some good old weirdness.

#52

I have a technique question, and I’m doing it in Euro, so I guess I want to ask here. That said this is not a modular beat specific question, but I am considering it from a live modular improv standpoint:

I’m looking for reliable methods to transition from a 4/4 beat to something more exotic (and back) that doesn’t kill the groove. I’ve done a few things, that sort of work, but I’d like some new ways to think about this from more experienced minds.

#54

A CV knob (Pulp logic attenuverter with nothing plugged in my fave for this, or other steady CV) connected to a VCA whose gate is controlled by a button. Button up: 0v Button down: however many volts you dialed into the knob.

A beat/pattern length controllable via CV (like Stoichea/Klasmata). Set it to 4/4. Plug the dc knob patch above into the CV in.

When nothing is pressed you have 4/4, when the button is pressed you get whatever you dialed in with the knob.

Automate it all by inserting an LFO in the Knob path.

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#55

I guess I mean less from a “how do you get both” (I have SO many switches in my small case), so much as, how do you musically transition from one to another effectively? So for example, let’s take Grids, because it’s a simple example: You’ve got a kick/snare/hat pattern inspired by an exotic beat, but you want to work your way towards a “boring” squared version of the same three elements for a bit, say from a divider (but it could be anything really).

I don’t have much knowledge of percussion from a theory perspective, but it can definitely feel wrong if you don’t do it correctly. It’s really more of a “hOw dO i DJ?” problem, but because you have more control over the system, you can blend or switch whatever you want whenever you want.

I guess I’m asking if there is some reliable theoretical strategies here for how to think about finding transition points that feel more natural?

So for another boring example of what I am talking about: You can build a pattern all the way up to being a full roll of hits or slowly remove it completely, but neither of those feel especially elegant. Once it’s full/empty, you can pull it back into something new or fill it back in with something new. It does work, but it feels like a pretty weak performance strategy.

2 Likes
#56

Pamela’s New Workout -> Malleko Quad Env
z8000 -> Ataraxic Translatron (x2)
all patched into 2hp VCAs then to the Main Out

#57

Noise Engineering’s Confundo Funkitus shows one method for handling the transitions: it is a probabalistic gate (like MI Branches) which favors rhythm A or rhythm B depending on the CV knob. The gate switch condition is reevaluated on each incoming trigger.

Such a method is possible to execute using noise, offset, S&H, and a switch (or a comparator + VCA), but obviously it’s nice to have it packaged up in one module. I once made an ER-301 custom unit based on the concept, and I think a Teletype implementation would be quite fun. Crow would be tricky… maybe you would need to pass your trigger streams through attenuators and have the probability to pass one based on the relative voltages?

Anyway, this does not solve the question of composition, and based on demos of the CF there are definitely some rhythms which do not mesh well regardless of fancy crossfading. I think Grids is the closest thing we have in modular to a curated set of morphable rhythms.

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#58

This is something I’ve thought a lot about. When making beat-oriented music, a firm sense of structure – telling the listener where they are in the song – is really important. I think of it like text: each 4 (or 16) measures is like a sentence, which needs punctuation at the end; and the larger transitions you mention (between parts of a song or time signatures) are like new paragraphs, which require punctuation and some sort of space or transition in between to orient the reader.

I grew up listening to IDM in the 90s, so my ideas about transitions are firmly rooted in that genre – YMMV, of course. What I like to do to create a strong sense of transition is to start mangling the drums a measure or two before the change, with the intensity of the DSP stuff rising as the transition approaches (but, crucially, leaving open the possibility of flowing into and through the transition, maybe ending half a measure or a full measure into the transition if that feels right). There’s also the classic Aphex-ian “slamming into a brick wall” method where the drums abruptly go into chaos right before the transition. Standard DSP methods for doing these things include comb filtering, glitching effects, delays, spectral effects, etc.

This is probably easiest in computer-land, where building complex layers of DSP stuff is easy (Sugar Bytes Turnado, Native Instruments Molekular, and Unfiltered Audio Byome, Triad, and Spec Ops are one-stop shops for this kind of thing) but you can certainly get there in modular as well. Of course filter sweeps are available in modular, and lots of modules give you comb filtering and delay. I’ve also been loving the Qu-Bit Data Bender, which gives me all of the classic IDM glitching I want in modular. Really, it’s all about fucking up your drums as hard as you can right before the transition, so that the listener feels oh yeah, things are changing.

Here are 3 concrete examples: AFX’s Box Energy Remix, Menelec, and Vatstep DSP. Sometimes I think that 40% of my music making time is spent simply trying to achieve the transitional effects AFX gets in that one song. (Note how he inserts a chunk of heavily reverbed dialogue as a transition to the last part of the song… chef’s kiss)

n.b. In modern EDM parlance I guess this all falls under the heading of “risers,” but I don’t like thinking about things that way because risers are usually followed by drops and I hate drops.

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