#398

5ths and/or octave quantization as an option in the text file would be very nice,
or even better the same way like the user-definable Morph Chord Ratios.
EDIT: just reading through the tread and seeing that it was mentioned several times and argued about.
Sure, it’s modular and a quanticer with programmable scales can do this. But I guess this is the dilemma with customizable digital modules VS serge patch programming style.

#399

ah jeez, damn… is it really that simple? 🤦

edit - yeah, damn, it is really that simple

1 Like
#400

pmod 2 for Trigger Loop should also work.

#401

I’ve had Morphagene for a few months now and haven’t really clicked with it. Mostly I feel like I’m not really playing it. One reason I love clouds is because it feels very playable in that I can patch it up to respond to what I’m playing into it. I haven’t had that type of experience with Morphagene…

I feel like I’m missing something and perhaps I need to just play around with it more… I’m mostly interested in playing into it live instead of processing pre loaded samples.

What’s your favorite Morphagene technique?

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#402

I’ll start by saying that I primarily use Morphagene with material I’ve prepped for use with it. In other words I’ll take bits of audio and drop in markers on the computer, then transfer them to the SD card. In fact, at this very moment, I am taking a a piano progression and mangling it with the Morphagene. Here’s the naked progression:

Here’s where I am with it right now (I’m not done, but wanted to just show you where I’m headed.)

So I’ve got markers placed right before the transient of each chord. I’m manually processing with the Shift button. An LFO is patched into gene size.

I’ve got a Teletype scene set up to randomly jump between octaves via the varispeed CV control, so there’s some timbral variety. Beyond that, the rhythm is coming from a sequence of gates hitting maths, which opens a pair of VCA’s. From there, QPAS and mimeophon for processing. Not sure if I love that but yet.

And there you have it: piano bongos? :man_shrugging:

Edit: Ok, here’s a take of this technique in the context of the song I’m working on. It sits under the original piano part and serves as a kind of drum substitute.

The final thing I’ll do is gush on @walker 's YouTube Morphagene videos. They really are all worth a watch. Morphagene will get you into some music concrete territory very quickly. I’ll often take a simple field recording of footsteps or pine cones being rubbed together and just explore them…

One more thought: these two things aren’t always mutually exclusive. Try loading in a file that’s just every note in your favorite scale played on your favorite instrument, with a marker at the beginning of each note (you could also do this in rack with a clock patched in to MG). Now you can “play” that scale with the Organize knob, or patch the end of splice gate into the Shift input (which will yield a kind of “riffing”).

I’ve used this technique to create a very playable model of my Lyra-8, and it’s a lot of fun. (This is a fun approach for Cheat Codes as well, FTR).

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#403

I can only echo what @mattlowery said about using mostly stuff I prepped for it. Putting in markers via reaper as described in the manual is fairly straightforward. I also asked a friend a few months ago to record a bunch of 4 bar loops for me, which is what the morphagene excels at mangling in my experience. To just name my most common uses for the MG:

  • Turning arps into chords with morph up high
  • Turning chords into pads with the same technique
  • Chucking sequences and modulation into vocal loops to make lead lines
  • Making faux remixes by taking breakdowns of songs I like and then splicing & processing them through the MG and further
  • Using one SD card for prepped stuff and one for snapshots of patches that I can’t be bothered to actually record but don’t want to lose

I did try using longer recordings a short while ago by recording something explicitly for use with the MG. Since I found that using unclean samples or ones with a lot of ambient noise made for a more interesting sound, I recorded the following improvised thing with Lekko:

Then I added splice markers after every bar or so and used that recording to make this:

The second track is just me messing around for 10 minutes with my setup, the morphagene is doing the higher piano chops which are run through the mimeophon with flip engaged.

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#404

All of this is beautiful - Thanks for sharing!

Edit: Also thats a very good idea in using it to create a instrument of its own with pre loaded samples - I havent thought of it in this manner before, so viewing it in that way is a nice perspective.

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#405

Curious to hear from Morphagene users who are using it rhythmically in sync with other sounds. Do you patch to the Play input? Or put a VCA with an envelope after Morphagene? How about the clock input?

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#406

This, if I want a tight, rhythmic sequence. Mostly because sending a gate to the “play” input will allow the slice to play all the way to the end- totally depends on the situation though.

Personally I have the options.txt configured to always use the clock input for time stretching. I really enjoy how MG handles this.

#407

Damn. This never crossed my mind.

Super creative uses. Looking forward to trying.

1 Like
#408

Is Reaper the only software to insert splices on a computer? I like the idea of processing samples with markers on the computer, but i dont like the idea of paying $60 for reaper to do it.

@dubiousphil @mattlowery

#409

I use Adobe Audition (and have used it since it was called Cool Edit Pro in 2002!).

I would think any DAW could do the trick, but can’t verify that. Anyone tried with Audacity?

Is Reaper not free anymore?

#410

I use Izoptope RX 7 Elements (they call it “Markers & Regions”) - the current version is RX 8, but I’d guess it’s a safe enough assumption it’s in this version too:


On sale for $29 just now.
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#411

There is also this wonderful web-based tool (mentioned previously by @yittabitta) for assembling spliced reels from individual wav files:

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#412

Ah, perfect. Thank you!

#413

Will that tool let you insert markers wherever you want? Or just at the end of files?

I use that site for button combo reference and it is so wonderful.

#414

End of file only. Each .wav becomes a separate splice.

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#415

I had the same experience at the beginning as well, I was using Morphagene more as an effect and I found it a little unsatisfying.

It really clicked when I approached it as the main sound-making tool in my eurorack set-up. TBH I never bother with prepping samples as others in this thread have done (I should try it out!).

I would either record short sequences into morphagene from another osc (plaits was great), or just play samples into it from my iphone. Either way, treating morphagene as the beginning and not the end was what made it click (for me).

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#416

This. Very much. I bought a Morphagene a few years ago because I wanted something granular and glitchy in my skiff. I was thinking it would be some kind of special sauce. I really wanted to love it, but I just couldn’t. I traded it in a few months later.

Just over a week ago I took delivery of a Make Noise Tape and Microsound Music Machine, where the Morphagene is the most obvious choice of noise source – and my experience of it is totally different.

So far I’ve been mostly using prepared reels, but I’ve tried some SoS looping from a synth (far simpler than I was expecting!) and I’m definitely gong to be doing more live recording into it from other sources.

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#418

I’m actually an end (or near-end) of chain user. Modulating the Morphagene as a granular device is when it actually gets going doing granular stuffs. You want it set to never record its own output (you can manually override this by patching it to feedback with itself if that’s really what you want, and can use a VCA between the output / input to dial in the right amount of feedback instead of having feedback tied to dry / wet balance). Further, smooth gene windowing is a big help, and knowing what kind of control signals you like the sound of into what inputs is pretty big. I usually patch a slow LFO to the dry / wet and leave Morph maxed out with a fairly short buffer (30 seconds or less). Because pitch shifting is a big part of the experience (esp. at max morph), more-so than clouds, you have to be very deliberate about the harmonic content of the material you feed it when live-playing. I dig monophonic sources limited to 5 pitches or fewer spread over at least an octave and a half (and change the incoming pitches dynamically if I get bored, one note at a time, yielding 6 note chords in transitions superimposed on themselves shifted in fifths and octaves if morph is high).

The timbrel and harmonic characteristics of what you feed the morphagene as a live effect simply must be dynamic, or else the effect itself loses all sense of movement.

You’ve actually got that particular MG in your hands because I didn’t jive with it as a sampler!

Edit: forgot to mention that to get actual granular stuffs requires a stepped voltage to “slide” – similar to… “position” (?) on clouds

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