#91

My Marbles finally arrived a few days ago. I’m totally blown away by how good and useful it is! Still figuring out how to best use it in my workflow/patch approach, though it’s amazing at keeping things “alive” and moving along, and can transform a patch into something wholly new with only a few changes. I did an improvised performance tonight for 2 hours (playing music for a group of creatives who were having a cut and paste collage art jam) where it really shone, giving an easy sense of dynamism to an otherwise possibly stagnating performance (especially since I was playing for so long!). I think you could get a lot out of using two together!

I’ve been getting the my best flow out of it by having Pam’s New Workout as a master clock, with an output to the clock inputs each (good to be able to change the divisions on the fly), Ansible receiving a clock from Pam’s, and Ansible multing one of the CV outs into Marble’s Spread input.

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#92

How are people using their Marbles? I’m having plenty of fun using it as a self-contained cv and gate generator/quantizer. Is anyone using it strictly for modulation or is everyone just doing the random melodic stuff?

#93

I’m using it for pitch CV about as often as not. I stick mostly to short, locked patterns with maybe a little gradual variation. Sometimes I clock it from MIDI, sometimes internally, sometimes from Teletype.

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#94

Used one for the last couple of months and I got to admit that it is the kind of sequencer I always dreamed of.
One thing is really bothering me though: the impossibility to switch the CV looping from “number of notes” to “loop length” for more traditional uses… By the way if someone feel like adding that little function once the code will be available… (my gratitude would be eternal) :kissing:

#95

Can you explain more in detail? How would “loop length” work?

#96

Yes of course.

At the moment LENGTH is setting t length, so, roughly speaking, loop length in steps (setting LENGTH on 8 would produce a 8 steps pattern etc…).
BUT
x is using LENGTH as a number of notes counter (not steps counter). So, depending of the pattern, notes will shift from rhytm creating those ever-evolving melodies.
So there is no possibility to make a straight loop.
Now adding, as an example, a simultaneous two buttons long press would change LENGTH effect on x. The “notes counter” would then turn into a “step counter” and make the module act as a traditional sequencer (but non shifting patterns) with all the marbles dope features.

I already exanged a couple of email with Olivier from MI about that point. He told me that it would be a 20 min coding work but not want he wanted the module to be (and I respect that).

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#97

Oh I get it now. Yeah, that’s not what the idea behind Marbles is, though I can see your point and why that can be a good thing. I’m sure somebody can do that once the fw is available.

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#98

Those words didn’t fall on deaf ears… :grin:

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#99

Mine finally arrived yesterday.

I put together a few different patches to explore. Here’s some early madness:

Love it. Does what it says on the tin! :grin:

I can see the desire to change the length behavior, for sure. Additionally, I really wish there was a way to return to the originally locked pattern with once Deja Vu wanders away. I like what it does, but I’m after more traditional structures, and returning to a central concept would be nice without requiring an external sequencer to manage that.

Maybe… Store the initially locked pattern. Long press X lock, which then flashes. Sub-12 o’clock values then reintroduce the original values until all are included. Tap X lock to return to standard locking behavior.

I wonder how hard it would be to implement… :thinking:

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#100

I"m hesitant to suggest adding more features to Marbles as is (it’s already a pretty busy module!) or alternate firmware… but I have daydreams about an expander:

– 4-8 save slots for Deja Vu data and other state information. Push a button and it recalls it, hold a “save” button while pushing it to save. (Or long press I suppose…)

– 12 mini-pots arranged like a vertical keyboard, representing the frequency of notes (using 12TET tuning). Push a button and it writes that to the current quantizer scale.

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#101

Marbles + Morphagene

Here’s a full version on SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/rjraffa/morphagene-marbles

I’m a big fan of William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops, and I’m excited about the possibilities with these two.

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#102

Really nice! Been super excited to try out this exact combination myself - Marbles finally arrived this week but not had a chance to properly dive in yet.

Have you discovered any particular tricks/sweet spots using the two together?

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#103

Very cool. Glad you enjoy. Yes, definitely give this pairing a go. Depending on what you have sampled, I feel the whole range of each parameter is in the sweet spot :wink: (as opposed to using Marbles with an oscillator which takes some time to get used to it).

Having the bias weighted on one end (t1/t3 and x1/x3) is helpful when you know which of the elements on the Morphagene you really want to have some activity (on this patch I had the varispeed getting worked over pretty well). It’s also helpful that the Morphagene allows you to “center” each parameter with the knob and let the Marbles modulate a range around that point.

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#104

Fabulous patch. Can’t believe I’ve never tried it myself, Marbles apostle as I am.

How do you like your Y? Do you customize its settings in much depth, or leave it on it more or less to itself?

Definitely will be testing this combo out later today!

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#105

Thanks! And yes, definitely report back on findings. They’re a great combo.

I haven’t explored Y mods as of yet. According to the manual, there’s quite a few parameters that can be adjusted. I’ll be camping this weekend, so I’ll have to explore that when we return next week. Thanks for the tip.

The control features on Marbles are just awesome, and I’m midway through a draft reply to a post @papernoise did on modulars as instrument back in January. Marbles feels like a key ingredient to that instrument.

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#106

I’ve spent considerably more time fidling with my unit since receiving it, and I’m strugling with it a bit with regards to quickly finding “sweet spot” results. It’s very good at spitting out interesting “noodling”. It’s a killer “random music box”, but it’s a bit of a wild horse for more traditional structures.

If anyone has spent time performing with Marbles and has thoughts on moving between “songs” or how to situatate Marbles in live patches and strategies for auditioning sweet spots, I’d be very interested to hear some insight here.

Thus far, I’ve found the most success when sequencing bias to create some additional structure. I’ve mostly stuck to the basics, learning the feel for the X section knobs. I’ve yet to play with Marbles in “quantizer” mode, so I’m going to give that a swing soon.

1 Like
#107

Well structure and random don’t really mix well do they? :slight_smile:
I think you need to embrace Marbles for what it is. Embrace the noodling, make it your way of composing, or maybe find another use that isn’t producing the melodic material in your patch. There’s my uses for randomness in a modular system, which aren’t necessarily related to pitch.

Some more things you can try with Marble’s quantized output:

  • Choose a key/scale/collection of notes, create one “static” voice with a traditional sequencer and set Marbles to a scale that matches the notes you use on the first sequencer. Then create a counterpoint between the two where Marbles is randomly generating notes (mix in some Deja Vu to tame the randomness a bit)
  • Use two VCOs in a voice and drive them both with the same repeating sequence (or MIDI from a DAW or whatever) creating a melody of some sorts. Then use a precision adder to add the main Pitch sequence to Marbles Quantized pitch CV, so that the second VCO will keep changing pitch but stay in relation with the first VCO.
  • Clock marbles at a slower division than the main clock (either using a divider, or by turning down RATE), use the quantized output to generate more or less random accompaniment notes to a main melody.
  • Put Deja Vu to 12 o’clock and lock X (LED button is lit), then double press it quickly until you find a melody you like. Build the patch on that melody, then play around with it using SPREAD, BIAS and the note carving of the quantizer.
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#108

I am only about a week deep into marbles but can def give my two cents so far. For me marbles is the main brain in my system. I think proper interfacing and logic always help when it comes to performance and random. I always love random but for me i need to have some sense of control…I need to get my hands dirty so to speak. :wink:
I use mine along side two ornament and crimes(Loaded with the hemisphere suite) Pam’s new workout and lots of stackables. I am debating on possibly a tetrapad or pressure points to pair along side the marbles for more control. because marbles spits out so much damn good “Musical” information Pairing it with the right utilities like logic, mutes, gate skippers, switches, etc really make it shine.

@papernoise gave some very solid tips, only thing i would add to his post is for me starting with shorter lengths has been very nice for honing in melodies and rhythms.

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#109

I use a Cwejman RG6 for random but I like it so much for non “musical” stuff im looking at Marbles as well but Im thinking something like an Argos Bleak might be the key but im struggling with the concept a little…I wish there where more Argos Bleak demos

#110

I must admit because Cwejman modules normally hit me with sticker shock i don’t look too closely at them…I just googled the RG6 and wish i didn’t. Looks ace!