#281

hi everybody

im relatively new to eurorack, so i freshly got marbles and ate up the manual and also divkids video and think i do understand the module fairly well, but there is one thing which i cant seem to figure out :/

If there is a sequence running and locked in dejavu, wouldnt it be awsome to able to just “slightly” randomize either the t- “OR” the x-section? so you get slight variations in rhythm but not in pitch… or the otherway arround? is there no such function?

as of now im only able to do subtle randomisation to both sections simultaneously, or lock one section while the other goes complete bonkers… its still fun but harder to generate progressive musical variations if both are changing at the same time. i know i can use the bias and spread and jitter but this is not exactly what im looking for. hope you get the idea… maybe im just missing the obvious or is there another firmware that can do that?

please help =) thaaaanks a ton

#282

•afaik there is no alternative firmware for marbles

•independent (modulated) clocking, self-patching from X/Y to T or X (see my attenuation rec a few posts up), and an external logic module (or see my Cold Mac rec a few posts up) are ways to get a little more Marbles out of Marbles.

•also, Marbles is not a sequencer. while it does generate and modulate a nice series of “notes” its functions are those of a random sampler. so you may be getting “subtle” results, just not a subtle sequencer.

#283

for those interested, Pichenettes answered on the MI forum:

7 Likes
#284

Yes! ive seen that you’ve altered your marbles aswell. how did it go?

#285

Well with the help of Emilie it was really easy to tweak the code, generate the wave and load the alternate firmware.

1 Like
#286

Very cool. Do you mind posting the “super lock” .WAV? I’d love to try it out.

EDIT: Looks like someone’s already posted a power of two mod for marbles earlier in the thread.

Another mod I’d like to have (and might start to try to dig into the code, though I have no idea what I’m doing) is more predictable, playable control over clock division/multiplication when the T section is externally clocked. I like having triplet/dotted divisions available, but I feel like in the middle of a jam it ends up throwing a wrench into the groove. Something like rate going from 4:1, 2:1, 1:1, 1:2, 1:4 and then if you hold down the clock division button it will start flashing and give you only triplet/dotted notes simply just the default full range of divisions.

1 Like
#287

I’m not sure if your answer is directed to me but I don’t have implemented the “super lock”, my tweak was to shorten the Gate length ratio.

#288

I just picked a Pachinko version of Marbles on Reverb due to HP restriction and I really dig it. Just a thought. Its only 12HP compared to the OG 18HP.

2 Likes
#289

But the super-crammed UI might be a dealbreaker.

5 Likes
#290

The Pachinko version is surprisingly comfortable. The 10hp version looks like a nightmare, though.

1 Like
#291

The Antumbra Cara (10hp) version is great if you already have prior experience with the full size module and intend to mostly use it with external CV control instead of constant manual wiggling. Otherwise yes, I think learning Marbles on that layout would be a nightmare. I also love the visual aesthetic of both factory Marbles and Antumbra Cara but not so much Pachinko.

1 Like
#292

here you go, Emilie released a new firmware with the super lock feature:

:kissing_heart:

12 Likes
#293

Oh dang! She’s so dope!

2 Likes
#294

I spent the past few weeks basically living inside of my Marbles. I’ve been working on a 24-hour long ambient composition — I’ll be making a post when it’s done and ready to share, but essentially it’s meant to be “furniture music” for an entire day spent in quarantine — and I couldn’t think of a better use for the module.

Marbles is so excellent at creating these emotionally resonant, slowly shifting musical structures. Each section of the ambient piece is four hours long, and typically is centered around a “theme” that would be slowly built up into increasing complexity, and then taken back apart. There’s a practically exponential level of variation in the Marbles when it comes to these things, and the immediacy of feeling that you get from modulating, say, note density and pitch range on a sequence…

I’ve spent many (many) hours with the Marbles, and it continues to impress and surprise me.

25 Likes
#295

I’m considering swapping my second Marbles for a Mutable Grids - wondering if anyone has thoughts/perspectives on the two of them? I think i’d miss the extra x outputs and y output and turing loop capabilities, but it might be worth gaining some more fined grained control over trigger generation. With Marbles it always feels like the T section is a bit difficult to reign in, like there’s not much you can do to sculpt/alter the trigger pattern other than roll the dice and change the bias parameter. Rate and jitter parameter changes often have too drastic an effect on the rest of the patch to use for trigger pattern sculpting, causing the groove to get lost. I mostly use straight trigger inputs so the gate length and gate length randomization options on Marbles are often lost on me. I haven’t played with grids before but it seems like a blast for improvisation.

#296

I share the same feeling on this. The T section is great for some event clocking, but Grids offers way more control over sculpting trigger patterns.

1 Like
#297

I agree with both of you, and have kept my Grids because of that. I want to like Marbles, but I never really get what I want from it. But I chalk that up to my inexperience with the module and assume that were to spend more time with it, I’d click with it better. I do feel more comfortable with Grids, and can get results I want much quicker with it.

1 Like
#298

While I do often use Marbles as a master clock, if I want more interesting gate/trigger patterns I usually turn to Teletype or maybe Zorlon Cannon. But I really like it for its X section; the combination of Turing Machine-esque repetition, CV sampling and quantization works really well for me.

I’ve been thinking about other possible companions for it – something else that straddles a similar line between quantizer and (counterpoint) generator. WMD Arpitecht maybe? But then I’m also currently struggling a bit with “sequencing first” as opposed to a “sound first” approach, ever since getting the 0-Ctrl, so maybe I shouldn’t be looking in this direction :slight_smile:

1 Like
#299

Lots of thoughts and perspective. TLDR: If you want drums: Go Grids. It’s a fantastic module.

The Marbles’ drum algorithm is clever (of course) but consists of a few partial patterns, where one side off the knob filters the “snare” hits out. Essentially, every 4 tics, the current pattern in the Deja Vu buffer determines which of the partial patterns should be played. It works really well, but like the rest of Marbles, isn’t really designed for intentional work. You merely get to tell it how much to change and to shape those changes. The bonus is the patterns are pretty reliable, Grids has a really diverse set of root patterns based on computational musical analysis. The result of that means not everything is “useful” for everything. The beats from Marbles are somewhat bland but work for many kinds of music at many tempos. (And obviously only give you kick-and-snare-like patterns.) Additionally, the Jitter algorthim sounds nicer than the swing that grids provides. Oh and this is key: You cannot reset the drums from Marbles without modifying the firmware (you can hijack one of the clock inputs for this). Alternatively, you can force sync by temporarily patching a Marbles kick into the reset line of any other modules that needs it. Awkward, but worked well for me in the past.

Grids on the other hand is an exacting tool. It has 16 master patterns which smoothly morph based on the X and Y knob positions. The patterns data lets you choose how much of each thing you want, and for the most part that is intuitive. That said, it also has a certain degree of obfuscation because the “map” is largely unknown, and learning it is extremely difficult. To some extent there is still an element of “surprise” in that you might twiddle the knobs and have no idea what will come bad. They’re arranged based on similarities within their structure, but there isn’t any kind of guide to suggest what you might find in any given “region”. The plus side is that it is proceedural, not genrative, so the same setting will always give the same results. (It’s worth noting that the pattern data has quite a fine level of resolution (256), so with some of the patterns, even very small knob movements can lead to subtle changes. All of that said, the panel layout is solid. I’m a propronent of inverted front row usage. It’s a very easy module to play and appreciate in many arrangements. For more Marbles-like behavior, the Chaos knob (availabile in lieu of swing) lets you introduce random variation. It also makes a decent master clock.

That said I wrote a kind of replacement for Grids for crow precisely because of those “weird zones” for the music I was interested in making with it. I will keep Grids around tho. It was in my first modular order, and it remains a pleasure to use and explore. Quite probably my favorite module?

10 Likes
#300

Thanks for sharing that. I had sort of gathered that (minus the chaos knob) it was procedural/deterministic rather than random/generative, but hadn’t yet thought of the implications of this until your post. I think it’d be interesting to use other sequencers/voltage storage modules to sequence the coordinate values which (assuming the x and y knobs are stationary e.g. min value) should give you a reproducible, recallable result without needing to hand program complex drum sequences. Might be fun to use Kria voltage out for this purpose, perhaps using OR logic to combine Kria triggers (traditional step sequencing) with Grids triggers (more automatic sequencing). Because Marbles is inherently random, this kind of meta sequencing of bias/rate/jitter wouldn’t lead to a reproducible result. Both cool in their own right, but very different conceptually.