#169

Are there any examples you would recommend that show deeper explorations of Rings?

#170

Sure! Many of them are also users here on the forums.
I think Billy Gomberg (@baleen) is a great example: https://billygomberg.bandcamp.com.
Then of course R Beny: https://rbeny.bandcamp.com
I think @jlmitch5 also does an excellent job with Elements https://midcenturymodular.bandcamp.com/
These are just the two names I can think of from the top of my head, because I have interviewed them for Horizontalpitch, but there’s of course more.

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#171

Thanks! I’m a big fan of @baleen’s work. Didn’t realise he used Rings.

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#172

I used Wogglebug’s audio outputs as an exciter into Rings on this track (I did this a while ago but hadn’t posted it before as there is a little bit clipping towards the end).

Rings is the ‘flute’ type sound that comes in at around 1:05:
https://soundcloud.com/ithacus/flume

Rings when excited by audio signals sounds really cool and can make some really organic sounding tones/textures. Hours of fun!

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#173

Some time time ago, I made a series of somehow focused experiments on how to use Rings in various configurations. I’m leaving some links below. Not sure they are musically very relevant, since they are mostly intended to be just experiments, but maybe they can be interesting in the context of this discussion.

  1. https://soundcloud.com/papernoise/random-rings
  2. https://soundcloud.com/papernoise/random-rings-2
  3. https://soundcloud.com/papernoise/random-rings-3
  4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w4ujH3n6Zo
  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3PNuZZUl60
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#174

The way I use Rings, it’s often difficult to point out a sound and say “there it is” – it’s often in a feedback loop with a bunch of other stuff, or is providing some background to another voice, or Plaits and Rings are working side by side. But here are a couple of examples.

Plaits into Rings, through Red Panda Tensor and Tyme Sefari and fed back into Rings. (Other voices are Double Helix and Microbrute)

I have very incomplete patch notes about this one, but the core of it is Rings, Warps and a PT2399 delay in a tangled feedback loop; it was recorded mid/side with Warps’ main output vs. Rings odd out through Red Panda Tensor

The drone that opens this one is Plaits/Rings mixed (Plaits is in modal resonator mode and the aux output feeds Rings). (Rhythmic part is Double Helix, melody is Hertz Donut.)

I’m tempted now to make my next album a Rings study. I had been planning to experiment a bit with more electroacoustic bits and field recordings, and that fits really well into that concept :thinking:

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#175

That’s how I’m planning on using it. thanks for the links, sounds ace :slight_smile:
Cheers @papernoise too.

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#176

how can I best provide some light on this for you? almost all of my work post-Slight At That Contact has a significant contribution from Rings & Elements (deep combination that seems like overkill when paired with 2 oscillators as exciters, but it’s what I got).

I think understanding Rings maybe too basically as a pingable filter (just a really really complex and sensitive filter) instead of infinite source of gentle plucks and chimes is a good way to see how it might fit into a workflow or be better articulated in your understanding of how you like your instruments to come together.

right now I’m really into source(s)->LxD->Rings and/or Elements as a way to shape and play these modules.

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#177

my DSP “light reading” last weekend contained the phrase, “when you think about it, everything is a filter”, which seems like a fun perspective to take with respect to modules and audio-rate modulation.

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#178

exactly. i built the shruti bc it was a pretty trad synth in some ways but had an input, same reason i got an mfb microzwerg, same thing that popped into my head when Elements showed up, and the first thing i explored with Rings. i love modules and other electronic instruments with that kind of responsiveness (as opposed to a kind of stasis i guess?). i think Marbles and Stages do well at exploring this in generating control signals as well.

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#179

Building off of that…

  1. Everything physical is a “filter” in the sense that it will affect a wave in some way or another. Air is a filter, your ears are filters, etc. Our company’s name (“Unfiltered Audio”) is kind of a pun on that.

  2. In DSP, nearly every effect is a delay, even filters. Almost every type of DSP effect algorithm is based on delaying a signal in some way. Major exceptions are most waveshaping algorithms (except for something like Logic’s Phase Distortion, which is–you guessed it–a modulated delay) and spectral effects, although spectral effects are borderline since you have to create a history buffer anyway…

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#180

That’s how I think of it too, as a specific kind of bandpass filter. Except I like it more than I usually like filters :grin:

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#181

Someone has already shrunk Plaits into an unplayable 6hp mess.

http://antumbra.eu/redesign/knit

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#182

that’s more or less what I’ve been thinking. I’ve been playing around with the VCVRack version of it and liking it so far. Not 100% if it fits into what I want for now, but having the free software version is great for testing :slight_smile:

#183

Can we unpack this hatred a bit? Antumbra’s redesigns are gorgeous but obviously not made for playability. So what has you judging his designs to the same standards as the originals?

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#184

well, my feeling is surely there must be a better use for all the open-source knowledge contained in Plaits than making it as small as possible! it really is the least interesting alteration imaginable, I think.

obviously it has its uses, and this topic gets beaten to death every few weeks, but that’s me unpacking the eyeroll I had :slightly_smiling_face:

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#185

I don’t commonly see this forum shitting on creators. Miniaturized MI designs is the one exception, so I’m going to be thorny about it.

I reject the notion that an uninteresting or obvious modification of the source material somehow negates those possible better uses that you imagine. Bits of MI code get reused quite commonly in other projects. And most of the designers who shrink MI designs have other original designs in their portfolio.

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#186

I’m a bit late to the game here. Have you seen this?

Yeah i’ve also heard people talk about Rings sameness or being a one trick module. Having had one for about 6 months I am constantly blown away by what it can do, lots of surprises. I feed a lot of different types of material into it, and also audio rate modulation into it’s CV inputs-strum-V/Oct can produce some very interesting and exciting sounds. I pair it with a Batumi and find that very performable and creative. It defiantly has a sound, but most oscillator architectures/DSP methods do.

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#187

I hadn’t seen that. Cheers!

Yeah, I’m surprised at what I’m getting with VCVRack. Spending some time with some chaotically patched LFOs and a sequential switch and it’s chucking out some really fruity sounds. With a bit of attenuation of the LFOs I can definitely find something usable.

#188

I guess it’s that making the hardware smaller is seen as more of a technical exercise than a creative work – though creativity is obviously involved. The point of making smaller modules is utilitarian rather than artistic, so that’s the basis on which it is judged.

The drive to fit more stuff in less space is also probably seen by some as a kind of gluttony, especially since it’s sacrificing the elegance of the original modules to get there. I know a lot of people hate 2hp modules not because they’re hard to use if you cram a lot of them together, but for the principle of the thing.

Antumbra’s panel aesthetics in general are among the more tasteful redesigns. But I would not want to use his Atom – it’s crowded, there’s little sense of logical grouping of related controls; there are extra lines and circles that add to the visual confusion while forcing abbreviation of labels, etc. Considered on its own, Knit isn’t as problematic (but I’d still have arranged the jacks a bit more like the original module). I do wonder whether it would still be clear among a row of similarly designed modules though.

I generally feel like a lot more thought and care and experience go into the original designs than the remakes. There have been a few cases where I think it was done well. uBraids, with its clever substitution of an OLED display and relatively clean layout. uO_C, which to me is more logically arranged than the original version. Plancks 2 seems quite usable for such a drastic reduction in size (though I’d have preferred a little wider just to keep All and Mix in the rows with the individual ins/outs).

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