#126

I got excited for a moment and thought an update had been made! The difficulty of using the module due to this has caused me to shy away from a bit, which is a shame. Too frustrating at times.

#127

Unfortunately not yet. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes right now, which is holding everything up. But it’s not being forgotten!

3 Likes
#128

Are people using Stages (or parts of it) as a sequencer? What’s it like?

#129

I’ve occasionally done some sequencing with it. It’s nice to have something with built-in slides, the option to loop sloping segments or substitute another CV for a segment, etc.

To me it’s better suited as a modulation sequencer than a pitch sequencer, but if you attenuate the output (it’s 0-8V) it’s more controllable.

It doesn’t have a reset, which I find pretty important at times. When I was beta testing I tried to come up with a scheme to suggest to allow resetting via a second gate input for that group, but it violates the basic rules of the module and I have to agree with the decision not to include it. You can manually reset by unpatching the gate and repatching it if you need to sync the beginning of a song for recording purposes, if I remember right.

I sometimes like using it alongside Marbles, clocking Stages from Marbles and then feeding Stages’ output to Marbles’ sampling input, so Marbles can act as a quantizer and shift register. With the right scale and Steps setting it’s nicely playable.

2 Likes
#130

I fequently use Stages for 2 and 3 step sequences. It’s a great way to kick out a looping pattern quickly.

It’s silly but fun to use the first channel as a voice and add an envelope and a short sequence with the rest of the channels. Hard to tune, but does a good job of showcasing its flexibility.

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get the release segement to have a satisfying decay, but otherwise I really like the module. It does so much that I think it’s easy to forget just how much it can actually do. It’s no Maths, but it’s a really efficient hole filler.

1 Like
#131

For release/decay I usually start with the pot set fully CCW, and make it more linear if it seems to be called for.

3 Likes
#132

@grey @Starthief thank ye both. I have Marbles and was thinking about Stages with it. And I like the idea of a tiny slider sequencer, but by the read of it (also before your posts) that’s not perhaps Stages main concern.

#133

For a tiny slider sequencer, Lifeforms Micro Sequence seems promising.

2 Likes
#134

I had an idea this afternoon, and this is probably the coolest/most versatile thing I’ve done with Stages yet. Maybe it will give you some ideas?

Channel Settings:

  1. VCO A - looping ramp segment, slider to max, multed Marbles x2 v/o
  2. VCO B - looping ramp segment, slider tuned to your liking, v/o from channel 4 out
  3. Clock Divider - looping ramp segment, gated from Marbles t2, slider sets division
  4. Sample and Hold - looping step segment, multed Marbles x2 to level, knob sets glide, slider to minimum, triggered from multed channel 3 out,
  5. Trigger to Gate A - gate segment, slider sets level, knob adjusts gate length, triggered from multed channel 3 out
  6. Trigger to Gate B - gate segment, slider sets level, knob adjusts gate length, triggered from Marbles t1

Run the VCO’s into an LPG (@bmoren’s two-tone in my case) and open it with the outs of channels 5 and 6. Run Marbles how you like. Tune the VCO’s how you’d like. I tuned VCO B down for bass. Tweak these:

  1. Knobs on channels 1, 3 to complementary waveshapes
  2. The slider on channel 3 for clock of VCO B
  3. Knob on channel 4 for slew on VCO B
  4. Knobs on channels 5, 6 for gate length
  5. Marbles T bias left for more frequent VCO B frequency

I also ran them through Three Sisters High/Low for flavor using Marbles Y on frequency for funsies. Light delay and reverb. Fun times. (Recorded unheard. :P)

14 Likes
#135

perhaps a silly question, but is there a way to cv-modulate shape? i want to fall in love w/ this, but i also lust for cv-controllable lfo shape like w/ frames or o&c quadrature lfo modes.

#136

pretty sure you’d have to use two stages for a looping AR.

#137

I think you can hold the mode select across the segments you want to loop (they will start to blink). You can’t CV modulate the shape though.

1 Like
#138

It’s been on my mind: The clockable LFO with the dyanamic waveshape morphing is pretty killer. I was wondering if I could get away with something else, and that’s a feature that would be sad to lose. That functionality would make a great utility module by itself. I do wish the waveshape could be CV’d, but it’s really dope as is.

#139

For the attention of Stage lovers; an investigation into of the two-segment groups, nine in all. And for each of these, a study of the behaviour without cycling, with the first segment cycling, the second cycling, and the group cycling.

15 Likes
#140

cross-posting from the mutable forum, I asked Olivier how I might edit the firmware so that Stages would do very slow LFO’s without my having to patch a negative offset (because I love using very slow modulation), and he suggested a bit of code to do the trick. Spent the day learning about updating firmware and amazingly enough it works!

Here is the firmware wav file for those interested. As with all firmware wavs, be very careful not to actually play the file, lest your ears be destroyed. Uploading via a zip to help prevent that a bit!

stages_slowLFO.zip (414.9 KB)

25 Likes
#141

Neat! Did you bump the range down overall or just extend the low end?

#142

I believe it is the range overall

#143

Can’t confirm that this didn’t break anything else, but it dropped the range of the LFOs beautifully. Thank you!

2 Likes
#144

The code added is VERY minor, so all should be safe :blush:

#145

Beautiful, this has been my only wish for the module so far! How slow did you make it?