Qu-Bit Electronix Prism, Bloom, Chord v2

[andrewhuang]

I actually love that “root” transposes diatonically. This way you can do chromatic transposition with a precision adder + chromatic pitch offset; if it were the other way around (chromatic transposition internally) then the diatonic approach would necessitate an external quantizer as well!

Going back to @fyoosh’s questions, I haven’t experienced any issues with mine. I love it for creating endless highly usable pitch and modulation sequences that feel anchored but with room for deviation. However I will echo @yobink about notes being jarring sometimes. Like occasionally a mutation will have a note that’s two octaves away from all the others - kind of unmusical haha.

[setfield]

I’ve been experiencing a love/hate with Bloom. The love comes from my affection for all things generative/robotic when it comes to sequencers but… I concur with many of the posts here and elsewhere that there is a lot of fast fingering needed to change parameters. Marbles is still my go to with both in the rack.

[fyoosh]

Well I just ordered one for my palette

I’ll be back with questions next week I’m sure.

[mattlowery]

OK. I typically learn new things by asking dumb questions. Here’s one. I may not have an ample vocabulary to properly explain this, so cut me some slack.

I am trying to figure out if there’s a way to use the Stillson Hammer mk2 to sequence Chord V2 (in harmonize mode) in any key other than Cmaj/min.

Here’s why: The SH2 expects an oscillator tuned to C. You get to pick your key and scale from there, and the module spits out quantized voltages to do its thing. If you’re just using the “root” output of chords, all is well. Send it a Cmaj or Cmin scale and all is still hunky dory.

But, if we set the SH2 to play in Gmaj, the harmonic relationship between the chords (when using the mix output) is way off.

There may not be a way to make this work. The answer might be “use Kria or play in Cmaj”, which is totally cool. I’d sure like to find a way forward with the SH though. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Jonny]

Why not just tune the oscillator to G for the zero voltage root? Does the sh2 actually display cmaj for the root no matter what?

[mattlowery]

This works sonically, but the note names displayed on the SH will be incorrect. Which is not the end of the world.

I think I could maybe get where I want to go with custom scales on the SD card. But honestly that does not sound like a barrel of fun. Probably just better to call a spade a spade.

[Jonny]

Sounds like it’s transposing/offsetting the voltage after the quantizer in order to get you to G from C? Not an issue with a regular oscillator, although tracking may be less accurate on some. This would definitely throw off the qubit system as you’re starting on the 5th if that’s the case.

Something like Kria is just ‘the scale’ and there are no attempts to relate it to a named root, so less confusing, I suppose.

[mattlowery]

I think the answer for me is going to be to use Kria/Meadowphysics with the Chord, and let the hammer whack away on STO and Braids. I appreciate the chat! Happy new year!

And FWIW, I am really in love with both Synapse and Chord V2.

Eurorack Ambient feat. Qu-Bit Synapse and Chord V2, Braids, and Make Noise STO

[Zeke_B]

Beautiful sound as always @mattlowery! I will definitely be keeping an eye on your YT channel. (Part of my discipline for 2021 is no social media, so I’ll miss your IG updates.)

If my ear understood correctly, Synapse was doing something kind of similar to what you can achieve scanning channels on an RxMx–is that approximately correct? Synapse looks really awesome and after reading up on it, I think I realized that I wouldn’t really need both…?

Enough rambling from me. Happy New Year and thanks for sharing more good vibes.

[mattlowery]

Thanks so much! Yeah so, basically synapse is a four channel sequential switch that also lets you mix between two sources per channel. The super neat thing about it for routing audio is that the switching is click-free, even when jumping between two very different sources, or even to silence. I really, really like it. And credit where credit is due, @jwm pointed me toward it.

@Zeke_B

RxMx

Have not put my paws on one of these, so that very well may be the case.

Cheers and happy new year!

[grey]

Question for Chord 2 users:

I’m curious if anyone here has any thoughts on sequencing the voicing. I picked up a Tirana 2 for the job, given that resting on a single voicing can sound a little flat over time. It’s definitely not a magic bullet, but it does add some movement.

The downside to Chord 2 vs v1, is that there is no clear UI for the current voicing, so even if I did have a better understanding of progressions, I’d still have a hard time using it dynamically – everything I do with it is improvised, so the auto-harmony is great, but again, manipulating voicing effectively remains something I am still making sense of despite having spent a decent chunk of time with it.

[mattlowery]

I’m actually setting up a perch right now and am using 0-ctrl for that task. There’s not a terrible amount of intention on my part at this point, but I’ll let you know how it goes.

[grey]

I have a 0-ctrl that I have struggled with so far, so I’ll be curious to hear if you find it a compelling combination.

[mattlowery]

I’ll readily admit that, this far, I’ve criminally underused the 0-ctrl. I really enjoy it for this kind of thing though; a clocked, very precise sequencer of things other than melody that can also be played/adjusted manually very easily while performing.

In this patch I found three main voicings on Chord that I liked, dialed those voltages in on the pitch lane of 0-ctrl, then sent the fourth gate output to reset. I’m clocking it externally. So, against my 16 note melody there was an ever fresh cycling of three different voicings. I picked a few more down the lane that could be played manually for interest here and there.

Here’s the thing, it’s kind of hard to pick it out in this big pot of musical gumbo. I’m still feeling out the Synapse, and tend to make very busy stuff with it still.

Ambient Modular: Contrast With Sequential Switching

I also went back and recorded a second pass on this patch with a bit more filtering on two of the voices (that are unfiltered and obnoxious in this video) and liked it much better.

[ilikeorangethecolour]

Do any Chord V2 users find the built in wavetables rather lacking ? I just can’t seem to get a good sound out of it really without the use of a filter, which when using polyphony is not possible for me as I don’t have 4 filters.

I’m really considering selling it and getting two STOs or two Mangroves instead. Can anyone sell me on how to get good smooth/non-harsh/ambient sounding timbres out of the Chord V2 before I decide it’s time for it to go back in it’s box ?

[yobink]

Attenuation is the key and subtle attenuation at that. Also you can always load your own waves. Have fun

Edit: here’s a release of mine where the only voice was a chord 2, if you’re interested

[ilikeorangethecolour]

Thanks man, will check out that release and spend some more time with the Chord V2 to see if I can tame it

[fyoosh]

One thing I wish Bloom had is more scales.

Currently there are 7 different scales and unquantized which fits tidily within 1 ‘page’ across 8 LEDs. But seeing as there is already an established structure of multiple pages within the UI and as other functions of the module require a user to interact with this paging system, adding another page of scales would fit in with no change to the current UI.

I think it would be a great firmware update to add more scales - I’d love to be able to quickly select the Lydian scale with Bloom for example.

With 8 LEDs on a 2nd page, Bloom would have space for the addition of the below:

• “Ly" - Lydian
• “Ph” - Phrygian
• “Do” - Dorian
• “Jp”- Japanese
• “P5" - Root & fifth
• “C1" - I Chord
• “C4” - IV Chord
• “C5" - VI Chord

• Or maybe the last scale could be a custom scale the user could set and save?

I sent an email to QuBit about this yesterday and they replied:

Thank you for reaching out and for the great suggestion! This is something that could definitely be feasible in a future firmware update, either as straight additions or part of a custom scaling feature.
I’ll make a note for it to be considered in a future firmware update!

If there’s any Bloom users here who’d like to see more scales, it could be worth expressing your interest too.

[grey]

Just a quick note: Chord into Nearness is lovely.

I’d love to see a Chord v3 that’s a compromise between the first two, with more feedback on voicing and native stereo with a spread control.

[mattlowery]

Whist returning to a patch I built yesterday, and feeling that something was a bit off, I discovered that the fifth and seventh outputs aren’t doing anything. I can’t figure out why. Has anyone run into this?

Edit, ok, a reboot did the trick. Probably just another instance of this Doepfer case’s weirdness.