Voltage Lab 2 Pittsburgh Modular

soysos · 2024-05-20T14:43:08.584Z

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Now that Super Booth is past and the Voltage Lab 2 is up, I thought I’d start a thread specifically for it. I spent an extended weekend in the hills of West Virginia on a sort of retreat with my wife and took some time to experiment with the VL2. I tried all sorts of different methods, came across many happy accidents and intentionally recorded nothing. Happy to answer any questions I’m able and can engage the PM folks once they’ve recovered from their trans-atlantic journey home from Berlin.

ears · 2024-05-20T14:46:21.503Z

So one question I have. For those of us with a set of Safari modules, how do the Safari experiments match up to what ended up in VL2? I’m getting the VL2 regardless, but I am curious how much is overlap, how much is overlap with changes for lessons learned, etc.

Jonny · 2024-05-20T14:46:47.032Z

Woo!

It looks very fun. It seems very capable of this but I haven’t heard any ‘buchla bongo’ sounds yet. Very interested in the production of east coast style sounds like that and how it can even go beyond the norm with the wave shaping options.

Dinorrific · 2024-05-20T14:56:48.731Z

How long can you push the delay lines? I heard Richard say at least he echoes circuit maxes out at 500ms, but I’m curious if additional voltage can push it out longer.

And along similar lines, how easy/difficult is it to control the pitch of those delay lines for Karplus-Strong effects? The demos make it sound so organic, but I imagine it won’t track V/oct and you’ll need to dial it in without quantization

josker · 2024-05-20T15:15:32.333Z

Dinorrific:

I’m curious if additional voltage can push it out longer.

Some Superbooth video had Richard saying yes – apparently up to a second, AFAIR.

soysos · 2024-05-20T15:32:20.582Z

I’d need to check with Ricard as to the carryover/through-lines from Safari to VL2. TBH, I’m most familiar with the drum modules, Local Florist and Toad. So as to the Flamingo and Local Parks, I’m not so sure.
The Echos delay time may (?) be nearly doubled by using Attenuverter Out with nothing plugged into the In as a +/-5 voltage or an LFO/Oscillator.
Karplus-Strong is very doable especially with the Florist as it’s minimum delay time is shorter and feedback beautifully fine tuned. As to playing in tune, I think that would be possible, but would require experimentation.
As for bongo sounds, I didn’t play too much in that direction, but I’m confident you can easily get a huge variety.
We’re headed home soon and I’ll probably play around with the VL2 a bit more tonight.

soysos · 2024-05-22T10:49:39.751Z

YouTube

Pittsburgh Modular Voltage Lab 2 Sounds and Patching with Q&A

Ask your questions in the chat!!!! Deep dive hangout with Richard into the Voltage Lab 2. More info at https://pittsburghmodular.com/

Richard Nicol and Michael Johnsen go live tonight to talk thru all things you may like to know.
Tune in, turn on and turn knobs…

PostScript…
I highly recommend anyone curious about the VL2 to watch last night’s live stream. Richard and Michael go very deep into the functions, design, science and philosophy of the system and individual sections. To top it off those 2 have a really comical dynamic. 5 out of 5 stars!

Jonny · 2024-05-23T13:33:53.389Z

I skimmed through and this was really great. Michael was patching some gonzo sounds, really has me considering buying one of these down the road.

Enjoyed this part where they discussed the history of the function generator and who actually did it first (spoiler alert: not Serge )

YouTube

Pittsburgh Modular Voltage Lab 2 Sounds and Patching with Q&A

Ask your questions in the chat!!!! Deep dive hangout with Richard into the Voltage Lab 2. More info at https://pittsburghmodular.com/

soysos · 2024-05-30T12:57:26.026Z

Did a jam with Richard and BusCrates last night. Richard is only using a VL2, you can hear him doing 2 voices solo at the beginning of the set at around 9:00.
Everything goes crazy after that…

YouTube

Richard, Buscrates, and Soy Sos : Synth Sentinels Chat and Live Performance

Richard Nicol, Buscrates, and Herman "Soy Sos" Pearl return! The team is back to discuss interesting(?) patching techniques followed by a modular synth jam @...

soysos · 2024-05-30T23:35:11.445Z

OK, but Sara Belle Reid really did that…