yep. there are lots of ways to experiment with pitches.
Apart from the sequencers or other ways to output tuned voltages (e.g. Make Noise Pressure Points), the important thing is a quantizer. Which fits all your voltages from sequencers into exact pitches. I haven't found the available qunatizer modules terribly exciting... I got too well treated with max/msp plus Monome. But there are a few things on the horizon, and there are plenty of excellent modules around right now. Steevio is doing crazy deep stuff using devices that I don't find that exciting (showing that it's kinda how you put it together, and the way you use it, that is the important thing)
I knew fck all about analogue modular before I started. Various little bits and pieces of information, but nothing really concrete. I was lucky to have tried out lots of ideas of modular functions in max/msp, which helped me to form goals and generally give me some ideas for designing my system. But lots of things I had to throw out and start afresh.
Right now there are a few digital modules that are interesting... but I don't find them that exciting to want to use them. The only digital module I have is the Noisering, but that is very simple and charming like analogue.
modular synthesis
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oblioblioblio
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oblio pretty much nailed it.
i tune my oscillators to fifths, so that there is plenty of frequency space in the mix, and no clashing freuqencies, ( but i also have offset generators in line in case i want to add fourths or thirds etc. )
so maybe my lowest VCO will be the bass, the next one up will be a low percussion sound, which of course can vary between being a conga, low tom, or some weird elcetronic noise whateva,
--next up will probably go to my Moog voyager, which if its a pefect fifth (root note) it means i can tune the three VCOs on the Moog to quite strange intervals for technoey sounds, but they will harmonise in some way with all the other VCOs,
next up a high percussion sound of some sort, next up a snare, then hihat, whateva
i have a VCO (TipTop Z3000) which has a digital tuning LED screen ( in Hz or 12tet intervals) , so i tune all my VCOs to that, but some dont seem to work with it, so i use a Boss guitar tuner for them.
but the root note tunings of the VCOs is just a starting point.
the 12 tet thing comes from the 4 quantizers (in line with the 4 sequences), these are invaluable if you dont want to make weird noise music, or atonal stuff. these can be set to all sorts at the flick of a few switches, like chromatic / major scale / major chord with a 7th added or a 6th added, or a minor scale / minor chord etc. etc. quints etc etc.. so you can change these in the middle of a tune for a change in direction etc..
oblio is right about the more mathematical mundane modules, alone they arent particularly inspiring, its how you patch them up, but for me thats the whole point of modular, you could take ten modules and give them to ten different people and they would come up with completely diffferent ways of using them.
i prefer modules that do something you understand, then you can apply them in weird ways, the esoteric modules do weird stuff out of the box, and sometimes the results can be a bit random.
i dont do random. i dont feel there is a place for random in music - by definintion.
if a module says its random or pseudo-random, i dont usually want to know. especially for live music, you have to be in control.
there is a place for chaos though !
thats the way the universe works.
yes you can knock knobs - but i dont.
and amazingly for analogue VCOs they always stay pretty much in tune, i dont think ive tuned any of my modular VCOs in two months.
whereas the Moog is always out of tune when i first switch it on, but once warmed up is usually in tune, --the exception was the gig in the video, it was really hot in the venue, and i tuned the Moog up in the sound check, but didnt have time to tune up before i played, and the Moog was way out of tune, i spent the first ten minutes of my set sh!t scared to open up the Moog filters cos it sounded real bad, then i got it in tune and by the end it was OK, but i wont be making that mistake again.
sorry i had to edit this a few times, its the sunday night red wine.
and i think i need to go now.
i tune my oscillators to fifths, so that there is plenty of frequency space in the mix, and no clashing freuqencies, ( but i also have offset generators in line in case i want to add fourths or thirds etc. )
so maybe my lowest VCO will be the bass, the next one up will be a low percussion sound, which of course can vary between being a conga, low tom, or some weird elcetronic noise whateva,
--next up will probably go to my Moog voyager, which if its a pefect fifth (root note) it means i can tune the three VCOs on the Moog to quite strange intervals for technoey sounds, but they will harmonise in some way with all the other VCOs,
next up a high percussion sound of some sort, next up a snare, then hihat, whateva
i have a VCO (TipTop Z3000) which has a digital tuning LED screen ( in Hz or 12tet intervals) , so i tune all my VCOs to that, but some dont seem to work with it, so i use a Boss guitar tuner for them.
but the root note tunings of the VCOs is just a starting point.
the 12 tet thing comes from the 4 quantizers (in line with the 4 sequences), these are invaluable if you dont want to make weird noise music, or atonal stuff. these can be set to all sorts at the flick of a few switches, like chromatic / major scale / major chord with a 7th added or a 6th added, or a minor scale / minor chord etc. etc. quints etc etc.. so you can change these in the middle of a tune for a change in direction etc..
oblio is right about the more mathematical mundane modules, alone they arent particularly inspiring, its how you patch them up, but for me thats the whole point of modular, you could take ten modules and give them to ten different people and they would come up with completely diffferent ways of using them.
i prefer modules that do something you understand, then you can apply them in weird ways, the esoteric modules do weird stuff out of the box, and sometimes the results can be a bit random.
i dont do random. i dont feel there is a place for random in music - by definintion.
if a module says its random or pseudo-random, i dont usually want to know. especially for live music, you have to be in control.
there is a place for chaos though !
thats the way the universe works.
yes you can knock knobs - but i dont.
and amazingly for analogue VCOs they always stay pretty much in tune, i dont think ive tuned any of my modular VCOs in two months.
whereas the Moog is always out of tune when i first switch it on, but once warmed up is usually in tune, --the exception was the gig in the video, it was really hot in the venue, and i tuned the Moog up in the sound check, but didnt have time to tune up before i played, and the Moog was way out of tune, i spent the first ten minutes of my set sh!t scared to open up the Moog filters cos it sounded real bad, then i got it in tune and by the end it was OK, but i wont be making that mistake again.
sorry i had to edit this a few times, its the sunday night red wine.
and i think i need to go now.
Last edited by steevio on Tue Oct 12, 2010 1:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Phase Ghost
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Phase Ghost
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oblioblioblio
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for me it comes down to system design.steevio wrote: oblio is right about the more mathematical mundane modules, alone they arent particularly inspiring, its how you patch them up, but for me thats the whole point of modular, you could take ten modules and give them to ten different people and they would come up with completely diffferent ways of using them.
i prefer modules that do something you understand, then you can apply them in weird ways, the esoteric modules do weird stuff out of the box, and sometimes the results can be a bit random.
i dont do random. i dont feel there is a place for random in music - by definintion.
if a module says its random or pseudo-random, i dont usually want to know. especially for live music, you have to be in control.
there is a place for chaos though !
thats the way the universe works.
Generally the modules I really like have a certain kind of balance, meh, impossible to describe. Say, the Wogglebug, you could get 2 or 3 doepfer modules and pair them together. But for me, to have a few things under one roof with some predetermined function is helpful when patching. [Or maybe I'm just justifying to myself why I made certain choices in my system]
I definitely don't have anything bad to say about Doepfer modules in a well designed system. If I wasn't all crazy for Wiard / Make Noise, I would really love to give the dual 155, z8000 and friends sequencing system a spin.
I'm not interested in random modules for the sake of messy aggressive random. For me they are compositional tools. I hate random. But there is something certainly musically useful to me about the Noisering and the Wogglebug when they are patched right. I'm interested in the Ian Fritz stuff as well like Chaquo and Jerkster but I'm not sure how the attractors would work in a musical fashion.
I should read up on the theory of chaos though, I got a little carried away thinking about it once. The guy Ian Fritz posts a lot on Muffwiggler and is very knowledgeable. Neither the Woggelbug or the Noisring are true chaos generators. http://home.comcast.net/~ijfritz/ch_over.htm (chaos, scientifically speaking, is all about patterns, interestingly enough)
I'm kinda interested in these attractors, but not entirely sure how the theory translates into music. I think the human element is missing from any theory I've read about chaos generation within electronic circuits. Surely having a human operating a machine is a mechanism in the feedback loop? Maybe the ultimate fractal/ organic recusive function/strange attractor musical machine is a funny custom made mathematical sequencing network plus human?)
