30-day modular deep dive/writing challenge

[Ben Asaro]

I've been feeling a bit stagnant in my writing of late, partially due to the rather distracting situation here in the US/NYC, partially due to other distractions.

I've decided that since I have a pretty large swath of time off between now and the end of the year, I would embark on a 30-day writing/modular deep dive challenge! I will be writing a new piece of music on the modular every day for the next 30 days, with the plan being to try using a different technique every day. Otherwise, I don't have any other limits in terms of how long each piece needs to be, modules used, etc.

I'll post my daily results here and if anyone wants to join in, I'd love to hear what you come up with!

[resistorman]

Good for you Ben! My rig is designed for ambient soundscapes so I don't do more than one a week But I'll do a few along the way in fellowship!
best
Dan

[Ben Asaro]

Good for you Ben! My rig is designed for ambient soundscapes so I don't do more than one a week But I'll do a few along the way in fellowship!
best
Dan

Awesome, looking forward to it! Do include patch notes if you can!

[Ben Asaro]

Here's my Day 1 effort!

https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-1

Kept it very simple for Day 1 -- only 3 modules (NerdSeq, Mother-32, Subharmonicon) plus delay/reverb. The right side is the NerdSeq sequencing the Mother-32. The left side is the Subharmonicon clocked from the NerdSeq.

I challenged myself to keep the pitch very high and plucky on the Mother-32 (sawtooth waveform), something I've actually never done before. I also patched VCA EG out on the SubH into the Cutoff In. VCO 1 is sawtooth, VCO 2 is square.

[Martin Walker]

Well that's an eye opener Ben - only using three modules yet you manage to keep my attention all the way through.

Bravo!

Martin

[Ben Asaro]

Thanks! It's just okay, musically, but I'm loving this approach! No pressure! I got the basis for today's patch done but am going to the Park w the family so I won't get to finish it until later. Now it's playing away to no one lol.

[Ben Asaro]

Day 2 patch. I wanted to make a bell-like sound on the Mother-32, but try as I might, I could not replicate the super clean bell sound that others have achieved with the Mother-32. What I did end up with, however, was a lo-fi 70s horror bell sound that ended up working quite well lol. This is another patch using just the Mother-32, Subharmonicon, and NerdSeq.

I was able to get a really cool pulsing on the SubH's chords with heavy filter automation.

https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-2

[The Elf]

Some pics would be good, so we know what we're hearing. All these module names make my head ache!

[Ben Asaro]

Some pics would be good, so we know what we're hearing. All these module names make my head ache!

Good point! I'll include pics with the next one!

[Ben Asaro]

Day 3 Patch is done. This one turned out to be a lot of fun! The challenge to myself was to do something I rarely do: improvise!

The patch:



https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-3

I started with a simple 4-chord progression on the Subharmnonicon. The Mother-32 is playing a continuous windchime-like pattern, but the filter is being modulated by an external, attenuated LFO, so it fades in and out.

As the pattern played on the SubH, I changed one of the steps in real time. It creates this nice movement over the drones adding a pleasant top line to the progression.

[Arpangel]

Day 3 Patch is done. This one turned out to be a lot of fun! The challenge to myself was to do something I rarely do: improvise!

The patch:



https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-3

I started with a simple 4-chord progression on the Subharmnonicon. The Mother-32 is playing a continuous windchime-like pattern, but the filter is being modulated by an external, attenuated LFO, so it fades in and out.

As the pattern played on the SubH, I changed one of the steps in real time. It creates this nice movement over the drones adding a pleasant top line to the progression.

I’m liking No 3.
I’m on a deep dive too, literally, recording in our flooded basement!
Got about 40 mins in the can so far, will post in Self Promotion ASAP.

[Ben Asaro]

Thanks, arp! No.3 is interesting, though it's nothing amazing. I think an even bigger challenge for me will be to avoid developing something that I come across that I like! It would be too easy to fall back into the trap which led me here in the first instance.

No, I'm going to stay the course, reset and rebuild every day, slowly adding more modules and complexity to see how far I can get with what I have.

[Drew Stephenson]

Enjoying these Ben.

[Ben Asaro]

Enjoying these Ben.

Thanks!

[Ben Asaro]

Another day, another patch.

Okay, now I feel like I'm starting to really scratch below the surface. This patch is based on similar 'marbles' patches, but instead of it being a single pitch that ping-pongs back and forth, I did my own take on it by randomising pitch from the Turing Machine and also creating random hocketing via the Quantimator. The randomisation if via Branches.

Sound:
https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-4

Sight:

[Ben Asaro]

Noticed an error in the patch diagram above.



Also, forgot to give credit for this patch! This is the second patch to appear in Patch & Tweak, found on page 97. Though I followed the basic premise, I altered it to make the patch pitched and added a drone from the Mother-32.

[Martin Walker]

This is most educational Ben - after online search I now know what hocketing is!

Martin

[resistorman]

Hi Ben, I'm enjoying your patches quite a bit. I had time to play the other night. I've been running my Arbhar granular synth into a Rings clone and then a Doepfer SEM filter. Some side trips to a 4MS Dual Delay Looper and Zverb. I wish I'd taken a picture of the patch, I'll try to remember next time. Sadly, my 4MSDDL is out for repair, but I did get in an Imitor Versio which I'm trying to come to grips with.
Cheers
--Dan

https://soundcloud.com/dan-simpson-4976 ... s-approach

[Ben Asaro]

That sounds great! Loved the panning!

[Ben Asaro]

Day 5 patch!

I combined a bit of subtractive synthesis and a bit of vector synthesis for this one. It is essentially a single subtractive voice but I took 3 outputs from the VCO and fed them into the WORNG Vector Space. I selected three ouputs that I liked the most, mixed them through a quad VCA and fed that into the Doepfer SEM filter.

Modular Grid is having an issue tonight so I can't make the patch diagram just yet. I'll post it once MG comes back.

Kick is from the BD808 and the low plucked voice is the 2hp Pluck.

[Ben Asaro]

Link would have been helpful!

https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-5

[The Elf]

It's interesting stuff!

[Ben Asaro]

It's interesting stuff!

Yes, it’s an interesting auditory hallucination. As the layers are added, it sounds like different pitches are being brought in but in fact it’s just the harmonic overtones and phase cancellations from using different degrees of rectification.

EDIT: Modular Grid is working today! Here's the patch:

[Ben Asaro]

DAY 6.

This patch is inspired from one of the DivKid patch ideas on page 98 of Patch & Tweak: Simple subtractive voice with an additional EG going into the FM input on the Mother-32. Used with moderation it adds a transient attack to the note, giving it a nice cut. Less moderate decay times add a slewed 'pew pew" to the notes.

SOUND, https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-6

SITE,

[Ben Asaro]

DAY 7. Today's patch is another simple one, and another one I've never tried before: FM synthesis. I will say, for my taste, this isn't really my thing, but it was interesting nonetheless. Patch diagram is below, but for methodology: I ran sine, triangle, saw, and square waves into the FM input on the Mother-32, then I applied PWM to the modulator.

https://soundcloud.com/user-329043613-5 ... enge-day-7