SIG Mastery Month

[Ben Asaro]

Now that the Berlin School album is done and dusted, it's time to start looking into the next big project, which will be my attempt at working in quadraphonic!

I had originally purchased the SIG+ with the initial idea that it would be used with more intentional layers but that never came to pass.

Since the SIG+ is four channels of stochastic music generation, I think it's hand-in-glove with quadraphonic. There's only one small catch -- I really don't know how to use the SIG!

So I plan on spending a few weeks just getting to know SIG+, get familiar with its functions, and see if I can actually write any music with it going on all four channels.

Since I will very likely not even begin to work on the quadraphonic stuff until February (I imagine Jamuary will take it completely out of the equation), and am waiting for equipment to arrive in any case -- I figure this will be a chill interim project where I can prep and learn how it works without any pressure attached. A nice cool down after the relentless head-bashing that was the Berlin School project.

My plan is to use the discussion Robin Vincent had with Phineas a couple of years ago as my syllabus as I walk through the SIG.

I am giving myself a month, but who knows how long it will actually take to get this machine under my fingers.

No time like the present, tho!



I will be using this thread to journal my journey into stochastic music composition.

[Ben Asaro]

I can say one thing right off the bat: it's great having NerdSeq back in the case!

Tuning the Buchla was a cinch; just got a pitch going on the NerdSeq and tuned the VCOs; took all of 30 seconds and didn't require using an external tuner or anything. Easy peasy!

[Ben Asaro]

This is the video I referenced above, https://www.youtube.com/live/B-mm-uTWD2 ... BE2uorCiln

[Ben Asaro]

Had my first jam w the SIG tonight. (Full disclosure: I have jammed w SIG before, but it was never anything formal)

I followed the procedure from the first part of the video and then set about exploring. It's very hard to get SIG to sound bad; it pretty much generates an interesting melody every time. Whether it will fit what you are looking for is another matter, but I had surprisingly few clunkers.

Two big takeaways from tonight's jam:

1. The more you put into your initial loop, the more you will get out of it. Varying up the pitch range and note values may give you an initial loop that is just okay-sounding, but once you start cycling through all of the permutations, the more elements you have given SIG to work with, the more variations it can produce.

2. Since the stochastic engine is always running in the background, a single loop can have a LOT of permutations. But cycling through them is easy peasy: you just keep triggering new loops. Once you have the loop point set, it will grab the same section from each new permutation. You can then explore each of those permutations if you like, shortening, lengthening, or even reversing the loop. You can return to free running mode, make macro changes, and then jump back into loop mode and keep going.

It's a deep rabbit hole of exploration, an endless pit of melodic ideas that stem from a single instance of something that catches your ear.

Now that I'm taking the time to really understand it, the SIG is much more powerful than a Turing Machine. It doesn't simply create randomness because those decisions are weighted in probabilities, and the result is something that's immediately more interesting and melodic. Adding differing note lengths creates phrases instead of sequences, if that makes any sense.

Now I just need to get it under my fingers before introducing more voices. I could see this getting very complex very quick with all of the options available to each individual channel.

[Ben Asaro]

Home for the holiday week so I was able to fire up the case early and see if lightning would strike the same place twice.

After a memory init, I started back again with the same approach, this time limiting myself to a CMaj7 chord. It took less than 5 minutes to get something very interesting and worth further exploration.

I'm not entirely sure how the copy function works. I copied the final loop from channel A to channel B, but I could see by the indicator lights that they were not playing the same thing. So I wonder what's going on with the copy function. I'm not ready to start working with multiple voices yet so I'm tabling this until I get there.

Starting to get the hang of dialing in loops. Slow, deliberate turns of the Tempo and 1/16 knobs seem to be the order of the day; you need to let the loop play a few times before deciding whether I want to proceed.

[tea for two]

I checked ooot Euclidean, Moskwa, Nerd, SIG, on utuub. These generate some far out stuff esp taking melodic phrases to weirrrd n wonderful terrains.
My dream is to be able to do this stuff with Acoustic instruments.

Would be nice to see vids of you B doing this stuff.
JMJ did a eurorack thingy with Kodek of Erica Synths, Kodek did the Beatz. Even though there aren't closeups it's still nice to see.
From 16min07seconds.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NYWANrXNb ... Egc3ltdGhz

[Ben Asaro]

I checked ooot Euclidean, Moskwa, Nerd, SIG, on utuub. These generate some far out stuff esp taking melodic phrases to weirrrd n wonderful terrains.
My dream is to be able to do this stuff with Acoustic instruments.

Would be nice to see vids of you B doing this stuff.
JMJ did a eurorack thingy with Kodek of Erica Synths, Kodek did the Beatz. Even though there aren't closeups it's still nice to see.
From 16min07seconds.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NYWANrXNb ... Egc3ltdGhz

Thanks for the link, I think I've seen this before. JMJ doesn't seem to age!

I do occasionally shoot vids to my phone and share with my 'synth dad' discord group, but the idea of posting videos (aka 'content') is something I just don't have much discipline for. Maybe I'll document the quadraphonic journey?

[Ben Asaro]

I have my og Presonus monitors set up in the rear position and have prewired everything; the new front monitors should be arriving tomorrow and it should be plug and play.

The SIG is percolating melodies behind my head now, every now and then I roll the dice and enjoy what it's turning out. When I think of it, I roll the dice again. Oodles of fun!

[Ben Asaro]

Still using a single voice, I worked on moving in and out of free running and loop modes.

It works rather seamlessly!

Just press Loop. When it blinks, you're back in free running mode. Alter the probability of notes, change pitch ranges and rhythms, press Loop again, and you're back with a whole new range of territory to explore!

And I think I am starting to hit on how I will probably use SIG. Unlike a Turing Machine, I don't have to worry about waiting until I hear something I want to capture ... I find myself making a change in free play mode, then immediately jumping to Loop mode bc that's where the secret sauce is.

[Ben Asaro]

Starting very small! 2 sine waves, 808 kick, Clouds.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/sig-27-nov-24

Not a terrible first whack. As calming as it sounds, this was the result of a constant tinkering w SIG in real time. I was very curious to see how it handled being faffed with in real time whilst recording.

[Ben Asaro]

Tonight's lesson: treEGs!

Again, fairly intuitive. I didn't know that the envelopes were also probabilistic as well!

I am not sure if I would use the trEGs with random envelopes, that's not really my thing. However, the envelopes themselves sound very nice! Tomorrow's jam will be sans EG and I will only use the trEGS firing into the VCAs.

[Ben Asaro]

Today's experiment: try to see if I can get something with a bit of meter and implied structure. Also, using the trEGs.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/sig-28-nov-24

The trEGs work fantastic going into low pass gates. This patch is SIG > Buchla > Dynamix > Clouds.

[Eddy Deegan]

It sounds pleasingly relaxing. It would be a great background to overdub something more structured on, or to add further layers of the same ilk to. Loads of possibilites there!

[Ben Asaro]

It sounds pleasingly relaxing. It would be a great background to overdub something more structured on, or to add further layers of the same ilk to. Loads of possibilites there!

Totally agree! I am enjoying these mini-compositions exploring a single aspect of SIG. When my new oscillators arrive, I can try using three, and then four, voices. Then I will eventually start untangling that box of snakes that is quadraphonic.

But my goal for December is to really get to grips with SIG.

Today's discovery: the best time to copy a track is on the initial loop; this copies the initial 4-event loop to the other channels and they will play in time with each other. It can be used as a poor-man's hocketing technique when used live or a last-minute oscillator tuning check. The copied tracks can then be muted. It's a great way to prep for a live session, I think, and gives you a baseline you can fall back on.

[Ben Asaro]

Wow, increasing from 2 voices to 3 is NOT easy! I trainwrecked a whole bunch of times before I got something that didn't totally suck.

This is gonna take a while to get down. Adding the 3rd voice really constrains things; if you have 3 voices doing what I did with 2 it quickly turns into a total mess.

I found that starting with just 2 complimentary notes selected on each voice and then gradually increasing the complexity SEEMS like that is the best way to get something more intricate without having a total mess.

Today's effort is below. The 3rd voice kicks off the jam; it is is one of the new Nano Modular ONA oscillators going into the VONGON polyphrase.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/sig-30-nov-24

[Ben Asaro]

Someone wanted to hear what the Blue Lantern Subharmonics Generator sounds like so I worked it into today's jam. Gave it a bit of a sinister edge!

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/sig-1-dec-24

I started with a more developed main pattern today and then added more minimalist/ornamental lines around it.

[Ben Asaro]

Tried four voices today with SIG and trainwrecked pretty significantly, as I would have expected.

[Ben Asaro]

Working with four generative voices is tricky! Got something decent after a few tries.

https://audio.com/don-music/audio/sig-2-dec-24

[Ben Asaro]

Sadly, I am going to have to put this on hold as I have to begin prepping for Jamuary! I don't want to end up fighting a war on three fronts (spacial audio, SIG, and Jamuary).

I hope I remember where I left off! (Note to self: it's the ratcheting section of the Robin Vincent video)

[Ben Asaro]

Small necro-bump as I will be returning to my SIG experimentation once Jamuary concludes.

Casually listening back to where I left off ... sounds like I was getting somewhere before my Jamuary prep and pause. Hopefully I won't crash upon re entry.

[Arpangel]

I have to admire your enthusiasm and tenacity when it comes to learning things Ben, I've just got rid of any modules that have hidden or cryptic functions, so my case is now "clean and pure"

[Ben Asaro]

I have to admire your enthusiasm and tenacity when it comes to learning things Ben, I've just got rid of any modules that have hidden or cryptic functions, so my case is now "clean and pure"

One of my biggest issues with the Disting mk 4 is that I can't immediately suss out how to make it work.

to Phineas' credit, the SIG does have every function written on the panel and you don't have to use ANY shift functions to get it making music.