Has anyone besides me notice that the VCV Quantizer has the name QNT at the top of the module, but if you search for “QNT” in the Module Browser, it doesn’t show up in the chooser panel?
Left to right:
1.Merge includes the trigger 4 times, because Probably Note needs a poly trigger to quantize poly CV.
2. BogAudio S&H samples the CV out from another sequencer’s CV Out.
3. VCV Chord outputs a chord i.e. a 4Voice polyphonic CV.
4. Probably Note takes that chord and varies the note CV coming from the chord.
5. VCV Quanizer takes the chord from Probably Note and constrains it to the current scale.
The result is a chords with varying voicing (depending on the notes randomly chosen by Probably Note). The VCV Quantizer constrains it to the current scale.
It’s one of my favorite VCV Rack tricks: Generate a lot of random triggers & CV but constrain it to add up rhythmically and/or harmonically.
I love PROBABLY NOTe - I have used it a lot. Up until recently it was the quantizer I used in my Subharmonicon emulator. I ended up removing it because having to trigger each note change does not work well with the Subharmonicon workflow. But the many probability options are wonderful, and can really help keep a patch fresh sounding.
Not true! I also was confused for a while by PN.
If you have poly V/Oct input, and want all the notes to be quantized by a single trigger, then patch the monophonic trigger and make sure the trigger mode button is off. PN will quantize all channels found at the NOTE IN input.
But if you want each note to have its own trigger, then that is when you need polyphonic triggers, and the trigger mode button must be on (blue).
I have used serial quantization from time to time. I especially like to use it to convert equal tempered chords to just intonation, especially if I want the notes to have just intonation relative to the root of each chord. The only free quantizer I have found that can do this is PN! The only premium module I have found to work is the Substation quantizer. All the other Just Intonation quantizers I have seen have a fixed root note, or else do not have CV input for the root note.
For your application - generating probabilistic chords from a monophonic unquantized pitch and trigger - I think I have a much simpler solution, letting PN and the PN-Chord expander do all the work.
You can specify a preset scale with the knob, or by CV - there are many scales to choose from. If you don’t find what you want, you can certainly select the notes from the PN “keyboard”. You get all the “normal” PN probability stuff, and then the PN-CHORD expander adds even more probability for deciding what chord to generate. You don’t even need your sample and hold - the PN effectively has one built in because it only changes notes (and quantizes) when it receives a trigger.
However, you may want to add the sample and hold back in if you want to hold the root note of the chord while you pass multiple triggers - each trigger will randomly select a different harmonization! I have gotten some beautiful results with this combination.
Note that if you do use a S&H on the V/Oct input, then you probably need to introduce a sample delay to the trigger, or else activate the Trigger Delay option in the PN context menu. Otherwise the trigger is likely to fire before the S&H has an opportunity to feed in the new sampled note.
EDIT - Oops - My bad. My “solution” gives interesting results, but the final notes are not necessarily constrained to your scale as you wanted. (I actually like the oddball spicy notes). You can simply add the QNT at the end of the chain to get your desired result. I think it is still significantly simpler then your original patch, and should give comparable results to what you were getting
