No worries 
I’ll wait until they hit the library. I already like the modules by looking at the screenshot…
There have been so many wonderful entries so far this month! Participation has been strong and we have heard so many creative takes on the idea of a dream world. I have gathered all 30 videos posted here into a YouTube playlist:
We still have 3 more days to submit your work. If you feel the call within yourself, please do it! I will keep updating the playlist above accordingly.
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There were 30 videos, and at the risk of ruining a nice round number like that, here is the thirty-first. In my defense, 31 is prime, and in binary it is written 11111, so it is not too shabby an integer. However, it will be even better for someone to post video number 32, because that is two to the fifth power, a most prestigious quantity!
The bell sounds are all created using Elastika. I pulse its left and right input channels using my new Sapphire Pop module, which is capable of polyphonic output. Two channels provide independent random gates to ring the Elastika bells. I like using a fixed scale quantizer with random input, while also randomly changing the octave it is playing in. Once in a while there is a thrilling deep bass note.
Here is the patch:
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My contribution to this exciting challenge!
My +1 for this submission is @Patheros’s Path Set plugin. I had toyed with the Ice Tray module before, but this was an opportunity to discover the others (ended up using AstroVibe, Nudge and OneShot)
The original patch started out fully generative but things got a bit more orchestrated the more time I spent with it. Some layers have kept that random spirit, only now accompanied by set mantra-like cycles.
Patch is available here :
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Oh dear, now I’m really late in September with my third patch:
Nightmare Escape
The patch uses VCV modules, the Venom plugin, and Valley Plateau as the wildcard module.
From the Venom plugin, particularly the NORSIQ (Non-Octave Repeating Scale Intervallic Quantizer) is used to setup several microtonal scales of 19edo, a temperament or tuning system in which the octave is divided into 19 equal parts instead of the usual 12. The piece goes through a sequence of 12 different scales - sub-selections of notes from the 19 notes of 19edo - from high length, complexity, and potential for dissonances, starting with a 13-note scale, to simpler and more consonant scales, ending with just the octave as the final 1-note scale.
The scales are mostly taken from the Xenharmonic Wiki page 19edo - Xenharmonic Wiki, and have funny names like Semaphore, Magic, Blackville, Antipental Blues, etc. I have almost no clue what they are talking about, and I’m yet again baffled how huge and complex this world of Xenharmonics is.
Many parameters in the whole patch, like FM modulation depth, filter cut-offs, resonance amount, slew limit, wave form shape, gate probablities, etc. are modulated with the decreasing scale length, in a way that the piece moves from a loud, aggressive, and dissonant sense of chaos slowly towards more and more quiet and peaceful harmonies - a successful escape from a nightmare.
I’m sorry that the recording is 8 minutes long. I didn’t calculate the expected time properly while buiding the patch, and fading out earlier now doesn’t make sense as the whole piece follows a plan that is not fulfilled before the last of the 12 scales is finished.
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Wonderful concept and execution!
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I love the beautiful yet otherworldly use of the 19edo tuning. Very well done!
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Thank you! It wouldn’t have been possible without your NORSIQ! This is such a powerful and flexible module that makes exploring other tunings and scales easily possible and so much fun. Thank YOU for that!
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Very nice - but how in heck do you get by with over 325% max cpu and close to 90% average with no clicks or audio anomalies??
It may sound awful live, but the recorder “write head” stalls at the same rate as the audio output. So the end recording doesn’t have any clicks. Think of it like stop-motion animation - render an audio “frame” (sample) and then record it. Repeat…
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Interesting … but makes for paying it live not so fun…
I am running VCV on an old 2015 iMac with an i5 and 16GB of RAM. Patch runs completely fine while playing.
But I did indeed have clicks and pops while recording for the video which is one of the reasons I rarely use the VCV Recorder Module even though it’s more convenient than stitching together video and audio afterwards. I second you’re point about live performing being very hard if you’re not listening to „clean“ audio.
From the beginning I’ve thought that VCV Recorder was untenable for recording video. Right from the start I’ve been recording Rack patches with Quicktime + virtual audio router (Sunflower, Blackhole) which is an infinitely superior solution. No stitching together or editing involved at all. I’ve been contemplating doing a write-up/topic on it in here because I see people struggling with it, and the superior solution is in fact very easy to use. A little encouragement would tip me over into writing…
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I would love to see that - I would probably switch to recording on my M1 mac.
Currently I record lossless video on my PC and then convert to mp4 with VLC. It works great, but is a pain, and I hate creating multi-gigabyte lossless recordings, even if only temporary.
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Great, I appreciate the encouragement. Let’s not pollute this topic. If others want to see this as well, give my post above a like and I’ll get to work.
I actually would be interested in learning how to optimize/streamline video recording on an older WIN/PC.
I have been using VCV Recorder, because to me it’ the most straightforward to use. Sometimes I found that even though the patch itself was glitching, the recording was still clean.
Also have used OBSS, but it always takes a couple of extra thoughts to set it up, especially if using it less frequently.
So, a dedicated thread with tips on screen recording would be great, thank you for the offer!
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Yes. Let’s not pollute this topic. I’ll write up how to record on macOS, but I’ll make the topic general enough so that people can supply their own best recipes for other operating systems. Stay tuned…
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Challenge Closed
This has been another great month of creativity! Thanks to everyone who took time to participate and share their work here. I have updated the YouTube playlist.
Special Announcement
We will have a special guest host for the October challenge: @Bloodbat has volunteered to create and host the next challenge. Then I will take back over in November. Stay tuned for a new thread here in the Music & Patches category for the October challenge thread, coming soon…
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Thank you Don! The new challenge has been posted, I hope y’all enjoy
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