In this thread I will collect and compile patch sketches, complete compositions and releases, as I continue on my journey of tinkering and experimenting. Some of them may be reposts of stuff elsewhere on this forum, for which I apologize in advance. Some of them may not be VCV related at all (I do have hardware synths too, just not modular ones). Kind of like a backup repository to my music on the interwebs as it were
First entry in this thread, but not the first composition once I took up the hobby again.
Further exploration of modular techniques in VCV rack. Rhythm section – mostly sampled, except for the kick -, randomly selecting among one of 8 drum ‘n bass type patterns every 4 bars, with lots of swing. Some kind of polyphonic stab style accompaniment generated by a Turing modulator at the same swung tempo. Considerably slower, some kind of fat synth strings pad, a kind of swooooonnnng.
Originally it also featured a low bass drone yet it turned out that this was too much for my CPU, the crackle of glitches. I may publish the drone patch separately.
Compositionally, could do with sectioning (i.e. intro, verse, chorus, bridge, outro), right now it just a verse that goes on and on and on. But that’s for another experiment.
And, in the preview video, you will see the display layout glitch at 4:54.
All free VCV rack modules.
First of two challenge entries for VCP challenge #59:
My first patch!
5x EUGENE rarebreeds in measures with relative primes (7, 9 and 11) to drive the rhythm section (mostly hora free drum kits) for total generative fun.
All free modules.
I had quite a bit of fun with that EUGENE module, so I put another entry in VCP Challenge #59.
Most gratuitous use of the EUGENE module; 17 in total. Length of the sequences are always Fibonacci numbers: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21. EUGENE cannot do 34 as a base so I settled for twice 17 instead. Rhythm section uses 6 EUGENE to generate the polyrhythm (1, 2, 3, 5 and 8) beat including accent marks. Melodic accents use another 6 EUGENE modules with measures 13, 21 and 34 (2x 17). And, finally, 5 are used together with some clock dividers and some OR/NOT gates to mix the various voices into the composition. The only source of randomness is the root node for the arpeggiator, the drone and the bowl hits.
Again, all free modules. And yes, they are actually polymeters, not polyrhythms
And this is a piece I did in Cakewalk. Except for the drumkit and effects, which came with Cakewalk, and the string ensemble, which I grabbed from a soundfont, the rest are all instruments in VeeSeeVST Rack as a VST instrument plugin in Cakewalk.
No patches for this one I’m afraid.
I made an entry to mars video competition.
Voices courtesy of NASA (it is one of their longer ringtones).
Challenge to use one (or more) of the modules from entrian sequencers. I used the Entrian Timeline module to sequence a ‘pop’ song with … er … traditional rock style instruments. Except they’re all patched from simple oscillator with - in cases - an effect chain. The voice, if you can call it that, is attenuated with a lot of modulation on the ‘sung’ notes to sound like vowels. There is nothing generative about this patch. Pop song is all original.
And a new one, not listed in any competition. Horsing around with cable color management and figuring out if and how Janneker/Jooper could be used to stage segments of a song led to this.
I made two entries for the vcp challenge #61, take inspiration from the upcoming equinox (20th of March) or from the equinoxe series by Jean Michel Jarre.
This is the first one entry.
The equinox bit is the low drone at 366 / 6 = 61 Hz, offset in amplitude by 1/6 Hz so that there is two times a year (the equinox) where night and day are the same length. The drone is further frequency modulated slightly by a lunar frequency at 27.35 / 6 Hz and volume modulated over the entire length of the song at 366 / 2 = 183 seconds. There is some other astronomy inspired effects in there as well.
All free modules, mostly generative, except for the segmentation in parts by the janneker/jooper combo.
And this is the other entry. Much more … er … techno.
It has some similarities with the the previous equinox entry, the noise wave, the low drone at 366 / 6 Hz and the occasional meteor shower (just a series of bleeps, mind), but other than that this is totally different.
The clock is derived from the the rhythm of the seasons in that it zero crossings at dawn and sunset are used to generate the pulse. The days always have the same length but during the summer the daytime is longer and in the winter shorter. The effect - also that of stealing time from the winter to the summer solstice which is highest in the spring equinox - is almost too subtle to be heard.
The clock plays a kick drum and some sequences. A number of pads have been set up to control the quality and such of the various voices, so you can play live in VCV rack only. Normally, you would use a Pad MIDI Controller for this. In the video I play it myself, by twisting virtual knobs and the sliders of the mixer.
All modules are free.
Not related to any challenge or competition, I bring you the results of a noodling session (tinkering with patches, sequences and whatnot).
For this piece I used the infinite bass solo live stream from Dadabots. I took four 8+ seconds random samples from that, repeat each sample four times before going to the next then repeat the whole thing over and over. I added a drums part to it and some other synth voices. Some of these are sequenced, others semi random.
It’s not very repetitive, all voices have random variations varying from slight (drums) to modest, except the 4x4 sample loops. But those are kinda random in itself.
The live stream from which I took the samples is generated by a neural network which has been trained on a 2 hours bass jamming session by Adam Neely.
Infinite Bass Solo live stream here: Infinite Bass Solo - YouTube
Time to update the repository again. First are two entries I made previous weekend, both in response to a challenge.
First is the entry to the VCP-62 challenge.
The instruo saich module a quad sawtooth oscillator with several modes in how each of the quad oscillators interact. It actually has seven modes, so I used all of them for 7 voices. The only non saich generating module is a hora hi-hat.
It sounds a bit muddy, hence the name.
Next in line is an entry to the VCV 1-minute Mars themed challenge
… when the Martians find two strands of musical notes in a facial recording of J.S. Bach and attempt to replicate it, but fail to do so perfectly due to their biocyber wetware origin. It was only to be expected that the copy was imperfect and mutilated beyond recognition.
Inspired by VCV 1-minute challenge N.2: Bach on Mars.
Two sequenced voices, a beat and some random noises, including the drone from an earlier installment of Martian explorations. All free modules.
And this one is brand new and not part of any challenge up to now.
Lazy beats over a (very) low bass line punctuated by extracts from a Shepard tone generator and some other sounds. Decent bass is recommended for listening.
Mostly generative. Though it is based on Shepard tone generator, which should give the illusion of a continuously ascending ladder, it doesn’t, because the bits taken out of the ladder are so fragmented …
Apart from the initial section, it could go on forever, similar but not the same. For video production purposes I stopped at around 4:30. The particle thingy in the video is me horsing around with audio reactive patching in Touch Designer.
All free modules.
Tinkering with sounds and some generative techniques lead to this …
Mostly generative ambient patch performed in VCV Rack, slowly evolving from a low ‘blustery’ drone into something more rhythmic.
The composition in the video is constructed by introducing and removing the eight voices (different sounds) together with some light mixing.
Video is an audio reactive ‘patch’ in Touch Designer generated from a playback of the audio.
After playing it for the first time in YouTube, I got a recording of Klaus Schulze - Cyborg (1973) as followup. YouTube algorithms …
Experimenting with sample playbacks lead to this not very generative patch.
Mixing a dub riddim in VCV Rack with some sampled Hamlet quotes and some randomly thrown in synth textures for that mid 80’s vibe. Most of it is sequenced,with some mild texturing.
I first recorded an audio playing the patch with Pokies (which enable voices and samples), the mixer and the delays.
The video is yet another audio reactive patch in Touch Designer.
Ooooo! That’s nice. CV or not CV? Can I ask if the bass is being played by a sequencer in Rack?
Yes,the bass line is the first 16 bars of Flag Dub by King Tubby as performed by Robbie Shakespeare and as transcribed by someone on the internet. I sequenced that into 8 segments of a Phrase-Seq-32, which in turn is driven by a 4x CLKD at around 110 BPM (around because the BPM fluctuates a bit as it is driven by a LFO) with a little swing.
The riddim is very true to dub form, but the voices and lyrics ain’t.
It’s been a while since I updated this thread, so here goes.
One of those days, wherein all your patterns seem to work against one another and nothing is coming out right. You feel caged and stressed and … It’s actually my entry to VCP 64 challenge, which has nothing to with Purple Haze.
Lots of Eugene’s to generate polyrhythms and tacts to fade bits and pieces in the mix.
I called it Cumbersome Day.
Video is again a slightly audio reactive patch in Touch Designer for maximum psychedelics.
Then I got (mild) COVID and wasn’t really in the mood to make music, but I did manage to squeeze out a totally generative patch for the VCV 3 minute challenge - moon rendezvous.
VCV 3 minute challenge - episode 3 - moon rendezvous
The aliens that first rummaged around on Mars have identified that the sounds that reproduced earlier match that of a possibly intelligent life form far far away which they picked up using an antenna on the far side of the moon. They decided to seek out that other intelligent life form. For that they first have to perform a lunar rendezvous, before continuing to a hyperspace jump.
This video has the aliens rounding the moon tottering about in their spaceship getting ready for the final leg.
Sounds are all generative, using a source of planetary randomness and some comparators as a source of gate and trigger signals.
The video itself is mostly from NASA and based on generated moon images.