Isla
NOTES: Every voice but one was done totally in VCV Rack 2 Pro; the one that wasn’t created in VCV was sequenced in VCV and then sent to Bitwig using the CV-MIDI module to play the nylon string guitar (from MG Soft Nylon Guitar (Lite) – pianobook). All VCV voices were mutli-track recorded in Bitwig for mixing/mastering.
Track name: Forest Infinity
NOTES: I wanted to try something different this week, and use VCV Rack as the generative sequencer but use more organic sounds. I used a simpler rack than normal and routed the various NoteSeq’s out of VCV into MIDI channels which I routed to various instances of Spitfire LABS to play most of the actual music.
I think I’m probably the first person in the world to make generative spa music.
Track Name: Pieces
NOTES: This is a pretty simple patch, several of the voices are native VCV Rack module chains, and then I used Luftrum’s Lunaris for some of the atmosphere and Spitfire LABS’ Peel Guitar for some occasional interest.
Track name: Internal Flow
NOTES: Another simple patch with some sampled chanting sprinkled throughout and the strings from Spitfire LABS.
Track name: Face the Light
NOTES: 5 total voices, sequenced by VCV Rack in Bitwig, and played with VST and Kontakt Instruments like the MG Soft Nylon Guitar and Hoveflute from Pianobook.
Track name: Exhalation Space
NOTES: 4 total voices this time, each sequenced by VCV Rack (NoteSeq16 into QNT per voice) in Bitwig, and played with VST and Kontakt Instruments like the MG Soft Nylon Guitar and Hoveflute from Pianobook.
Track name: Clearings
NOTES: As usual, note/“music” data from VCV Rack sent to Bitwig via CV->MIDI and played using samples/VSTs like The Feathered Flute, Lunaris,and BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover
Track name: Holding On
NOTES: Nice and simple track, sequenced by VCV and recorded in Bitwig.
Track name: Of The Earth
NOTES: Tried to be as simple as I could, limiting myself to 7 total voices, 3 of which being sequenced with VCV
I’m just curious. What else do you use for sequencing?
In VCV, almost universally the NoteSeq. I love the interface, I love how easy it is to get great sounding patterns out of it, and I love the fact that there are so many options for scales (even if I pretty much only use pentatonic, personally).
If not VCV, I just use my Arturia Keylab Essentials 64 and record sequences directly into Bitwig.
Track Name: Blissful Awareness
NOTES: I took a break from VCV for a bit to challenge myself but found myself coming back when I wanted to program the bansuri flute sound. The sound itself is from a VST running in Bitwig, but the sequence was recorded by using a fast clock into a Bernoulli gate set at a very low percentage to use as a trigger, which was fed into a sample & hold which was then sent into a quantizer. Recorded nearly 3 hours of sequence before I found a snippet of something that I liked (I still ended up tweaking the notes a little but VCV gave me the bulk of it). Added some groove in Bitwig to give it a little more human feel.
