Tips for creating Funk Instruments in Rack; exploring non-generative patches

Okay I lold a few times through your post. Seems like we’re coming in from the same angle… I’ve got a few vactrols around, hoping to come around building a few LPG’s soon.

I too am not a great keyboardist (and that’s generous). So maybe to expand a little: I am using synthesis to break up the various elements of playing an instruments into parts. With the strumming patch I can strum without having to think about the notes; these are sequenced separately from ableton and quantized. This let’s me focus on finding nice rhythms.

So; I’ve got a really cool electro-funk bass from an analog voice. I’ve got some strings and I can scratch to it. Will try out playing with LPG’s and ARP style synthesis.

Any tips on others types of (electro)funk style i struments to add into the mix (also, drums!)

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Oh and FM p-funkiness, yes! Will try.

Yes, you do see a lot of “generative” patches up here, and that’s probably what “most” people are doing with it. But there are a sizable number doing “conventional music” on VCV. There are a ton of really good filters, oscillators, and effects modules. It’s a little bewildering finding the “good” ones when you first start. For every 100 “good” VCOs there may be 200 “bad” ones. A good way for a lazy person to find the good ones is to look at an listen to a lot of posted videos. Even if the musical genre is not for you, you will tend to see that some modules are very popular and get used a lot. these modules are usually “good”. There are plenty of other good to great modules that don’t show up all the time, but starting with the popular ones won’t hurt. Personal plug - I have a lot of filters and VCOs that work very well for “conventional” use.

There are 100 good vco’s ? :open_mouth:

Well, probably not :wink: but it’s possible. There are a lot out there though! But, yeah, it sounds like an exaggeration on my part. Probably more accurate is “there are a quite a few good VCOs, but unfortunately there are at least as many bad ones”?

100 good vcos…

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I love @Squinky Organ Three VCV Library - Squinky Labs Organ Three as a Hammond organ emulator in one module, having built several that use dozens of separate modules like @jay.goodman00 Hammond B3 emulation - #9 by Coirt. Just plug in a keyboard and off you go.

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My background is in arranging and orchestration, so as I’m learning my way around the thousands of modules and techniques my aim is probably to use Rack in conjunction with an external sequencer, or probably even to design and record sounds to be assembled later using a multitrack editor. I have nothing but respect for the folks doing 100% generative music - obviously it’s not simple or easy - but to me it’s not really how I compose, I don’t think. That could change, though

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I see what you did there!

I’d say the biggest thing is to think carefully about the architecture of the synths played by the artists who performed the music you’re trying to approach. I’d say the two biggies to consider are the Minimoog and Ob-X. Also think about compression and your effects chain. Also, consider what you do with your MIDI-CV output. You really want decent bend and modwheel effects. This is even a good thing to have around as a Stoermelder strip; you’ll keep picking this one up again and again as you make other leads and basses. Here’s an example of a bass I did following a Dr. Mix youtube video where he approached the synth bass from Imagination’s “Music and Lights.” I think that leans a bit more disco, but the sound is great for funk lines I think. (http://ix.io/2xMv) Lately, I’ve played around with running through the Mr.Donald Leslie emulation VST, and that make another nifty slightly thinner bass. This bass patch can be simplified without the phaser for a more punchy in-your-face bass. (http://ix.io/2xMx) A shot at Hancock’s Chameleon bass: (http://ix.io/2xMy) The key thing is that these are based on simple fixed architecture synths. I’d say the only thing that might get tricky is that you might want to dirty up the sound between stages with a bit of noise and distortion. I’ve not played with that a whole lot myself.

Those pastebins are vcv patch files. Fiddle as you see fit. I’m still working on my scriptable control surface mapping, so no real hardware knobbery for me quite yet.

Here’s a strip with my standard bend/mod configuration: http://ix.io/2xME

Thanks caowasteland, will try all those patches!

And yes, i have indeed created a strip for my basic funk bass utilities: mod wheel, pitch bend, aftertouch, glide, octave switch, velocity, I use it in every patch!

Yes, some hammond filth! Will try.

Same for me. I can watch those livestreams and vids for hours in pure wonder over the creativity and effectiveness of that way of working. It’s just not my approach, and it’s mostly tied to styles that i do not enjoy making

So, nothing negative about generative, just looking for interesting angles for non-generative approaches.

Thanks for the hints. I don’t have an octave transpose built into mine yet, but it’s a great idea so the range is generally right without messing with the controller’s octave buttons. I’ve done nothing with aftertouch as my Edirol/Roland controllers make it so you nearly have to stand on the keys to trigger it. There’s evidently some surgery that can fix that, but I’ve not cracked those cases yet.

Other things you probably want to explore are the various filters. Vult’s stuff, Zzzorb, and Lindenbergs are your friends here. BTW: while I try to stay with Vult’s free modules so I can share, Ferox, and Freak are not to be missed. I don’t have enough experience with Vortex or Vorg to make an endorsement. :frowning:

Greets fellow non-generative guy!

:joy::+1::wink:

By the way, if you’re using my first two bass patches, strongly consider replacing the VCAs with Vult’s new Punch. It’s in the Vult Modules Free too, and it gives a lot more character to the bass. The mode switch is sort of like a clean/distort channel switch with guitar. I think you’ll like this a lot.

Up to now I have mostly been using VCV Rack to play with generative functions, but recently bought the Entrian sequencers bundle and that changed my view of the rack completely to suddenly have access to a straightforward and very DAW-like sequencing (and editing!) UI changes the feel of Rack completely. I imagine when the Rack plugin comes out there’ll be a similar sea change.

One thing I have explored more in Voltage Modular because of its plugin nature, but could still be done in Rack now, is to use various generative tools to trigger occasional arpeggiated note cascades or sound drifting from live input MIDI to enhance what you’re playing. That would fit in fine with live playing as you can get variation, but somewhat tamed by being quantised to fit a scale and time signature.

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Another I do is to manually record grooves in my DAW. I’ll play 16ths, while playing along to a groove I like. Using Loopmidi I’ll send them to VCV and I use the gates as clock source. (The velocity too) I’ll record a bunch to alternate between.

This is really nice to incorporate some modular style techniques: I do quite like the Steevio polyrhythm techniques for percussion layers. With my manual groove as clock it feels really organic.

for notes only, our Seq++ has been around since the dawn of time, and it free.

seq

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Specifically the Entrian Timeline module. I must admit though I missed yours somewhere in the mist of the 2000+ modules! Cool that you’ve provided a free option with a piano roll style view.

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