A quick question to start with: What challenge should I undertake for my next patch?
I was only introduced to modular about 6 months ago so I have much to learn. Any feedback for what I post here would be most welcome but what I would love most is challenge suggestions.
Now to my first patch. It’s a generative patch called Stardust and after many attempts, it is a success at building a patch around non-fixed, patch-generated chord sequences.
The texts and scopes are mostly to help myself understand and remember exactly why I’ve set up each component as I have. It was a big mess of modules and wires at first so I did spend a fair amount of time organising it!
I’ve spent far too long tweaking and adding things to Stardust. Tonight I force myself to upload and walk away from it to start something new (and much smaller and much simpler).
The patch now has a control panel where the user can switch the patch on and off, turn the programmed light show on and off, reset and switch between the chord modulation methods. There is a whole startup sequence that involves lighting, cable opacity and the introduction of the voices one by one in a random order. I kinda went all out on the aesthetics and user interface this time.
The soundscape is mostly unchanged save for a few tweaks to the effects and the addition of a gentle noise voice, making this a 7 voice patch.
It occurred to me that Stardust is the first full patch I’ve ever made without following along step by step to a tutorial by Omri Cohen or RedMeansRecording, and I’m pretty darn proud of myself.
I created this patch for a friend who wants music for his bouldering videos; I put it together wanting to convey a sense of determination. I was trying out some of Surge XTs modules, particularly their oscillators, the EG x VCA and Filter, all truly excellent and they look so darn good as a bonus.
This is my first non generative patch and requires some live human interaction so I had lot fun jamming with it.
This is incredibly well structured. I can’t be bothered sequencing chord progressions and melodies in VCV, I usually just go for total randomness instead! Sounds like classic arcade game music, nicely done.
A little while ago I rebuilt an existing patch -vcp:76 Tuned Percussive Energy- from scratch, live on stream.
It almost 3 hours, I was very tired by the end, but I’m happy with the result.
This was a really fun little experiment and test of my patching knowledge.
I made this patch for my wife to celebrate our 1st anniversary. By far the most personal patch I’ve created so far, and I’m very proud of it.
This was an exercise in attributing sound to feelings and emotions and in getting to know the Grayscale Supercell, as well as NYSTHI’s SUSSUDIO, though I feel I only scratched the surface of these.
I also used Lofi Panda by Clark Audio via VCV Host to achieve some really mellow and atmospheric instrument sounds, and I included a few samples of happy memories from this past year. This version just includes two samples of our dog.
A full explanation is provided in the documentation, bottom right corner of the patch.
I don’t have the plugins you used, so I swapped in two Bogaudio FM-OP modules - definitely mellow VCOs based on sine waves, and they have built in ADSR and VCA as well. For Home I added some feedback, and for Clarity I kept the output pure sine with quick attack for more bell like tones.
Your recordings are stereo, but you are treating them as mono. The VCV VCA is polyphonic, so you can easily get a stereo VCA by adding Grande Merge/Split. Patch the left/right sample outputs to top Merge section and Merge polyphonic output to VCA. Then VCA polyphonic output to bottom split section and left/right channels to your destination. Or if you don’t mind losing the VCA meter, simply use my compact Venom Shaped VCA instead of the VCV VCA, as I have done. Shaped VCA has direct stereo support. Or use the Surge XT EG x VCA, which combines an ADSR EG with a stereo VCA.
To give the Black Hole a bit more interest, I used Pink noise for left and Red noise for right, and sent the final left/right pair to a single mixer channel 4, and used one of the LFOs at a rapid rate to quickly pan left and right.
You do a great job documenting your patch. Adding custom labels to the mixer channels further improves the documentation.
I greatly simplified the Black Hole fade control. I loved seeing Venom WinComp, but it is not needed. I substituted Venom Mix 4 as a constant voltage source as part of the simplification. I switched the MixMaster fade control to use high/low gates instead of triggers. I believe they trigger high at 1V. So simply sum the channel output fade levels of all but the Black Hole, and bias with -9 V constant CV from Mix 4. Send that directly to the Meld Black Hole channel. When the sum of all the other channels reaches 10, the Black Hole fade is activated. All it takes is one channel to reach full volume. When the sum drops below 10 the Black Hole fade is deactivated.
Thank you for this. The FM-OP modules sound really lovely and it’s really interesting looking at your notes along with the adjusted patch.
I still very much feel the gaps in my knowledge when making a patch like this, and I end up brute-forcing solutions for what I want to do using the techniques I’ve learned so far; I really felt the black hole fade control was extremely inefficient!
So thank you again for your feedback and advice, I really appreciate it!
