#1: great video. VCV made me finally understand and appreciate the humble sequential switch. Thank you for sharing this. #2: a really fantastic addition to this patch is a VC crossfader for each sample/hold you use. Crossfading the noise outputs with the *output* of each S/H channel lets you set a "deviation" parameter for generating your next set of values. Plug a single variable control voltage into the fade CV input of all of the crossfaders to have an overall macro control of just how far away from your current sequence your new one will deviate. #3: if you want to be a boss, you can set up variable voltages in VCV on a knobby MIDI controller and send *those* to the crossfaders--now you have knob-per-function control over how variant EACH STEP of your generative RAM device will be. Great if you want Step 4 to be very random (passing note) but want 1 and 5 to remain exactly the same every time (downbeats). #4: keep them coming, loopop! these are mad inspirational!

@LarsBjerregaard

4 жыл бұрын

Sequential switches and also shift registers are awesome fundamental building blocks! You can do so much with them.

Brillant! Great Idea! With a quantizer at the end. I'm going to have to build this!

excellent tutorial Ziv! this is gold.

Super cool idea! Another options for many S&Hs in a single module is Stages. Doing S&H is a piece of functionality that's often overlooked.

@risingtob

4 жыл бұрын

❥ Stages - multi talent!

3 mins in and im smiling… Nice Work sir!

These videos on how to generative music is to my knowledge the top how to eurorack videos on youtube. There are other really really good ones out there/here but this is gold as you deliver ideas and methods that are easy to follow and replicate without feeling that you/me are cheating or copying someone else's work. For the sake of it here are other honorable mentions in no particular order: Comparative Irrelevance Mylarmelodies White Noises DivKid

Nice! Just brought the idea alive to hardware with DivKid's RndStep and Erica Synth's SeqSwitch. I combined it with the Time Warp from WMD and - wow - I really got the feeling of generative/controlled atomic wildness . . . Thanks and cheers :)

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

Nice!

Oh wow, this is super clever. Makes me think that a very slow clock into a clock divider then out at various intervals to the S&H triggers would lead to a slowly evolving melody. Thx for the inspiration!

@monstrousmoonshine6082

4 жыл бұрын

DivKid does something very similar in his demo of his new Random Step module. It is lovely.

Completely overlooked the Qu-Bit bloom sequencer, it's actually what I just got for my rack! Mutate and branches are such interesting generative tools. On top of that the two channels allow you to set up gate and melody mutations separately.

@johntheyouthminister

4 жыл бұрын

Came here looking for this answer. Bloom does accomplish the same idea, albeit in a different way. It's probably the best choice for people who don't have 8 S+H modules. It also accomplishes this on 2 channels. Definitely worth looking at if the concept of this video is interesting to you.

Nice! I've been thinking about the idea of a [one button] -> [full random drum pattern] for a while now. It would be cool to expand that idea and also create a full FM drumkit with the same button.

Great video.

Very clever trick, thank you! One tweak to it: the S&H 8 module by ML (a perfect sample and hold module if you ask me!) doesn't need a wire to each row if all triggers are going to happen at the exact same time. Whatever's plugged in the top row will be sent to all rows under it.

@spiralmoment

3 ай бұрын

Nice, but then you can't put a mute module in between to select what steps get randomized..

a very neat idea

This is the real content

"Plateau for reverb, so people won't say I'm plugging Rings into Clouds" :D

@mikeexits

4 жыл бұрын

Is that a super common combo to the point of being annoying to Eurorack users, like how Stairway to Heaven is the most commonly learned guitar song which annoys Guitar Center employees?

@elyssapalmer2298

3 жыл бұрын

@@mikeexits almost, though of course with eurorack being so niche it hasn’t quite been driven into the ground like stairway to heaven haha

Great technique Ziv. I've used this exact combo of modules quite a few times in VCV Rack with very productive results. That's the great thing about having a virtual modular playground, where you get to discover all these techniques, mostly for free. Highly recommended.

brilliant

Totally EPIC

If you're doing this in hardware, the Big Honking Button from Winterbloom is awesome as a performance tool (like you're using the button module in VCV)

As made pretty clear in this nice video investigation, this topic is currently very inefficient to patch together on a modular synth. You can do it for free on VCV Rack-and maybe we should-but to translate it to hardware, you’re looking at around $500-600 worth of utility modules per sequence. If you’d like to have, say, three different melodies, triple that cost. You could just use a sequencer with extensive variation capabilities, like Five12 Vector-and maybe we should. Meanwhile, I’ve been waiting for years for somebody to make a small (digital) turing-esquee Eurorack module that can generate, mutate, store, and gracefully recall 3-4 “melodies”-unquantized voltages-and I’m surprised it still hasn’t happened. This could probably be accomplished elegantly in 8-10 hp with excellent CV support. (Qu-bit Bloom looked briefly promising, but they got nowhere close in the end; just another typically whacky, crippled Qu-bit design.)

@ritec

4 жыл бұрын

Martin Doudoroff yeah, the Bloom came to mind when I saw this video.

So, my immediate thought was "wouldn't it be better to use polyphonic modules in VCV?" Then I set about making a more precise recreation of the Turing machine only to realise that your point was more about using hardware Eurorack. Still, at least you inspired me to make a small patch.

Hey Loopop! Love you and your videos!!! What software are you using? Cause I don’t have Novation or Arturia keys...

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much! Do you mean for the modules? I use VCV Rack - it's free!

That's a great idea. It would also work great with the new RND STEP module by DivKid and SSF.

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Indeed, I mention that module in the video

@MatheusLeston

4 жыл бұрын

@@loopop Sorry, I typed while watching the video! Hahaha

More content with VCV please. Omhri Cohen needs some competition. :-)

This was very instructive. I've been looking at various utility modules to go with my semi-modulars and this gives me some ideas. Big thumbs up! I am curious, does that 'button' interface exist in physical hardware? If so who makes it? My googling seemed to show up a pedal manufacturer.

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Anything with a touch plate that sends out a trigger would do. Intellijel have a 1U FSR touch module, 0-CTRL/Pressure points from Make Noise would work if you're into semimodular; WinterBloom have a fun button that also plays samples; just to name a few... I'm sure there are more

Is it possible to generate a sequence without hesitation, repetition OR deviation? (Preferably lasting one minute.)

Amazing video as usual! BTW, are you also left handed? Noticed you’re moving the mouse with your left hand 🙃

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks! Indeed left handed...

@avetisk

4 жыл бұрын

loopop lefties are the best 👌 (I’m one too 😆)

There is nothing wrong with feeding rings into clouds. Does VCV support some of the alt firmwares for clouds(Kammerl, Oliverb)?

@dag2099

4 жыл бұрын

There are alternate firmwares for Clouds (though it's called Texture Synthesizer in VCV) but also forks of the Clouds firmware. Also some Audible Instruments versions are Polyphonic (Plaits for instance).

@paulpiko

4 жыл бұрын

Grayscale are also preparing a release of Supercell on VCV Rack, and that includes the SuperParasites firmware

@LarsBjerregaard

4 жыл бұрын

Yes. Look to the Southpole plugin. Not in the library for 1.x yet but these work: github.com/gbrandt1/southpole-vcvrack/issues/36#issuecomment-549085244

With a true analog SH the stored value would drift over time. Technically it is possible to construct a SH module that refreshes the stored values but things get complicated rather quickly. A better option might be to record CV values by other means. Digital storage would be a option, from a users perspective a digital storage module could even "feel" like a SH. Easier would be converting to midi CC and use a DAW for storage. Or... use analogue tape to record the CV signals. Just record a fixed frequency and modulate the amplitude. Then it is time to have fun with scissors and cello-tape :-) For playback feed the audio through a envelope follower. Using BP filters on playback multiple CV signals might shear the same analog tape track.

Hmm? I WONDER! Just how difficult it would be to take an entry or two from a Jazz Fake Book, or really just sequence one or two ‘Jazz Standards’, and let the CV adders or attenuverters provide the offset for a transpose, and then we’d have a sort of modular that plays a Jazz Fake Book, and actually gets around the different scales with ease?! Great way not only to patch up an improvisational routine, but to patch in some scheme for improvising the transposition into the different keys and scales. THANKS AGAIN!!

@the_glove

7 ай бұрын

So where that gets tricky is when you talk about rhythm . So with jazz the main thing about a tune working and playing a convincing jazz is 1) being able to reframe the theme 2) using chromaticism not on the strong beats . If you can create logic around those two youll he approaching jazz but you must also quote the history , and be able to modulate in clever ways. In jazz it also relies a lot on responding to what the other player is doing so you’d have to create a very intuitive system . Good luckn

Been looking for a controller that's small to use with my Deluge and i think the Novation might be it. Cheers

@JohnTrasher

4 жыл бұрын

I am looking for 6 months as well...

@chitlun

4 жыл бұрын

It’s a great wee controller. The arpeggio, as Loopop demonstrated, is great for generating some happy accidents. It also sits with Ableton as a control surface so you can record/trigger clips with it 👍

@NathanChisholm041

4 жыл бұрын

@@chitlun Thanks mate! It sounds fun plus i like the idea off a random note generator!

@JohnTrasher

4 жыл бұрын

@@NathanChisholm041 the encoders are Not endless on the launchkey though right?

Reminds me of trying to build a Turing machine inside Minecraft...

Whats that laptop stand?

@loopop

3 жыл бұрын

Cremacaffe

Monome teletype + Er-301 :)

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

Neither are analog (nothing wrong with digital) but indeed programmable environments can do everything - this is for people who prefer to avoid code

@ritec

4 жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly Cengiz, does this unit exist?

A little unfair to call a S&H step “1 bit”, probably equivalent to at least 8 bits of resolution. But this also go me into looking at how S&H circuits are implemented, discovered that most analogue synths have an S&H circuit in the keyboard so that pitch doesn’t drift when you release a key! Suspect many S&H circuits are pretty complex not to drift over several seconds (capacitor leakage) and verified that even old Moogs use ICs for this - ultimately probably digital really. 😄

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

@Rik MaxSpeed I called it a byte, not a bit (when did I say bit?), and of course, even a byte is not fair because voltage is an infinite range.

@RikMaxSpeed

4 жыл бұрын

loopop Sorry, i’ll put it down to my hearing being damaged by all the high frequencies emitted by analogue gear 😊

I have an honest question, I just jumped on modular and I see a trend on anyone playing modules, no one plays any notes themselves, everyone is either doing ambient or letting a module like Marbles make the decisions for them, it sounds like the equivalent of a pentatonic riff on guitar related videos everyone does the same, nothing wrong with that I appreciate the search for letting machines play all the notes but what ever happened to innovating using music as well as tech? I see little musicianship in most module videos I see nowadays just generative melodies / rhythm, no disrespect.

@phild5322

4 жыл бұрын

Broadly this is an issue with only having two hands and no recall, so you need both those hands to "play" the instrument which lends itself better as a sequencer. I personally prefer my hard wired synths to make melody, and my use my eurorack as a dynamics/fx/overdub for my drum machine. The beauty of it, can design whatever machine you want, interfaced with whatever else you want, which is Bitwig in my case

@wellurban

4 жыл бұрын

Those are some of the reasons I got into modular: I can play keyboards, but wanted to get away from traditional “musicianship” and explore something more like a collaboration between human and machine. You can still “innovate using music”, but you don’t have to limit yourself to a narrow definition of either music or innovation. It requires a lot more work to go beyond a pentatonic or diatonic scale to something that involves traditional chord progressions, but it’s possible, and not everyone’s interested in that anyway.

@dag2099

4 жыл бұрын

A lot of people use sequencers to pick notes but even with something like a Turing machine you can use a quantiser to decide which notes are played, the range of available notes and the tonal center. Also i see quite a few people playing keyboards into vcvrack.

@ToyKeeper

4 жыл бұрын

People don't generally get into modular synths for the purpose of getting better at sheet music. It's usually for entirely different reasons. There's nothing wrong with that, but it has given modular a reputation as an expensive way to not write songs.

@johncaccioppo1142

4 жыл бұрын

I really like the idea of modular as a musical companion. With a traditional instrument, I have to work to some degree, it feels like the mood is specifically defined by my current skill and vitality. With modular, I can just set up the performance and it does the bulk of the work itself. Set up is my expression, but I can walk away and just enjoy what it's doing, and it can create a mood for my home that is always unique and it never makes me feel like I have something more to add, unless I want to. Because the music feels like a non-linear experience where I don't have to focus on tension and resolution constantly, it's ultimately a more relaxing pastime.

you might still want to go digital with something like a Brain Seed for instance

@NiamorH

4 жыл бұрын

like in this beautiful 3 modules challenge: kzread.info/dash/bejne/fY2fzdCTfb3Tcso.html

Using a virtual/digital analog modular synth to demonstrate creating an 'analog' patch that emulates digital memory and is also usable on analog modulars ♫♪.ılılıll|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|̲̅̅=̲̅̅|̲̅̅●̲̅̅|llılılı.♫♪

@loopop

4 жыл бұрын

I know I know, and yet I wanted this idea to be accessible for experimentation immediately to a broader audience than just those that have the hardware modules on hand

@Goettel

4 жыл бұрын

@@loopop And I love it :-)