Don't make it complex, keep it simple. That's the thought behind this patch.
It started with a simple voice: the Macro Oscillator 2 (i.e. Mutable Instruments Plaits) in Chords mode into a filter and then into a wet-only reverb. The module is playing a constant pitch, but an Instruo Ochd modulates the harmonics, timbre and morph values so that both the chords that the module plays and the way it sounds keeps changing over time. Just those couple of modules and modulations provide an ever evolving pad sound that could be a patch by itself.
That's when I decided to try and keep the other voices for this patch as simple as I could. No fancy note sequences or overly complicated chain of modules. It did take some time to achieve this however, and multiple voices were discarded because they were definitely not simple.
A first voice that ended up in the end result consists of a number of Vult modules that generate a bass below the initial voice. Two slightly detuned Basal modules are sent through a Debriatus distortion and a Freak filter module. The different parameters of these modules are modulated by a Caudal module, which provides "chaotic" modulation outputs based on a multi segment pendulum model. The result is a bass voice that moves between smooth and gritty.
The next voice is driven by a Segment Generator (i.e. Mutable Instruments Stages). The first Stage of the module works as an LFO trigger, which gets randomized by a Bernoulli gate. When this trigger passes through the gate, the last four stages of the module create an ADSR-like envelope, which opens up the volume of an E340 Cloud Generator with eight detuned saw waves. The pitch information for this module is randomly generated by a Sample and Hold module, and the result goes through a low pass filter that's also opened and closed by the original envelope. Both the filtered sound and a delayed version of it are sent to the mixer.
From the start of this patch, I had planned to include some rain/wind sounds. Since I experimented a lot with the Audible Instruments (i.e. Mutable Instruments) modules for this patch, I tried using the Tidal Modulator (i.e. Tides) and the EQ filter (i.e. Shelves) for this. A white noise source is sent into Shelves, and the outputs of Tides provide the modulation CVs for bringing in the different sections of Shelves. Both the high-shelf and low-shelf sections bring in some wind/waves noises in different phases by using them as a low-pass filter, and the first parametric section of Shelves creates a more narrow band filter over the noise that sounds like the wind being pushed through a narrow space.
At this point, felt like this patch would benefit from a low pulsating sound that fades in and out. I ended up creating it with the Palette module by Atelier (another Mutable Instruments Plaits clone). This module provides some additional modulation possibilities compared to the standard Plaits module, and by sending a 4Hz LFO to its envelope trigger input, it can provide a nice pulsating effect. Fading it in and out of the mix is achieved by sending some of the Ochd outputs to the modulation inputs of Palette.
A final addition to the patch was a simple Dark Energy oscillator into a Tap Dancer dancer delay. By sending an occasional trigger to a Sample and Hold module for pitch information, the Dark Energy will play an occasional high note into the overall mix.
And while the overall patch might look complex initially, each voice by itself ended up being relatively simple.
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__ Setup __
- VCV Rack 2.4.1 on Windows
- All audio generated internally within VCV Rack (no external connections)
- Video is captured by OBS
- RAW FLAC Audio output from VCV Rack
- Audio recording synced to OBS, and fade added at the end with Reaper
- OBS video and Reaper audio are merged and cut to length using Shutter Encoder.
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