underrated synth

@ChrisLodyMusic

19 күн бұрын

@@limbicbits yeah I agree. I always appreciate when hardware has weird little quirks for massive nerds like me to find too 👌

Offset waveform! Outstanding. I love that I'm still learning neat patch techniques for this sucker! Thanks a lot.

Fascinating how much there is in this box. Wonderful.

16:34 This tip is really interesting and wouldn't have crossed my mind in a million years. Thanks.

@ChrisLodyMusic

21 күн бұрын

Thanks man, I didn't realise you owned one of these too 😁

@dinogoldie9716

21 күн бұрын

​@@ChrisLodyMusic Yup. The Volcas are what first got me into gear...then the Novation Circuits...then the Roland Airas...then the Teenage Engineering POs...then the Sonicware stuff. Speaking of, I hope they've got you doing tutorials for that "Ambient O" thing I've just pre-ordered. I'm 1 patern bank away from filling up my Mega Synthesis, at which point I will, at long last, turn my attentions to the Elz-1 Play and Lofi-XT. But yeah: The Modular and Drum are my two fave Volcas.

You can use the stepped random voltages to trigger the 2nd function generator. Also you can get filter like sounds by introducing feedback. For example put oscillator to a, a+bc back into c and a-bc to the lpg.

What an amazing device! I bought a second one too because I started experimenting using it as a guitar effect finding different ways to introduce my guitar audio signal into it and process the sound (and you opened my eyes to that, but I found new ways to hack myself in).... so I needed another one for regular synthy stuff LOL .....BUT of course a second module allows for interesting interactions: like when you desperately need an extra LFO or something. ......I really miss your old patch presentations and this was a very pleasant surprise indeed....a true treat. I have said it before and I'll say it again: I think allot of people will be interested if you explored the external audio process thing. I'm not a KZreadr so the only thing I can do is assure you that ...if you search you WILL find! Thanks again my friend.

@ChrisLodyMusic

21 күн бұрын

Ha yeah I think it might of been you mentioning you'd bought two that first got me thinking about buying another one 😅 I held out for a long time, but I decided it was the most cost effective way to add more modules to play with! I think I've seen someone else talking about using it as an effects processor but I wouldn't against making my own version of that video. I'd like to make more patch tutorials but I'm crazy busy right now. I've had to squeeze this in between audio jobs for 3 different companies so time is against me a bit!

@MYGAS21

21 күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusic That's fine,... We can wait my friend, ..take the time you need, do what you have to do. And maybe when you're ready you can help find more ways to use the VOLCA as an effect ....the S&H thing I discovered is fine, ..I think I managed to do ring modulation, I'm not sure ...My last experiments were done a year ago and moved on to other stuff and my notes don't have any info on that, which means I wasn't happy with the results, .....I think it was because I didn't have my second VOLCA yet..... Yes now that I think of it, the second VOLCA was about effects again: I had a mental note that I needed one, and when the opportunity came I grabbed it but I haven't experimented with them both yet. .....SO I want to do Ring Modulation, FM, and AM ....to effect the timbre of the guitar tone. The VOLCA inspired me to do stuff like that with guitar pedals and Eurorack modules, using expression inputs with CV signals at audio rate etc (with a "floating ring" cable)....Buchla west coast synthesis style. TIP: You don't need to sacrifice the audio input to use the clock output. It will be needed for the guitar audio. JUST stick a regular wire into the SYNC OUT and send it where ever you need it ....for example to the gate input of FUNCTION 1 for your second LFO.

@CatFish107

15 күн бұрын

​​@@MYGAS21can I ask how you get your guitar signal into the volca?

@MYGAS21

15 күн бұрын

@@CatFish107 Through the CV IN input. And from there to its output (this video shows which one it is when he plugs the sync OUT to the CV IN.) Chris Lody showed me this in a video he did along time ago, on introducing external noise sources into the VOLCA M. You can ask me whatever you want. I WILL ANSWER.

@CatFish107

15 күн бұрын

@@MYGAS21 sweet. Thanks. I'll give that a go and see hoow it turns out.

Super great stuff, Chris! I've been back to the Volca Modular over the last few months too and am loving rediscovering all the cool stuff :) Keep up the great work! You're super inspiring :)

@ChrisLodyMusic

21 күн бұрын

Thanks very much 😁

".... I'm not sure why." Awesome - that is the essence of what makes musical exploration so rewarding - those "wait.... WTF, " moments and before you know it you've got a fresh burst of inspiration!

@ChrisLodyMusic

21 күн бұрын

Yes, but also I'd like to know why 😄 But I certainly love finding this stuff, anything that adds more techniques to try 👌

@CatFish107

14 күн бұрын

@indirektdjs agreed! I also enjoy the parts where Chris patches two inputs together to get a fine control knob. What? How? OK, let's go with that. Was this thing a Kats design? Going by the prototypes he keeps bringing to superbooth, it appears as though it might be.

I’ve found two is always better than 1! I literally have 2 of everything,I chose to keep the Korg Kronos, and go with the Nautilus so I guess I kind of count that as 2. Stuff like the Volcas was much easier obviously because of price, but I double up on composition tools mainly, the QY Yamaha series, 100,300 and 700 are fantastic, the Ndlr and the Eurorack Misha are close enough to the same, I doubled up on the Make Noise o play and o coast not the Strega ,when I want to add a second or more Strega I use a sample. Unfortunately my house was broken into and they took an unopened Drumlouge, so I decided instead of replacing it I’ll double down on the Behringer Brain, which has worked out well. I the 9 and the Dr 880 so it’s well covered with hp220 as well. Two is always better, I don’t have the Volca Modular, but I probably will get two after watching this!

@ChrisLodyMusic

7 күн бұрын

Yeah it's a great way to poor fuel on GAS 😅 I have a few multiples or close siblings in the studio nowadays. I also have some vst copies of hardware I already own for good measure 😄👌

Hi Chris, great video as always and it sparkles an itch of revisiting my VM 😊 … however, I’m quite puzzled by your patches using the source output as actually an input… quite unexpected!

@ChrisLodyMusic

14 күн бұрын

Thanks. That kind of makes sense to me as they're voltage controlled inputs that will have a fixed voltage at the input until another connection is applied, though it doesn't really make sense why that's then adjustable using the input control. I'd love to know why connecting Function 1 to the source has such a strange and useful affect though, I can only guess what's happening there 😄

My protoboard is a cactus! 🌵

@ChrisLodyMusic

3 күн бұрын

Ha nice. Just looked that up, is it the Hactus?

Have you tried getting a pulse sub oscillator that tracks perfect? but I think if you get one of the functions gens to loop on end of cycle and modulate this at audio rate then feed the +ve outputs into the audio path it tracks the original pitch. It’s been a while since I did it so I may be a bit out with my description.

@ChrisLodyMusic

21 күн бұрын

I think from your description this is something I covered in my first Tips & Tricks video for the Volca Modular which I'll link to below. It processes the audio from one of the output of the source through the first function generator turning it into a square wave. It's possible to control the pulse width too kzread.info/dash/bejne/d3-VxcaznpWcdZc.html

@wul01

21 күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusicI think I might be getting a bit mixed up. I’m gonna have to put some batteries in and fire it back up to see if I can remember what I did.

@wul01

20 күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusicunable to recreate it , it was something to do with using the clock divider to generate the sub oscillator, similar to the way the subharmonicon does it .

@ChrisLodyMusic

20 күн бұрын

Ah yes I do remember watching a video about that now you mention it, but I can't find it at the moment. It was another interesting quirk that really shouldn't have worked at all, though I didn't find it to be consistent across the whole keyboard range. I can't remember how to recreate that at the moment 😄

@wul01

19 күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusiclooks like I’m gonna have to get another unit, looks like I’ve broken mine . I have no pitch control whatsoever on either main oscillator or mod oscillator.

Well, that's confused the hell out of me. I thought I read that the blue bordered ports were outputs and the silver were inputs but you're just connecting anything to anything else.❓

@ChrisLodyMusic

Күн бұрын

That's correct but you can still get some very interesting results by ignoring that 😄 One of the tricks Korg themselves recommendeds is plugging the two source outputs into each other which will mix them, so this is possible elsewhere. This was possible on some old Korg gear like the MS-10 where you can plug the two LFO outputs into each other to create a mixed shape LFO 👌

@c0ns1d1ne

Күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusic ha, okay! Great video btw. Very interesting.

whats the woggle?

@ChrisLodyMusic

21 күн бұрын

It's what's usually referred to as a Sample and Hold module. Everytime a signal is received at the clock input it holds whichever voltage is currently at the other input, so here when used as a gate both signals must be positive voltages in order for it to produce and output. There is also a smoothed output which gives us a little bit of fade in and out

@MYGAS21

21 күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusic Since you mentioned it: That is what I use for my guitar tone as an effect. (Except for the obvious spring reverb) The audio is sampled either directly by the carrier ( in which case it needs to be juiced up by the FOLD) or I juice it up with the utility inserting either carrier or modulator into b and from a+bxc to the woggle input for audio rate sampling. That's the basic sound..... that you can then modulate with various interesting ways. The most interesting of which is using the pitch output of the sequencer.

@simonburns1055

21 күн бұрын

@@ChrisLodyMusic nice