Modular Jam : Much Ado : Rings, Elements, Clouds, Peaks, TipTop ONE

Published on May 21, 2017 Mike Thomas

"More patching with my smaller, Mutable Instruments-focused case. Loving it! Constraints can be a good nudge to your creativity.

Much Ado: Patch Notes
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Involved modules
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Intellijel 1U Random/Clock
4ms Rotating Clock Divider and Breakout
Microbe Modular Meta Sequencer
Mutable Instruments (MI) Rings
MI Clouds
MI Rings
MI Veils
MI Tides
2 x MI Peaks
TipTop ONE
Ornament & Crime (O+C)
Intellijel 1U Quadratt
Intellijel 1U Buffered Mult
Intellijel 1U Digitank Reverb
Transient Modules 6ch Mixer
Pittsburgh Outs

Routing/Control
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* Intellijel 1U Random/Clock source drives all timing. Rotating Clock Divider is in gate mode.
* Ornament & Crime (O+C) in Quantermain (ASR/Quantizer) mode is driving both melodic portions of the patch, of which the sound producers are Elements and Rings. The “up and down” movement of both parts is driven by Peaks in stepped triangle LFO mode fed to CV1. O+C is also set up to use CV1 as a modulation source for ASR range and probability by both ASR channels. The Elements channel is set with much narrower range and modulation values to keep it “bassy”.
* Microbe Modular Meta Sequencer is used here for modulation rather than melody — it’s 1v/oct CV out is multed to a number of targets: Rings’ Damping, and Elements’ Bow Timbre, Mallet, and Brightness controls.
* Rings set up in sympathetic string mode with monophonic voice polyphony.
* Rings Even output multed to provide FM back to Rings.
* Rings Brightness and Position parameters modulated by Tides.
* Rings Odd/Even outputs to Clouds. Clouds in looping delay mode.
* Clouds Density modulated by multed Tides, via attenuation by Veils. Clouds Freeze alternated by Peaks in stepped triangle LFO mode (multed).
* Elements Damping and Position modulated by Tides (multed with Rings).
* Bass drum provided by upper Peaks in 808 mode. “Shaker” by TipTop ONE, triggered by RCD and quickly pitch shifted by Peaks. Random “drop” sound by Peaks in 808 mode, triggered by Intellijel 1U Sample and hold, which is attenuated by a channel of 1U Quadratt. All mixed in Quadratt, with reverb by Digitank Reverb.

Mixing Tricks
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Elements and Rings are both stereo modules, if you want them to be (I do). Stereo creates some interesting mixing challenges.

Mixing is a little tricky because I don’t have a dedicated stereo panning mixer in this case (I have a nice Sputnik 6ch in my big case). But I *do* have the Transient Modules 2x3 mixer and the Pitts Outs module. I pretend that the individual mixer outputs of the 2x3 are “left” and “right” channels and feed those straight into the Outs’ stereo ins.

Bummer is, if you send a mono signal into a single side/channel of the 2x3 mixer it will come out hard-panned to that channel, with no way to pan it. My trick to convert the 2x3 mixer into a stereo panning mixer is to first send any “single channel mono” signal into a mult and bring two channels out. This makes it a “two channel mono” signal. I then feed the signal into two parallel channels of the mixer as a pair. Then, I can use the individual level controls to pan the mono signal. This is pretty flexible and works fine, but results in a lot of redundant patching and also requires submixing for anything more than a single mono signal. A panning mixer would be more elegant in this case, but I suppose some would argue it would be less “modular”.

For the drums, which start as three separate channels involving Peaks and ONE, I submix those down to one channel in the Quadratt before doing the above trick. Mixing attenuators or VCAs are pretty much a requirement for this hack if you’re going to mix many signals at all.

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