Modular Polyphony

Published on May 9, 2013 pjoris2·26 videos

"I got a Vermona Quad Midi Interface and had already 3 RS-95 VCOs -- so I bought a fourth one to have a try at modular polyphony. Luckily, I had a few quad modules: the Doepfer A-143-1 (Quad) Complex Envelope Generator/LFO which contains 4 AR envelopes, the Doepfer A-138m Matrix Mixer and 4ms CVA Matrix, and finally a QMMG which contains 4 identical low/hi pass gates. Some sound impressions in the video. Don't mind the duff notes and unstructured improvisations here and there, and the VCO tracking which is not the same for all 4 RS-95s. But then, the last is part of the charms of analogue modular polyphony. The 4 channels of the QMMG are also not really identical anyway.

I like the sound of it ! The QMMG is a bit rough at times with high resonance, and I would prefer 4 ADSR envelopes (an A-143-2 maybe). And of course 4 note polyphony is not really impressive, but it will give me some nice pads out of the modular.

The final patch was:

Midi-keyboard to Vermona Quad Midi Interface

Gate Out to Doepfer A-143-1 (Quad) Complex Envelope Generator/LFO to Doepfer A-138m Matrix Mixer (to be able to determine the amount of envelope on the low-pass gates) to Make Noise QMMG CV (Frequency) Inputs

1 V/Oct Out to 4x Analogue Systems RS-95 VCO to Saw or Pulse Out to QMMG Audio Inputs to 4ms CVA Matrix (to avoid overloading the Azimuth and to do the placement of the 4 voices in the stereo field; I didn't seem to put much in the centre of the stereofield however) to Intellijel Azimuth II (these last two not really needed, I could just as wel have fed the 4 channels into the mixing desk directly)

Some LFOs to the Pulse Width CV inputs of the RS-95s. The RS-95 are really nice sounding VCOs by the way. No effects, and still sounding nice and full - the polyphonic modular does not sound bad at all imho ..."