Jörg Schaaf - Hypnotica Hypnotica

Published on Mar 9, 2018 Jörg Schaaf

"Tonight I tried to bring a little bit controlled random into a A-155 sequence. My approach is a little bit different from other setups. It uses one VCA, a noise source and a sample and hold module. Very important in this setup is also a quantizer for the pitch control voltage. I used the Delta Cep A quantizer for that and selected a minor pentatonic scale for my sequence. The output from the sequencer is fed into the VCA input and the VCA output connects to the 1V/Oct input of the oscillator. If you run the sequence you can already change the resulting melodies by changing the VCA level. You will realize, that lower pitched notes will get affected less than higher pitched notes. I like that behavior. Adding random is quite easy. One trigger line of the A-155 sequencer triggers the Sample and Hold Circuit. The noise is connected to the S&H probe input and the S&H output connects to the VCA control voltage input. Because of the quantizer, only matching notes are generated.

I added a bass sequence from the Spectralis Hybrid synth with Spectralis' internal step sequencer. Some steps are running with a probability of only 50% to get variations in the bass sequence too. On top of the two main sequences I added a little disturbance by triggering a chimes multisample I did last week. In order to get a more unrealistic metallic sound out of that multisample I set the envelope to a very short decay and send this through the hiphpass filter, put some random pan onto it and added a pitch modulation (vibrato). Logic ProX acts as the clock for the A-155 (via an Arturia Keystep) and for the Spectralis.

I could not resist to play some live notes on top of the backings. I played mainly the Accelerator, the DX-7 II and the D-550. I hope, you like it...

And yes - everything sounds just better with a couple of different delays. So I added them here too ;-)"