MonoPolyphony | Modular Composing | Episode 10 | Feat. Endless Processor

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"Polyphony in eurorack isn't always easy. It can be, if you'd use midi capable modules like Poly Cinematic or BitBox (just to name two I own). A modular purist would pick multiple VCOs, VCA's, envelopes and VCFs, and wise modular purists would use Quad designs. I don't consider myself a purist, I can't handle rules very well and I won't deny myself the easy way of midi and working with the DAW. I can also confirm it's amazing to patch a 'quad full voice' setup every once in a while and explore multi-timbral polyphony. However, most of the time I'd use a single full voice and experiment with freezes and sustain FX. Great modules for this are Clouds, Endless Processor, the Mimeophon, Morphagene, StarDust, Arbhar, etc. Anything that can freeze, remember, loop and repitch.

In this episode, I'll use Blukac Endless Processor and its expander to turn a mono voice into a polyphonic experience. I called it 'monopolyphony' and I think it's an excellent compromise.

This is one of the first videos where I'l start using patch notes and diagrams. I never realized my patches aren't obvious, easy and straigtforward at all. If my goal is to teach you something, I'll need to make diagrams too. I also know I love to make powerpoints."

Creativity | Episode 01 | How to develop your own 'modules' by patching

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"In this kick-off episode about 'creativity' I'll revisit the concept of one of my 'imaginary dream modules', the reverse FX processor. I can't teach you creativity, but I can share my creative process.

I've been thinking about this concept for years, and trying all kinds of combinations to recreate the sounds I am looking for. It's impossible to do in real time, because these FX are created on sounds that didn't happen yet (at least not to the people listening).

It's easy to do in post, but you'll need to go through a recipe. You'd record a sound, reverse it, add FX, re-record the result, and reverse it again. I found another way to cook this recipe with two Morphagenes and I am now able to integrate it in a live patch. I need to start/stop recordings and control sound-on-sound for best results, so it's very hard to automate. Manual tweaking works best.

It's an outcome of a creative process. I have this idea and I am slowly getting closer by not letting it go, trying different things and learn from failures (which aren't failures but babysteps). Dead ends are actually U-turns. I've been thinking about learning to code for the Versio platform so I could make a 'Reversio' firmware myself, but I don't think that's going to happen because I'll need to learn C++ coding. And even then, it will not sound like two Morphagenes with an FX chain in between.

The funny thing is, I finally figured out how to do it while making this video. At the very end. So just before posting I ordered a second Mimeophon. I don't think I've ever seen a video about a dual Mime. To be continued, and happy patching! Let me know in the comments if you ever gave this a try with anything that can loop and reverse. Instruo Lubadh can also do it, but it would be in mono. I also tried reversed impulse response files, but it can never emerge before the original sound. Nothing can :). So don't let that stop you. When you're walking a long and winding road, you can see a distant future."

Fala Versio | Versio Platform | Episode 13

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"Noise Engineering has just released three new firmwares for the Versio, Legio and Alia platforms. As always, they're amazing and they're free downloads for any of those platforms. Fala Versio is a formant filter that's super easy to use. It will add a lot of vocal expression to your patch. On mild settings you can create choir-like sounds, on more extreme settings it will talk. In short, it's just amazing.

This is a simple video, which was a warm bath after my last Leibniz video. I'll be using MakeNoise Strega, Bruxa, Serge Medusa and the Broken Loquelic as my sound sources which create an excellent mood for the time between XMAS and the happy new year. I did not make any 'best wishes' or 'best of 2024' video this year because I couldn't finish it in time. I also realized that my 'best of 2024' are never going to be my all time favorites (except the new Serge Medusa and Instruo Dail).

Obviously I wish you all the best and I am hoping you'll have a great time patching the modular during the holiday season - and beyond. I'll probably post something before the end of the year.

Serge has been a personal discovery in 2024, so instead of getting the latest modules, I went back to 70's tech and it's a dream come true. I also love Bruxa a lot. Objectively the Joranalogue x Hainbach Collide 4 is a major achievement in eurorack, and it's impossible to ignore DivKid's colllab-contributions to the eurorack landscape, including the Droid patch.

I still need to figure out my DivSkip. XAOC Berlin is a must-have in the Leibniz niche, but on it's own it's just a very basic VCO. Another favorite is Oneiroi and it's cool to see that Black Maths is on the bestseller list, proving the old stuff doesn't get old. The new Buchla/TTA modules are also dreams that came true and it's great to finally have an orginal 259 . I didn't have time to dive into the new Qu-Bit StarDust looper, but I bet it will be worth checking out if you want to escape monophony."

Leibniz Unleashed | XAOC Leibniz Binary Subsystem | Episode 04

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"It's been six months since episode 03 (The Road to Berlin). This is mainy because I make videos as I go and as I learn. The Leibniz system, by itself is not difficult to use, but in the audio domain it's impossible to bypass the 8-bit sound quality and harsh noise is inevitable. I needed to take many breaks to make this video and I had to get my knowledge from the manuals and the excellent works of Tom Churchil. I never fully realized you need to make loops for best results and I didn't know how important 'reclocking' is. I experimented with external VCO's before I realized Berlin and Poczdam offer their own Leibniz clocks to manipulate and 'reclock' the datastreams.

I had many 'I did not know' moments while making this video, and often I had to reshoot stuff that did not make any sense anymore. I wanted this episode to be a 'Leibniz Unleashed' experience, showing off some amazing patches that have a lot to offer and complement what's already out on YouTube.

I guess a logical followup for Episode 05 is to explore musical applications some more, especially in the audio domain. Leibniz is just great for CV and rhythms, but (at first glance) not so great in the audio domain (unless you fancy glitch, noise and other raw genres, it excels here).

I hope this video will help you get more production value from your Leibniz set, or help you decide if it's something of interest. Modular is too expensive to just do a leap of faith and figure it out later. It can take a year before it starts to make sense. But it's been a great year!

00:00 Introduction
00:13 Drezno Recap
02:56 Chains and Loops
04:27 Berlin and Jena
08:44 Odessa and Ostankino (expander for Moskwa II)
11:47 Generating rhythms with Lipsk, Erfurt and Gera
15:26 Re-clocking with Drezno II, Rostock, Buchla TTA 258t (20 kHz) and NE Sinc Iter (+4 MHz)
17:43 Re-clocking with Poczdam
19:36 Routing and re-clocking with a full Leibniz System"

Modular Sound Quality

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"It can be a real drag if you're starting with modular and get a noisy signal from your case, even when you don't run any sounds yet. It can be an even bigger drag if you still encounter these problems years later. It doesn't have to be just hum and interference, it can be your mains, too many USB loops on the same PC, etc. In most cases, these problems are about bad power and your modules may be in survival mode. And how about output modules? Does a cheap output sound worse compared to an expensive one?
I had no idea where to find the low hanging fruit in our quest for best possible sound quality."

Audrey II by Synthux Academy

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"The Audrey II is not a eurorack module, but it's 3U and it fits perfectly. It's line level but I had no problems using it in the modular case. Audrey refers to the man-eating plant in the Little Shop of Horrors, but it doesn't sound horrific at all. If you love the sound of feedback. It's advertised as a Horrorscape synth so it can easily score a scary movie. If you're a channel regular you may know I love feedback patching and I have a 'cybernetics' series.

Audrey uses a complex structure of noise, feedback, filters, possibly a bit of physical modelling or resonating, more feedback and finally a pitch shifting filter that can also self-oscillate. So it basically creates self-oscillating harmonies. Personally, I think it sounds just beautiful and I can listen to it for hours.

But after 24 hours you may want to take it a few steps further and the modular is just the perfect enviroment to do just that.

The Audrey is made by the Synthux Academy. I't a non-profit foundation with a mission to build unique instruments, to help them play, build and code them yourself, to provide online masterclasses and beginner's courses, etc. It doesn't come cheap when you order it built, but the DIY kit is super easy to solder (anyone can do it) and it's great fun to play. Obviously all revenue goes back into the foundation and Audrey II is an important step towards a future. So it's been an honour to support it. Audrey II is not for everyone but if you're aspiring to program your own DSP modules or just 'borrow' other people's code and hack a few lines of code, Synthux offers great resources to get started. This video is sponsored, but it's sponsored by me because I believe in this stuff. It helps me to make special videos.

I will definitely explore the buidling blocks of Audrey and try to find out if it's possible to 'make' one with existing modules or VCV. I'll also investigate bit of Daisy Seed programming, and maybe I'll succeed in porting a Versio firmware into something I've always wanted. The Reversio..."

Bruxa is an Angel | Shared System X Ep. 07 | Resynthesizer + Bruxa

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"Bruxa is basically isolated time/filter experiment from Strega. I pre-ordered it in the blind without giving it a second thought, because I love my MakeNoise collection. If they'd make a new mult I'd get it too. But there's something special about Bruxa when it's added to an ecosystem like the Resynthesizer layout.

In this patch, I play the case almost completely manually, by starting 'events' with PrssPnt. It picks a new note for Spectraphon VCO A (a high pitched Red mode sound going to DXG, where the volume (CTRL) is modulated by WoggleBug's smooth output. VCO B is a very rich voice from the Green mode that seems to have a high and low frequency component and a certain unstability at modest levels. It almost sounds like a Tenor vocalist.

I am using Mimeophon in Zone 7 (zone fully CW) which I call 'The Long Repeat' because it's repeating almost a minute of buffered audio. But the real magic happened when I used Bruxa to 'smear' the unstable VCO B - the Tenor vocalist. I got an amazing angelic choir. I've heard this amazing 'smear' on other channels too so it's not unique to this case, it's Bruxa doing her magic.
I am sure it will sound even better with your own filters, utilities and FX chains.

I am taking it slow with this patch, with manual events and no sequencing. However, PrssPnt picks a new note on Rene's X channel for VCO A every time it's touched. VCO B gets pitch from Rene's Y channel, but I simply use the selected stage knob to pick a new note in the scale. When I touch PrssPnt, it opens up DXG to make the 'vocalist' appear.

I am aware the Resynthesizer is an exclusive layout and it will not be on everyone's desk. This video gives a cool impression of what a Spectraphon, a Bruxa and a Mimeophon can do for your drone music. You can always sculpt the sound with a filter, LPG or VCA from any brand."

When Worlds Collide | Why I don't need a lock-in amp | COLLIDE 4 Ep. 03

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

Cinematic+Laboratory+COLLIDE+4

"I didn't realize my episode 01 was about three weeks ago. It felt like three months or more. As you may know, this channel is not sponsored and I usually do my research before I buy a module. So far, it didn't work out well and since I am planning to clean-up my collection in 2025, it ended up on my 'may need to go' list.

Don't get me wrong, I think it deserves the 2024 eurorack design award. It's just me not getting along very well. It's advertised as a lock-in amp, but its main purpose is kind of useless in electronic music. So it's meant to be creatively 'abused' and 'repurposed'. Please note I am not trying to use it as a lock-in amp, I am exploring new creative ways to use it.

Instead of making sure your delicate faint source doesn't clip, you'd go for 30 dB gain compensation, turn up the resonance and then gain the filter some more. It's designed to isolate a faint sinewave hiding in a wall of noise and extract phase and amplitude. But why should we even want to do that? And then there's a simple ringmod, a relatively simple sine VCO with TZFM support and some logic. It can't process stereo signals because it will cancel out your center information.

Since I have a huge collection of modules, I always wondered about making my own 'recipe' with a separate amp, filter, frequency shifter, ring mod and quadrature VCO. I think I came a long way this time, only enforcing the idea that the C4 is 'obsolete' in my collection. So even though it's an excellent module, you'll need to double check if you can build one with separates. It wouldn't be a lock-in amp, but I truly believe I don't need one in its designated role and I will explain why.

If you do not agree, PLEASE don't just dislike this video, but share your tips and patching tricks, so the community will be able to learn how to appreciate it - including myself.

And then I hooked up the C4 with my improvised version, and a wonderful world of magic opened up. It was so good that I decided to keep the C4 after all, and follow that path. So it's an all over-the-place personal struggle video, but I think it's real and honest. We all end up struggling from time to time. However, my number 1 rule is 'when you feel a module sounds bad, you're not patching it right'. It's not always true, but it encourages me to try things.

Hainbach is a master in restoring life to old 'crap' we'd throw away as trash, and I love his work. But I am not Hainbach and he's not included in the box. I can only stumble in his footsteps. Fortunately, I can just be myself and do my own thing. Just like there's nobody like YOU either."

COLLIDE 4 | Episode 04 | Post-Collision Course

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I felt I had to make this episode before anything else. In episode 03 I posed the question whether or not I'd need a 'lock-in amp' in eurorack. I got myself into kind of a rut after making two episodes, wondering if I made the right decision to get one. And if this happens, I need to openly reflect on that because there's something to learn from it. If it happens to me, it will definitely happen to you too, because I make these mistakes for a living.

By all means I never meant to say 'do we need a C4'. It depends on your own journey. It turns out Hainbach needs four. Blush Response definitely loved every single HP of it. For his genre and style, the C4 immediately delivers. Truckloads of it.

I was hoping to open a discussion and learn from others, but I've also seen signs of the wasp-nest cancel-culture. I've seen comments I had to delete and I permanently muted some. I do not allow any insults to me, my fellow youtubers and beloved manufacturers. To anyone. But I am too old to get angry about it, or take the insults personally. I learn from personal opinions, I learn from revising my own conclusions, and I always rectify a few episodes later, sharing any new insights. This is a good example.

I kind of promised if there would ever be an episode 04, it would be about a C8, a dual COLLIDE 4. I'll need to work some more on that, but the lab now has two. I had to pay for both of them myself, so there's no 'paid promotion' of any kind. There were no discounts. This is also why it's so much fun to run this channel. I try to be honest, but I can't be objective. I don't ever want you to buy two because I did. I want you to know what you're getting yourself into. The COLLIDE 4 is an open platform. It has no intended use except the scientific measurements of cyclic waveforms in noise. What you get out of it is what you dialed and patched in.

Thanks for your patience and resilience, and be nice to each other."

Deep-Fried Filters | Getting more from your Filter(s).

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"For the record, I am not really 'frying' anything. In this video I'd like to show you a few examples of feedback patching and create your own 'VCO' by frying raw voltage.

It's also a good moment to think about 'what could be the best filter for you'. I am using a simple checklist that can help you decide. A great filter can be like an instrument on its own and you should be able to make an album with just a filter. I'd say it should be dual or quad core, it should self-oscillate, it should have analog drive and multiple modes/outputs. Preferrably these modes should be CV controlled. I have my preferences, but please ignore those. If you can't make a choice and you're completely lost, definitely check out a Blades clone, the Doepfer stereo multimode filter, Vostok Atlas and Eowave's Tempete Magnetique quad filter. F*cking rabbit hole..."

Bruxa by MakeNoise & Cortini | It's a GOOD witch.

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"While MakeNoise is focusing on the Resynthesizer, now is the time people are finally receiving their Bruxa. While it inevitably reminds of Strega and the Lyra 8 (FX) I think it's cleaner, more musical and easier to control. However, we can't debate personal taste and the distinct sound of the mono delay may be too lo-fi for some.

I got truly amazing results when I hooked it up with Echophon. What's not to love. I pre-ordered Bruxa when it was announced, and pre-ordered a second one after the Asheville flood. I would not recommend getting two, especially with Echophon nearby, but a dual Bruxa can make some great eerie textures that remind of the mighty Erbe-Verb."

Tiptop/Buchla 200 Series | Episode 11 | 285t Frequency Shifter & Balanced Modulator

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"The 285t is a worthy addition to the already impressive classic 200 series by Tiptop Archeology and Buchla. It has two separate sections which can be combined at will. The top section is a frequency shifter with a built in reference VCO/LFO that can go up to 1K and allows modulation and FM. You can use your own reference sound by switching up to EXT but then you'll need to take care of FM and modulation yourself. The section can be used to play with the perceived pitch of any source, tuning it up and down at will. You can also use it (multed) to add an extra layer to a single voice, or to a mix.

The lower section is a classic ring modulator with a dedicated out, and a variable output that's under CV control. Variable mode can morph the effect from off to amplitude modulation (unipolar) to ring modulation (bipolar) which adds metallic effects. Ring modulation works best with sinewave modulators, but you can throw any combo of waveforms at it. It pairs very well with the 'simple' 258 VCO because it has two sinewaves, where the 259 has only one.

00:00 Introduction
00:31 Bipolar Shifts
04:00 Beats
04:27 Audio
05:33 Beats and Audio
06:04 Feedback patch with the 296t Spectral Processor
07:56 Ring Modulation"

Collide 4 | Episode 02 | Experiments with SpringRay2, X, Y, I and Q channels and a triphop.

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I felt I had to do an episode 02 after anything else and maybe this should have been EP01. But you just can't make shortcuts with this module. It takes time to understand it and appreciate it as a sculpting tool. I am slowly getting the hang of it and I just needed to share my progress.

00:00 Introduction
00:37 Intellijel Springray 2 with C4 in the insert/return
03:06 Cancel the IN- and IN+ inputs, with MakeNoise STO
04:16 X, Y, I and Q, with DPO and two XPOs.
07:05 Triphop multitrack jam with the THREE-BODY
10:20 Springtank life under a magnifying glass"

Side note: This appears to be the first post to feature the SpringRay2. You can find posts featuring the original here.

Collide 4 | Quadrature Spectral Computer | by Joranalogue and Hainbach

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"A few months ago, Hainbach recycled the full circle of 1950's being pioneered by people like Mort Subotnick and then miniaturized by people like Don Buchla in the 1960's, then rediscovered by people like Hainbach (and many others I am not familiar with) in the 2020's and then miniaturized into 20 HP by Joran from Jorananalogue in 2024. Hello COLLIDE 4, what took you so long?

I've been intrigued with Hainbach's journey into the vintage and classic scrapheaps of sound but the risk of shock, the smell, weight and size of all this gear made it easy to resist or even explore. I absolutely loved his Totem project making the best drones I ever heard. But this particular rabbit hole was easy to resist. 20 HP is not.

The COLLIDE 4 brings a lot of unfamiliar concepts to the table of sound design, like a Lock-in Amp, a Hilbert Transform Network and a Quadrature VCO. Just when you thought you were getting the hang of eurorack, again you realize you know nothing. It also features a filter, an envelope follower and a phase/frequency shifter. It's all originally designed to detect and possibly isolate little sounds in a soup of very faint noise, so the first thing people do is to crank it up and wonder if it can make normal music. Yes it can, and it saturates like nothing else. Just don't buy it BECAUSE you want to make normal music.

My favorite use case is to explore very faint sounds, like the raw output from a Piezo, an electric guitar or a sensitive electromagnetic sniffer. Theres a whole new world out there for you to discover."

Introducing The Make Noise ReSynthesizer

Playlist of ReSynthesizer patch video uploads by MAKEN0ISE

"In this video we go over the history and concept of this new 7U system, and also visit Drop of Sun Studios here in West Asheville to let the ReSynthesizer encounter the sounds of various musical instruments.

A free pack of Morphagene Reels from the sessions can be found here:

https://freesound.org/people/makenois...

Vocals, Harmonium: Elisa Faires
Electric Sitra: Chandra Shukla
Pedal Steel: Mike Johnson
Piano: Walker
Recording engineer: Mike Johnson
Filming and edit: Peter, Lewis, and Walker

https://dropofsun.com/
https://elisafaires.com/
https://xambuca.com/bio"

The MSRP for the Make Noise ReSynthesizer System is $4599. Pre Order Now, Shipping in early November. Check with dealers on the right.

"Introducing the ReSynthesizer!

The ReSynthesizer can trace its origins to Spring 2023, with Walker and Rodent putting together a collection of modules to announce and demonstrate the Soundhack Spectraphon at Superbooth ‘23. We knew that these modules would need to complement Spectraphon in a way that would show its true capabilities. As such, this specialized layout comprised a single-system overview of the last 8 years of Make Noise module designs.

After Superbooth Walker and Peter continued to use a similar system configuration in videos for our Youtube and Instagram Channels, prompting some folks to speculate if it was to be our new 7U system. At that time we had no plans for a new system; in fact, this layout had been intended as temporary all along, but we found that it made a useful layout in almost all cases and so we continued using it in videos anyway. (The layout even gained the popular unofficial moniker “System X” thanks to the speculative work of Cinematic Laboratory and others.) Choices like the unusual placement of the Morphagene, adjacent to Spectraphon, which we initially assumed would be mainly for a very specific use-case, quickly became second nature to patch. The Spectraphon and Morphagene work together to ReSynthesize raw materials into lush soundscapes, microsound manipulations, or wherever the path leads.

In early 2024, we announced DXG for the easy mixdown of mono or stereo signals, and PrssPnt to add physical touch interaction. With these pieces in place, the ReSynthesizer is born. Pairing the Spectraphon with the Morphagene and the core Make Noise CV generation suite, and housed in the powerful and portable 4 Zone CV Bus Case, the ReSynthesizer is an open design blackboard ready for experimentation and discovery.

We’ve put this collection through its paces and have found it to hold up to any test we throw at it— we can’t wait to hear what sounds you find with it!"

• Voltage Controlled DSP (Digital Signal Processing)
• Voltage Controlled Spectral Analysis/Resynthesis/Noise Generation: Spectraphon
• Voltage Controlled Stereo Repeats and Halos: Mimeophon
• Voltage Controlled Stereo Granularization: Morphagene
• Complex Random Voltage Generator: Wogglebug
• Dual Analog Control Voltage generator: MATHS (x2!)
• Voltage Controlled Panning, Crossfading, and Mixing: X-PAN
• Polyphonic Time Shifting: TEMPI
• New School Sequencing: René
• Human Expression/Control: PrssPnt
• Stereo Low Pass Gating and Mixing: DXG
• Horizontal Control Signal Distribution and Indication, plus Final Outputs: CV Bus
• Voltage Controlled Multi-Mode Multi-Peak Stereo Filtering: QPAS
• 4 Zone 7U CV Bus case w/ original power supply and AC Adapter, Ready to Play
• Blanking panels as appropriate (selection may vary)
• Ships with 30 patch cables
• Comes with Lid, Highly portable, Meets requirements for carry-on luggage

Special thanks to Drop of Sun Studios, Elisa Faires, and Chandra Shukla for taking part in this recording session!

https://www.makenoisemusic.com/synthe..."

Buchla/Tiptop 259T | A Legend Revived

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I don't think this module needs any introduction in Eurorack. Don Buchla inspired countless complex oscillators before it inspired Serge Tcherepnin and digital FM pioneers like John Chowning who brought FM on a chip to Yamaha. The 259 is a landmark VCO. One could assume it would old compared to modern gear like the DPO, Cs-L, Furthrrr, Brenso, Verbos CO and many more, but the 259 has a unique sound you will not find anywhere else.

There's 50 years between the 259c and the Tiptop recreation. A lot has changed. The original featured eight vactrols, but the T has none due to Hazardous Substance Regulations (RoHS). It's fair to say it's impossible to stay faithful. Autotune wasn't finished yet, it relied on the forthcoming 300 series that never took off. Remote/local control relied on Easel programming card tech which is useless in its eurorack incarnation. Tiptop decided to add ART support, a proprietary protocol which supports autotuning VCO's.

Real Buchla 259's are extremely rare, they're mostly faithfully recreated clones. So I had no idea how the real thing sounds and the 1M $ question is obviously 'does it sound the same'. Spoiler alert: it does. This video also concludes my 259 origin story, so it's episode 04 in the 259 playlist, and episode 09 in my Tiptop 200 series playlist. It's a bit confusing but it it makes sense to me.

Bottom line, it's a beauty."

ThreeTom Modular Doppio (Double Espresso AMP/DRIVE/Limiter)

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I got my Doppio ( a Double Espresso) when I visted Dutch Modular Fest in 2023. It was still a prototype and I think it was officially announced eight months ago. I saw it again at DMF 2024 and I agreed with Tom (all three of them) to make a video about it. I really like to support the small manufacturer, so this video is sponsored by me and I paid full price.

Doppio is one of those modules you'd set and forget, a module you can always rely on when things get loud, and a module you can depend on when your source material is barely audible. So in a nutshell, it's a stereo AMP that can amplify your source 1x, 5x or 21x. If you want to blow things up, you can also try modular level and make it 21 times louder, and maybe add some extra drive to it. Need more? You can also patch dual mono to achieve a x42 gain but I can't think of a scenario where I'd use this creatively. When used incorrectly, it will saturate your source to a point where I'd say it's ruined.
When used creatively, there are no rules. When use correctively, less is more.

When dynamics are unpredictable, the module provides a limiter, which attenuates your peaks and avoids your sound from clipping.
If you're coming in TOO loud, the limiter will try do damage control, but results may vary between 'not so bad' and 'abandon all hope'. So gain staging for your intended use will always be important. If you use regular modules and a decent mixer, your mixer may already provide soft-limiting (e.g. Erica Synths) and this will not be a must-have module. So always check before you get gear lust.

I use it a lot, preferrably just before my output module, or near my mic preamp. It's a permanent part of my 'new' Utility Case, which I've prepared to have the modules I often use always nearby, regardless of the subject of a video."

Molten Bypass | By Molten Modular and Befaco

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"I really love it when the YouTube creators work together with manufacturers to realize modules we may all need, but can't get. Following in DivKid's footsteps, Robin from Molten Modular now presents his second Befaco collab after the Motion Meter. The Bypass is - you may have guessed it - a 'detour' circuit. Typical usage is hard-switching between a dry sound and an FX chain. It seems a bit similar to send/return, but the Bypass opens and closes an entirely different path. It's more like an insert/return, with a Launch button to open and close it (also CV controlled). When the Launch is set to 'soft', the return remains engaged, and only the insert goes on/off.

Even though on paper it's a simple utility with four ins and four outs, it opens up a lot of possibilities which are relatively simple to patch with separates, but you may need a switch matrix or something much bigger than just 4HP.

00:00 Less hard
00:43 Hard vs Soft switching
02:13 Rhythmic CV injection
02:55 Typical usage of FX insert/return
03:52 Feedback patching made 'less hard'."

Molten BYPASS Q & A

video upload by Molten Music Technology

See the announcement post here.

Trace | Interpolating CV and Audio Scanner | by DivKid and Vostok Instruments

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"As a 4HP utility module, the Trace isn't that special. It's basically four inputs and one output, with a slider to crossfade between the inputs. But still. If you'd want to do something similar, you would need to patch precise CV to smoothly scan through these inputs with a mixer that supports crossfading. Buchla's Voltage Math (Tiptop 257T) has two crossfaders on board, and you may have a MakeNoise XPAN nearby. I also think it would be possible with a big mixer and a Mutable Tides to slowly fade in/out. The vintage and discontinued MakeNoise RxMx was all about scanned mixing and offered six channels. But I don't think there's anything that can do this in 4 HP. DivKid has a talent to identify the things we're missing in our cases and the Vostok/Divkid Trace is a valuable addition to any patch that involves a VCO with multiple outputs or lots of CV. Highly recommended and lots of fun."

QMMG DAY | September 7th and 9th. Let the Hunger Games begin

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"These are special days that will be remembered. Today, Saturday, you could theoretically pick up a QMMG at MakeNoise HQ, but only if you can drag your body to Ashville. If you manage to go there, keep an eye on Eugene F. Vactrolman. He may be wearing many disguises to break the 'one per customer' rule. Or maybe he'll bring the Vactrolman family, who knows. Then Sunday comes. A day for reflection. Preparation for Monday 9th. Create magic spells on Strega and summon Sauron. Or Gandalf.

Dealers all over the world have specific instructions to only accept pre-orders on the 9th. I have no idea how this will go down. Would you be able to place the order, or just leave your email. Will it be like a lottery, or more like the Hunger Games. I don't even know if they'll be available in the EU. If you happen to have Minions, use them. Explain to them the QMMG is like a quad banana. I'll have my family behind smartphones and laptops. If that doesn't work, I may need to create a timeloop and relive September 9th for as long as it takes. So if you don't see any new videos for two weeks, you'll know I'll be working on it.

It's also unclear if MakeNoise starts shipping when all preorders are settled, or stock is already present. I can't remember a modular event like this. It's never done before. MakeNoise is writing history and we're part of it. I wish you best of luck, and I 'expect' to see a lot of you sharing QMMG videos again. Let the Hunger Games begin."

Dutch Modular Fest 2024 | Artistic Impression

video upload by Cinematic Laboratory

"Dutch Modular Fest, Saturday August 31st, 2024
dB music facilties, Utrecht.

I wish DMF was every month, somewhere. But it's not. It's our Dutch annual event, celebrating the modular community and nearby manufacturers. I can't do interviews like DivKid and Mylar, and there's no 'best of show' except maybe all of them. Thanks to Allert Aalders (Sonar Traffic, Modulation) and Veerle Pennock (Acid Solder Club) for making this happen. And all the people who volunteered, participated, engineered, served and performed.

This video is sponsored by the Lab, with compliments."