Most of the patches that I post about are ambient in nature. That's no surprise, seeing as a majority of the modules that I have were bought for that reason.
There is one module that I haven't featured yet in my videos. It's the Future Retro Transient, a versatile sample-based percussion module, with over 250+ modifiable samples in its register. I've mostly used this module to overlay some low bass beats over patches and I'm pretty happy with it (from the little I've explored).
Recently, I've been thinking of ways to make the Future Retro Transient jive with the rest of my modules. I remembered from creating a few of my previous patches that Mutable Instruments Rings can produce some funky beat-like sounds when it's parameters are CV modulated over a wide range.
So that's what I tried with this patch. Here's the result.
I have to admit, I was pretty surprised with how cool this patch sounded. It's like a mix between funk and electro beats, maybe even some EDM? An added surprise was that changing the attack/decay of the LFOs modulating Rings acted as a way to build the beat, changing it into a more synth-like sound; I had to throw in a little pitch sweep too because of that! And the Future Retro Transient, although just providing a simple bass drum, fits in so well.
So what's going on in this patch?
As you've seen in previous patches, I use Mutable Instruments Tides to generate my LFOs, mainly because it offers many options for waveshaping. Tides is in 1/8Hz (green) cyclic bipolar oscillations (yellow) mode and being clocked by Pam's Workout every beat (quarter notes at 126BPM). It is producing four clocked LFOs of varying frequencies (red).
Rings is in monophonic (green) inharmonic strings (red) mode. It is being strummed by Pam's Workout every quarter of a beat (sixteenth notes) and receives CV modulation of it's brightness and damping parameters from Tides's LFOs.
2HP TM, through 2HP Tune, sends quantized voltages to Rings, to change it's pitch every quarter of a beat (sixteenth notes). The randomness is about 50%, as indicated by the 12 o'clock position of the "prob" knob of TM.
The Future Retro Transient is set to output the "INDUSTRIAK" sample; a tight mid-pitch bass drum. It receives a quarter note trigger from Pam's Workout. I really like this sample because you can adjust the tightness and pitch of the drum, without it having a lot of structure.
And finally, both outputs of Rings and the output of the Future Retro Transient are mixed together via Shades, then outputted. I realize that this, in effect, negates the stereo output of Rings, but at the monment it's the best I ca do.
This was a simple patch, but a real eye-opener for me. I continue to be amazed at all the features and possible sounds that can be created from my modules. It really makes me want to explore them even more.
A tip to myself for next time: perform a pitch sweep using TM's OUT dial, so the sweep is quantized by Tune.
A tip to myself for next time: perform a pitch sweep using TM's OUT dial, so the sweep is quantized by Tune.
Do you own a Future Retro Transient? What's your favourite sample on it? Let me know in the comments.
Happy patching friends,
-Uncle Peter
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