Mutable Instruments Tides v2: The Oscillator

Mutable Instruments Tides v2 is a special module to me. Not only is it a multi-outputting wave-generating monster (LFOs, audio rates, and everything in between) with many variable parameters, but it was the first big name brand module that I purchased new; that is, the first one I decided to spend relatively big bucks on.

I've had it for about several months now and you've seen it in many of my videos, where its done things from rhythmic clocked modulation, to acting as a clock source. But for this video, I'd like to show everyone how you can use Tides v2 as an oscillator. 

What I'll be doing in the video below is sending a sequence into Tides, then taking the four outputs of Tides (something new in v2) and varying their parameters to produce some interesting sounds. Enjoy!

I really liked putting this patch together and the sequence sounds amazing, to me, through Tides (see sequence details below). And I love the way the sounds changes even with the slightest turn of the knobs. 

Let's break down this patch now. 

It's not a complex patch I must admit. I have my Arturia Keystep loaded with a 32-note sequence which when started will output this sequence as voltages according to the 1V/oct standard into Tides. Tides is set to "oscillator" mode": 130.8Hz frequency output (red LED), cyclic bipolar oscillations (yellow LED) with its outputs having different frequencies (red LED). The four outputs are mixed together via my DIY mixer, then sent to my DIY Dual VCA, which is opened and closed by a gate signal from the Keystep every time a note in the sequence is generated. All of that is then inputted into Clouds, mainly to add reverb to the sound.

In addition, I have Pam's Workout also receiving the gate signal from the Keystep to set the tempo; i.e. every time a note in the sequence is played. The FutureRetro Transient is triggered from Pam's and adds a bass beat to the patch, to give it a more complete sound. 2HP Arp also makes an appearance, generating a voltage every 16 notes via Pam's to shift the pitch of the sequence (so it doesn't sound like the same thing, note-wise, all the time!)

And that's basically it. Now in the video, I vary three of Tides' parameters. In order, I start with Slope, which adjusts the ratio of ascending and descending segments of the outputted waves. This is sort've like an attack/decay feature built into one and as you can hear, basically changes the sound from a triangle wave to a more sawtooth-like wave. Next, I vary the Smoothness, which depending on how its varied either low-pass filters the wave (counterclockwise) or adds "kinks and bumps" along the slope (clockwise). This made for some funky sounds! Lastly, I vary the Shift/Level. This changes the frequency of each output relative to one another to produce "intonation chords". In the video, I use my DIY mixer to adjust the volume of each output, just to illustrate the difference across outputs. As I said before, changes in a few of the parameters can produce a wide array of sounds; it's quite versatile, and I didn't even touch the Shape parameter for this video!

Before I end, I would like to point out that keen listeners will have recognized that the sequence used in this video is the intro sequence to the song Levels by Avicii (the proper non-radio cut version). I had decided to use this sequence for the video simply because I had always wondered if it could be replicated using an oscillator Eurorack module. In addition to this, last week marked the two year anniversary of Avicii's untimely death, and it was just by coincidence that I had planned to release this video with that sequence, near that date...

-Uncle Peter

Ambient Strumming with 2HP Pluck, Clouds, Rings and a DIY Dual VCA

It's exciting times for me at the moment, in terms of Eurorack. I've just finished building my new DIY 2-row rack. Because of the extra space now, I've been able to add some DIY modules that I've built to the rack. Posts about both of these topics are coming soon!

I've been on a "ambient patch" binge lately as well (mostly because of my purchase of Mutable Instruments Clouds), trying to see what cool and different sounds I can come up with, while still making it sound ambient in nature. 

I decided to see how one of my favourite modules, 2HP Pluck, sounded when it is passed through Clouds. But I wanted to incorporate some of my DIY modules also, mainly a Dual VCA and a mixer. I kinda felt that I needed to, since they were the newest additions to the rack.

So here's the result of all that, something I'm calling it "Ambient Strumming", featuring 2HP Pluck as the main voice, Rings as a backup voice and some gate sequencing with the DIY Dual VCA and Pam's Workout, all sliced and diced together with Clouds!

To be honest, this is probably one of the most awe-inspiring (to me, of course) patches I've managed to wire up to date! I was completely surprised by the sounds that this patch produced. It's such a relaxing sound, delicate, yet clear when each note is triggered, from both of the voices. What's also cool is the different feeling the sound gives off at different tempos (who knew a change from 40 BPM to 60 BPM could make that much of a difference)!

Let's break down this patch now, since there's some pretty neat tricks I've included it in.

As I said before, two voices are present here. The first is 2HP Pluck, acting as the main voice. It's being triggered rhythmically by 2HP Euclid and given quantized voltages by 2HP TM and 2HP Tune every quarter of a beat (16th note). The other voice is Rings, in quadriphonic (red) modal (green) mode, acting as the backup voice. To be honest, I wanted to play down the role of Rings in this patch, mainly because I didn't want this to be another "Rings into Clouds" patch.

Each voice is then sent through a VCA, via the DIY Dual VCA, which receives gates from Pam's Workout (gate sequencing). Each gate is one beat in length, thus a beat's length of sound is outputted from each VCA; Pluck on the first beat and Rings on the third beat. This is something that I found to sound similar to call-and-response pattern found in various types of music.

The VCA-controlled voices are mixed together via the DIY mixer and inputted into Clouds. Clouds is in granular mode, with all its blending parameters set to 12 o'clock except for reverberation, which is set to ~4 o'clock. A gate from Pam's Workout that opens every fourth beat also controls the freeze parameter. I particularly like this setting of Clouds that I've found. As I said in a previous post, many people find Clouds very finicky, so I'm content to keep this setting for now.

The Doepfer LFO is generating three LFOs; a triangle wave, attenuated by Shades, to modulate Pluck's decay parameter, an inverted sawtooth wave, to modulate Euclid's outputted rhythm, and a sine wave, to modulate Rings' brightness parameter.

So that's pretty much what's happening. On a final note, I was really torn about what tempo to set for the patch, simply because each tempo generated a completely different mood. That's why I decided to go with both.

What did you think of this patch? Let me know in the comments below!


Happy patching friends,


-Uncle Peter

Ambient Arpeggios using LFOs and a Quantizer

One of the coolest things about Eurorack is that there are tons of neat tricks you can wire up with your modules, to produce some really cool sounds. 

A common trick, one that I recently came across, is the idea of using a LFO (low frequency oscillator) with a quantizer to produce an arpeggio. 

How exactly does this work? It's all in the quantizer, which takes incoming voltages from the LFO and adjusts them such that they match the voltage of a note that belongs to a scale (in accordance with the 1V/Oct Eurorack standard). That's why the outputted voltages (notes of the arpeggio) sound melodic, when connected to a voice. 

Here is a quick graph (not my graph) which should help visualize the concept of quantization.

As you can see, the blue line is the result of quantization; a discrete set of voltages, whereas the red line represents a LFO sine wave.

I decided to try out this trick by using Tides to generate some LFOs, 2HP Tune to quantize the notes and Rings to act as the voice. Here's the result:

Wow, Rings really does make some mystical sounds when you send an arpeggio into it, like the twinkling of a star! I love how melodic it sounds and the relaxing mood it puts you in.

Now let's break down this patch into a bit more detail. As I said, I've set up Tides to generate some LFOs. To do this, I've set the frequency range to 2Hz (yellow), the ramp mode to cyclic bipolar oscillations (red) and the output mode to different frequencies (red). That means that each output is producing a LFO of different frequency. Pamela's Workout is also clocking Tides.

The first Tides output is sent to Shades, to set the range of voltages. It is then sent to the Disting MkII, in full-wave rectifier mode, which takes the absolute value of the voltages (i.e. removes negative voltages). From here is goes through 2HP Tune, which quantizes the voltages to a melodic scale. As I mentioned above, this quantization creates the arpeggio of notes.

Rings is the voice of this patch. In particular, it's set to the quadriophonic (red) alternate "Karplusverb" reverb mode (flashing red) and receives the arpegggio sequence from Tune. This mode, I've found, is great for generating ambient-like sounds, mainly because of the reverb it creates. 

The other outputs of Tides are used for CV modulation, the second output modulating Rings' frequency setting and the third output modulating Rings' position setting. This adds a bit of dynamics to the patch, so it doesn't always sound the same.

The Doepfer LFO provides even more CV modulation, modifying the Tides' slope and frequency settings (this is what speeds up and slows down the rate of the arpeggio) as well as the brightness setting of Rings.

And finally, to add some randomness to the patch, 2HP TM generates a random voltage to set the bias of Tune. This modifies the base pitch of the arpeggio.

And that's pretty much it. It may sound a bit complex but the core idea of this patch, again, is passing a LFO through a quantizer to create the arpeggio of notes. Such a neat idea this is!

Have you tried out this trick? How did it sound for you? Let me know in the comments!

Happy patching friends,

-Uncle Peter

Strings of Time

When I first started building my rack, I remember being very eager to hear what sounds I could actually produce. My first patches were nothing special, an oscillator being fed some voltages, changing the pitch, mostly. But it sounded so cool to me and it was unlike anything I've ever heard before.

After a bit of tweaking, researching and frankly just exploring what each of my modules could do, I managed to put together a patch that sounded pretty decent (at least to me). 

Without further ado, here is my first real patch: "Strings of Time"

Remember in Guitar Hero those notes that you could hit without strumming? That's exactly what's going on here!

When Pluck is strummed, TM varies it's pitch. If the decay of Pluck is fast, no additional notes are heard (staccato), but if the decay is slow, you hear a soft variety of notes. The Doepfer LFO varies the speed of decay. 

Here are the full details:

• Pam's Workout is strumming 2HP Pluck on every 4th beat, triggering 2HP TM every 16th of a beat and triggering Expert Sleepers Disting mk2

• The voltages from TM are put through Shades (in attenuverter mode) to control the range of voltages that pass through. From 12 o'clock, turning clockwise increases the range. These filtered voltages are put through 2HP Tune, to quantize them to a melodic scale (major here), then inputted into Pluck's V/OCT input

• Pluck's audio output is sent to Expert Sleepers Disting mk2, which is set to clockable delay mode. In this mode, Disting mk2 will add a delay/echo effect to an inputted audio source, clocked to a inputted clock source

• An inverted sawtooth wave from the Doepher LFO is sent to Pluck's decay input, to add some modulation to the patch

What struck me most about this patch was that it was exactly the sound I was looking to get out of my rack, an ambient, echo-like feel, with some randomness added to it. It's feelings like these that make you want to explore even more, to see how you can make what you love sound even better!

What was your first patch like? How did it sound? Let me know in the comments below!

Happy patching friends,

-Uncle Peter

Suspenseful Strings with Tides v2 and Rings

When you look at what are the most popular module manufacturers in the Eurorack industry, a certain name always comes up in the mix: Mutable Instruments. And it's for good reason! Mutable Instruments make some of the most versatile and unique modules, each with a variety of features, abilities and control.

After a bit of reading and searching online, I found two Mutable Instruments modules that I believe suited my needs: Tides v2 and Rings.

Tides is a tidal modulator and acts, in essence, as an AD envelope generator, varying voltage up or down in unique and customizable ways. Slow enough and it acts as an LFO, fast enough and it acts as a VCO.

Rings is a resonator that can take (or generate) a plain audio signal and give it a full-bodied sound, all when triggered to do so. It contains various resonator types, all which produce unique sounds, with parameters that can also be adjusted.

When playing around with the modules, I was particularly interested in sending audio from Tides into Rings. Here is a cool and "suspenseful" patch I tried out, where Tides generates a chord that is reverbed through a rhythmically strummed Rings.

It's a simple patch but I really like the sounds that Rings is producing here; that deep, space-like background hum, with the soft plucking that varies in intensity. And add to that the smooth chord created by Tides. Such a simple sounds with lots of depth and suspense!

So what's going on in this patch?

• Tides generates audible tones where each output is a different frequency. To achieve this mode, I set the frequency range to audible (red), the ramp mode to cyclic oscillations (yellow) and output mode to different frequencies (red). To get a chord, I take the last three outputs and mix them together using Shades

• The chord is inputted into Rings, which is set to duophonic, sympathetic strings mode (yellow-yellow). This is an interesting mode as it is meant to mimic the phenomena that occurs in strings instruments, in which the strings are not directly plucked, but respond to the vibration of other strings. The result is a fuller sound with more overtones and undertones. Sending both Rings's even and odd outputs to a stereo mixer allows for "odd" and "even" strings to be distinguished. 2HP Euclid also strums Rings rhythmically.

• 2HP TM sends random voltages to 2HP Tune, which quantizes them to a melodic scale. A minor pentatonic scale here is chosen to add to suspense. These voltages are then sent to Tides's V/OCT input, to change the starting note of the chord, Rings's V/OCT input, to change the main frequency of the resonator, and 2HP Euclid's steps input, to change the rhythm it generates.

• Lastly, the A-145-1 LFO is used to CV modulate the damping and brightness settings of Rings. This is what changes the softness of the strummed chord over time.

This patch can definitely be added to, however, in terms of complexity and sounds. I've barely scratched the surface with what these modules can do.

Have you used Rings or Tides before? Let me know in the comments below, I am really keen on learning the ins and outs of these modules.

Happy patching friends,

-Uncle Peter