Nature
September brings the transition from Summer to Fall reminding us of the world outdoors. We’ve spent the bulk of our time indoors for over six months and let’s face it, we all need the soul soothing nature offers. This months Patchable encourages you to draw inspiration from nature.
Patch the sound of a chirping bird in a nearby tree or wind blowing through leaves and chimes. Create the sound of waves crashing on the shore or footsteps in wet sand. Go underwater to design the sounds of whalesong and bubbles escaping sea anenome. Generate the sound of a field of locust or a swarm of bees. The options are nearly endless but the choice is yours.
THE CHALLENGE
You are free to write an entire song or simply create a single sound. Your submission can be structured or unstructured. You simply must use a modular synth in your submission and nature as inspiration for your patch.
HOW TO PLAY
THIS PATCHABLE RUNS FOR THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER – DEADLINE SEPTEMBER 30TH
- Create an original piece of music. It does not have to be a complete track. Ideas are welcome.
- Include the suffix PATCHABLE-0018 in the track title. A completed track title would look like this: Spiral Vortex PATCHABLE-0018
- Upload your track to soundcloud by end of day, September 30th.
- Include a link to your track and patch notes in the comments below.
https://soundcloud.com/forestine1/prairie-storm-patchable-0018
I thought about making something more musical, but decided to try making one of those storms we get in the Canadian Prairies where the thunder rattles the windows. I had to record this as five tracks, unpatching each time:
Muddy boots –
Primary Oscillator Timbre Wave into SEM Filter. Release from Erica VC EG into CV 1. I may not have clocked the envelope for this. A mangled triangle wave from Pamela’s New Workout into PWM of Grandmother’s Oscillator 1 set to Pulse Wave. Osc 1 Wave Out finally into CV 2 of SEM. SEM into Tangle Quartet and Envelope In from Pam’s. Single squish duplicated by Grand Canyon Delay pedal in DMM mode with ping pong for stereo squelching.
Rain –
White, Pink, Brown noise from Entropy 2 and White Noise from Turing Machine into Tangle Quartet. Enveloped with Pam’s stepped random and short gates set to different speeds.
More Rain and drips –
White, Pink, and Brown Noise from Entropy 2 into Tangle Quartet with different short envelopes from Pam’s with slop, delay, skip, and width modifiers. White noise from Turing Machine, also enveloped by Pam’s, into SEM audio in. Cv 1 of SEM is the Erica Envelope Release again, Cv 2 is Infra from Entropy 2. Band pass and Low/High Pass into left and right of Monsoon in Clouds mode. This track is run through Grand Canyon set to Reverb with ping pong. I adjusted the rain speed by slowly adjusting individual rates of envelopes in Pam’s.
Wind – Pink and Brown noise from Entropy 2 into Osc 1 and 2 of Moog Grandmother (Osc 3 is already noise). Zlob Infra into Rate In of Grandmother LFO, Mangled LFOs from Pam’s into Grandmother’s LFO sync and Filter cutoff, then manually adjusted filter knob and resonance.
Thunder – Primary Oscillator Saw Wave with the pitch very low into SEM. VC EG, clocked by Pam’s, into CV of SEM. Low Pass into Monsoon, slowly manually adjusting the Input Level with each clap. Monsoon tuning is all the way down, with Density pretty high and some Reverb and Feedback. Possibly a distortion pedal.
https://soundcloud.com/dysonant/438am-patchable-0018
## Birds
– Two sine waves pretty high pitch into a ring mod
– Batumi self-patched 3 channels into frequency. Multiple sine and triangle outs controlling pitch and VCA. One square out going to a s&h to control pitch of second sine wave.
– VCA to Three Sisters just to roll off a little top end.
## Wind
– Pink noise into slightly resonant LPF
– slow smooth random into LPF freq
## Crickets
– Fm ZPO with a sine, both at high pitch
– ZPO Morph out into QPAS
– QPAS stereo band pass out, mid frequency and modulating Radiate L with fast envelope, modulating radiate R with s&h
– Fast semi random envelope controlling QPAS Level
## Rain
– Feedback patch between 100 Grit and Interstellar Radio further gated by a fast random envelope.
Used Abyss, Grandmother, BIA, Zorlon Cannon and more the make the rest.
https://soundcloud.com/brain-basement/windy-caves-patchable-0018
I created the sounds of wind whistling through caves, with some water dripping, and the sound of the ocean outside in the distance.
Patch Notes:
Stream 1:
Frap Tools Sapèl white noise to Behringer 914 filter to Monsoon (Clouds clone).
Stream 2:
Sapèl brown noise to Make Noise Erbeverb. Towards the end, I move the reverb output to the X-Pan for more movement.
Stream 3:
Random Source Serge NTO to Serge VQVCF to Optomix to Echophon to X-Pan. Gates are controlled via random gate output from Stillson Hammer. Sapèl 1/12th volt output to pitch of NTO. Sapèl fluctuating voltage to Feedback CV of Echophon.