FCICM | Generative Ambient Patch in VCV Rack 2
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- čas přidán 10. 02. 2024
- Four Chords in C Minor. That's pretty much the central idea around which this patch is created.
This time around, I wanted to let the chord and the mood be the main focus point of the patch. Something that just moves into the background when it has been playing for a while. That is why the two voices that can try to steal the attention away from the chord progressions are only triggered every so often.
In the PhraseSeq16 by Impromptu, there are five different four chord progressions (identified by their root notes) in C minor that all start with a C chord. Each time the four chords have played, a Sample and Hold module randomly switches the sequencer to a different progression.
A first voice that uses this progression, an Harmonàig module by Instruo sends the different notes of the current chord into a Saïch module that is mainly focused around the third and fifth notes of the chord. This gets combined with the output of a Ts-L module that is playing the root note a couple of octaves lower into the I-o47 filter. Both the cutoff frequency and the resonance of the filter are modulated at random to bring some movement into the sound, and the result is sent into a SurgeXT Reverb 2 module. This voice provides the main pad sound of the patch.
To complement this pad voice, a Cs-L module is playing the root of the current chord in a bass register. By applying some modulation on the symmetry bias and wavefolding parameters of this module (courtesy of the Ochd module), the sound of this voice will also move over time. A Mockba Modular Tuube and a SurgeXT Chorus module fatten up this voice a bit before they are sent to the main mixer.
Only playing chords can become boring quite quickly. So although the main focus of this patch is on the chords, a little bit of variation is provided by two other voices. The first of these is a voice that will be triggered every now and then to play a random note within the C minor pentatonic scale. The randomness is provided by an Instruo Tágh module, and quantized by another Harmonàig. A Cruïnn module will play this note, which will already fatten it up a bit since it utilizes multiple slightly detuned sawtooth waves. The output of this oscillator is sent into a delay module which will make it sound for a bit longer and fade out slowly. After passing through the Freak filter and a reverb, this voice is added to the overall mix.
Some additional melodic variation is provided by a voice that is set to a lower volume as to blend in more into the background. The notes that this module plays are provided by a Bogaudio Walk module. After being sent through a Geodesics Fate module to bring some random jumps into that melody line, it is quantized and sent into a Dark Energy oscillator. A Tap Dancer is used to ping this voice between left and right, and only the delay sound is sent to the main mixer so that this voice blends even more into the background.
A final addition to this patch is a pair of FM-OP modules that are playing notes in rapid succession into a wet-only reverb. This voice fills in some of the sonic gaps that are left by the other voices, and provides some additional movement to the overall sound since the parameters on the FM-OP modules are modulated by a Caudal module (the same module that also provided the modulation input on the filter of the first melodic voice).
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__ Setup __
- VCV Rack 2.4.1 on Windows
- All audio generated internally within VCV Rack (no external connections)
- Video is captured by OBS
- RAW FLAC Audio output from VCV Rack
- Audio recording synced to OBS, and fade added at the end with Reaper
- OBS video and Reaper audio are merged and cut to length using Shutter Encoder.
__ Copyright __
All rights reserved - Hudba
Great pads! I think I agree with you on the polyphony comment -- being able to create lush pads like this would take quite a lot of rigs in order to get right :)
Thanks! The additions that VCV has given when compared to a physical rig have really spoiled us ;-)
Top quality work! This is your best patch, really smooth and almost orchestral. 👌
Thank you! I'm thinking about doing some more patches that go in this direction.
Wow mate! Really magical! And GAS therapy also as it is the best example of what you can achieve without spending so much money on modules! Thanks!
Glad you like it :-) And as a recovering GAS sufferer in other past hobbies, I can confirm that spending a lot of money isn't a requirement, especially with the large number of excellent free modules that are available.
Super smooth, I second VirtualModular comment on it having an orchestral quality.
Thank you!
Why did you choose to do this over playing a instrument? Also this is incredible, do you think you would ever build a physical set up?
I do actually still play instruments (although less frequent recently), but I do that just for me because I enjoy playing them, not working towards performing them for others. VCV Rack is actually the same: I enjoy creating music with it, but it has the added bonus that the end result is usually something that can be listened to as a finished piece (while a single instrument playing without a band is usually less interesting to listen to).
A physical modular synth is pretty much out of my budget, especially since I've gotten used to just being able to add additional modules when needed in VCV Rack as long as the CPU can handle it 😁
@@not-things I guess piano by itself or a chello works well, but other instruments not as much, maybe classical guitar
I would rather a few holidays to asian than say a modular synth@@not-things
Invest the money and go on holiday with the gains? 😉
@@not-things good point