vectra

castol · Post by **castol** » Thu Apr 25, 2002 2:06 pm

<a name="planetz-file"></a><a href="http://www.planetz.com/Pulsar/files/mod ... .zip"><img src="/forums/images/file_icon.gif" border="0" alt=" File"> File</a> <a name="planetz-file"></a><a href="http://www.planetz.com/Pulsar/files/mod ... .txt"><img src="/forums/images/notes_icon.gif" border="0" alt=" Notes"> Notes</a> <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Type: Synth <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Pulsar Version: Pulsar 2.x <a name="planetz-tag"></a>Requires: Modular 2 _____________________________________ vectra is a 4 multi oscillator vector synthesizing patch with the capability for simple fm of two oscillators and oscillator sync of the adjacent 2 oscillators.

one of two neat features implemented is that aftertouch can be used to influence the vectoring of each axis bipolarly via some mod signal massaging.

the other neato feature is two vu meters which show axis mod levels. the levels are only good for x, and y each as a whole, not each oscillator on either end of each axis.

so as you see say your adjusting the x axis vector control with the y axis on 0 you will see the y axis mod level meter drop as you move to any "fringe" (-63, +64) region on the x axis. the x axis level meter will stay the same throughout, because of the virute of equal power crossfading.

still, figuring that i could use vu meters for this somewhat limited purpose was greatly appreciated by my sometimes confused self and looks pretty cool as they are whiring up and down in tandem

. reminds me of neon lights.

the patch is dry, and mono. it beneifits greatly from outboard processing and stereoizing effects.

i would have at least added a modulatable panner, but i stretched my dsp capacity to all it could go (really!).

based on a nord modular <a href="http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmod ... utorial</a href> by James J. Clark.

large read me, for the readers, that is calling out to be read.

more detail is provided there.

thanks.

//c

*note*... fixed [ init ] preset (wasn't completely initialized), and edited the readme to clean up some of my barble gable.

some of the tables in the readme
are messed up when viewing in ie 5. i tried saving with different line breaks and carriage return types to no good effect not sure what the problem is, for reference i'm using BBedit lite on a mac, which displays the text file perfectly.

[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-04-26 08:38 ] <a name="planetz-fileimage"></a><IMG SRC="http://www.planetz.com/Pulsar/files/modular/vectra.jpg" BORDER="0">

castol · Post by **castol** » Tue May 07, 2002 8:30 am

175 views and no comments....hmm, i'm going to have to rethink posting patches here.

i've tried to post reviews of other peoples patches, or at least post a reply. i mean, i can't even load v3 patches so i'm kind of limited in that sense.

i guess if i got around to posting some somewhat serious tracks made with these patches it might garner some more interest? i dunno, i've been in a slump for a bit, compositionally.

my latest bit is learning csound, i hope to have a few compositions once i get somewhat learned with it, made mostly in csound and then i'll incorporate some of my own modular patches as sound sources.

i think i may even be able to sequence via midi from within csound

don't ask me why that sounds appealing...

.

out.

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Wed May 08, 2002 6:45 pm

everyones got there head stuck into sfp 3.1

im sure it,s nothing personal, stand by..

topaz

On 2002-05-07 09:30, castol wrote:
175 views and no comments....hmm, i'm going to have to rethink posting patches here.

i've tried to post reviews of other peoples patches, or at least post a reply. i mean, i can't even load v3 patches so i'm kind of limited in that sense.

i guess if i got around to posting some somewhat serious tracks made with these patches it might garner some more interest? i dunno, i've been in a slump for a bit, compositionally.

my latest bit is learning csound, i hope to have a few compositions once i get somewhat learned with it, made mostly in csound and then i'll incorporate some of my own modular patches as sound sources.

i think i may even be able to sequence via midi from within csound

don't ask me why that sounds appealing....

out.

castol · Post by **castol** » Wed May 08, 2002 7:40 pm

yah i guess. i just crave a little bit of recognition you know

i see that this place isn't super modular happy though...not enough for myself at least. still a nice place to frequent.

thanks.

//c

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Wed May 08, 2002 7:55 pm

Castol, I haven't had a chance to download this yet, but don't lose heart. It's pretty typical to get at least a 100:1 ratio in views to comment.

Looking at your patch did make me think about a couple of things: there are so many modules in some patches that perhaps they might be better arranged so that you had a single "column" devoted to "modules you should twiddle to make your own sounds". The other columns would be "background guts".

Then I thought wouldn't it be nice if there was some sort of "publish" feature so that you could hide non-tweak modules and produce a slimmer unit.

And then just sadness that yet again there was nothing in the software update for the Modular

- stream of consciousness ends -

castol · Post by **castol** » Wed May 08, 2002 8:27 pm

thanks for the reply spirit.

you know...i got into the habbit of arranging my patches into a manner that makes sense for myself pretty early on. you hit it right on the head, get the untweakable stuff out of the way of the tweakable stuff but by putting it below everything else, or the the side (where you can hide them from view). and making sections of groups of modules or some sort of flow of modules.

i try and make it somewhat obvious in the patches, and document it in the readmes.

i can imagine that if you didn't know beforehand you wouldn't see a pattern or structure to them....but there is...as much as i can eek out of the modular at least.

in this patch, the right hand side is meant to be hidden from view, i just included it in the screenshot for completeness. the bottom of the patch contains the other non-tweakable elements, beside the very last pitch mod mixer.

there are text modules defining each section, the first column being the oscillator section - grouped by eacj significant oscillators specific features (pwm mod, pitch mod, fm, sync).

as i see it, modular patches could really only be improved in userfriendlyness by being able to do what reaktor lets you do....pick and choose controls to place on a configurable front end interface. or by making text inputs availible for each module (cut down on clutter, confusion of what a module is for and or doing).

i think reaktor is very different than the modular in a lot of senses. and the modular shouldn't exactly follow in its footsteps nor do i think it will. anyhow....a real (big) modular is a monster to deal with....we've got it easy in comparison really

i agree though, there is something to be said about a smaller, simpler patch which is easy and fun to tweak, versus a bigger, more complex patch which takes a lot of scrolling and head scratching to figure out and tweak.

i think vectra balances the two pretty well imo.

[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-05-08 21:42 ]

castol · Post by **castol** » Wed May 08, 2002 8:35 pm

oh, btw....sorry to hear about no new modular stuffs, i didn't really expect any to tell you the truth.

i'm still happy to hear cw mentioned development of a newer version. thats enough for myself.

so, now that sfp is out....time to get a working on that ideas for modular list.

i'll do so before next week, let you know when i have a newer version done. i would appreciate your opinion as before.

best.

//c

gedas · Post by **gedas** » Thu May 09, 2002 2:28 am

I'm sure they've got something up the sleeve

. Now that the SFP is out they can concentrate on the modular and make some major update to it. Anyway, for me this would only mean waiting for some new excellent patches posted here

. I'm always amazed at the abilities of the people in this community. I can never seem to find time to learn some modular synthesis, playing and tweeking the existing stuff takes it all.

castol · Post by **castol** » Fri May 10, 2002 4:46 am

hi gedas,

i think so to

learning modular synthesis is suprisingly engaging for myself.

for the first few months i had my elektra, i didn't do much of anything with the modular. i tried out the tutorials and whacked some stuff together (which i still have), and what not...did this for awhile. i wasn't really getting into it though. then, just being curious i started looking around on the web for info on modular synthesis (there is tons!) and thats when i started really getting into it and really enjoying exploring the almost unfathomable possibilities presented. its strange, but not understanding everything gives me this, odd bit of focus, than if i did understand everything. and believe me, a lot of the time i lack A LOT of focus. i've found following tutorials, trying out other peoples ideas, and making emulative type stuff to give me that. which lead to my own inspiried creations.

i had no idea beforehand it would be so....for lack of a better word, awesome! and actually wasn't even looking for a modular (though i had considered a micro mod, but passed because it was just a bit out of my monetary constraints at the time) when i picked up my elektra card. i just thought it looked like a great deal, a nice soundcard, and some effects and synths. i was previously considering an audiophile 24/96 card, a few second hand inexpensive synths and an inexpensive second hand effects unit.

instead i got an elektra, an esq-1, and some much needed computer upgrades, all for around the same price as the more hardware oriented stuff i was considering. i really got quite the deal.

best.

[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-05-10 09:11 ]

gedas · Post by **gedas** » Fri May 10, 2002 10:38 am

And I can tell you that you really got the hang of it. And that's why I love this platform and overall possibilities for creative exploration that technology has brought to the field of music. The more you go into it, the wider is the horizon, and that's the beauty of the journey. I was always too lazy to get some sort of formal training in music (except for two years of classic guitar lessons, I'm sort of afraid of the cliche that I often see to be put on those with the knowledge), but I just love to discover it all by myself, feeling the way, putting bits and pieces of information together. OK, enough of this empirical self-exploration gibberish

. Well, let's see what happens if I tweak this knob...

castol · Post by **castol** » Fri May 10, 2002 5:03 pm

thanks gedas.

i'm not trained at all either. i really want to be more learned, but...yes i am also kind of unmotivated to do so. for various reasons.

i'm really scared of having some piano teacher hoovering over me telling me "what" to do and what i'm doing is wrong.

i had a really great short lived experience in middle school playing in a picked jazz ensemble. i played the b flat clarinet. sort of looks like a basson crossed with a saxaphone. that was fun

yay...someone gave me a 7. i garner thats pretty good considering hardly anyone places votes

night.

Michu · Post by **Michu** » Sun May 12, 2002 4:10 am

Castol,

you're freak

i had a quick look at your patch, but i got lost on a first turn. finding what you had on mind when you were creating this will take some time

castol · Post by **castol** » Sun May 12, 2002 9:19 am

michu: so you got a hold of a mod2 then i take it

. i remember you posting a wanted ad a few weeks back for one.

happy modularing!

Ferry · Post by **Ferry** » Sat Jun 15, 2002 11:14 am

Hey Castol,

I'm just wandering around on the forum for the first time really and downloaded and tried your baby.

I love it and the preset 'oiet' is just what i'm looking for..

Thanks and I have a lot of respect for people like you.

Ferry

Nikibuzz · Post by **Nikibuzz** » Sun Jun 16, 2002 11:56 am

Sorry I just don't get the whole xy thing
Do I need a Joystick for this?
Can I operate the xy thing from a mod wheel?
or pitch wheel?

Niki

castol · Post by **castol** » Sun Jun 16, 2002 5:45 pm

thanks or the kind comment ferry.

really the people to thank are the folks over at the advanced programming techniques for modular synthesis website.

nikibuzz: the x, y thing is just a means of explaining where in an x, y axis each oscillator lays (a different one resides at each "corner"). for eg.; think of graph paper, draw a line vertically down the middle, and a line horizontally across the center. x equals the horizontal plane, and y equals the vertical plane. count off lets say 64 in each direction (up + / down - , left - / right +) from the very middle of where the two lines meet and now you have your x, y axis.

that is how i think of it at least.

as for real-time control, that can be done with aftertouch. but it takes some setting up of the x, and y axis modulation mixers.

but, for the most part it is more interesting to use the lfos and multi-segment envelopes to do the modulating.

the modulators (multi-segment envelopes and lfos) work in exactly the same value ranges (-63 to +64) as do the manual controls (constant val bipolars and aftertouch). so there should be no confusion there.

a few of the included presets that have (at) in their name are meant to take some aftertouch modulation to influence the vectoring somewhat, albeit slight.

a joystick would be nice. a neutron posted a joystick x, y type midi device not long ago which could be put to use with this patch pretty well i think. i haven't tried it out yet though, so i would not be very sure how to set it up correctly until i did try.

the included readme contains a lot of info. its probobly hard to follow though. but, there is some straight to the point stuff to be gleaned from it. like experimenting with the x, y axis manual controls to see how they influence what oscillator(s) are mixed together at any one x, y coordinate. and what coordinates equal what in terms of oscillators mixed to the filter.

hope this helps a bit, if not. feel free to ask some more.

best.

//c

[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-06-16 18:58 ]

Michu · Post by **Michu** » Sun Jun 16, 2002 8:38 pm

castol,

i use Toaster software with USB joy, this is occasionally useful. there is also software called VMIDIJoY but it doesn't work with newer joysticks (USB).
btw this 4way mixer is very clever, i am thinking on patch with one too.

cheers

michu

David · Post by **David** » Mon Jun 17, 2002 3:55 pm

Great joystick information, cheers very timely. Just what I was looking for for use with the ace module. Nice work Castol, keep em comming!

castol · Post by **castol** » Tue Jun 18, 2002 12:32 am

thanks for the links michu. i haven't ever played with many alternative controllers besides a keyboard and the knobs on them.

i do have an old microsoft sidewinder joystick laying around, but it is for a pc, and i'm a mac user now.

no usb either, well...not yet at least.

heh.

no sfp either, so i can't try that device neutron posted (just remembered).

i've got a bit of extra cash coming along the end of this month, and i considered upgrading...but...you know how it is. i just really don't need to, and could put the money to much better uses.

although i may just break down and get the upgrade. who knows. i'm gonna be installing os 9 finally on my mac and picked up another 64 megs of ram. we'll see how that goes.

best.

//c

David · Post by **David** » Tue Jun 18, 2002 1:30 pm

Castol

How can there be anything better to spend your money on?

[ This Message was edited by: Marlin Spike on 2002-06-18 14:31 ]