A little while ago I came up with the idea to create frequent musical patterns that I could post to Modulations, to chart my progress as an artist and synthesizer explorer but first I needed to solidify my setup a little more and now I have a established a system that I could take on the road with me if I so chose to do so.
Now everything is driven by the Oxi One sequencer, it runs my Elektron gear, Modular and Roland instruments. There are some core instruments that are put to work on each composition, plus some others that make guest appearances. However in general, that’s it, I’ve pinned it down. No more buying… apart from getting several Eurorack modules, an Analog Rhythm, the Octatrack Mk3 (doesn’t exist yet but I am sure it will come out) and…. no stop it, put the credit card back in it’s wallet and then hand it to your wife!
Joking aside I want to get comfortable with the setup I’ve now defined as the One (for now at least lol), so that I can make it do everything I want it to do!
Today’s pattern is super simple, we will get more complicated, as I wanted to add a section for paying subscribers where I give a few more ideas away and go into teacher mode. That will come later in the series.
Talking of which, if you wish to subscribe and get all of these updates delivered to your inbox or via the Substack app, you can subscribe for free. To gain access to my full archive and “deep dive” sections coming up later in this series or just because you’re a big fan of this newsletter, then why not consider becoming a paying subscriber.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all subscribers, free and premium. We’ve had an influx of new people recently and that is very exciting indeed.
Now for the bit that I am going to put behind a paywall in the future, don’t fret, there will be discounts for existing members and this is for people who want to learn from my mistakes, triumphs and knowledge I mean. The top part will always remain free with plenty to offer people.
Anyway back to the details of how this pattern, in a nutshell was put together.
OXi One - Sequencer
I will say at this point, don’t be afraid to ask questions, make suggestions even, this is hopefully going to be a collaborative experience.
This pattern consisted of two Matriceal Sequencer patterns, as it is literally a two voice affair. One sound being played by the Syntakt’s SY Tone machine and we shall explore the various machines that the Syntakt has to offer over the course of the series. I am tracking what I am doing along the way, mapping out where I want to go, a process of - “What does this feature do? How does it sound in conjunction with this other one”. Electronic music is a total journey, the more chaotic and mad the better!
Matriceal is one of the many sequencer types you can apply to the four lanes, as you’ll see from the numbered buttons between the grid and the other controls on the left. You can sequence Polyphonically, Monophonically (is that even a word?), Chord progressions, Multitrack and Stochastically. There is the ability to harmonise channels but that is a topic in it’s own right.
The Matriceal sequencer enables you to control 4 channels from one display, to set triggers on the grid and notes within your chosen scale or chromatically, the choice is yours. It is a very performant mode, as you can easily evolve patterns on the fly or as I will demonstrate more in the future load up into arrangements on the Oxi One, the powerful sequencer that it is!
Matriceal is also the one that serious Modular rack nerds, that I am sort of becoming myself, will reach for quite quickly, as you can get your head into the machine and be very hands on with it.
Elektron Syntakt
You may be asking the question, why not use the brilliant sequencer this guy has built in, you nasty man? Well I will be, as I want to see how both sequencers can be used because you can if you choose to, the flexibility is there. However the speed and extra possibilities of driving a multitude of different devices, across Elektron, Roland and bespoke modular racks from a universal sequencer is the best thing outside the regular DAW - trust me on this.
Anyway in terms of live adjustments today, I did tweak the delay, reverb and the settings for the SY Tone machine to use a preset I’d created some time back and adjusted a bit to create a different flavour for today.
It might be useful to write some posts highlighting all of the features and demonstrate their sounds, even if as an exercise for myself to get to know the furthest reaches of my system as yet unknown.
This is the thing with this setup, whilst the Oxi One takes care of the MIDI side of things, I can dive into the controls on the Syntakt and evolve the sounds in real time, transitioning them gradually from track to track. The sounds needn’t be loaded up again after the start of the jam, as they’re being manually tweaked for various sonic outcomes.
Modular rack
Silly idiot that I am, I didn’t write down the settings for the Oxi Coral but this provides the second voice in the piece today. It was routed through my favourite effects unit the Mimephon, with around 50% wet mix applied. I tweak this on the fly and ramp it up towards the end to create a wash of sound.
Creating the visual
Whilst most of this was created with nothing but hardware, I did use my iPad in the end to load the audio file into AUM, apply some Cascade reverb effects and applied Visual Synth to create the animation and thus the video for this post. I will explore this more in the next posts that I create, plus might also use footage of the lovely outside world too.
Thanks. Peace.
Pattern Series #1