Ambient Noodlings

Happy Sunday evening! It’s a late posting for me again this weekend. I found some time to play around on the synths this evening and ended up messing around with this not exactly ambient jam. Most of the timbre variations are filter manipulations through modulation and manual tweaking. I started out with a drone and ended up jamming over the top.

Patch Notes

* Digitakt II driving sequences and drum sounds

* Piston Honda provides melodic voices

* Pamela’s Pro Workout for clock distribution and modulation

* Maths for envelopes

* Dual Dagger for filtering

* Data Bender for glitching

* Mimeophone for delay

* FX Aid for reverb

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday, my ambient loving friends! I spent some time this afternoon exploring the wavetable Piston Honda oscillator and was pleased to find some string-ish and glassy timbres. I put together a sequence driven by the Digitakt and chilled out for a bit, playing with levels and filter manually.

Patch Notes

* All voices are the two oscillators in Piston Honda

* Sequencing by Digitakt II

* Pam’s Pro Workout doing some modulation and clock distribution

* Filtering by Dual Dagger

* Glitchiness by Data Bender

* Delay by Mimeophon

* Reverb by FX Aid

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday evening! I’m getting in my jam time a little late today. I put together a laid-back tune that I had fun tweaking on my small modular system. There is a lot hands-on modulation going on. Grab some headphones and chill out for a bit. Enjoy!

Patch Notes

* Piston Honda wave table oscillator provides the melodic voices

* Sequencing by Digitakt with a couple of MIDI tracks

* Maths for envelopes

* Dual Dagger for filter

* Light glitching with Data Bender

* Delay by Mimeophon and reverb by FX Aid

* Digitakt is doing the percussion

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday evening! I’ve got a little jam on my Digitakt for y’all today. I did some experimenting with creating a somewhat generative tune. I’m slowing learning how to do things on this interesting little box. My background with modular synthesis certainly helps with wrapping my head around all the options in the interface. Some things are easier to do on the ‘takt and others take some digging through YouTube to figure out.

Patch Notes

* All sounds are samples or single single cycle waveforms from the Digitakt

* Digitakt is going through modular for reverb (FX Aid)

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday afternoon! I spent some time playing around on the Digitakt this weekend, still working on figuring it out. Creating a tune with only samples is interesting. It’s very different from how I’ve done things the past few years with modular synthesis. I wasn’t sure I’d like the Elektron workflow, but it’s not bad now that I’m getting accustomed to it.

On a side note, it always cracks me up how comically bad AI is at including musical instruments in images. I have some fun each week quickly putting together an image for my posts. I don’t take it very seriously. Someday perhaps I’ll get back to photography and provide my own visuals. I’ve got too much going on in life now and the AI visuals are my lazy way of having something to decorate these posts.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday! Hope your day is going well. Last week was rough at work was a rough one. I took some time today to chill out on the synths for a while - longer than usual. I felt like creating something fun and whimsical so I just kind of jammed around on my Digitakt with a bunch of different sounds.

Patch Notes

* Digitakt ran sequences with a few tracks of samples and a MIDI track to Typhon

* Typhon ran through modular rack for some looping with Morphagene and effects

* Keystep used to trigger envelope on Maths for Atlas filter modulation

* Typhon delay by Mimeophon and reverb by FX Aid

* Digitakt effects on its sample tracks

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday evening! It’s Labor Day weekend and I’ve been doing my best to try and relax a little while I have an extra couple of days off. I had some time to play around with the synths today. I shuffled some things around, trying some different configurations for my rack and the Digitakt that I’ve been using a lot lately. I’m actually thinking of scaling back on the Eurorack stuff and I configured a small case with mainly effects modules. The idea of using the Digitakt for sequencing and sampling, my Typhon for a synth voice, and modular for sound shaping, mangling, and effects is interesting.

In tonight’s track Digitakt is driving the sequences and suppling the percussive sounds, as well as a ghostly choral backdrop. Typhon plays the melodic parts. Mimeophon was used for delay and FX Aid for reverb.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday evening y’all. I’ve got a little jam I put together on my Digitakt for you. It’s easy to get lost on that thing and I can’t even remember what I put on all the tracks now that I’ve recorded it. I am running the Digitakt through my modular rack, with Morphagene, Mimeophon, and FX Aid contributing to the mix. Lots of percussive bits going on, which is kind of what the Digitakt excels at. Grab some headphones and get lost in the sounds for a bit.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday afternoon, y’all. Today’s track is a darkish piece that is inspired by Vangelis’ Blade Runner work. Lots of experimentation going on here. I played around with a few layers to create something deep with one simple sequence.

Patch Notes

* Digitakt sequencing Typhon mono synth

* Typhon sequence was sampled into Mimeophon buffer and Morphagene

* Mimeophon is held with original sequence and modulation is used to move about in a big delay space

* Morphagene is modulated to move around in sampled areas of the original sequence

* Typhon voice was changed to a lead synth and mixed in with original voice and sequence

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com

Happy Sunday! I had some fun creating this little jam this afternoon. I picked up a used Dreadbox Typhon synth today in a trade and had my Digitakt controlling it over MIDI. Funny thing is I used to have a Typhon a couple years back or so and sold it when I started dabbling in modular. I missed its sounds - it’s a small box that can sound big and go from brutal to beautiful.

Patch Notes

* Digitakt sequencing the Typhon

* Typhon was run through my modular case to use Mimeophon and FX Aid for delay and reverb.

* Digitakt is playing all the percussive bits

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelconnell.substack.com