Ambient Noodlings

Happy Sunday! I did some rearranging in my Eurorack case yesterday - moving things around, taking some things out, adding other things back in. That’s the neat thing about modular. You can make an entirely new instrument by swapping parts in and out. I enjoy the experimentation and try not to let the endless possibilities overwhelm me. The engineering part of my brain can easily go down a rabbit hole of analysis paralysis.

Patch Notes

* Clocking by Pam’s

* Sequencing by Moskwa II

* Main voice is Ensemble

* Morphagene mangled some notes from Ensemble

* Some drum hits from Peaks

* Metric mixer used for effects sends

* A bit of delay on drums from Mimeophon

* FX Aid on reverb

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Hey there, ambient music lovers. Hope you all are well. Being honest, I really didn’t feel like making any music today. The past week flat out sucked. In a week’s time, two old friends passed away and a lot of people I’ve worked with for years were laid off. A lot of bad news lately, yet I have a lot to be thankful for, and the music must go on.

Patch Notes

* Clock run by Pams

* Sequence run by Moskwa II

* Main voice: Ensemble, enveloped by Maths

* Background layer: Morphagene

* Percussion: QD Drum

* Delay: Mimeophon

* Reverb: FX Aid

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Good Sunday morning to y’all! I’m actually getting something posted early in the day this time. The last few weeks I’ve been down to the wire getting a Sunday jam posted before the day was done. No pressure, of course, but it’s good to have a goal and some time set aside for something that makes me feel better.

I find the sound of rain water relaxing and sometimes mix samples in with music. Today I have a kind of laid-back groove with some rain and synths. Grab your headphones and give a listen. Hopefully you’ll get a mellow vibe going.

Patch Notes

* Pams does the clocking

* Moskwa II does the melodic sequencing

* Lipsk and Erfurt are doing a drum pattern from the clock’s count in binary

* Ensemble is the melodic voice, enveloped by Maths, and filtered a bit by Popple

* STS plays the rain sample

* Morphagene does some slicing and dicing of the rain sample for some background texture

* QD Drum does the percussion sounds

* Mimeophon does the delay and FX Aid does the reverb

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Happy Sunday! Yeah, it’s another late day post this time. I managed to injure my knee yesterday and I’ve been in pain since yesterday evening. I really didn’t feel like recording any music today. It hurts to sit unless I keep my leg straight and it was quite uncomfortable sitting at my synth desk. It was nice to create something peaceful though, so I endured the pain. Suffering for the arts!

Patch Notes

* Pam’s does the clocking with some help from Lipsk and Erfurt

* Sequenced with Moskwa II

* Spectraphon does the voices, enveloped with Maths

* Chaos and Ochd modulated stuff

* There was a bit of filtering with Popple

* FX Aid did the reverb

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I’m trying something different today. There was a time when I was passionate about a number of things - photography, music, motorcycles, and writing. At some point that passion kind of faded away. I’m not sure if it was all due to the pandemic. That was certainly a big factor. In a way, the isolation never quite ended for me. Things that involved leaving the house became less appealing. Go to work, go home, sleep, repeat.

Music came back first, albeit in a different form from my drumming experience. I got a motorcycle again last year with the idea of simply commuting at first. Lately I’ve been back out riding on the backroads just to relax. Then there is photography. I sold my gear a while back after I realized it had been a long time since I’d picked up a camera. Recently I decided try it again. It’s different now. I’m trying some video for the first time. My still photography will change too and I’m still not sure myself what that means.

Then there is writing and here we are. I’ll be looking to do that more, starting with this “ride along” post. I have the notion to do these with some regularity, sharing the experience of my rides down often lonely roads. Some videos, photos, and words. We’ll see what happens.

I shot some video on a ride last weekend, which I put to some music from last Sunday’s ambient jam post. Yesterday I took a few pictures. Not much, but it’s a start. Peace can be found on these backroads if you look for it.

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Happy Sunday! I’ve apparently been in a groovy mood lately. Let’s keep the jam going with another upbeat tune. It might even be danceable. Maybe, I don’t dance, so I couldn’t say for sure. :) Grab your headphones and check it out. If it makes you feel like dancing, then by all means.

Patch Notes

More beats generated from binary! Can you tell I’m digging this?

* Pam’s does the clocking

* Lipsk and Erfurt count bits and trigger rhythms & stuff

* QD Drums does the percussion

* Moskwa II does the melodic sequencing, with a bit of help from Tirana II

* Ensemble is the melodic voice

* Popple does a bit of low pass filtering

* Lots of modulation from Ochd and expander

* Rnd Step helps a bit with some modulation on the QD

* Mimeophon does some delay on the percussion

* FX Aid does the 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! I’ve got another late day jam for you guys. It was a busy weekend for me, getting lots of things done around the house. The music must go on though - better late than never. It’s another upbeat piece today and I had fun putting it together. I seem to be on a kick with these percussion driven tunes lately. Still a drummer at heart!

Patch Notes

* Pam’s runs the clock and a few triggers

* Lipsk and Erfurt provide some triggers from a counter based on the main clock

* QD Drum does the percussion

* Moskwa II sequences Spectraphon

* Fold 6 does a bit of wavefolding

* Lots of modulated from Chaos, Octa source, and Ochd

* Make Noise Function provides an envelope for Spectraphon

* Mimeophon does the delay and FX Aid does the 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! Let’s get the party started! I’ve got an upbeat little jam for y’all today. I spent some time playing around with beats created with binary values from my Xaoc Leibniz modules. Huh? It’s just an interesting way for someone with an engineering mind to create rhythms. Maybe robots create music this way. :)

Grab some headphones and get your groove on.

Patch Notes

No photo of the rack again this time. It’s in a state of flux as I’m rearranging things and re-evaluating some of my modules and workflow. Big mess - modules and cables all over my desk. Eventually it will stabilize. Or not - this is modular synthesis after all.

Pam’s New Workout does the clocking. Moskwa II drive the sequence. Lipsk and Erfurt do the binary counting and triggers. Octasource modulates stuff. 4ms Ensemble is the main melodic voice and QD Drum does the percussion. Morphagene is playing back some mangled drum samples from the QD. Mimephon does some delay and FX Aid does the reverb.

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Happy Sunday! Time for the soothing sounds of modular stuff! Today’s recording is sort of piano-like. Definitely different from recent recordings. I’m always experimenting and I’ve got a great set of oscillators and tools with which to do that. The Spectraphon is still intriguing me and it’s featured in today’s jam.

Grab some headphones and chill for a bit. We all need that.

Patch Notes

I decided not to bother taking a photo of today’s patch. The reason is that I’m in the midst of shuffling things around in my case and there is actually more than one patch cabled up right now. It would be confusing, even for me. I’ll try to describe what’s going on for my modular geeks out there.

The Moskwa II sequencer runs the melody. The Tirana sequencer runs at a clock subdivision and is used to adjust the octave range on the Moskwa. Side A of Spectraphon plays the lead and Side B plays the bass using the sub output. Popple does some low pass filtering. Octasource is modulating all kinds of stuff. Maths does the envelopes for the Spectraphon. FX Aid does the reverb.

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Happy Sunday y’all! Hope everyone is doing well. The heat of summer is setting in around here and I’m glad I have my synth setup to play with in the air conditioned comfort of my office. I hope that will give me more time for experimentation and exploration of new sounds.

Headphones on. Chill.

Patch Notes

Looking at the patch cables now, all I can think is that’s quite a mess! Here’s the gist. Pams runs the clock. Moskwa drives the melodic sequence. The melodic voice is the Ensemble oscillator, enveloped by Maths, and filtered by Popple. The STS plays the percussion sounds and it’s triggered by Erfurt. Octasource modulates all the things, in addition to lots of hands-on with Ensemble. RND Step modulates pitch on one of the percussive sounds. Mimeophon does the delay and FX Aid does the 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