A deep dive into Mutable Instruments Plaits - PART 3! (Chord mode, Vowel and Speech Synthesis).

[@CinematicLaboratory]

Wow what a deep series! You may have three more episodes to go!

[@TheUnperson]

I know! And my initial idea was to do just one video about the module

[@VisionsMusicGroup]

@@TheUnperson It gets away from ya, eh? btw... Plaits was my first-ever module (18 mos ago), and because of this series, I learned about the left-button-long-press-timbre-morph options. How did I miss this? Manuals make no sense to me. Thank you!!!

[@digicat247]

For me, this has been the best exploration of MI Plaits. The way you approach this has really changed how I am thinking about modular as a whole. The Vowel and Speech Synthesis part is pure gold. Really one of the harder to use parts of Plaits; it's literally the Auto-Shpongle synth!

[@TheUnperson]

Wow I’m happy to hear that! I just had to google auto-shpongle haha!

[@digicat247]

@@TheUnperson shpongles first album uses formant filtering extensively. Very much worth a listen.

[@budfoon]

Using the Trig input unlocks the individual words within the banks of banks of LPC words in the Vowel & Speech model. Some pretty amusing stuff there!

[@bluestone9726]

That last jam was super dope! Been having Plaits in the back of my head for months now as a potential buy and this series has really convinced me that it is a must somewhere down the line. It's almost impossible to pass up on the sheer variety of sounds and possibility for exploration the module offers.

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man! Yea there’s sooo much in Plaits and at such a reasonable price too.

[@TheNormalUniverse]

Awesome video. What reverb algo are you using on the fx aid in the drone jam?

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man! I think it is the Black Hole reverb :)

[@PascalMourier]

Loved the drone part ;) I'm up for part 4 now :D Cheers !

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man!!

[@MiroPreclik]

I keep returning for the Vowel and Speech jam... Absolute fire.

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man! I do really like the sequence on that one, might try record it properly!

[@MarkBokowiec]

Love the final Jam - nice one!

[@CodyDeMatteis]

joined your patreon because of this series. great stuff.

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! I really appreciate the kind words and support! I should be uploading some more Plaits content to patreon tonight if you've not had enough already lol :)

[@AntonNidhoggr]

I've got plats recently. Thanks for your video.

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

I've really enjoyed your explorations over this series. Thank you !

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

Would you be willing to explain your routing through Maths to Plaits? I am curious what's being modulated. I can see you are using Maths as a mixer for the audio, but some of the other bits are befuddling me. Thanks!

[@TheUnperson]

@@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace Cheers man! Yea I'm using Maths as a mixer as I didn't have room in the case for a VCA and the signal was getting a bit hot at times. If I'm running the Plaits output in mono then I'll just use one channel of Maths and out to the Dual Dagger. If I'm using it in stereo then I'll use channels 2 and 3 of Maths and out to the Dual Dagger left and right inputs. Sometimes the two outputs from Plaits don't sound good in stereo, in which case I'm using channels 2 and 3 of Maths and the sum output to get a mono mix of the two. Hope that makes sense!

[@Leandrob13]

The vowel synth model jam sounded very cyberpunky. Thanks for sharing ideas!

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! I do love a bit of cyberpunk!

[@locavoremusic3680]

Exquisite work once again mon amis! Never stop.

[@redlester]

Plaits was one of the first modules I bought but you've inspired me to re-discover it. That is a really lovely drone. If anyone likes that sort of thing, check out some of the backing music used on Chris Morris' Blue Jam series for BBC Radio 1 (made in the 90's) if you can track a copy down.

[@pixelfrenzy]

Wasn't that a collaboration with the Orb at some point, or did I just make that up? :)

[@pixelfrenzy]

Oh I'm probably thinking of Blue Room, although Blue Jam *did* have an episode with The Orb in it according to Wikip. Meanwhile... kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZC0ooSnbr11qbM

[@redlester]

@@pixelfrenzy kzbin.info/aero/PLmdvhZBSAmsmU2n_bVwLWi0HWUXWn3MGx

[@TheUnperson]

I’m absolutely gonna check that out. Love getting music recommendations ☺️

[@Probbie]

Oh my... Thanks again for that brilliant exploration 👏👏👏

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it ☺️

[@janhoracek6438]

Love your vids!

[@oliverjung478]

Hi stupid question maybe but on what octave setting are running plaits in this video? Not the full eight - correct? I love this series! Thanks for the inspiration!!

[@TheUnperson]

Hi there! I’m not sure what you mean by octave settings? There is a button combo (maybe right button plus pitch knob) to change the octave.

[@oliverjung478]

@@TheUnperson hi, thanks for your answer. What I meant is.: I noticed that in a few of your patches the frequency knob is all the way counterclockwise fat. The notes are still rather mid range. I just wanted to know if you had restricted plaits to a certain octave upfront with it it’s all handled via your keyboard. Thanks again.

[@TheUnperson]

@@oliverjung478 I didn't consciously do anything with the pitch or octave range. Maybe I had the keyboard octave lower on the patches with the pitch knob up high :)

[@pixelfrenzy]

Loving this series... my Plaits is just over there ---> while I'm watching and so many ideas keep popping up. That speech synth thing is hard to control, but I've had fun getting it to rap nonsense.... I always loved the Kraftwerk tracks with those 80's speech synths on them.

[@TheUnperson]

Hope you patched up some of those ideas! ☺️

[@ruitokyolive]

Excelente again. The drone was a dream

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! ☺️

[@francescocottone3171]

Absolutely beautiful, great musical ideas 🙏

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you 🙏

[@outaspaceman]

I hit that same Drone algorithm, but then tend to “trance out” before being able to add anything else..😂👍

[@TheUnperson]

That’s the sign of a good drone!! 😆

[@chromosundrift]

9:00 Reminiscent of Lifeforms by Future Sound of London

[@dr.feelicks2051]

Who doesn’t love Plaits✌️ The vowel alg. can siphon hours-German Koolaid-OooYuh!

[@TheUnperson]

Haha it sure can!!

[@J_Carter]

Hey Ally, I've tried replicating the patch you've got going from ~3:18 - 3:55. Morph knob on Plaits working great, but turning Harmonics makes no change from any setting of Morph. Any idea what could be causing that? The only thing I can't make out of course is what you have your Pamela's channels set on, but I can't imagine that's making a huge difference in Plaits' Harmonics?

[@TheUnperson]

Is that the kinda organ sound? Both of those controls should make pretty obvious changes, with the morph changing the wave and the harmonics changing the chord. That isn't happening on yours? I think Pam's is only doing some subtle vibrato on that one.

[@J_Carter]

Yes, I have it on the same Chord setting as you, where Morph knob moves thru all kinds of great organ sounds, but I'm not getting any chord types out of Harmonics knob. Thanks for confirming nothing special coming from Pam's. I'll dig in more tomorrow...there must be some connection or knob setting I've overlooked. I have not noticed Harmonics being defective in any other model setting.

[@TheUnperson]

@@J_Carter That is really bizarre! So you've never had any chords coming from the module?

[@J_Carter]

@@TheUnperson Finally had time to do more troubleshooting. Harmonics knob doesn't work at all, in any model! 🤔Must have shorted out or something? I've reached out to Mutable Instruments for support 🤕

[@J_Carter]

@@TheUnperson Mystery solved! Emilie got back with me right away and suggested I try calibration. She accurately guessed that somewhere along the way I entered the calibration mode by mistake and the module "learnt" a large positive or negative offset on the HARMONICS CV input - effectively "pushing" with a 0V CV the knob to one extreme or another. I've re-calibrated and all is beautiful again in my Plaits world. I'm now able to access all the Harmonics available in Chord mode (octave, 5th, sus, etc) that were missing before.

[@paulhood1321]

Another top video. Please share the 666 jam, I wanna hear that 🤟

[@TheUnperson]

Hahah cheers man!

[@tomtoms862]

Top drawer

[@blacksand.]

80's anime vibes, drone bubbles, and Daft Punkish french house with deep rythm :) That was fun !

[@TheUnperson]

Hahah best description ever!!