003//Neon Snowflakes [Melodic Ambient] - 2x Mother 32 Modular, Flashback Delay, Eventide Space

[@RavenRaven-se6lr]

Depth to the ambiance I 👍

[@giovanna722]

Ah, musical sounds doing cartwheels. Love the ride!

[@WW-ek6tm]

OMG, I love this music, I put it on while working at my desk and it lulled me to sleep. A high pitch "Space Age Popcorn" note I think woke me up and then I realized my boss was standing next to me. =P

[@dreamfragments47]

Loved this- really creative track and the shapes moved really smoothly- keep up the good work!

[@RealityTrailers]

Interesting. A good tune to help get into meditative state.

[@lostoscillator]

Nice use of the assignable outputs

[@jamessusbilla]

WOW. thank *YOU*

[@nsrocker99]

This one might be my favorite one! Love how intricate the patterns are.

[@viowave]

Space Age Popcorn ... love it.

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

That's a way better name for this patch, I'm taking it for a future video!

[@girlinagale]

I'm pleased to see more of your sounds on KZbin, will listen to them all.

[@powerkor]

lovely music!

[@melchiortod29]

Fcking beatyful patch. Love it. Amazing. So simple yet so many little things

[@ballerlandyoutube]

Thats speaking with the universe

[@HulaOopa]

Pretty slick patch and very musical

[@halftimemodular]

It sounds really good, nice job!

[@MePeterNicholls]

I love all this. Wish it was on Apple Music so I could stream it

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Thank you! Maybe if this channel grows in the future I'll look into other platforms for the music, but for now it's KZbin only...

[@plankspankernumber1]

inspirational !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@systemcall739]

Just wow

[@EdisonGrove]

very cool!

[@YannGuillermou]

How did I not thumb up the 1st time I played this one?

[@DJ-Lazy-Lodger]

thats along the way.

[@leonordmann]

omg I'm the 303rd sub :O

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Tell your friends, get one to be the 808th sub ;)

[@leonordmann]

haha I will, soo good stuff :D

[@HulaOopa]

Alastair, If you could have either {M32 + SE-02 + O-Coast} vs {Analog Four MkII}, then which would you pick and why? I like the musicality of your generative sequences, so am interested in your opinion. Any one else have a preference based on subtle knowledge of these bits of hardware. For example, the overbridge for Elecktron would seem to be an intuitive interface for sound design, but is there a latency penalty that is bigger than you initially thought. Thanks!

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

To be honest it just depends on what you're looking for. If you'd miss saving presets, then get the Analog Four. If you want to be able to experiment with synthesis, get the combo. I love the mainly 1-knob-per-function workflow of my setup, and since it's all voltage controlled I can experiment a lot. I built my setup to be a powerful monosynth, yet I can still create musical generative patches and bizarre sound effects for sampling - that's the beauty of modular!

[@HulaOopa]

I think you properly distilled the choice for me: saving presets vs experimentation. I do like having a large parameter space. I do love a wide range of synth sounds from gnarly angry acid to melodic generative ambient patches

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Watch youtube reviews until you're bored sick and see if you can try anything out in person - that always makes a huge difference.

[@GangiFilms]

Maths and Veils in there too right?

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Yep! Also my AJH modules, everything is in the patch link :)

[@jeffreygrantsr4525]

What are the modules above the 2 Mother 32's?

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Click the patch diagram link in the description!

[@HulaOopa]

What are the components of your rack and how critical are your rack components to the execution of this sequencing/patching? I see that you are not clock stepping each M32 with Ableton, so patching CV and gate are obvious. However, I don't think I hear any obvious osc from your rack. (note added in proof: looking at your patch, so I'll try sussing things out myself.)

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

My components you can see in the link - 2x M32s, then a quad VCA, another OSC, a DH-ADSR envelope, and Maths (various utilities). Obviously the M32s are important - they provide the plucks, the random stepped voltages, the sequences, and a few utilities (buffered multiplying, attenuating, etc). You'd need a hell of a lot of individual modules to get the same result. The VCO only provides a static bass note which is mixed with both M32s, but you could change the sequences to include more bass notes if you didn't have another VCO. The DH-ADSR is essentially acting as a basic LFO, and I would have used an LFO if I'd had another spare. It's only changing the LFO rate of 1 M32, which is barely doing anything (I left it patched after experimenting with using the LFO square out as a trigger signal). The Maths is pretty essential, and that's normal for almost any patch! Here it supplies an LFO and an AD envelope, both voltage controlled, attenuation of signals, and an offset voltage. The AD envelope is the pluck of the filters, and the LFO slowly changes the tempo speed to make the relationship of the plucks with the delays more varied. Finally, the VCA is just attenuating signals, not even needing to be voltage controlled. Neither of those signals is doing a lot to the patch. Having said all that, self-generating sequences work best when you modulate subtle elements of the patch, to create an overall constant morph in the sound that keeps the listener interested. Not all of the modulating going on is important to the core sound of the patch, but without that modulation the patch would stay exactly the same and get boring pretty quickly.

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'I don't think I hear any obvious osc from your rack' - do you mean you can't hear the Mini Mod OSC in the top tier of the rack? If so, that's supplying a constant bass note which balances out the frequency distribution a bit more (basically so it's not always just higher octaves playing).

[@HulaOopa]

Yup, I didn't hear your Mini Mod OSC. I was struggling to hear that third voice. Your patch is entirely too clever :) Subtle, tasteful, and interesting--the morphing does keep one intrigued. You should submit a set to Chillits! Chillits is an ambient music festival, but still small & accessible--en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillits

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Haha thank you! I'm not sure I'd be at any level that a festival would be interested in, but I notice it takes places in September so maybe I will be by then...

[@h92o]

here there seems to be a kind of repetitive minimalism going on that --- yeah that has a bouncy blip blip happening all the time.. mmmmmm It has value, but may be overwhelming to some of the audience -- it is good very good--

[@graysynther2169]

Would make a good sample..free the gear up for complimentary parts, very nice though.

[@Kupka2408]

Hey Alastair Wilson, I am curating a compilation album with music from the modular scene on KZbin for the Leipzig based independend label 'Pattern//Select'. The album will be released on cassette tape around april 2018 and will be totally non-profit - all the sales will just be used to cover the costs of the production. We wanted to make more people aware of the great music that is created every day by all those creative and talented people here on KZbin and give something back to this lovely scene. If you are interested in being part of the tape please tell me, I will send you my e-mail adress so we can get in contact for further information about the project. Greetings from Leipzig, Leon

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

Hi Leon, I'd be more than happy to take part in the project! You can find my email address in the 'About' section of my channel, I think under 'business enquiries'. Please send me an email about it!

[@Kupka2408]

Hey, great :) unfortunately I can not find your e-mail address on your channel. Any other way I can contact you ? I'll try to send you a private message here on youtube.

[@AlastairWilsonMusic]

^I'll delete that message with my email once you've contacted me so that I'm safe from bot scammers

[@Kupka2408]

Thanks a lot, I've just sent you an e-mail :)

[@Kupka2408]

please let me know if you received my mail, I am experiencing some issues with my mail provider sometimes.

[@user-bl7ko5ne9l]

freeform jazzbot just add vocals skidew scats 23