Let's Learn Eurorack (ft. VCV Rack): 02 - Sequencers

Let's learn modular synthesis! In this video, we'll learn gates, triggers, clocks, and sequencers.
Subscribe to these makers on VCV rack to follow along:
library.vcvrack.com/AlrightDe...
library.vcvrack.com/CountModula
library.vcvrack.com/Hora-Mixers
library.vcvrack.com/Impromptu...
library.vcvrack.com/Valley
library.vcvrack.com/voxglitch
Get the VCV rack patch files here: patchstorage.com/author/redme...
00:00 intro
00:35 how to follow along
01:10 first video recap
02:01 starting the patch
03:32 what's a sequencer?
04:09 understanding clock
06:22 lfos as clocks
07:37 understanding triggers
09:12 clocking a sequencer
11:03 clock generators
13:20 gate sequencers
17:10 run and reset
18:43 pitch sequencing
20:34 probability with bernoulli gates
24:17 sequencing modulation events
26:30 clocking effects
29:53 separating pitch and gate events
33:00 self-playing basslines
34:08 a little jam
35:12 recap and outro
------------------------------------
Patreon: bit.ly/rmrpatreon
My Music:
Bandcamp: bit.ly/2Kq617o
Soundcloud: bit.ly/2NOH9Is
Spotify: spoti.fi/2N40SoX
Google Play: bit.ly/33M9aG5
iTunes: apple.co/2pqh3SK
Amazon Music: amzn.to/2O9q1fe
Merch: bit.ly/rmrshirts
Connect:
Twitter: bit.ly/rmrtwitters
Website: bit.ly/rmrmedia

[@bobboulden]

For every 5 minutes I spend watching this tutorial series, I spend 10 minutes applying what I just learned and screwing around.

[@kerwinfernandes3643]

Same here, I think spent almost 2-3x times watching this video and noodling around. So much fun!

[@iandaniel1601]

I took me about 5 hours to watch this video

[@tatodlp]

Hey, really happy to see you teaching on VCV, making modular much more approachable to beginners. Anyways, I have a general tip for making the patches and connections much easier to read. There's a common convention to color code cables so you know what kind of information is being carried through. Red: Audio Blue: Clocks/Gates/Triggers Yellow: Pitch (v/oct) Green: General modulation (CV) There's a few free modules in the VCV library which make cable management much easier. The one I use has global hotkeys so you can seamlessly switch between cable colors. It's called Palette by Count Modula, a collection which you already have downloaded and in the video description :) . You just press one of the numbers and it switches colors. 1: Red 2: Blue 3: Yellow 4: Green

[@cinnamonrollypoly]

Thank you. I'm definitely going to be using this.

[@Caldoric]

Is this also a thing for Cardinal (the free version of VCV Rack)?

[@evangenuise7978]

Dude. I had SO many aha moments during this episode. Lots of concepts clicked that had eluded me previously. So freakin awesome getting the sonic legos to blip and boop and groove together too!!

[@hellcoreproductions]

So, I'm pretty OK with modular, but it's still super-nice to see this, anything that brings more people in is great!

[@queeniefcharles]

Definitely one of the best tutorials out there. got started with VCV two years ago when this came out, now coming back every now and then to refresh my memory. thank you for your work and kindness

[@jefffowler8170]

this series is excellent, only 2 in but I am really appreciate the "building it up from nothing" approach, really getting my brain running on how this whole thing works. Modular has always seemed really impenetrable because of the cost of experimentation and the fact you're usually seeing the end result and not the experimenting that got there, so thanks a lot for this, looking forward to watching the rest!

[@feralfoods]

this could be the most useful modular tutorial on the internet. it demonstrates so many essential points, and really gets a person from point-zero to being able to make something nice. -very well done, thank you for posting.

[@arkkisarkki]

Really liking this series so far. I've been wanting to get into VCV Rack more but it's honestly a bit daunting when you just boot it up for the first time even if you already know the basics of eurorack. Just a little nitpicky clarification on the volt-per-octave thing, though: the pre-quantized voltage is still perfectly valid one volt per octave pitch information, it's just that it's not constrained to any tuning system. The quantizer just latches the free running voltage to the nearest enabled (presumably 12 tone equal temperament) semitone.

[@hyprmynd]

So beyond thrilled that you're covering VCV now. I've always admired how much musicality you have with modular, and getting insight into your process in tools i can afford is fantastic. Thanks so much for all the work you put into this (as always).

[@jessehamilton8759]

I cannot thank you enough, these videos are so easy to follow and I have already learned so much!

[@leehumphries9939]

If you check the dropdown menu for CLKD, there's an option to have it send a reset pulse out at start. Also, the full sized version of it has swing and pulse width control for the gates. Love your channel, and thrilled to see you working with VCV! PS: The MixMaster mixers from MindMeld are free, and super capable.

[@mosesve1]

Agree! Mindmeld Mixmaster with the Auxspander is an awesome Mixer.

[@johntyler7675]

This is the most helpful beginner's guide for Eurorack I've seen. And it's practical using VCV Rack instead of physical gear because you can easily follow along, pause, tinker for yourself, download a few extra things from their library, come back to the video, and keep learning.

[@Spaceman8.1x]

I'm new to synths, but thoroughly enjoyed your video and the step by step process! Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us!

[@LonnonFoster]

I am having *so much fun* with this series. I had to restart this particular video a couple of times, because I'd follow along for a bit, and then just go nuts reconnecting and twiddling knobs and discovering all kinds of crazy stuff, then have to rip everything out and start the video again. I learned to save lots of copies as I go, which counts as a major advantage to me over physical rack modules. But I can see why modular has such an appeal! Super, super fun. Thank you!

[@caxtnova]

There's something so incredibly magical about how that melody at 34:32 can transform VCV rack from "fun tool for creating interesting sounds" to "beautiful music making machine". Great stuff, can't wait for the rest of the series! Also, forget if you mentioned this but - if you hold down ctrl while clicking and dragging modules, you can "push" other modules around; super useful for organizing complicated racks!

[@dakedres]

I love how your tutorials gradually transition into playing around at the end of the video. It's so inspiring.

[@leethium6982]

this is one of the best vcv rack tutorial out there, the jam at the end is very cool too !

[@liriomusic4391]

watching this video was a whole row of "ohhh" and "Holy shit!!". I applaud you!

[@xTheOxx]

My pick for a simple, free and feature-rich VCV mixer: Form by Squinky Labs. Two aux loops, mute and single buttons for each track, and scalable with the ExFor and ExTwo modules.

[@fr.dn.raphaelshelton8899]

This (and part one) has been incredibly helpful. I am an absolute newby, but this was easy to follow and I can't wait to watch the next one.

[@AdamCavill]

If you're doing your head in trying to find the 8x8 Gate Sequencer from Count Modula as I just did, I think the current version has been recoloured gray. So much for my visual scanning abilities.

[@raffaeleturra5464]

Hi, I came here to thank you for your contribution. A long-time sound designer and synth trainer here: your way to explain is charmingly amazing and truly inspiring.

[@rowandavis148]

Cannot over-emphasise how much fun I've had in VCV thanks to these videos, huge thank you!

[@f_stop]

Get yourself that Mindmeld Mixmaster. Best goddamn mixer for VCV ever. Free, of course.

[@StevenFrei]

+1 on the Mindmeld mixer. It does loads of things in the rightclick menu too. And it is a bit better organised in the labelling.

[@irishmossdubwise]

This is mind blowing education. Im rather experienced with music. Humbling myself to this education has been amazing. Frustrating. But incredible. Thanks.

[@hfribjkhjkhkhgfklfjhgh7025]

i've been wishing for videos like this for a long time. its great to have this stuff explained by such a good teacher

[@BrianWebb22]

Oh, these are coming out fast! Awesome!

[@nikolasgray1940]

Fantastic channel, love this series!

[@johnfraboni8077]

Thanks for making this series!

[@letmefeelthevibes]

You're a legend bro. It's nice to learn modular with you! Thank you

[@JustinKimball]

I love this series. Great info. Looking forward to the next video!

[@SCARTRACKS]

Absolutely loving this series!

[@HallowedError]

Absolutely loving this! Thank you for making these!

[@toddtyler]

This series is amazing, just got VCV 2 and was wondering where to start - thank you so much!

[@skelly790]

That was great. Especially the bit about generated basslines. I've been wondering how to do that. Scored an outstanding 36:26/36:26 on my personal attention span score record. Best I've managed for months.

[@faxisthefox]

this is nuts. but hey I can go back and watch this as many times as I need to till I get it. great job! the sound at the end while you were improvising was a treat to the ears

[@gustavost86]

I am loving this modular series! Learning a lot, Thanks

[@musicartguy1]

this series is amazing. Thank you!

[@philbarbato]

This is so much fun. Thank you! 👨‍💻

[@bigboygametime]

I adore this series already, thank you for making the best VCV Rack tutorials I've seen anywhere. Please keep them coming!!!

[@user-wg2bi9qo3q]

this is by far the easiest to understand out of any modular video ive ever seen. im on the boat killing time and am cheesing ear to ear . a lot of this is finally coming together in my head.

[@jqmark]

Hey man thanks for these. Really useful and fun to watch and play along.

[@ferventblack]

love the catJAM at the end

[@Jerel_with_a_J]

this is spectacular and i'm starting to fall in love with this whole modular synth idea.. thank you!

[@sonicsupersam7793]

This came right as I was getting back into vcv and your channel. I swear you can read my mind.

[@RSKT_art]

Thanks so much for sharing this with us Jeremy. I've managed to make a few things with VCV rack in the past, but this has really helped explain a few concepts about modular that I just didn't understand. Really can't wait for the next part in this series! :)

[@emapage8914]

Thank you so much for making this, I feel like the knowledge floor for modular synthesis is really high and you're making it really easy and fun to learn, incredible!

[@MH-zk3yd]

Awesome explanation, the scopes helped me a lot to understand whats actually going on under the hood!

[@TeZaKone]

Thanks for this, I´ve been wanting to get into VCV for a while now

[@parkergreenwood108]

This was insanely helpful. You not only explain these basics very clearly, but you give so many creative pointers that have set me in the right direction. Great stuff!

[@ssstewart1]

Absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much!

[@kidsnerds]

yesterday, when i saw your first video about vcv, i immediately downloaded the software and stayed all day searching and trying to play arround and generate sounds. It's been a while since i've been a enthusiastic about modular synthesis, but i didn't know about the vcv rack. Thak you for sharing this amazing knowlege about the subject!!

[@matthodek]

Thanks for sharing some really good ideas! I especially liked the Bernoulli gate into the LFO. I need to go play with that.

[@lydianlights]

Already having SO MUCH FUN with modular and I'm only on my first day. You explain everything so thoroughly and throw in so many nice tricks that really show what is possible. Thanks for these videos :)

[@ChrisMills-AmbientSpace]

Thank you so much for this. I am feeling inspired and you have shown me some new ways to broaden my understanding of modular and VCV.

[@TheFetteEnte]

Thank you for this! Finally got into it! Makes a lot of fun just to turn knobs after every step you show, so i have to repatch it every time haha

[@deanbaker9031]

I will be working on this for a month or so, love the patches, and how you explained the signaling for each device.

[@ivanfaigenbom5300]

really awesome video. Thank you so much

[@severalwhitespaces]

This is a smorgasbord of useful information. I thank you for its thoughtful preparation.

[@rich_in_paradise]

Thanks for making these videos! I picked up VCV when 2.0 was released but hadn't really done anything with it yet. It all looked so fun, but although I had enough synth theory to make a sound like at the start of the first video in this series, I couldn't do much else. Looking forward to trying out the stuff from this video and others that follow.

[@CharlesBunny]

Been relearning VCV Rack! Hoping to make some tail waggers. Thanks for taking the time and making such a comprehensive guide.

[@adamdean2923]

Thank you so much. I have been uninspired with my normal modes of musical expression, and you have kindled in me the delight of a new and challenging unexplored avenue.

[@krudler406]

great job, really good stuff in here

[@Pavel555]

Thanks Jeremy. Good stuff

[@growcactus]

I think if you hold down control you can shove modules in-between others. Love the videos

[@rhinoskin7550]

Thank you!! This setup is insanely versatile and simple.. I've tweaked the knobs and heard every genre from this set up by itself.. You're hella smart!

[@retro-_-3075]

This tutorial is awesome, im really getting into VCV!! One thing to note though, at 24:16 you make some not insignificant changes to the patch which you just cut to and didnt mentaion. did confuse me for a second! but its alright considering the rest of the video was great. :)

[@hyperactivists9390]

Thank you ❤️very helpful

[@mitechko]

There is a free mixer by MindMeld called MixMaster that has send effects, a parametric EQ and all sorts of other features.

[@bricelory9534]

Just a note for the "Reset" on the clock at just a bit before 18:00 - if you look above the button Jeremy is pushing to manually trigger the Reset, you can see there is an input that can receive a trigger signal for the Reset as well. This way you can have something automatically push that button for you. Same thing with the Run button - in case you want the clock (and the sequencers) start and stop automatically. Neat!

[@f55665566]

Amazing tutorial!

[@jmm1233]

thankyou for the tutorial , i just started using cardinal vst which this also applies to

[@electropocalypse5877]

The further I get into this video series the more I realize how great modular synthesis truly is. Great videos! (@10.00) when you connected the CV output of SEQ 3 to the V/OCT of macro oscilator 2, that sound reminded me exactly of the original Metroid! So nostalgic. Although it's very inharmonic and analog sounding, I love those metallic little bleeps and things. 🙂

[@poga8sun]

That was awesome thanks !

[@jasonknight9043]

amazing mate!

[@Buson94]

I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the information and couldn't follow the video that fast, so i just copied what you did more or less and i got a nice sounding first patch :) i will try around now and learn a bit on my own but i can't wait for more videos from you

[@rickyardo2944]

Very very well done!! really cool tutorial, please make more but keep your pointer in control so we can follow what you are up to, thanks

[@DrewMarold]

I'm hanging on for dear life but still with it so far. There were a couple of points where my following-along didn't sound at all like what you were doing and I wasn't sure why, but in the end, it came out pretty close. On to the next one!

[@username3525]

HUGE thanks!

[@CatFish107]

Playing around with this software is like sonic Lego. I love experimenting with it so much.

[@mdsmithson]

Fantastic!

[@jaredbossart4038]

Love this tutorial playlist. I'm eventually going to invest in physical modular synth. hardware since I'm a buttons and knobs type of guy. Nonetheless your videos have really helped provide a strong conceptual basis of the fundamentals via VCV. I'm finding I will watch about 10 mins of content, and then spend about one hour playing around with the material covered in the respective 10 min. You keep the perspective in scope with the inner workings. Thank you for helping me get started.

[@davidsanfeliumarco9664]

This is gold!!!!

[@draconianrhythms]

Oh wow that little melody you get at 34.. such a sweet sweet sound

[@unwantedscrub]

Man, I'm just having so much fun learning about the silly boops. :) Edit: holy shit that macro oscillator can do so much cool stuff

[@DriftMusiK]

Sooo evil... You make resisting VCV rack impossible. Even my son is excited to try it out. But, I know it's just a gateway drug to real life eurorack(ing?), and as I go over the listings of modules I would want, I'm looking over which of my children (all of them?) I need to sell off to science to afford the damn things. Bravo! ;D

[@fullyard-art]

Love it!

[@amar_paul]

Thank you !🙏🏻

[@sillysquirrel9979]

Good video I think last example is perfect place to introduce s&h to fix jumpy lfo pitch

[@briangordon6120]

I'm hooked.

[@Buckets524]

Just to chime in with trivia - the Bernoulli's were a family of great European mathematicians. They were responsible for many theorems of math and physics, including probability (hence the Bernoulli gate)

[@bandtruemine]

GREAT!!

[@ronaldlundbohm815]

Thank You

[@erbse1178]

21:20: Jakob I Bernoulli (the ll is not spoken, but rather like the spanish n like in el nino) was a swiss mathematician laying out some foundations of probability theroy. Now you dont need to guess where the name of the tool stems from ....

[@amiwan9596]

man you're such a great teacher, i think its because you know what you're talking about but you also really enjoy what you're teaching us

[@mellowgeekstudio]

I apologize for the knit picking but there's one thing that drove me nuts in this video. Everytime you need to open some space in the rack for a new module, instead of selecting with the mouse all the modules in a row you want to move you could force drag the module on the edge by holding CTRL, so it would push all the modules on its way along with it. It saves on mouse clicks and wrist motions. ;)

[@RedMeansRecording]

Good tip

[@jasonlitherland4270]

Bro thank you

[@JamesSiggins]

On first take I read this as Eurotruck.

[@_manasikara]

and... this one is also a simulator ;)

[@weebemo1]

If you are using Cardinal you can use rexmix and dual delay in place of the mixer and delay module respectively :)

[@secretwpn]

Question, while I can remember it: why if you automate e.g. the "p" of the bernoulli gate, you don't see the knob turning to represent its current state. this would be so helpful and you won't have to scope everything you want to keep an eye on (ok i do understand that you still want control over it, but it could have a slight overlay with the running value indicator, i think this would be very helpful) awesome series, man, appreciate the info!

[@Eurikon]

Some modules do have this feature (for example Lindenberg Research), but most modules developers wish to keep their modules behaviour close to hardware behaviour. However if you use mapping for example with the uMap or DAW mapping, you will see the buttons move and knobs rotate. Hope this helps.

[@secretwpn]

@@Eurikon Good point, did not realize that vcv has very close coupling to the actual hardware, so it makes perfect sense.

[@pureeschaap]

@@secretwpn It's open source: you could program it and share it with the world :)