Mutable Instruments RINGS + FX!

Today's sonic adventures feature Mutable Instrument's Rings - a longtime favourite module of mine, paired with an array of modular FX.
The natural tones of Rings always leads me towards making acoustic sounding compositions, which can be a welcome change from focusing on "electronic" noises. I had a lot of fun making this video and that is testament to the design of Rings which still stands up after all these years!
Thanks for watching,
Ally
CONTENT
0:00 - Intro
1:50 - Dub Delays and Beach Vibes
4:20 - Looping, Tremolo, and Bongos!
11:46 - Dance Chords and Bit Crush
17:00 - External Audio in & Saturation
22:50 - Final Jam
24:42 - Outro
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#rings #mutableinstruments #eurorack

[@TheUnperson]

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[@RedHeadFred]

Phenomenal deep dive as always. Simultaneously beautiful music, and helpful technical exploration. Bravo 👏

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man! I’m glad you enjoyed it ☺️

[@compucorder64]

Rings got me interested in modular. But, I still love it, because it isn't at all one-dimensional. Sort of more modern AFX Analogue Bubblebath vibes, especially with the drum machine. Kinda reminds me of the scuba diving video game Dave the Diver :) Visuals look great btw. Vignette shadow across the top corner red keys of the RD-8. And just generally the dark wood tabletop surface interacting with the wood eurorack, mug of tea and deep shadows just looks right. Especially when the silver Mutable modules and white Keystep. And nice complementing colour choices on the cabling. The second track with the woodblock percussion and bongos had a Woob or Pete Namlook feel, which I love.

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! Rings was one of my first modules too and I still love it! And thanks for noticing the aesthetic ~ much appreciated!! ☺️

[@nique21nue]

The way you use the 808 gives me Sade vibes. In a very nice way

[@TheUnperson]

Was listening to Sade the other day! :D

[@locavoremusic3680]

the jams in this video are ALL so good!!

[@TheUnperson]

cheers man!

[@lasideasfugazes]

Your jams are amazing!

[@DVDFRMN]

what a wonderful sound

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you :)

[@bobplant2225]

As always, just fantastic. Thanks!

[@TheUnperson]

thank you! :)

[@trancenoir]

Your jams are always excellent. Great stuff!

[@TheUnperson]

thank you! :)

[@PascalMourier]

Pretty cool ! Loved the OP-1 arpeggio + Rings input / resonator !

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man!!

[@SallowKyn]

This is simply brilliant.

[@TheUnperson]

thank you! :)

[@shockingtwist]

Lush! That final jam is gorgeous

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you ☺️

[@streamlight1]

brilliant as always man

[@TheUnperson]

cheers man!

[@neoiano6652]

Superb as always !!! 👍👏 I really look forward to your weekly vids which are hugely inspiring, creative and informative! …That’s another module for the list methinks !! 😄

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man! The ever-growing module list! :D

[@xorthontech]

Very nicely done

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you ☺️

[@petersirca223]

Lovely as always, bravo! For me the winning formula remains a higher notes arp/loop coming as external in + playing rings lower down in a key to match. This deserves to be named after you: an Ally patch/riff maybe ? :) Also congrats on the use of pitch bend !

[@TheUnperson]

haha! Maybe it can be an Unpatch! I was really enjoying the use of pitch bend on this one lol

[@s2a0s1h2]

inspiring as usual. thx mate 🙏

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you ☺️

[@tomwinn7637]

Hello there I really like the sound you're getting out of this setup. Im new to modular and like the small size of your setup. However I can't quite tell what is sequencing the pitches in many of your jams? Is it the arturia that is sending the pitches? Did you pre-program these arpeggios and sequences before starting the jams? Or is one of the modules choosing choosing the pitches or sequencing pitches in real time? It would help me to know how you are doing that so i could see it this is a setup id like to try out. Thanks!

[@TheUnperson]

The arturia is controlling the pitch of rings here. You can save sequences on the keystep so I preprogram my sequences and just press play when I start recording. Hope that helps!

[@dmg-electrique7292]

Whoa soooo good.

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers! ☺️

[@VirtualModular]

Great sounds as usual, loving the way Beads makes those kind of arpeggios an octave or two up on the first jam. There's a few ways to do that with software, might be inspired to do some more cooking about with Rings and guitar 😉 Also filters are 100% definitely effects in my opinion!

[@TheUnperson]

Ah I always forget about trying Rings and guitar! I really gotta try that!

[@VirtualModular]

@@TheUnperson yeah would love to see you do a video on that! I find you need to give it pitch CV, or it sounds kind of nasty and every note resonates at the same frequency. Not sure how you'd do that in hardware (maybe use Maths as a comparator?, but I use an envelope follower to generate a gate from the guitar signal, and use that to trigger sample and hold into a pitch quantiser. Then you just need to remember to play in the same key as the quantiser 😄

[@darrellsmith5710]

inspiring as always, ta

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers!! ☺️

[@totopolo2379]

beautiful

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! ☺️

[@oneandonlyarajivp]

Hi there, I love your videos. I'm a big fan and I'm trying to take inspiration from them to start my own journey into modular. Could i please ask why do you clock from pam's pro workout into nautilus and not use the clock from the keystep instead? Thanks

[@TheUnperson]

Thanks for the kind words! By using pams I can clock multiple modules (like data bender and beads) and can also change the clock division or multiplication without changing the speed of my sequence.

[@blindianajones]

Curious about your experience with sound sources and what gets you the most for creating a variety of songs. Do you feel the op1 offers you the most options? And per the samples / sounds on the op1, any thoughts on how to create or emulate those softer or more rounded tones through modules? Im trying to keep my setup smaller but I dont have anything like the op1. So I am recording samples on the Lubadh and a 4ms STS, but Id like to find ways to process those sounds to work with ambient and softer compositions.

[@TheUnperson]

I get the most variation out of the OP1 (using it as a sampler), and also Plaits - especially since the addition of the DX7 algorithm. I also enjoy using sampler-based modules that have volt-per-octave capabilities. Creating textures with delays and reverbs and freezing them in modules like data bender or beads, then controlling those sounds with a keyboard or sequencer is really fun. ANother great cheap option is to pick up a cheapo yamaha or casio keyboard - endless sounds to mangle and warp through your modular :)

[@verdielg]

This was beautiful! Especially loved you last piece. Cheers Oh, curious as to what your most valuable, indispensable module might be after experimenting and working with so many 🙂

[@TheUnperson]

hi there - thank you! This doesn't exactly answer your question... but I feel like having more than one effect module chained is my most indispensible techqiue. It can make even the simplest of sounds interesting :)

[@verdielg]

@@TheUnperson ah...thanks for the tip/feedback. I'm a bit of a newbie still and rather enjoying the seemingly endless possibilities and sonic textures of modular. I'm currently using an NTFS box as an end of chain fx tool but that's about it lol. Will experiment some more. Thanks 🙂

[@vinylarchaeologist]

The UnPerson goes UnTropical 🌴

[@TheUnperson]

haha! If only I had a carton of Un-Bongo too!

[@elektrikpete]

Your channel is just a joy man! Like lots of others, rings (well, a clone) was one of my first modules and I still love it - I especially love what you got it to do here! Question - I couldn't quite make out the routing from your keystep to the rings Strum and V/Oct ins - are both coming from Keystep? Any reason to not just use V/Oct on its own?

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! I didn't realise you could use just the v/oct on it's own lol

[@iwanwesterduin]

I wish Mutable Instruments was still around so I could get an original Rings. I will probably get the clone from After Later Audio at some point, even though I dislike the aesthetics of their modules. As always, your videos are very effective at making my GAS flair up.

[@TheUnperson]

Yea me too! I really like the original aesthetic but I'm not into the clones so much. Thank you :)

[@Jaimison]

Are you syncing any of your equipment? The Drum Machine, Keystep & Pam's or do you just match the bpm? I'm having a hard time getting a setup like yours without having clock issues with the Keystep drifting

[@TheUnperson]

I don't clock anything so yea just matching the BPM. The keystep shouldn't be drifting tho! Might be worth contacting Arturia's tech support. :)

[@Jaimison]

@@TheUnperson Will do! Thanks for the reply and thank you for the content, I've learned so much from you!

[@MarkBokowiec]

Some beautiful vibes here Ali - I have noticed that you have started connecting sources into Data Bender and then into Beads. Previously you have connected Beads into Data Bender. I'm interested on your thoughts regarding both ways.

[@TheUnperson]

cheers man! There's not too much thought behind it really. If I was working on some music and realised that I wanted to data bend the noises that beads was making then I'd swap them around. I guess having the Beads reverb towards the end of the chain can be handy too! :)

[@pixelfrenzy]

Mad bongos and that! :) Really liked Jam #2, very interesting use of filter envelopes there, would never have expected that to have such a drastic effect on an FM voice (if I understood it correctly). I would say kalimba rather than bongos for the sound controlled by the keystep, but then again I'm an anal percussionist... haha

[@TheUnperson]

Cheers man! Yea the filter envelope on the second jam really transformed the sound! And you're right it's definitely more like a kalimba! :)

[@G.Man-]

🔥🔥🔥

[@NoiseMaker001]

How do you transpose the sequence on the Keystep?

[@TheUnperson]

Just hit a key and it will transpose to that key as the root note.

[@hyderhydra3269]

can i get a signal flow chart?

[@TheUnperson]

If I remember correctly from Rings it just goes left to right :)

[@afuckinusername]

Again really really nice! You always keep stuff simple but at the same time very musical and interesting, that is an art. I tend to overcrowd my modular tracks, next I try to stick to less and more interesting. Especially the choice to have a long effect chain is a nice idea. Looking forward to your next video!

[@TheUnperson]

Thank you! :) I think coming from a guitar background I'm accustomed to having long fx chains!