The allmighty Stochastic Function Generator - In-depth with the ADDAC506

[@zyxyuv1650]

I'm subscribed to hundreds of channels and this is the best modular channel on KZbin. Your format is the most direct and educational.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

That's lovely to hear, thank you!

[@justanotheryoutubechannel3102]

well DivKid really is very technical, but that's good for experienced noodlers, but I'm a big fan of mylarmelody's ENTHUSIASM for finding new sounds like his intellijel shapeshifter demo that I was just as excited watching as he was playing around. I'm most interested in hearing how a module sounds. I like this channel for the depth of exploration and examples of different ways to use a module along with the easier to understand concepts. it's a nice balance. the demo of doepfer's frequency shifter i'd just learned about in sound on sound here got me so enthusuiastic i pulled a module to make room for it in my dream system. most demos make me yawn. I appreciate ANYONE taking the time to demo gear! everyone knows what sounds wow them, descriptions, especially "trust me, you NEED this module" ones don't cut it for me. i want to hear for myself.

[@unfamiliarenvironments]

Glad to see someone giving this module well deserved attention - if you do another one, talking about how you use the expander would be interesting. Really appreciate the time you spend on diagrams and such - really a nice resource for the community. Cheers!

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hello, that is so nice to hear, thank you! Happy to make these, but wouldn't do it without positive responds :) I don't have the expander at this point, but love the module so much, might look into it. All the best!

[@DrDeemz80]

Amazing video dude, just picked this up the other day and has helped me tremendously, just wanna say I really appreciate all your videos, they have helped me so much on my modular journey, I would say you make the best tutorial videos out of anyone

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hey, thanks for letting me know! I really enjoy making these, mostly because people share things like you just did. That makes it worth the time and effort. Enjoy the module, this one still has a very solid place in my case, and use it all the time!

[@DrDeemz80]

@@MonotrailTechTalk oh yeah absolutely incredible job on the 507 you did with Addac, such an awesome module man, it's bringing so much life into my system, cant say enough good things about it

[@Larry30102]

I would challenge anyone to find any of your videos that aren’t interesting and/or informative! What you bring out in this module is crazy and wonderful. I’ll just have to put this one on the list as my racks are full. I literally have a “list”. 😁 Big thank you. You show what is capable in the eurorack world.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Thank you so much! Im trying :) And indeed a wonderfull module, I'll be enjoying this one for a long tine! All the best!

[@RubenSainiuc]

You're always altering my wishlist with your good explanations, in a good way

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Haha, happy it's in a good way :)

[@CatFish107]

Not only that, but every video gives me a new "aha!" moment with a clever modulation patching technique I had not thought of. Those diagrams really make a big difference.

[@tracyharms3548]

The 506 caught my attention when it came out, but so many other function generators complete it's been hard to keep in mind. Thanks for such a strong demo. This greatly improves my understanding and will help keep it prominent as I ponder my options.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Lot's of options these days for sure! But glad you liked the video, that's good to hear. All the best!

[@dontnormally]

What other generators have caught your eye?

[@tracyharms3548]

@@dontnormally Joranalogue Contour 1 and NSI Inertia are the strongest contenders for me rn

[@tracyharms3548]

I eventually did buy an ADDAC506 ahead of any others. My choice was very strongly affected by the excellence of this video.

[@debbie09090]

You do a great job of explaining how the module reacts to various inputs and settings. I really find the patch ideas inspiring. Many thanks and look forward to many more videos.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hey, thanks for letting me know! Really motivating to hear people like the efford! I'm also enjoying myself, so already have plans for many many videos to come! All the best :)

[@justanotheryoutubechannel3102]

why i subscribed

[@jgrzinich]

Dang, this thing combines at least 4 modules I have and then some. I like the random variation you got in that ambient patch.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hello, indeed it combines a lot of power. Also am a huge fan of random voltages in general, being able to add a little bit (or a lot) of random variation to patches without other modules is great :)

[@vinylarchaeologist]

So this is basically like 4 of Maths’ 2 fully-functional channels, plus probability. Nice!

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hey, that's about right! This is a very interesting alternative to consider, a lot more power for the space for sure!

[@vinylarchaeologist]

@@MonotrailTechTalk Agree. Not enough true Maths alternatives out there, I must say. Glad to know this exists, thank you.

[@stephenmarsh6746]

Similar as well to the Befaco Rampage.

[@xnflg3074]

@@vinylarchaeologist I think I may replace my Rampage with this due to the attenuverters and possibilities of more intriguing modulation.

[@thewildclaw]

Oh man, really? I’m new to the rack life 😜 and maths is one I’ve heard a lot about. So this one is all that Maths is and then more? Very good to know ( for future reference 😉 )

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Patreon: www.patreon.com/monotrail ADDAC506 on Perfect Circuit (US): link.perfectcircuit.com/t/v1/8-12626-267461-9759?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.perfectcircuit.com%2Faddac-506.html * This is an affiliate link.

[@SONICrider]

Perfect balance between tech and musical options... \0/

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

Worth the effort. Pretty well done.

[@yungwardenbuffett]

So stoked to see more coverage of this module, I have one and am definitely not using it to its potential. Thanks for taking time to go in depth.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Glad to hear it! There's not so much out there indeed, happy to add some!

[@mynewcolour]

I’ve just picked up a 506 and I don’t think I’d have had the confidence to stray away from Maths had I not seen this vid. You did an ace job. Just a thought: It would be nice to see footage (a wider shot) of physically making the patch (with short text on-screen offering the description/detail of the process). Sometimes watching someone dial in a module can actually tell you a lot about how it is to use - similar to trying it yourself in a shop. This could be a separate vid if you wanted to keep the main upload short.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Thank you! And agree with the thought. I think there's a lot of value in showing little knob tweaking and variations, and showing what that does to a patch and sound. I started to include that here and there in the demos. But also noticed in my KZbin stats that people bail out quicker during long demos and just tweaking a module. And stay more with more patch ideas. So have to find a balance, or a way to keep it more interesting :) Thanks for sharing though!

[@RioRoye]

Never thought to use it as a suboctave generator like in the last patch. Really nice tip!

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Yeah, it's not the most stable, but can actualy lead to fun glitchy and rumbling sounds. Fun to explore!

[@phpn99]

I use a Geiger-Muller counter as a pure random source. Nothing beats the randomness of particle decay. GM counters are cheap and most have an (un-sampled) analogue output (with low gain). The modern pocket-sized counters all have digital circuitry that is generally sampling the GM sensor tube at 32 kHz, so you get a clock pattern (pulse) at 16 kHz. The analogue output isn't quantized in the time-domain, so you end up with triggers that are truly random. The click rate of the counter depends on the radioactive source. You can use a very faint (safe) source to provide a decent click speed. Such safe sources are found in smoke detectors, but also in cheap thorium-coated gas lamp fabric mantles.

[@thewildclaw]

Oh wow! Love it! I gotta keep this module in mind for the future. I’ll probably need a few more general modules before being able to use one like this to it’s full potential though lol. I only got Rings, Disting MK4, Behringer’s 140 and a midi to cv module.. that’s it ( all in a 40hp rack shoved in a tupperware container 😆 ) trying to figure out what should come next is a mind melting process 🤪.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Glad you like it! And indeed, so much choice these days, hard to get your head around all the options. Enjoy the journey!

[@emiledification]

thank you so much! 🙏

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

You're welcome! :)

[@arthurswj2328]

Thanks for covering this. Would be cool to explore a different format of info presentation in the future, where you explain as you patch, rather than explain the whole patch which can be quite complex, and then show a video clip. Great video as always

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hey, thanks! It's an interesting topic! I think there are some people who do it like that. It has it advantages, but also felt often the patch would get lost in specific modules and cables. So conciously tried a diferent aproach where I focus more on showing the signal flow, that could be applied with all sorts of modules instead. But there's advantages to both. I am interested in doing a few "patch from scratch" style videos in the future where I patch on screen! Cheers!

[@oyoyoyo7624]

@@MonotrailTechTalk i like your methodology.

[@syndrohm1920]

Hi there, as always your videos are great and I would like to ask you if is it possible to do another tutorial on the Addac 506, where you can show us a few more patches and ideas on how to get the best out of it. I bought this module after I saw this tutorials but a little more tech talk would help to reach the total understanding in execution. Thank for your attention and keep on coming! 👊

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hello! Would love to get back to this one, but have to say I have way to much plans these days and need to work through some other videos first. Feel free to ask if you have specific questions. And if you're interested in experimenting, have a look a some of the 'patch ideas for Make noise Maths' videos. You will have to improvise, and use things like the offset and attenuverters on the 506, but bet you can re-create almost all of those patch ideas. It's a good challenge and fun way to learn the 506! :)

[@syndrohm1920]

Respect monotrail, will do that. Thanks again.

[@indigocotton4187]

Fantastic as always. What VCAs would you be using / recommend?

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Thank you! And doesn't really matter to much, as long as they have at least two controls, one CV input attenuator, and an offset/level control. If you are starting with modular I would also recommend a quad VCA with mixing/output chaining features.

[@Greg-ms3hp]

It’s Maths on steroids! I knew I wanted this module, but I figured I should learn all aspects of Maths before i pull the trigger.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Haha, yeah kinda is :) It's even a bit harder to wrap your head around, but think this one is really good!

[@Keysounds0]

Wonderful explanation. How would you use it with the Stochastic Inspiration Generator?

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Glad you liked it! The SIG is a seqeuncer, so both of them would fit together quite well. If you make a patch you can use the 506 as envelopes modulation source or slew limiter for what comes out of the SIG :)

[@000aleph]

Thanks! Two questions: What are the frequency ranges of the three speed ranges (med/fast/slow)? For an LFO, can you make any other shapes than triangles and skewed triangles, such as e.g. sine waves?

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

You're welcome, happy to make these! The gate out makes square wave LFOs with variable duty cycle, and you can use the lin/log pot to chance the shape from triangle/saw to curved shark-fin like shapes. But no clean sinewaves. As for the frequency range I don't have numbers unfortunately, In the video I take it well up into audio rate a few times, but you'd have to check with ADDAC!

[@000aleph]

@@MonotrailTechTalk Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm more interested in the slowest possible LFO speeds than in audio rate modulation :-) I will ask ADDAC for details.

[@thesekidsarenice]

Great video, thank you! Quick question-- so the "signal in" on each channel accepts audio signals. Does that mean we can use it to extract an envelope follower signal, that follows the amplitude of the audio signal? Thanks!

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hello! Sorry for the slow reply :) But yes, that's very possible. When you feed an audio signal with minimal rise and and fall times it will follow the audio. If you add fall time you will get a positive envelope. When you add rise rime you get a negative envelope. Cheers!

[@thesekidsarenice]

@@MonotrailTechTalk Fantastic, thank you!

[@JohnLukich]

Seems like you add a case every few videos, haha. Great vid as always!

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Haha, well, if interesting manufacturers are willing to send over interesting modules, I have to give them a propper home :)

[@CatFish107]

Hmmm. Thinking of cobbling together the same functionality in vcv rack, two rampages, a s&h, and some attenuverters might get me there. Better throw in the stock 4 channel mixer too. Anyone have suggestions?

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Sounds like a good start! :)

[@i_never_asked_for_an_alias]

8:37 - Reminds me a bit of MOON - HYDROGEN.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Ha, I can hear that :) Cheers!

[@mikegeary8056]

This is a killer module. The way it’s laid out is kinda confusing. I’m sure one would get used to it. I wish it had cycle trig inputs. Great video.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

The front pannel is pretty stacked indeed, takes a look or three to feel at home at it. Glad to hear you liked the video!

[@nebula0697]

While I understand about half of these concepts and a few more after your video, for me the ideal format would be: it does this - hear the sound, it does that - hear the sound, etc. I had the same critique of another excellent video on Maths by another equally famous KZbinr who also explained it well like you do here. It's all good just need to splice in the musical examples simultaneously or right after the spoken description of each function when describing these complex modules. EDIT: I realize you do exactly this in the second half of the video, I'm saying it would be useful right from the start.

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hello there! Thanks for the feedback :) I try this formula of show and tell in the patch section indeed, that mostly works well with more simple modules where I just explain three knobs and a few jacks before diving into the patches. With this module being so feature dense explaining what is what took up half the video, and I agree that could have been improved with more audible examples! Cheers!

[@nebula0697]

@@MonotrailTechTalk Still globally some of the best videos on the subject I've seen by the way. And it does look like a lot of work. Fantastic job with the graphics!

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Thank you, thats nice to hear! Indeed they take quite a lot of time. I've been making a living as a freelance graphic designer/animator for about 7 years now, so really enjoy the proces, but indeed to be honest, also always have to have a balance between result and time spend in mind. But I'm super excited about this project, and seeing the channel and income through it grow makes it possible to spend more and more time! All the best!

[@nebula0697]

@@MonotrailTechTalk Eurorack synthesis is growing exponentially, which is wonderful. With your grasp of the subject matter and your skills to create quality educational videos you will probably do very well. So enjoy the ride ;-)

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Thank you! And yes, really lovely to see the community grow! Happy to be a part of it!

[@omga_3459]

Hi! thanks for the video. I would like to add a similar module in my setup but I am looking to something easy to use :) In your vids you seem to use a lot quadra from intelijel. Also have you heard about pons arsinorum from NE? Anyway super interesting as always! thanks,

[@MonotrailTechTalk]

Hello! This module can do so much, it's really hard to suggest somehting without knowing what functions are important to you. For example, the quadra, which I like a lot, is just four simple envelopes. I use it all the time, but can't do any of the many many other things the ADDAC506 can do. If you're just looking for a modulation source, the new Intellijel Quadrax is worth a look. Make noise Maths is more simple than the ADDAC in some ways. Don't know the Pons Asinorum. But If you like the idea of a function generator. You can also look at the Doepfer a171-2. It is only a single generator, but it's less of an investment, and still offers a lot of fun. But again, really depends on what you want and how much power you need :)

[@omga_3459]

@@MonotrailTechTalk thanks!