I just got my vowel and blew through an entire evening playing with the thing. So many possibilities...distortion, slow LFO, joystick/tetrapad, FM, clouds drones, etc.
I've been working with Vowel for about a month.. It's not what I thought it was going to be - Vako Orchestron - but turns out to be a much more interesting prospect especially when mixed in with other wave forms..
Hi Boyd, yeah I can see it working incredible well for psytrance. Have a sequence over the vowel parameters would give a great throaty/vocal tone. It would mix well over the top of more typical saw/square waves into low pass filters for that style too.
Plaits has more control, also some more sampled/word like tones in there. Plaits also has an internal VCA/LPG and envelope like functionality. But it's bigger and more money, but also does a lot more than just vowels.
you could get one of these per voice and build up a choir if you wanted to. Each one playing one note. You'd likely want to add a chorus FX unit to spread the voices for unison style FX. It would take some careful vowel modulation alongside the multiple v/oct pitch streams for chordal work etc.
Do you know if there is a lock point for the frequency knob like full CCW on mysteron? I find tuning it for drones to be quite difficult but I havent run a pitch sequence through it yet. I guess my question is, does it maintain quatization when a 1v/oct source is plugged in or will it be detuned however much the frequency knob is off from a root note position?
it will change the core pitch regardless of the input. Most things work that way but the tuning lock features on the handful of modules that have them are useful.
Interesting video, but can you play a tune with it, or through it, and have it come out as a recognisable tune, or is it just for percussive and sound effects noises?
just getting in to modular and I reeeeealy need to know what modules and patching you are using to create this vowel blending with VCO. it is exactly one of the sounds I want.
ok so listening to the patch and what I'm saying "a kinda fuzzy triangle wave" - let's just take that as a triangle wave. So any oscillator with a triangle wave output, analogue or digital doesn't matter. However this will likely have been a basic analogue oscillator with the triangle output. This goes into a VCA with an envelope opening and closing the VCA. That's the first sound you hear as the patch starts at 3:18. I then talk about mixing in the vowel so this will be the triangle oscillator output into a mixer, then the mixer output going into the VCA so both sounds are controlled in the VCA by the same envelope. (3:47) So the idea is to blend in the harmonics of the vowel while retaining the basic fundamental sound of a standard waveform. I then change the triangle to a saw wave, the mixer is going into a low pass filter and there's an LFO modulating the cut off on the low pass filter. So the signal flow is oscillator 1 (saw at this point) and vowel mixed into the mixer, mixer output to filter, filter output to VCA. LFO modulating filter cut off and VCA modulated by an envelope. I hope that helps you get going searching for similar sounds. the actual modules (oscillator, mixer, VCA, filter) aren't important it's the technique and idea of mixing the vowel in with another oscillator.
@@DivKid thank you so much for the extensive detailed reply! This also explains the ModWiggler oft repeated phrase "you can't have too many VCAs" That was confusing me because I thought "VCA is just an amplifier, right?" I come from electric bass and effects pedal world, so I am still wrapping my head around come concepts here.
Yeah I play drums and guitar both long before any synth stuff. Even with typical keyboard/desktop synths the VCA is the "hidden" thing you don't really interact with. A VCA is used to modulate the level of something. With the bass the string is excited by your fingers/pick and physically that energy dissipates. Sound sources in synthesis aren't like physical objects, oscillators for example just drone indefinitely there's no "off" or silent state. So you need the VCA to bring the level up and down for each note. How you do that is using an envelope whose shape you set to make notes fade, or hit percussively etc. Another simple use of a VCA that helps solidify what it does it to make a tremolo effect. Patch your sound into a VCA input, then use an LFO to control the CV input on the VCA. The LFO now makes the level go up and down in cycles and gives the tremolo effect. It's good for us all to remember that none of us were born knowing this stuff and it's good to refresh the fundamentals. I hope that helps! Certainly ask questions on videos and I'll try to respond when I see them.
Absolutely amazing demonstration! Thanks a lot!
Thanks Stefan, appreciate that.
When you were doing the FM you got some good metal band logos on the oscilloscope
Ah the perfect way to fill up the last 2hp of my first case!
I just got my vowel and blew through an entire evening playing with the thing. So many possibilities...distortion, slow LFO, joystick/tetrapad, FM, clouds drones, etc.
distortion on vowel stuff really croaks and sings. Enjoy it!
JUST what I needed. Thanks for the deep dive.
Is it just me, but I'm addicted to watching the waveform! I need this module.
me too, love having the Modax DATA around to visualise things. It's of course great to watch but education seeing what's going on too.
Absolute stunner, Ben! Thanks for that.
cheers mate!
this was school of synthesis , learned and enjoyed a lot
great thanks Bruno.
I've been working with Vowel for about a month..
It's not what I thought it was going to be - Vako Orchestron - but turns out to be a much more interesting prospect especially when mixed in with other wave forms..
certainly shines really nicely when mixed with other waveforms.
looks like a must have if you're making Goa Trance!
yeah 140bpm (is it still around that?) and some side chain against a kick with some chugging 16ths and it'd be killer.
Cool demo.
cheers Alan
Holy sht this module sounds great. I love 2hp.
good fun and a nice sound source to slot in and around other things.
Nice video, cheers Ben
cheers Matt.
Love it!
cheers
May be fun to mix with noise (i guess) in order to add consonants.
Yeah that's a great idea, noise into a VCA with some expressive envelope like control of the noise would work really well.
My caption said “oh my lawyer my lawyer” hahaha
hahaha
Lololol, I like that one better than mine xD
:)
Well I guess that means it does a pretty good job at making vocal sounds!
@MC Sharkhat hahaha I got the same.
PS: then translated ''[laughter] '' 😄
That thing would be gold for psytrance! And I think i just 'got' the use case for low pass gates as well.
Hi Boyd, yeah I can see it working incredible well for psytrance. Have a sequence over the vowel parameters would give a great throaty/vocal tone. It would mix well over the top of more typical saw/square waves into low pass filters for that style too.
Auto-gen subtitle when you plug the sequence into the vowel input: "Oh mommy". Lol, nice reaction youtube.
haha nice
can you comment on it's abilities vs the Plaits formant modes?
Plaits has more control, also some more sampled/word like tones in there. Plaits also has an internal VCA/LPG and envelope like functionality. But it's bigger and more money, but also does a lot more than just vowels.
Ah! That cat synth you were talking about. I heard you can play a mean rendition of "Oh Long Johnson" with it.
The Cat is something else altogether.
@@DivKid Just saw the Cat video. Oh boy... I think I'm gonna pass on that one, but Vowel is pretty tight as a formant.
By the way, did you know that zoologists have identified about 140 phonemes cats use as a "language"? Crazy.
would be possible to create a human voice choir like thing? using more of them? using an organizer-kind-of pedal? +reverb?
you could get one of these per voice and build up a choir if you wanted to. Each one playing one note. You'd likely want to add a chorus FX unit to spread the voices for unison style FX. It would take some careful vowel modulation alongside the multiple v/oct pitch streams for chordal work etc.
Id REALLY like to know what you did there, at the end of the video
give me a specific time and I'll check it out and try to let you know.
@@DivKid awesome... 10:04
please can you show the patch generating the drone at 10:04 ? many thanks
@@DivKid bump!
Damn you're good
Cheers Phil
Do you know if there is a lock point for the frequency knob like full CCW on mysteron? I find tuning it for drones to be quite difficult but I havent run a pitch sequence through it yet. I guess my question is, does it maintain quatization when a 1v/oct source is plugged in or will it be detuned however much the frequency knob is off from a root note position?
I cant find anything in the manual that says one way or the other.
it will change the core pitch regardless of the input. Most things work that way but the tuning lock features on the handful of modules that have them are useful.
Interesting video, but can you play a tune with it, or through it, and have it come out as a recognisable tune, or is it just for percussive and sound effects noises?
Hey :) What exactly was your Patch for the Drone at the end? Cheers
just getting in to modular and I reeeeealy need to know what modules and patching you are using to create this vowel blending with VCO. it is exactly one of the sounds I want.
Hi Aaron, can you point me to a specific time in the video and I'll go back and watch/listen and try to highlight what's going on for you.
@@DivKid around 3 min and 5 min you are talking about blending in another VCO with a VCA and filter. How is that patched to do that? what modules?
ok so listening to the patch and what I'm saying
"a kinda fuzzy triangle wave" - let's just take that as a triangle wave. So any oscillator with a triangle wave output, analogue or digital doesn't matter. However this will likely have been a basic analogue oscillator with the triangle output. This goes into a VCA with an envelope opening and closing the VCA. That's the first sound you hear as the patch starts at 3:18.
I then talk about mixing in the vowel so this will be the triangle oscillator output into a mixer, then the mixer output going into the VCA so both sounds are controlled in the VCA by the same envelope. (3:47)
So the idea is to blend in the harmonics of the vowel while retaining the basic fundamental sound of a standard waveform.
I then change the triangle to a saw wave, the mixer is going into a low pass filter and there's an LFO modulating the cut off on the low pass filter. So the signal flow is oscillator 1 (saw at this point) and vowel mixed into the mixer, mixer output to filter, filter output to VCA. LFO modulating filter cut off and VCA modulated by an envelope.
I hope that helps you get going searching for similar sounds. the actual modules (oscillator, mixer, VCA, filter) aren't important it's the technique and idea of mixing the vowel in with another oscillator.
@@DivKid thank you so much for the extensive detailed reply! This also explains the ModWiggler oft repeated phrase "you can't have too many VCAs" That was confusing me because I thought "VCA is just an amplifier, right?"
I come from electric bass and effects pedal world, so I am still wrapping my head around come concepts here.
Yeah I play drums and guitar both long before any synth stuff. Even with typical keyboard/desktop synths the VCA is the "hidden" thing you don't really interact with.
A VCA is used to modulate the level of something. With the bass the string is excited by your fingers/pick and physically that energy dissipates. Sound sources in synthesis aren't like physical objects, oscillators for example just drone indefinitely there's no "off" or silent state. So you need the VCA to bring the level up and down for each note. How you do that is using an envelope whose shape you set to make notes fade, or hit percussively etc.
Another simple use of a VCA that helps solidify what it does it to make a tremolo effect. Patch your sound into a VCA input, then use an LFO to control the CV input on the VCA. The LFO now makes the level go up and down in cycles and gives the tremolo effect.
It's good for us all to remember that none of us were born knowing this stuff and it's good to refresh the fundamentals. I hope that helps! Certainly ask questions on videos and I'll try to respond when I see them.
0:13
what about it?
is it analog?
no
@@DivKid 👍
Do the 2hp lfo
Good call, need to plan the next 4 modules for the 4th batch of videos
@@DivKid Nice! I've been after one of those for a while but no one has a demo out...
Ohh lawyer , young lawyer. Then [laughter] then oh mommy. Creepy
oh lawyer young lawyer
oh mommy
Those captions are so deviant...
yeah horrid sinister stuff haha
Must be nice to be you.... Having all these modules n' shit. c;
each one is a total black hole of sucking hours, days and weeks of my time to show them off for the internet.
DivKidVideo Hey, I’d like to be in that position. c;
Came back to this vid, enjoyed it yet again!
now kinda wishing that i bought Vowel instead of Cat...meow
haha RE the cat, funny little thing to release.