Volta

Holistic Additives – Modular synth + Monopoly + Volta

I’m not sure about Dr Vague’s math – but I’m pretty sure it adds up to a computer-controlled modular synth jam.

via doctorvague:

Volta, 4 trigger streams to a switcher to a Moon Modular trigger sequencer and on out to a Monopoly arpeggiator etc.

It’s as fun as it looks. I jammed to a different loop than you’re hearing

This is Matthew Davidson’s music video for his Escape Philosophy track Pareidolia, a Volta +modular synthesizer recording which you can download for free. Read more…

Expert Sleepers Silent Way is a suite of plug-ins designed to let you control a modular analog synthesizer system from your computer, using control voltages.

Like MOTU Volta, released earlier in the year, Silent Way works within your sequencer, sending signals to your audio interface to output control voltages compatible with modular synthesizer and classic analog gear.

The plug-ins produce no sound themselves, nor do they process sound – rather, they generate signals to be used as control voltages (CVs), which can be patched into the control inputs of oscillators, filters, VCAs etc. of an analogue system.

There are currently two plug-ins in the Silent Way suite – Silent Way DC and Silent Way Voice Controller. These are described in more detail below. It is anticipated that more plug-ins will be added to the suite in the future – watch the website for product announcements. Read more…

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of this post, it’s worth noting that:

• Controlled By Reason sounds like an unauthorized biography of Leonord Nimoy; and
• Mark Of The Unicorn is a great name for a music technology company, if it’s the 1980’s and you play a lot of D&D; and
• Behind every classic Sequential Circuits synth, there’s a guy in a wizard cap.

All that being neither here nor there – this video captures Peff using the Reason/Thor MIDI to CV conversion process with a couple of bad Moogerfoogers:

The MF-107 FreqBox oscillator output is connected directly into the MF-101 Low pass filter. Thor’s key note value, mod wheel, pitch bend, aftertouch, LFO, and envelope generators all modulate the two pedals to create a functional monophonic synthesizer.

See Peff.com for details. Read more…

This is a demo of Peff using Reason 4.0 to control an Oberheim S.E.M. with CV and gate signals:

I had Reason sending Note CV and Gate CV signals out through the MOTU 896 into an old Oberheim CPS-1 / S.E.M. module. A bit of tweaking was required to get the note cv scaling set, but after finding the right settings, I had Thor acting as a MIDI to CV converter.

With this Thor patch, it’s possible to control analog synthesizer systems (in this case the Oberheim S.E.M.) from the Reason MIDI Sequencer, Thor Pattern Sequencer, Matrix Pattern Sequencer, any LFO source in Reason, and the RPG-8 Monophonic Arpeggiator. It should also be noted that because the Reason 4.0 sequencer is sample accurate, theoretically, the synchronization should be very solid when sending CV signals through the MOTU audio interface.

Read more…