Let Me Tell You About My Rack (Patreon)

I have a video coming out about this, and we'll talk about it more on Sunday during the livestream, but I wanted to make a text post about it so you can check it out and learn this way if you want to.

The idea behind this rack is techno of all different tempos. I've been enjoying 140 swung dub techno with it, ala Stewart Walker, but I have also rocked out at 95 bpm successfully. 

Here's the rack: 

Let's break it down!

1. Pamela’s New Workout #1

Master Clock. Press play on this and the whole thing goes. Sends out 24 ppq clock and reset to the Maleko Heavy Industry mult (2) to be distributed around.

Sends 16th note clock to Acid Rain Maestro (18).

Sends Euclidean rhythm gates to the trigger input of Pique (10).

Sends Euclidean rhythm gates to the X and Y inputs of Rene (3).

Sends Euclidean rhythm gates to trigger the WMD Arpitecht (7).

Receives continuous voltage into the CV 1 and 2 inputs via Stages (9) to manipulate step probability and Euclidean trigger density.

Lean about Euclidean patterns here: https://dbkaplun.github.io/euclidean-rhythm/

2. Maleko Heavy Industry mult

Takes clock and reset from Pamela's New Workout (1) and mults it out to different parts of the rack.

3. Make Noise Rene MKII

Main sequencer. Gets two sequencer clock pulses from Pamela’s (1)  to advance the two sequencers. Also gets a gate signal into the XMod and YMod inputs from the TiNRS Tuesday (8) to reset the sequencer according to a loop length of 4, 8, 16, or 32.

X CV out (quantized pitch output) goes to Intellijel Shifty (4) to be distributed to the Make Noise STO for Bass (11) and two loose cables that can send the same pitch sequence to the 4MS Stereo Triggered Sampler (13) or transpose the WMD Arpitecht and Triad (7).

Y CV out (quantized pitch output) goes to the Noise Engineering BIA (15) to create a pitched sequence independent of the main sequence.

Y Gate out goes to the trigger input of the WMD/SSF ADSRVCA (11) to create the bass envelope.

4. Intellijel Shifty

A shift register and note hocketing module. See my video on it here: https://youtu.be/RJyUbhJYVT8

This is receiving note data from Rene and is sending it out to other modules. 

5. Pamela’s New Workout #2

Secondary sequencer and modulator.

Gets clock and run from Pamela’s New Workout #1 (1), as multed through the Maleko mult (2)

Sends Euclidean rhythm gates to trigger the two channels of the 4MS STS (13).

Sends Euclidean rhythm gates to the tap input of the 4MS Tapographic Delay (16) to create delay taps, as well as a sine fed into the Velocity input of the 4MS Tapo Delay to vary the amp, res, and lpf taps.

Sends gate signals to Shifty (4) to fire the gate to sample the incoming CV from Rene (3).

Receives continuous voltage into the CV 1 and 2 inputs via Stages (9) to manipulate step probability and Euclidean trigger density.

6. Intellijel Steppy

4 channel gate sequencer. Creates gate events to trigger drums.

Channel A goes to the kick trigger of Pique (14), Channel B goes to the snare channel of Pique and the 2hp Play sample module, Channel C goes to Plonk, and Channel D triggers the BIA (15).

7. WMD Triad and Aripitecht

Arpitecht is an arpeggio creation module with an enormous amount of control over the shape, notes, rhythm, key, and density of the arpeggio being created. It’s fed a gate from Pam’s #2 (5) to move through its sequence. I can use the controls on the module to completely reshape the note data coming out in all kinds of ways. That note and gate data is being fed to the Noise Engineering Loquelic Iteritas Percido (12), which acts mostly as a lead voice but can also do background noise stuff.

Triad is an expander for Arpitecht. It receives the key data from Arpitecht and creates a triad, a chord, which can be sent out via 3 pitch outputs. These three pitch outputs go into the 3 pitch inputs of the Acid Rain Chainsaw (10), a polyphonic supersaw oscillator.

You have control of the triad shape and transposition via hands-on controls, which leads to a wide range of polyphonic textures to add to the mix.

8. This is Not Rocket Science Tuesday

Algorithmic melody generator. Extremely robust gate output selection, beats and loop output. Beats is set to a quarter note and is clocking the ModBap Per4mer effects module (14). Loop is being fed to the XMOD and YMOD input of Rene (3), which is set up to reset the sequencer to it’s starting position on gate input. By increasing or decreasing the loop size of Tuesday, I increase or decrease the loop size of Rene. I can choose between 4, 8, 16, and 32 bars as a loop size.

9. Mutable Instruments Stages

Stages can do a lot, including complex envelopes and voltage offsets. I’m using it as a 6 slider voltage generator to change parameters in Pamela’s New Workout (1, 5).

Pam has two CV inputs, and pretty much every parameter in Pam’s can be changed via these CV inputs. You can dial into each channel, each parameter, set it to a CV input, and then adjust the offset and attenuating of that parameter’s reaction, giving you extremely fine control over how an incoming voltage signal will change what Pam’s is doing.

Since Pam’s is responsible for most of the timing events in my system, it’s responsible for creating my rhythms. I can manipulate the timing and density of those rhythms with the CV inputs.

The first step is creating a Euclidean pattern on Pam’s Euclidean patterns are patterns that are created when you define the number of steps possible in a pattern (ESTEP) and how many of those steps are filled (ETRIG).

Check out this awesome site to experiment with Euclidean pattern generation: https://dbkaplun.github.io/euclidean-rhythm/

I have my total possible steps of each channel set to 32, and then I have the ETRIG value set to CV 2. That means when the slider is all the way down on Stages, I get 8th notes. When the slider is all the way up I get full 16th notes. In between I get some form of interesting Euclidean pattern. I’ve set the “rotate” parameter on a few of the channels to offset the patterns so they’re not all firing at once.

The second CV input is set to increase the probability an event will not occur. This RSKIP percentage increases as the slider goes up, thinning out the events coming out of Pam’s so that the sequence in my set relaxes and becomes more spacious.

10. Acid Rain Chainsaw Voice Cluster

This is the polyphonic voice of my system. It gets its chord data from Triad (7). Three notes, saw wave or square wave, with stereo detune. It goes into the Doepfer A130-2 dual VCA, which is shaped by the output of Pique, in envelope generator mode. Pique gets a trigger as described earlier, from Pam’s (1), and it’s envelope signal is multed out to both channels of the A130-2. The output of the VCA goes into the Qu-Bit Prism, which is a filter + delay + bitcrusher.

Prism’s filter modulation is being handled by Maestro (18). I control the amount of modulation via the attenuation knob on Prism.

The output of this is being fed into the Unify stereo mixer (21).

11. Make Noise STO Voice Cluster

This is my bass voice. The Make Noise STO Oscillator has both the sub and wavefolder outputs send into the WMD+SSF ADSRVCA (via a stack cable), a rad module that does both envelope generation and VCA duties. This is fed into the Happy Nerding VCF, a filter.

The cool thing about the ADSRVCA is that it’s envelope can be fed positively or negatively to other modules. So I have the envelope out of ADSRVCA going into the Happy Nerding VCF to shape the filter. I control how much modulation occurs via the outside ring of the filter cutoff knob on the filter.

The output of this is being fed into the Unify stereo mixer (21).

12. Noise Engineering Loquelic Iteritas Percido

The LIP is a wild as hell digital oscillator. It has an internal VCA and envelope generator, and this envelope can be sent to the 4 timbre shaping controls to modulate them within the module. It’s getting fed trigger and note data from Arpitecht (7).

This is my main lead voice, and it can do a huge variety of tones, from mild to insane.

Two channels of the Maestro (18) are dedicated to modulating the LIP. These two channels are sent through a pair of channels on the Intellijel Triatt (19), and I’m able to attenuate the modulation going to the LIP from 0 to full.

The output of this is being fed into the Unify stereo mixer (21).

13. 4MS Stereo Triggered Sampler

See my video on this and the Tapographic Delay (16) here: https://youtu.be/-I1oQEDjzck

The STS is a sample playback and recording module. I’m using it exclusively for playback. I’ve made a full custom set of banks for it, including normal percussion, glitch percussion, pads, vocals, basses, and morphagene reels.

Each bank has 10 samples, and I’ve set it up so that these samples play nicely with each other.

There is a sample selection CV input. This input is being fed modulation from Maestro (18), in the same manner the LIP is: through 2 channels on Traitt (19). This means the higher up the value of the knob on Triatt, the more samples will get chosen each time a trigger hits the unit. This allows me to create natural percussion lines (when using shakers and stuff), but also really alien glitch stuff when I load up a glitch kit.

The output of this is being fed into the Modbap Per4mer (20).

14. Drum Voice Cluster (Pique, 2hp Play, Plonk)

These are all receiving gate triggers via Steppy (5) and are fed into a Doepfer 138n mixer. Pique does kick and snare (808 style). Play does sampled claps and rimshots. Plonk does mostly hihat, but can shift to all kinds of weird physical model sounds if I want it to.

Plonk is receiving an 8th note offset square wave from Pam’s (1) into the decay CV. When I turn up the modulation, I get a more open hihat on the offbeat 8th notes, a pretty classic sound.

15. Noise Engineering BIA

The BIA is billed as a percussion voice, but I use it as a second lead as well as percussive textures. It’s been fed gates from Steppy (6) and pitch data from the Y output of Rene (3). It’s got a very wide range of tones, from straight up noise, to cool FM noise burst sine waves. It’s a very diverse and useful voice, especially given you can switch it’s octave between 3 choices with a flick of a switch.

BIA is being fed into the 4MS Tapographic Delay (16)

16. 4MS Tapographic Delay

See my video on this and the STS (13) here: https://youtu.be/-I1oQEDjzck

This acts as a space maker for the BIA sound. It creates a big stereo image with multitap echos, in time, as fed by Pam’s (5). It’s also clocked by the same Pamelas. I can clear the delay buffer and create a new series of custom delay taps on it, choosing from 3 tap types that all have a different character. When clocked, the time knob will keep the taps in beat, but spread them or shrink them in time. It’s a great performative delay unit.

The output of this is being fed into the Unify stereo mixer (21).

17. Happy Nerding FX AID XL

A great multi-fx unit. Multiple types of reverb and delay and more. I’m using it 100% wet on a gigantic reverb. The headphone output of the Unify mixer (21) is sent to this, which means everything going into the Unify gets sent to the FX AID when I flick up the phones output on the mixer. I’m able to use this to create momentary or ambient space in my mix, which has a huge impact.

18. Acid Rain Maestro

Watch my video on the Maestro here: https://youtu.be/BFsYicNPQ4Q

To say this set wouldn’t be possible without the Maestro is not hyperbole. This device sends out clocked modulations you can redefine on the fly. You select a shape (ramp, random, square, low, high, etc) and a timing (16th, 8th, up to half notes) and then press a channel. Instantly that channel now does that type of modulation.

But you can also chain these shapes and timings together into long chains of complex modulation, which leads to you basically having customizable automation lanes in Eurorack.

This is the main modulator of my system, feeding the STS, LIP, BIA, and more.

19. Intellijel Triatt

These utility modules accept voltages and attenuate or offset them. They also generate positive or bipolar CV when nothing is plugged into them. They are being used attenuate the modulation signals coming from Maestro (18) before the go into the STS (13) and the LIP (12).

20. Modbap Per4mer

This is a stereo effects unit with performance controls. The 4 effects (delay, reverb, glitch, and tape stop) can be momentarily triggered via the buttons, or latched by hitting shift and a button. The device is clocked via the beats output of the TiNRS Tuesday. It’s an extra texture creator and allows me an escape route between sample bank changes on the STS.

The output of this is being fed into the Unify stereo mixer (21).

21. Unify Stereo Mixer (with Expander)

Main dry output stage of my rack. 8 channels of pannable output. Everything that’s not a drum goes through here, and I use the headphones output as an effect send to the FX AID (17).

THAT'S IT I GUESS! Hope this helps make what you’ll see on Sunday make more sense. Happy to answer any more questions then!