ARmkII has this one cool trick!

Elektron Gear Analog Rytm
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Well 2 actually*, following on from my experiments in this thread

I thought perhaps it would be handy to build a little simple LFO circuit, for connection to the control input, but then I though, hang on I could use one of the direct outs to see if it will work properly first.

Well, it does! So you can use any of the separate outs as a mod source for any other track(s), or even itself, seems to work pretty well, you just need to learn the control input from the relevant output, which is as simple as hitting the pad once it is connected.

Try it, it is a lot of fun and needless to say there are tons of creative uses! I’m thinking some gnarly FM invoked by fills, random modulation by way of trig conditions, and more! Scenes and performance mode can be used to vary pitch and level and duration of the modulating track etc. Woohoo!

*Since there are 2 control inputs you can have twice the fun :joy:

Just use a standard TS 1/4 cable, a TRS will probably work too and might give a different range.

Probably works fine with A4mkII as well but I don’t have one to try.

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:+1:t6::+1:t6::+1:t6:

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Wow that’s brilliant!

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Gotta give that a try…

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Quick basic example here:

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It’s even better on the A4mkii; you have 4 CV outputs, and the CV track has its own two envelopes and two LFOs.
Also its own whole sequencer track…

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Ah, of course! I was thinking of just the audio output as a mod source but using the CV outs will probably be better.

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Some other ideas:
Use BD to duck/sidechain other sounds
Use impulse to ping filter or reverb send etc
Use cymbal to fade other sounds like for a fill/drop etc.
Hihat to modulate delay time
Remove modulating sound from main out to use purely as a mod source only.

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I previously tried OT in AH CV In, it was interesting but I didn’t insist. This is motivating to go further. :thup:
Analog heat envelope follower

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Yes probably could be nice with single cycle “LFO” from OT to filter frequency or drive level on AH, maybe with a squarewave kind of bitcrush/ringmod type stuff could be made.

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Also worth experimenting with the control input set as CV as alternative to expression, typically seems that max CV level works best between 400 - 1000 when used in this way.

Use LFO on modulation track on volume or pitch for nice results too, in either CV or expression modes.

Edit: Just set destinations on Rytm mkII as sample start, sample tune, sample loop, sample slot - huge fun! Granular plop tech space noize!

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BRB, gotta pick my jaw up off the floor…
Now where did I put those guitar patch cables? :thinking:

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Has anyone tried ducking or sidechaining the dVCO with the kick drum? How where the results?

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No I didn’t try it, but I’m pretty confident it will work great, try it!

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I recently tried this and had some problems, but it was my first time dealing with the RYTM’s CV-ins and CV in general, so I am a bit inexperienced.

For what it’s worth, I came to the following conclusions:

  1. Because the kick drum’s waveform outputs a CV signal with +/- polarity, controlling the VCA of the dVCO signal with the kick gives you a sort of crazy Amplitude Modulation (AM) rather than ducking. This ends up imprinting the kick inside the AM distortion of the dVCO’s waveform and basically sounds awful (sounds better when the kick’s waveform is pretty mellow, e.g., super low-passed kick). BUT, I think you can get exactly what you want if you first send the kick drum’s signal into an envelope follower (eurorack? computer?) and then into the CV-in of the RYTM. This way you have a unipolar CV signal that draws the amplitude envelope of the kick(??).

  2. As a workaround, you can emulate the kick’s envelope on a separate track. This is done by looping the positive half-cycle of a square wave (this requires the use of a sample slot) and setting the track’s VCA so that it “draws” the kick’s envelope using only positive CV. Copy+paste the kick drum’s triggers to this track, then route the audio from this track into the CV-in and modulate the dVCO’s amp using it. This actually gave me the ducking effect, but you have to “sacrifice” a precious voice for this.

Obviously not ideal, but I’m pretty encouraged now that you can convincingly sidechain with this machine. The real headache is tweaking the CV-in settings within the global menu (like I said I’m inexperienced with CV, so this menu was mostly guesswork for me!).

I am curious if anyone has suggestions regarding an external envelope follower. Are there any inexpensive solutions outside of eurorack?

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Mind blown.

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I’m not at the machine now, but I believe there are settings in the project menu that allow you to select CV or expression. Did you try expression?

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Yes, I tried the “expression learn” feature.
Basically, you sweep your CV signal from its lowest voltage to the highest and I believe the RYTM “learns” the CV range and sets things up accordingly. For the unipolar workaround I explained, it worked okay, but, occasionally, was a little off. Maybe the signal was sweeping too quickly since it was matching the fast attack of a kick drum and this caused the learning feature to be inaccurate. Next time I will tweak the waveform to have a slow attack when using “expression learn”, then emulate the kick’s envelope after the CV range is set-up correctly.

In the case of routing the kick drum’s audio into the CV-in, the “expression learn” was pretty buggy. I think this is because the “expression learn” is not intended for a complex waveform like the kick’s audio. Rather than sweeping from the minimum voltage to the maximum, the kick’s waveform oscillates erratically between positive and negative CV.

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When using AR mk2 with OB, you can send any Audio Track from your DAW to any of the 8 Voices of the AR and use the Parameters of that Voice (Filter, FX, Compressor…) to process the Audio Track.

Let’s say that you have a Drum Loop in your DAW. You can now filter it, use FX and then, compress it with the other AR drums using a Voice (or 2) from AR.

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This is amazing

Well done