I mangled a generative Nord Modular G1 patch into IDM madness using Octatrack

Elektronauts Our Music
1

Warning: long video with not a lot of melodic content. Feel free to skip around.

This was a lot of fun, very cathartic to mess around with some noisy stuff without much focus on melody (even though there are some happy accidents, especially later on).

No edits; all audio is basically raw, synthesised entirely on the NM, sampled/effected by OT. Slight limiter on the output because some of the pops and clicks got a bit spiky.

Obviously inspired by recent Autechre, but obviously not quite at their level :stuck_out_tongue:

Link to Nord patch in description.

17 Likes
2

You have some cool patching going on here. I’m skipping around a bit so as to not annoy my wife who is sitting on the couch next to me. I’ll have to listen to this more thoroughly once she goes to bed. :laughing:

I had to cut my listening short at the moment but these bits stand out:

24:19
38:41

Do you use an editor or this all done in the G1?

3

I used the PC editor running in wine on my mac. I may at some point make another video of how the patch works, or make another similar patch and record the process.

I think it’s possible to do some patch editing on the unit itself, but I don’t think it’s possible to add/remove modules.

Thanks for watching/listening!

2 Likes
4

That’s the current challenge with the Nord mod stuff; OS compatibility is terribly outdated from what I remember. Thanks for sharing, I’ll take another listen later on.

5

Nice noise.
Jeez the nord modular can pump out some thick dissonance.

1 Like
6

Thanks!
Yeah I was suprised at how abrasive it was. The overdrive and wave wrapper modules can get very brutal when pushed.

I got a raw recording of the patch as well, I might edit both of these down into a small EP at some point.

1 Like
7

Yes :+1:

shit man, 28:00 - 40ish is really good.
correction…it continues to be really good.

hit 54min…really nice!

3 Likes
8

thanks :smiley: I’m really happy with this sound design, I made some really important discoveries for heavy stuff on the NM after coming home from work super angry on Tuesday :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
11

No problem! I’m making it a priority to make my music as open-source as possible. I’m hoping to share sysex files and OT projects whenever I can as well (I’m currently working on a DN sound pack, aiming for 32 sounds with a few demo patterns)… the only reason why I didn’t also include my OT project in this case was because it was a bit sloppy due to being developed in real time while the video was recording :wink:

1 Like
13

Haha! They’re very cheap right now. A friend of mine got the G1 rack for $450AU recently, which is definitely the lowest price I’ve ever seen. I paid $900 for mine last year :confused:

14

I bought a micro modular as new for $90AUD on eBay australia about a year ago.
Couldn’t believe it. Noone else bid on it
Pay more than that for a good plugin

15

oof! To be fair, in terms of DSP power I think I’d be pretty happy with just the micromodular; but the full size G1’s knobs are a definite advantage.

16

Total insanity. I want one now! :crazy_face:

1 Like
17

Yeah the Micro can still load any patch, just restricted to 4 voice only.
Crazy what you can do with that little bugger

1 Like
19

very very nice

20

Amazing stuff. Have to watch the whole thing.
I often thought about getting a G1 cause I love the nord sound.
I tried the G2 demo several times but I feel the gui and workflow are a bit outdated, and I always decided to stick to reaktor.
What can you do with micro modular hardware? Don’t really get the point of it

21

I’d love to watch this

1 Like
22

This is awesome… nice demo. Some Autechre sounds make me think about modulating numerous parameters at once with macros etc. I’ve read that they pushed the Nords to the point of crashing sometimes.

1 Like
23

It’s one DSP chip, while the full size G1 is four (expandable to eight).

What this means is that it can only load one patch at a time, even though there are 99 patch memories. A patch can only ever use one full DSP chip at maximum, but the voice count can be increased for that one patch if it’s not using the whole chip. It’s really hard to explain, and took me a while to understand, and then gets even more complex when thinking about an expanded G1; the extra DSP chips are there simply for polyphony (ie. you can’t load eight maxed out patches at once, only four).

The patch I made for this video maxes out one DSP chip, so would be usable on a micro.

The micro has three assignable knobs, a note trig and a button (which I assume is the same as connecting a switch on the full size G1. It does also allow for a MIDI controller to be plugged in, and is bidirectional, so it’d work nicely with a BCR2000 or similar.

To be honest, I kinda want one simply so I can work on patches on the couch without having to drag my G1 all the way to the loungeroom :smiley: That said though, maybe I could figure out some kind of remote desktop arrangement to control one of my old PC or Mac laptops…

1 Like
24

Thanks!

Ha yeah, I’ve pushed my original Nord Lead to the point of crashing, by sending it multiple channels of 32nd note arpeggios from the Octatrack :smiley:

1 Like