Morning y’all. Against my better judgment I watched all of the Knobs ‘Why Modular?’ videos and my GAS for a small rig has been relit. I’m looking at getting a small case and a Morphagene - mostly I just want to process the sound from my Digitone / pedalboard - but wanted a modulator that I can CV up to the 'gene to make things a bit more interesting.
I was looking at Pamela’s New Workout which seems pretty neat. There’s the Maths too, but it’s a little on the pricey side and will eat all my budget!
What’re your recommendations?
(Are there any other utility modules that I need off the bat to get sound in / out of the Morphagene or will a line signal and some attenuation on an outboard mixer be OK to start?)
This may be too simplistic as an answer … but count the CV-in sockets and you can imagine, how complex you could modulate the Morphagene …
But if Maths is already too expensive, then you might have a problem.
Only some recommendations to consider and to check out, which could be added to the Morphagene to support it:
Audio-Interface (mic/line in level to modular level … and back to line level)
Maths (has two envelopes and some interesting concepts of generating control-voltages like sum, difference, and using other incoming CV for creative ouputs etc.
LFO or even VCO … it could be that audio-frequency modulation of the Morphagene could give interesting results.
a module generating some kind of “uncertainty” like Make Noise Wogglebug
Sequencer like René, or a Brains/Pressure Points combination, or Intellijel Designs - Metropolis (there are also less complex and more affordable units around)
IMO the Morphagene seems to recreate something, which has been used in a similar way by the french group of artists known as Music Concrete (in the 1930ies). Check out this … could exactly be a complete pre-configured system for you, if the Phonogene is exchanged with a Morphagene (musical, but maybe not financial). At least you may get an idea, what is possible with such a setup
Have a close look at Mutable Instruments Marbles would be my recommendation. Mine should arrive tomorrow
I have Pam’s, she is good for bread and butter modulations, also check out Voltage Block although be aware that it only does 0 to 5 Volts not -5 to +5
I only wanted to draw attention to solutions, if budget is not the limiting factor. Those Morphagene like modules offer so many options, if the modulation is very versatile that I thought it could be helpful, just to point them out.
I would choose a midi to cv module that offers more Cv outs to make use of the DT midi Lfo’s and P-locks.
MI Yarns, Expert sleepers FH-2, Endorphin.es Shuttle Control etc.
or Hexinverter Mutant Brain or the cv.ocd (saves rack space), but I don’t think you can use these for Lfo’s.
I’ve never owned one but I think you can’t get smooth results using this kind of interface as lfo/envelopes source because midi value is from 0 to 127 while CV has a broader range. At the end you’ll get a sort of stepped modulation.
Thanks for the advice, peeps. Any more is always appreciated.
I spotted this case (Doepfer case) on Gear4Music and also a 2HP LFO v2 which looks like it’d play nicely with the Morphagene for creating some nice glitchy noises.
As I say, I’m just starting out with this and so really don’t need the earth right now. Just a couple of peices to get me going…
yes but you also have to understand that modular ppl are basically gear addicts who go around and suggest you the most expensive and comprehensive solution
Ah, you’re talking to a pedal-head, @t3h - I understand the GAS an gear-lust. I’ve spend way too long rounding up pedals over the last few years… I’m gonna slim down that collection and put some money into a new instrument.
Dear god you couldn’t be more correct with that point.
That being said…
Marbles and Stages would be super good fun with morphagene - I have sold off a bunch of my modules recently with the aim of having less of the damn things, and the amount of flexibility and general goodness the marbles and Stages combo gives means I haven’t missed the others at all. The morphagene also has its own attenuverters, which help with the otherwise quite wide ranging output of the stages.
But that set up would give you LFOs, step sequencing (both from stages and marbles), turing machine type looping CVs, woggle bug type randomness, etc etc etc. So you could do worse than having only enough hp for these 3 modules as a bit of a natural check against you getting anything more.
The harmonic oscillator Easter egg on the stages would also be very good source tones for the morphagene.
If you want a simple solution that will get you started that will still be valid as you add more, I would do something along these lines.
Get a VCO (or other oscillator) that can be switched into LFO mode. Even better if it’s a dual “complex” VCO as that is so much more flexible. Even just a good single is fine though to start. Then get a simple slope generator (envelope) that has looping/cycling ability. That way you can do one shot modulations, and unipolar LFO modulation. The next thing you’ll want is a VCA or multi-VCA module. This is good for both attenuation of signals, and adding dynamic depth to modulations.
That’s it really. After that, it’s all icing.
If you go with combo modules (like a Quad VCA and Quad Slope type module) you’ll get tons of functionality in a small space. Think Intellijel Quadra for example. Or for a complex oscillator something like a Cyclebox that will give you the basics and a million other shapes and timbres on top of it.
In fact the Quadra and a Cyclebox plus a dual or quad VCA would keep you busy for months. (or any other equivalent modules from other brands.)
If you do dive into eurorack be certain that you will need to spend over a grand to get a capable system, also the euro GAS is like nothing else I have ever felt. There is too much cool stuff out there. if you are UK or EU based I have quite a lot of euro stuff for sale. I don’t have a morphagene though.
