A strange, non-traditional rhythm generator and robotic drum/noise machine.
It’s a synth patch, a drum machine basically, but instead of programming your ‘beats’ on a fixed, time-based grid, the idea here is that rhythmic patterns are created by “Linking” a bunch of ADSRs together to create cyclic, self-looping chains and segments. Each ADSR can also trigger a sound of choice (kick, snare, noise, etc).
I’ve added 2 variations, the rhythm generator and controls are very much the same, the only difference being the sound engine itself:
LINKS has more ‘normal’ drum sounds.
DINKS has more dense and droney synth noises.
(I’ve zipped up 4 files – 2 patterns for each – so you have 4 “presets” to start having fun with!)
It’s a bit difficult to create ‘traditional’ kick-snare rhythms, but – IMHO – there’s a lot of fun in the unpredictability and playability of the Linking Grid, and it’s surprisingly easy to achieve interesting – maybe not always musical – industrial beats and/or noisy patterns with some form of ‘predictable’ repetition.
Also, the interplay between sounds when multiple are triggered at the same time creates pretty cool bursts of noise. It’s a pretty sensitive machine; making small changes can completely change the pattern, but if you find those sweet spots on the Linking Grid it can generate some really unique and fun things!
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[OVERVIEW]
-Input: It’s a synth, so no input needed, but dry sound goes through unaffected in stereo.
-Output: Stereo (but no special stereo processing in this one yet, so might as well be mono)
-CPU load: Around ??% (with firmware 2.0)
-Build: Built with firmware 1.13
-MIDI: Controls are set to CCs (I use channels 21/36, see CONTROLS section for details).
[REVISIONS]
1.1: Tested for FW2.0 (required tweaking due to Trigger changes) and added Midi CCs.
1.0: Initial patch.
[PATCH STRUCTURE]
There are 4 ADSRs (on pages “ADSRs 12/34”) without Sustain or Hold, and with Immediate Release turned off (so they will complete their cycle when triggered). Each ADSR has a Comparator to generate an End-Of-Cycle (EOC) signal, and a Trigger module to trigger it (cause with Gates instead of Triggers it gets stuck very often).
The EOC is fed into some switches (on pages “SW1/2/3/4”) with lots of outputs. Which outputs are active is controlled by the Linking Grid on the main page, and those different switch outputs determine which ADSRs are triggered (1,2,3 or 4, or any combinations) by that particular EOC.
On the ADSR pages, there’s also some switches that allow/block the EOCs from hitting the Retrigger input of each ADSR, and a switch that either feeds the triggers directly to the ADSR or via a Flip-Flop module (which can add some unexpected pattern variations).
Finally, on the “OSC” page the drum sounds are made;
For LINKS there is a sine oscillator for the kick, a Bit Modulator for the snare, and some filtered noise for HiHat sounds, going into a few VCAs.
For DINKS there are several Triangle oscillators with some FM modulation for buzz-saw synth sounds.
On the “DR. TRIG” page are 5x AD-envelopes that trigger the drum sounds by opening the VCAs and slightly modulate pitch or cutoff. This is all very basic stuff (feel free to build your own sound engines if you don’t like the sounds but like the Linking Grid) but it gets the job done!
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[CONTROLS]
See below for a “Picture Manual” in the comments.
The 1st page has the main user interface:
The “Linking Grid” consists of 4×4 pushbuttons that links the End-Of-Cycle (EOC) signal of each ADSR to trigger any other ADSR. Each COLUMN is a source, each ROW is a destination, so the layout is this:
[1>1] [2>1] [3>1] [4>1]
[1>2] [2>2] [3>2] [4>2]
[1>3] [2>3] [3>3] [4>3]
[1>4] [2>4] [3>4] [4>4]
Below each column is a Value module (called “TIME”; cc21/cc24) to set the decay-time of the corresponding ADSR.
To the right of each row are buttons to toggle retriggering (“RETRIG”) and to toggle flip-flopping (“FLIP”) of each ADSR, and a cycling pushbutton to select the “SOUND” that will play for each row:
RED = Nothing
MANGO = Kick
GREEN = Snare1
CYAN = Snare2
BLUE = Hihat1
PURPLE = Hihat2
(Note: the sounds themselves aren’t necessarily a “kick” or “snare” – especially for DINKS – they are just names!)
Finally, at the far-right there are white trigger indicator lights for each row, and there are some regular controls:
DAMPEN VCAs (lowers the VCA threshold; lowers the level, but also makes sound more mild; cc28)
ATTACK (overall attack time for all sounds; tweaked differently for LINKS and DINKS; cc25)
DECAY (overall decay time for all sounds; tweaked differently for LINKS and DINKS; cc26)
The 2nd page has the Stereo Output module with gain parameter, and the TUNE control (cc27) for the overall pitch of all sounds. The sounds can of course easily be tweaked by changing the individual ADSRs on the DR.TRIG page, if you want to get creative!
STOMP buttons have no function.
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[TIPS/TRICKS]
A very small patching tutorial to get started:
1) If you only enable button “1>1” it means the EOC of ADSR1 will trigger ADSR1 – itself – and will result in a constant looping of ADSR1. Turn on a sound of your choice by cycling through the SOUND1 pushbutton.
2) If you only enable buttons “2>1” and “1>2” it will cause ADSR2 to trigger ADSR1 (and SOUND1) and ADSR1 to trigger ADSR2 (and SOUND2), resulting in an alternating segment between sounds 1 and 2.
3) If you enable buttons “1>1” and “2>2” and “1>2” and toggle “RETRIG2” on, it will cause both ADSR1 and 2 to self-cycle independently, BUT, each time ADSR1 is done it will also re-trigger ADSR2, syncing up the pattern. Try different TIME settings to see/hear the difference!
4) Go nuts! Push buttons, switch sounds, change TIME settings, and bang your head!
Some general tips for getting solid beats out of this thing:
>>> Sometimes the cycle fully stops/blocks, if that happens just disable/enable some grid-points or toggle some RETRIG buttons on/off to get it going again (sometimes disabling/enabling the same button might help too).
>>> It’s better not to turn on full rows/columns, but always having a few lights enabled in each row/column helps to keep the cycle going. But do explore though; sometimes a sound will get ‘stuck’ for a full cycle, only to be nudged loose by something else, and it can sound pretty epic (if you like industrial noise, that is…)
>>> Stack sounds! If several sounds get triggered together, they sound pretty cool (cause pitch modulation stacks and some FM cross-modulation occurs).
[THOUGHTS/IDEAS/PLANS]
This was a fun little experimental patch for myself to mess around with, so I’ll probably not expand it anymore. But if there’s any suggestions for improvement (or bugs/questions/remarks) please let me know in the comments!
Enjoy!
(image: Alberto Seveso)
Picture manual attached! (LINKS and DINKS sound differently but have exactly the same controls)
Attachment Manual-Links-Dinks-v1.jpg