Dark textures and mood with Elements at the front & center of things, with Rings (aka Annuli) and Clouds (aka Smoke) helping out.

The core of this patch is a processing structure that begins with the output from a Dronez module. That sound is unheard in its raw state. Instead, it is routed to the Elements synthesizer for the first step in a 2-stage process. The audio output from Elements is sent to the mixer and to the Clouds/Smoke module in its spectral processing mode.

The Rings/Annuli module is the central part of an instrument designed to produce random bursts of pitched noise. The musical purpose offsets the long sounds created by the primary instrument (see above), and the bursts are kept intentionally at low levels.

The patch is a generative design that requires no intervention. Once the big Button is pressed the music begins. The mix is automated except for the main mix level, the operation of which is the only intervention needed on the user’s part.

Recorded with ecasound, edited with mhwaveedit, on Fedora 23 (Linux).

Keywords: brooding, ominous, dark

The dramatis personae:

Audible Instruments – Modal Synthesizer (aka Elements)
Autodafe – 1×8 Multi
Frozen Wasteland – BPM LFO
HetrickCV – Random Gates
Impromptu Modular – Clocked, Tact-1
JW-Modules – Quantizer
mscHack – Dronez
NYSTHI – Mverb
PdArray – ~array
Repelzen – Re-burst
RJModules – Button
Skrylar – ALAN, Volts
Southpole – Annuli (aka Rings), Smoke (aka Clouds)
Squinky Labs – Form, ExFor
Stoermelder – uMap
SynthKit – Clock Divider
VCV – Octave, 8vert, Audio-8
Wiqid Anomalies – Dual Attenuverter