Groove — a quasi-generative groovebox

Play a lead. Build a sequence generatively or programmatically (or both). Generate chords from the sequence. Program a bass drum (or bassline). Throw in some probabilistically triggered hats. Sit back and enjoy.

Groove is a five voice groovebox. There is a lead (FM) synth, played from the keyboard (A minor, but you can change it to whatever you want) on the first page. There is also a sequencer, which can be programmed from the keyboard or generated randomly (again, quantized to A minor, but you can change it to whatever you want). A chord synth draws from the sequencer notes to play underneath the synth voices. There is also a bass drum, tuned to the chord synth (and transposed a few octaves); it can be transposed back up to make a bass synth, or a weird tuned percussion voice, or do a bunch of odd things. And there is a (very) simple hi-hat (enveloped noise), which will play based on probability.

Everything passes through a mono reverb lite (CPU started getting scarce, and this one runs real hot, even in 2.0), then is output through both outputs (but dual mono, because mono signal path).

There are a bunch of controls on this one; I’m not going to go over every single one, but I’ll try to hit the big ones.

Stompswitches:

Left, momentary — feeds the sequence random values

Middle, latching — mutes the bass drum and hats

Front page:

There’s a pushbutton below the keyboard called “Keyboard input” that allows you to feed the sequence with notes from the keyboard.

“Seq advance” is a probability that the sequence will advance to the next step; lower values will have it stall and create runs on a given step. “Seq note chance” determines how likely it is for an envelope to be generated for the sequence on a given step.

“Chord chance” determines how likely it is for an envelope to be generated for the three-voice chord synth (the chord synth samples from a few points in the sequence to generate its pitches). The “Chord retrigger” button allows the chord envelope to be retriggered. The chord synth can only sample when its envelope is closed, so running it all the time also means having the same chord repeat indefinitely, so, depending on the length of the envelope, you may want to have the chord chance very low.

“Legato” determines whether the keypad synth’s envelope retriggers when you play notes without removing your hand from the keyboard or not.

Second page:

This is mostly controls for the synth voices; envelope, filter, etc. Levels for each are along the left side. Some voice-specific controls to keep in mind:

“Chord detune” allows you to detune the chord synth, which can make it sound fatter (and you can detune it too much and it sounds weird).

“FM offset” allows you change the FM ratio for the lead synth.

This page also contains the quantizer and controls for the range of notes the sequencer randomization will draw from, as well as how likely it is to choose a new random value.

Third page:

This page has the master clock (LFO). It also has controls for the drums. Again, levels are along the left side.

“Hat chance” determines how likely it is for a hat to play.

“Kick character” controls a few things; the kick’s decay envelope gets longer as it is increased, but the resonance of the filter used to generate it decreases. There is also a control to transpose it; I find ~-A2 gives a decent kick; -A1 makes it more like a bass synth; anything above that makes it a weird synth voice.

There’s a sequencer at the bottom for changing the kick drum’s sequence.

Fourth page:

Reverb and output.

Other pages: a bunch of lunacy.

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  • Platform:
  • Category: Composition Sequencer Synthesizer
  • Revision: 1.0
  • License: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0
  • Modified: 3 years ago
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    Downloads: 892
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