Quark stream V2.3 — a microloop processor/delay

A modified version of Quark Stream V1 (“OG”) is now bundled into the patch download. See note at bottom of patch notes.

Quark Stream V2.3

Very minor changes to improve CPU headroom.

Only noticeable change: Before, when the loops were locked, a red light turned off; now when they are locked, a green light turns on.

Quark Stream V2.2

Additions:

— UI button shows when loops are being recorded

— “Loop randomness” control added: this governs the amount of randomness in the size of loops. It might be more obvious in “chop” mode, since chop uses a regular clock. In normal mode, the loop recording is still based on a random gate (which is based on the clock), so it will lead to loops that are natural divisions of that clock rate when randomness is set to 0.

As the loop randomness is increased, the clock becomes less predictable (although it will always speed up randomly, rather than speed up and slow down; this will affect the overall length of the loops recorded). At 1, the changes in clock can be rather large. At ~.333, the patch is as it was in the previous version of V2.

— The “Pitchshift” button now turns pitchshifting off when the button is off and turns pitchshifting on when the button is on.

— Some general changes to control panel UI. Left side controls the optional envelope. Middle controls the looping. Right controls the mixes and effects (delay, reverb).

— Under the hood junk to make it do gooder.

Reservations:

— CPU is still kind of high. It seems mostly stable. When I let a loop run for a couple hours, CPU had crept up to 105-106%; I suspect there’s some sort of data leak at work (I say as I repeat something I don’t really understand but read about elsewhere). Mostly, it seems to hold fairly steady at 100-102%, which is acceptably below the clipping threshold.

For other information on the patch, please reference the V2 patch notes below and the attached video.

Quark Stream V2

Less a revision than a redesign. One that actually works. I like to think of this as the version I might have made if I knew what I was making when I made the original (early forays — it’s called a granular patch, despite containing no granular module, because it predates the granular module, a wild time when microlooping was all relatively uncharted territory).

So Quark Stream is a microlooper that semi-randomly records at semi-random times and plays them back at optionally semi-random speed/pitches that can be semi-randomly reversed. These microloops pass through an optional envelope control, then a low-pass filter (to roll off highs and make them less obtrusive) before they reach a delay. Then the dry signal and the microlooped signal are mixed before passing through a plate reverb. Adjusting the various mixes can produce very different effects.

What you get is a glitchy, atmospheric patch; loops appear and disappear as you play, some of them brief snippets of sounds, others capturing longer phrases; some last for a while (depending on the loop chance setting), some effervesce almost as soon as they are heard.

The microlooper side sums the stereo input to mono before producing a stereo image using (more) random panning); the dry signal and everything the microloopers produce is in stereo.

A special thanks to my patrons on Patreon for their support: Rob Flax, Stepan Grammatik, brockstar, Mats Unnerholm, D Sing, Will Scott, drew batchelor, Miguel, Steve Bragg, Joab Eastley, Tomi Kokki, Mitch Lantz, Ben Norland, Roman Jakobej, Mark Crosbie, Steve Codling, Timothy Cleary, Soren Made, Ken Luke, Mike Ryan, Vilis Klavins, Nick, Joseph August, Jonathan Carp, Liam Britten, Nick Ruck, Simon Provencher, Alec Fellman, Ben Cerezo, Rick Munro, and Pierre Martin!

If you would like to support my work on ZOIA, please visit patreon.com/chmjacques

Controls:

Stompswitches:

Left, momentary — tap tempo for the delay (the delay also accepts MIDI clock); this also helps time the panning of the microloops… which is also somewhat randomized; there is a theme to this patch

Middle, latching — freezes the reverb (white pixel in bottom left corner will turn on)

Right, latching — freezes the microloop; if you hear a microloop you want to use as a drone or pad to play over, you can freeze it in place and the patch won’t replace it until you unfreeze the loop. When loops are being recorded, a green light next to the “loop chance” control will be on/bright to indicate that loops have a chance of being recorded.

Control panel:

There are three main sections: an envelope section, a microloop section, and a mix section.

Envelope section — pretty standard; the patch uses an AHD envelope (with hold identified as “Sustain” since for all intents and purposes….). There is a blue pushbutton to deactivate the envelope. When the button is on/lit up, the envelope is deactivated (which is a little counterintuitive, I know, but CPU, etc.).

Microloop section —

First, I will discuss the “chop mode” button. There are two methods the patch can use to record loops. I guess the uh… non-chop mode? Regular? mode works like this: a random gate flips between one of two recorders, with a rate (mostly) determined by the “loop size” control. Larger loop size values produce smaller loops.

When you use chop mode, the random gate is ignored, and the records flip back and forth, with the base, slightly randomized rate. This produces loops at a steadier rate, and the loops are more consistent in length, but both contain some element of randomness. It’s a bit of a happy accident machine.

You select the mode with the “CHOP MODE” button: when on, the chop mode is engaged. When off, regular? mode.

Below this is the loop chance control:

This controls whether the looper designated will record something. Smaller numbers mean loops are replaced less often. Larger numbers mean loops are replaced more often. At 1, the loops will be replaced every time the designation flips. At 0, no loops will be recorded (or replaced).

If you want longer loops, turn down loop size; if you want the loops to hold longer, turn down loop chance.

Below this is a reverse chance; each loop can be set to probabilistically play forward or reverse.

Beside the reverse chance control is a pushbutton labeled “PS OFF”: when this is engaged, the pitchshifting on the microloops will be removed. Otherwise, the pitch-shifting is randomly determined per loop, from no change, to -1 octave, -5th, +5th, +1 octave, with a slight inclination toward no change and +1 octave outcomes.

After this is a LPF control, so you can tame some of the highs produced by the loops, and make them sit better in a mix.

Mix section —

The loops pass into a delay. You can set the mix and the feedback of the delay.

Then they are mixed with the dry section using the ‘mix’ control.

Then everything passes into a plate reverb, and you can set the decay and mix of the reverb from the front panel.

==============================================

Update: Quark Stream OG

This patch download now contains a bundle of Quark Stream V2.3 and the slightly modified version of the original Quark Stream (“OG”). The patches are similar, but different enough that after seeing a member of the Facebook group, Aaron, use the OG version quite well, I decided to make both available.

The slight modifications are as follows:
— Minor under the hood modifications to improve CPU headroom.
— Mod rate and depth controls for the delay moved to the front page (it still loads with the default settings, but I found these a bit extreme, so now they are easier to adjust to taste).
— A minor modification to the looping mechanism that should help with some of the “pops” heard in the Soundcloud clip: https://soundcloud.com/chmjacques/quark-stream
— Some of the pixels on the front page were changed slightly.

Full patch notes for the OG version can be found in the zipped folder.

Any future development/revision will occur with the V2 patch line.

5 comments on “Quark stream V2.3 — a microloop processor/delay
  • Christopher H. M. Jacques on said:

    Quark Stream V2

    Less a revision than a redesign drawn from the original concept. One that actually works, too. I like to think of this as the version I might have made if I knew what I was making when I made the original (early forays — it was called a granular patch, despite containing no granular module, because it predates the granular module, a wild time when microlooping was all relatively uncharted territory).

    So Quark Stream is a microlooper that semi-randomly records at semi-random times and plays them back at optionally semi-random speed/pitches that can be semi-randomly reversed. These microloops pass through an optional envelope control, then a low-pass filter (to roll off highs and make them less obtrusive) before they reach a delay. Then the dry signal and the microlooped signal are mixed before passing through a plate reverb. Adjusting the various mixes can produce very different effects.

    What you get is a glitchy, atmospheric patch; loops appear and disappear as you play, some of them brief snippets of sounds, others capturing longer phrases; some last for a while (depending on the loop chance setting), some effervesce almost as soon as they are heard.

    The microlooper side sums the stereo input to mono before producing a stereo image using (more) random panning); the dry signal and everything the microloopers produce is in stereo.

    A special thanks to my patrons on Patreon for their support: Rob Flax, Stepan Grammatik, brockstar, Mats Unnerholm, D Sing, Will Scott, drew batchelor, Miguel, Steve Bragg, Joab Eastley, Tomi Kokki, Mitch Lantz, Ben Norland, Roman Jakobej, Mark Crosbie, Steve Codling, Timothy Cleary, Soren Made, Ken Luke, Mike Ryan, Vilis Klavins, Nick, Joseph August, Jonathan Carp, Liam Britten, Nick Ruck, Simon Provencher, Alec Fellman, Ben Cerezo, Rick Munro, and Pierre Martin!

    If you would like to support my work on ZOIA, please visit patreon.com/chmjacques

    Controls:

    Stompswitches:

    Left, momentary — tap tempo for the delay (the delay also accepts MIDI clock); this also helps time the panning of the microloops… which is also somewhat randomized; there is a theme to this patch

    Middle, latching — freezes the reverb (white pixel in bottom left corner will turn on)

    Right, latching — freezes the microloop; if you hear a microloop you want to use as a drone or pad to play over, you can freeze it in place and the patch won’t replace it until you unfreeze the loop. When loops are being recorded, a green light next to the “loop chance” control will be on/bright to indicate that loops have a chance of being recorded.

    Control panel:

    There are three main sections: an envelope section, a microloop section, and a mix section.

    Envelope section — pretty standard; the patch uses an AHD envelope (with hold identified as “Sustain” since for all intents and purposes….). There is a blue pushbutton to deactivate the envelope. When the button is on/lit up, the envelope is deactivated (which is a little counterintuitive, I know, but CPU, etc.).

    Microloop section —

    First, I will discuss the “chop mode” button. There are two methods the patch can use to record loops. I guess the uh… non-chop mode? Regular? mode works like this: a random gate flips between one of two recorders, with a rate (mostly) determined by the “loop size” control. Larger loop size values produce smaller loops.

    When you use chop mode, the random gate is ignored, and the records flip back and forth, with the base, slightly randomized rate. This produces loops at a steadier rate, and the loops are more consistent in length, but both contain some element of randomness. It’s a bit of a happy accident machine.

    You select the mode with the “CHOP MODE” button: when on, the chop mode is engaged. When off, regular? mode.

    Below this is the loop chance control:

    This controls whether the looper designated will record something. Smaller numbers mean loops are replaced less often. Larger numbers mean loops are replaced more often. At 1, the loops will be replaced every time the designation flips. At 0, no loops will be recorded (or replaced).

    If you want longer loops, turn down loop size; if you want the loops to hold longer, turn down loop chance.

    Below this is a reverse chance; each loop can be set to probabilistically play forward or reverse.

    Beside the reverse chance control is a pushbutton labeled “PS OFF”: when this is engaged, the pitchshifting on the microloops will be removed. Otherwise, the pitch-shifting is randomly determined per loop, from no change, to -1 octave, -5th, +5th, +1 octave, with a slight inclination toward no change and +1 octave outcomes.

    After this is a LPF control, so you can tame some of the highs produced by the loops, and make them sit better in a mix.

    Mix section —

    The loops pass into a delay. You can set the mix and the feedback of the delay.

    Then they are mixed with the dry section using the ‘mix’ control.

    Then everything passes into a plate reverb, and you can set the decay and mix of the reverb from the front panel.

    No demo for the update, but I might do one sometime soon.

  • Christopher H. M. Jacques on said:

    As of 12:01 EST 3/31:

    If you downloaded V2 earlier today, I made a very slight tweak to try to get more CPU headroom. While I was testing the patch, everything was well within the CPU thresholds, but as I played it earlier tonight, it occasionally inched into the “danger zone.” (AKA 105%)

    It still hangs out above 100% CPU, but the changes seem to have settled it at ~100-103% (that is what I have observed). Which is… you know, not ideal, but below the clipping threshold.

    Let me know if you observe otherwise, and I can see what I can do to tinker more.

  • Malarks on said:

    This is a beautiful patch. I spend all evening playing with and there is still so much to explore with it. Thanks for uploading.

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    • Platform:
    • Category: Effect Sound
    • Revision: V2.3 -- Patch notes and video now (mostly) reflect current version.
    • License: Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0
    • Modified: 4 years ago
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      Likes: 29
      Downloads: 2455
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