Stressor is a “microloop” patch inspired by stuff like the Red Panda Tensor, Chase Bliss Mood, etc. that use a buffer/”always-listening” looper. Two loopers continually trade off recording and playing back, with controls to change speed (half/normal/double speed) and direction (forward/reverse). Pretty straightforward!
This is my first patch released into the wild—should be good to go, but will continue to tweak and improve it as I go.
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CONTROLS
All the stuff you’ll probably want to control is on the first page:
SPEED (PUSHBUTTON) // Toggles between half, normal, and double speed. Modify the values in the sequencer steps on page 2 to change these, or disconnect, hook up a Value module to both looper speeds and use that to control speed unquantized.
REVERSE (PUSHBUTTON) // Toggles between forward and reverse playback.
SV FILTER // Simple LPF—I generally use it to tame octave-up/double speed loops.
VCA // Mix control should be sufficient in most cases, but use this to attenuate the wet signal if you wish.
MIX // Fade between dry and wet (duh)
RIGHT FOOTSWITCH // Toggles 100% wet mix
MIDDLE FOOTSWITCH // Sets record time via tap tempo. The Clock Divider module on page 2 controls this directly—modify the parameters there to further expand or narrow loop time.
LEFT FOOTSWITCH // “Reset” button for loopers—one bug I ran into is that occasionally the loopers will stop trading off and start recording/playing back in sync. Tap this to reset them opposite of each other. (Bit of a bandaid, but it works.)
NOTE: the loop start point is modulated by a random LFO on page 2. Modify this to change the interval at which the start point changes, and modify the connection strength to control how dramatic the changes are.
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Like I said, pretty straightforward with room to modify as you wish. In previous versions I had the output go to an audio out switcher and into a granular module or a modulated delay, for example. Would love to hear how you expand or improve upon it!
This is a fantastic patch! Simple, elegant, well executed. Good design here.
If I could offer two ideas:
1) Consider moving the looper modules to a different page? If you’re interacting with them in real time, cool, but I’d rather make a button that presses the reverse and put that on the front panel than have the whole module there. In general the fewer things on the front panel the better IMO.
2) There’s lots of push-button options, but this patch seems to be a great tool for guitarists with both hands busy… You could build “flexi-switches” that give you two commands per footswitch (i.e. a press vs. press and hold), and some of those buttons could be moved to footswitch (or have that additional option). The half speed/double-speed playback would be a good one to have as a secondary footswitch option, for example.
Really cool patch! You could put a CV Invert between the clock divider and the second looper’s record button. This way the two loopers will always alternate, no need for the left foot switch reset. :)
@Rob – thanks for the suggestions, definitely ones to try out that I could see making for a better experience!
@bh – I’ll have to try that—in an early version I’d tried CV Invert and it didn’t work, but perhaps I was overthinking how I implemented it. I’ll have to give it another go, thanks!
Just jamming on this patch now man. Having a blast. Well done.
For some reason when loaded onto the ZOIA the patch shows up as blank–any ideas? thanks
This patch sounds beautiful, thank you for sharing! Just got my Zoia :)
is this patch mono?? i only get the left channel and not nearly as much action as in this vid.