Here is a scripted synth jam featuring Slime Child Audio’s Substation plugin. It was intended for use as a backing track for a Native American flute improvisation, but the chord modulations are a bit tricky, and I haven’t gotten a good flute improv yet.
The patch is controlled by the two buttons in the upper left corner. To initiate the song, first make sure the Start button is off, then press Reset, and then press Start. The 9 1/2 minute jam is fully automated after that.
The video includes the ReverbSolo VST plugin from Acon Digital running in Host-FX. The patch available for download does not include the reverb.
Patch Notes:
Nearly the entire patch is built exclusively with Substation modules. The only exceptions for sound generation are a logic module to combine the sequencer triggers to drive the envelopes, an offset module to bias the bass line VCA so it never goes to 0, and a set of Bogaudio modules to generate the chirping birdlike voice. All other “alien” modules are used for “knob” twiddling automation, all sequenced by a Transit module.
There are a total of 5 voices:
The bass line drives the entire piece. Sequence C fires every 16 clock beats for a slow, constant pulse. This pulse serves as the master clock for all automation. Every 16 pulses (4 complete bass line cycles) the bass line quantizer’s TRANS(pose) button is toggled which modulates the key of the bass line. The bass line also serves as the root quantizer note for the other voices. Every time the bass note changes, the other voices transpose their sequence to the new root note.
The middle voice (sequence A) and the high voice (sequence B) share the same envelope generators, which is triggered by any of the sequence triggers (2,3,5, or 16). The mid voice modulates the LPF in a positive manner. The high voice inverts the EG for the LPF cutoff.
The high voice is also doubled by a sine wave from a self oscillating low pass filter that uses the lower half of the Bogaudio VCA.
The bird voice uses both the mid and high voice quantized sequence to drive the Bogaudio CHIRP module. One LFO controls the bird VCA AD envelope generator, and the other controls the panning of the bird voice in the mixer.
The modules in the top row perform all the automation, which is controlled by the master Transit module . The Transit is triggered every 8 bass pulses, but generally only every other step effects a change in the sound. The exceptions occur leading up to the climactic bass sustain moments, where there are 3 active steps in a row.
The Effect Selector (Bogaudio Mute8) has 3 buttons labeled for Sine Modulation (FM) that I ended up not using in the final cut. But they are functional – Unmute the FM button and then unmute either Mid(Mid voice audio) or Shift (constant voltage) to activate the Sine FM modulation.
When the Sustain button is unmuted, it activates the EG Hold button for the bass line.
Unumuting the PWM button applies the bird envelope to the high voice pulse width modulation.
All other changes are effected by altering the mix and/or drive in one of the Saturating Mixers, or altering the volume or mute state of one of the MixMaster channels.
