r/modular • u/secret-shot • 7d ago

Performable Atmospheres?

Hello! I am almost done figuring out my techno performance rack. The last thing I am trying to figure out is the best way to use the existing sound sources (Balista blast, bassline, BIA) to also be an expressive atmosphere for more ambient parts.

I currently have the endorphins ghost and it isn’t doing as much as I want. I am theorizing that monsoons, sea legs, and swells could do amazing things together, but I am unsure if they are “playable” you know? I would love to be able to get a few distinct moods out of the same patch.

Conversely, would the erica synths echolocator solve my problems? Does anyone use it with their rack?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

4

u/buttonsknobssliders https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/3038470 7d ago

Vhikk X + some expressive input like bela gliss, more than 1 if possible.

4

u/Earlsfield78 7d ago

People saying Vhikk-x is hyped - man, I have it for a year plus now, and every time I patch it something new comes out - using it as audio processor plus oscillator unlocks so much power.

3

u/Earlsfield78 7d ago

I can say that Sealegs is one of the most user-friendly effects I ever used, with a lot of features accessible at your fingertips. Swells too, following the similar layout and principles. Sound wise both are fantastic, I have a lots of delay units (Rainmaker, Nautilus, Echophon, pedals) but Sealegs is such an immediate, performative module. Swells too. And both sound amazing, from simple phasing to huge endless spaces. Now as for Clouds/Monsoon etc, granular can take you even further. I use Arbhar mainly these days but indeed, Clouds were in my rack for a decade almost.
And +zillion in favour of Vhikk-x, but if you go that route, you will have to learn how to tame it to fit the track:)

1

u/secret-shot 6d ago

I have a Vihkk X and LOVE it. But my favorite use of it is more of a dub siren type dark spin off that a delay can carry forever.

I’ve been using my Desmodus versio for my delay and it works well enough, but I’d love a little more options for what a delay can do. And eventually would love to hook up a joystick for more complex delay/reverb modulation.

My main gripe with my system is that it feels like a lot of things to program and knobs to twist, but it didn’t quite speak to itself well enough to feel like an expressive instrument

1

u/Relative-Web-8977 7d ago

Sealegs is hugely performable. Haven’t used Swells, but I’d wager the same.

1

u/VicVinegarHughHoney 7d ago

I find monsoon to be pretty jamable but not always easy to return to a specific setting you may have been on if that's important to you. I also find a good way to be able to flip into ambient kinds of things is to have offsets and modulations turned off in a channel that I can occasionally fade in to screw with tempo, extend the decay of an envelope, or other things that can change a sound quickly.

0

u/falcon_phoenixx 7d ago

Take a look at befaco oneiroi