Skip to main content

Modules test

 Test of 2 newly acquired modules.

The Sonocurrent MD2T distortion and the Rossum Linnaeus filter.

SONOCURRENT MD2T:
It is sometimes (often? all the time??) useful to color the signal a little. Or to enrich it with more high harmonics, or even to degrade it. For this there is the whole family of wave shapers, and distortions.

The MD2T is part of the family of distortions.
It is interesting in more ways than one. In the first place it is double, which is missing from my panel of possibilities, and has quite complete settings such as a tilt filter, the not so common bias setting (there is one on my BigMuff Germanium!) and feedback. In addition to the choice of plate voltage (even less common, useful to degrade the signal even more! ... also on my BigMuff Germanium).

Above all, it uses a miniature triode tubes "KORG NUTUBE 6P1 DUAL TRIODE". The sound is very good (no: excellent), and the module allows soft settings for a slight overdrive, such as harder and greasy sounds by pushing the settings.

I already have some modules and pedals dedicated to this role, and a priori, more is not necessary.
When it was released, this module had not particularly interested me, certainly a beautiful sound color, but still a little expensive. Passing through SuperBooth 2022, I was able to try it, and it I was more than interested. Precisely, I was looking for a way to process stereo signals, good enought to process a final mix or sub-mix (all perc for example).
In the end, we must not stop at the price. Given that this is a double distortion, it is the same as getting 2 identical modules or pedals. with lamp... With all its settings plus its sound richness, it becomes competitive again.

2 distortions does not mean stereo, it is interesting to chain them in series (by default this is the case) for example. But here, it is the processing of a stereo signal that is tested.

For this, it is the excellent North-Coast MSK013 VCO, which with its sin and cosin outputs allows to manage a stereo signal.

The first idea is to treat each channel of the VCO through a distortion channel. But if the waveform is too different between right and left, the effect may not be suitable: the Distortion tends to exaggerate this difference even more.
To be more subtle we can encode in Mide-Side, pass in the disto, and return in LR. In this case, one of the channels will process what happens in the middle of the stereo image, regardless of what happens at the ends. Classically keep bass in the center, and raise the treble on the sides, for example.
(we do not remove the right left difference, but we still have better control)
The transition LR to MS and vice versa is performed by a Worng LRMSMSLR.



ROSSUM LINNAEUS:

More stereo!

Sometimes, in the audio chain of a patch, we arrive at a point where the signal becomes stereo, when the signal is not already stereo at the output of the first module! Signal that sometimes needs to be filtered. And it is not always possible to add a filter before switching to stereo.
All this to say that a stereo filter is always missing at one time or another.
It is a good thing, manufacturers are increasingly interested in stereo and offer many modules that can process identically (or not) 2 signals with the same controls.

The quality of the modules from Rossum is beyond reproach, and excellent in every respect. Whether it's the build quality or the sound quality.
In addition to being a very good filter (clean, accurate), it has several interesting features. Including the addition of an oscillator that can modulate the cut-off frequency.

With a "thru zero" design, it is possible to get very interesting FM type sounds. It is this option that motivated his acqusition.
In my setup, this filter will be a priori devoted to the processing of sounds at the end of the chain while the quality of the filtering will be at that time critical not to degrade the incoming sounds, with the bonus of providing additional coloring if necessary using the integrated oscillator.
It doesn't stop from exploring what else it can do. And for example generate precussive bell-like sounds !

The filter itself is not self-oscillating. But the setting of the Q is very precise and allows by applying an input pulse, to use it as a decay very effectively. (Yes, this is not always the case on all filters!)
We end up with a particularly interesting percussive sound generator.
So that's what's being explored here.
A simple trig signal is applied to the audio input, and by setting the 2 filters differently, a subtle stereo effect is achieved.

The sequence is generated by homemade modules, and no effects have been added.
... except at the end, a short sequence, with the addition of a delay (the TC-Electronics D-TWO) and a reverb (OTO BAM).



The modules:

https://www.sonocurrent.com/mt2d
https://www.rossum-electro.com/products/linnaeus/


Popular posts from this blog

Modular and Glitches

  Recently, I bought a little impulsively the new Xaoc oscillator Sofia.I do not regret it because it sounds perfectly good. And it has a large number of inputs and outputs which makes it effectively integrable with the rest of a modular system. In particular, it has 2 "Impulse" outputs which are actually comparable to the envelope of "grains". (See the Sofia doc. for a better explanation ... Because it's not exactly that, but in my case here, I use it as a "grain" envelope !) Anyway, What can we do with these outputs ? Why not using one as an envelope in a classical way ? (means, control a VCA).Here, I'm using a Rossum Trident as sound source. And with some CV to change parameters (Pitch...), I already have of small sound particles. It reminds me the "Clic and Cut" aesthetic (that was done digitally). So after that, It was time to complexify the sound by adding modules... until this messy result ! (Some pitch shift, Beads, or Data Bender

Oldies

Aleq project should be dedicated to the use of modular synthesizers. So, no keyboards, no desktop ? Noway, "if it's sound good, it's good." (Duke Ellington) So in this particular project, why not accepting some "all in one" synth (Even with a keyboard ?!).  I have several synth that are not eurorack modules. Not really interesting to speak about, there are a lot of good video on the web. But 2 machines can be more interesting, maybe. And both are "modular" (in fact, semi-modular...) : A RSF KOBOL, Expander I and II, with a small add: a joystick. I never see any info about this stuff on the web. I was buying the two expander, and this joystick was included, so... But it uses two 9V batteries, with no ON/Off switch, and you have to disassemble it to change the batteries: not effective ! In addition, it seems broken: needs some investigation. Or just leave it like that. Because there is another interesting machine, with 2 joysticks: An old and dirty E

CONCERT

 Very first performance for the Aleq Project: Festival L'Automne des Empreintes Sonore Wednesday, September 21. Annecy (France). Improvisation with some modular synths, in tribut to Yannis Xenakis.