Where Envelopes Become Waves || Live Modular Ambient Improvisation

This patch can be split essentially into 3 parts: the Harmonic Bed, the Cascading Run, and the Random Droplets—all very technical terms we're working with here. :)

The Harmonic Bed is the 4ms Ensemble Oscillator, holding one key but slowly fluctuating its root and spread by lfo modulation. From there it's going through Data Bender (my favorite) and Magneto (tape delay w/spring reverb). I like to wiggle the root knob from time to time, and also its Twist/Warp/FM knobs to get a little dirty.

The Cascading Run is an envelope from Maths going through a quantizer (Scales) to the RYK Algo (FM mono oscillator). That happens every 15 seconds. And the signal is split into two; one dry and one going out through a Mood pedal. I'm noodling on Mood as part of the jam, going between reverb/delay/slip modes, and wiggling the clock and modifiers.

The Random Droplets are a pitch sequence from Rene, going out to two Multimods (in Wow and Flutter Ping-Pong Read)—one for CV and the other for Gate. Those signals trigger a couple of oscillators (Rings & DPO). Due to the slow clock and Multimod settings, those sounds happen sparsely and unpredictably. And also in key, since Rene is quantized as well.

Structurally speaking, there's a 30-second-long marker at work. Every 30 seconds, a cascade of the Ensemble Oscillator's root is triggered by an envelope from Maths. At the same time, there's a deep hit from Rings. It's a bit dramatic. And that's what marks the piece's 'cycle', so to speak. I wanted occasional cascades, with lots of space between them for effects and Random Droplets to play. A bit like waves crashing on a rocky shoreline.

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/northeastpas...

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