PTWSLY | Generative Ambient Patch in VCV Rack 2

While doing some cleanup in the "unsorted" directory where I keep my unfinished VCV patches and experiments, I ran into a patch that was started last year (and not used since). Judging from the rectangular layout of the patch, I suspect it was something that I considered as a potential source for a tutorial (which I might still do now that I've rediscovered it almost 8 months later).It didn't sound that bad listening back to it now. So I decided to try and build a full patch out of it.

In the patch, there are three melodic voices, each using a different way to generate a melody. One is using a Sample and Hold to have a small amount of randomization, and combines that with an LFO to make the melody move up and down. The triggers for the notes are randomized using a Bernoulli Gate, and they are played using a simple VCO into a Chronoblob delay that is set to a ping-pong delay.
The second voice uses a similar approach, but instead of using an LFO to move the voice up and down, a WALK2 module is used. Playback is done by a Dark Energy module into a Tap Dancer delay.
The third voice again uses an LFO to move the melody, but instead of using a Sample & Hold for the note randomization, a Turing Machine by Music Thing Modular is used. Playback of this voice is provided by an Instruo Ts-L module with an I-o47 filter acting as a VCA, using a Cnoc as envelope generator. In this voice, a FLAG Prince of Perception provides the delay effect.

So that's the patch that I started with today. I made a couple of smaller changes to the initial three voices. I changed the VCO type of the first voice to a sawtooth one and added a filter that brings the voice in and out of the mix, and in the third voice, I replaced the Cnoc with a Ceìs module.

To fill out the low end of the patch, a mix of three module combinations is used: a FLAG Prodigal Son into a Vult Freak filter, an Instruo Cruïnn module into a SurgeXT filter and a pair of Vult Basal modules. The parameters of the two filters and the Basal modules are modulated over time to bring movement into this bass voice while it's playing the eight note sequence that's programmed into the Bogaudio AddrSeq module.

Another voice that was added provides some filling of the middle/high register. It is using a switch to play the notes of the currently active chord, and plays them in rapid succession using a Dark Energy module into a wet-only reverb to make them blend together. Using an OrangeLine Fence module that has its offset modulated by an LFO, the chord notes are slowly moved up and down, making the whole voice move over a two octave range.

To add an additional layer in the high register, a random chord note is played every now and again as a long note by a pair of FM-OP modules. This gets sent through a filter and into a Tap Dancer delay to provide an even longer fade-out of the notes.

A final melodic addition to the patch is again based on the notes of the current chord (including the 7th this time), which get triggered by a Count Module Burst Generator. But instead of playing them in sequence (or completely random), an ML Modules and a Instruo Switch combination is used to move up and down through the notes (where a Bernoulli Gate changes the direction at random). A Geodesics Fate module provides the occasional random note in this sequence, and an Oct module is triggered every now and again to move the notes one octave up or down. This sequence gets played by an Atelier Palette into a Chronoblob delay module, which is again set to a ping-pong delay. A filter is used to soften the voice (and sometimes fade it out almost completely) before sending it through a reverb and on to the mixer.

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Setup
- VCV Rack 2.5.2 Pro on Windows
- All audio generated internally within VCV Rack (no external connections)
- Video is captured by OBS
- RAW FLAC Audio output from VCV Rack
- Audio recording synced to OBS, and fade added at the end with Reaper
- OBS video and Reaper audio are merged and cut to length using Shutter Encoder.

Copyright
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