~rings of saturn : vcv rack jam $marbles $stages $rings $spork

Yo! This week I was experimenting with smaller patches. When I first discovered VCV Rack (and had zero experience with modular stuff), I was really overwhelmed by the huge number of modules and didn’t know where to even start. So, this is an invitation for all the beginners out there to try pressing the buttons and tweaking the knobs!

I think this is a great example that you don’t need 100 modules to make some interesting timbres and melodies. Right now, the way I learn modules is pretty simple: use one sequencer, one voice, and one effect. Using such restrictions, you can find some new interesting techniques and learn these modules much more deeply, so give it a try!

Patch notes:

In this patch, I’m using Marbles as the main sequencer. It triggers Stages (through a Bernoulli gate to make the triggers less frequent) and Rings.

Stages create two things: an LFO for different modulations and a 5-step sequence that modulates the rate of Marbles and some algorithms of Spork (it’s from the premium collection by Path Set, but you can use Clouds to achieve similar results).

You can create a lot of cool rhythmic variations by tweaking the sliders of Stages and locking the Marbles sequence.

Rings is running the sympathetic strings algorithm, but I changed it a few times during the jam.

The one thing I’m still really missing is the ability to play keys or guitar during the jam. It would be awesome to harmonize all this stuff or play lead melodies. I’ve tried to do it a few times, but my brain can’t handle it at all. The only solution is to create macros for each individual parameter, but there are like 20 of them, so it would be overwhelming too. MIDI Fighter is almost the ideal solution for this problem, but it costs like a fcking submarine haha.

I’ll try to map some controls to my Komplete M32 keyboard next time; it should be fun too, I think!

Here’s the Patchstorage link, try tweaking some knobs yourself!
https://patchstorage.com/rings-of-sat...