a sketchbook for sound

I am a 26 year old artist currently living in Chicago, IL. Find here my multimedia art, primarily music. OC only here, personal blog @ivynow

[kuliak]

EP release!

Happy solstice! This is a collection of motifs i explored in depth from the first half of this year, broadly within the ambient genre. The release explores in-depth a few minimal composition techniques in distinct permutations performed on eurorack modular synthesizer.

[kuliak]

Here again.

One of the goals this year is to use the OP-1f more, or at least give it an honest shake. I had the non-f a couple years back, and it just didn't click then, mainly because I was trying to make it be something it wasn't, at all - a beat-driven groovebox. Sure, you can do that with it; folks make amazing stuff, but that's not how I'd want to do that. But as I've learned to create in a broader range of styles, I've yearned for a chance to try that workflow again. Sometimes the chance just falls right in your lap.

I don't think this recording is amazing, necessarily, but it sounds like a piece of my music. Sound design is fun, parts of the workflow are freeing. Looking forward to more.

[kuliak]

A twofer: multi-looped guitar and sequenced drama.

So, yeah, I missed Friday. So it goes - I was sleepy!

Saturday I was lucky to have my friend Eric over! He came prepared with his guitar and a preprepared Morphagene reel with it. We recorded another loop into Nebulae, then I plated the modular while he played guitar into it. Splice and looping points for each looper were controlled with Planar, and stored voltages controlled Nebulae's speed-independent-pitch. The guitar itself went through a manually wiggled BLmk1.5 cannel for distortion and aliasing, and finally, an input envelope follower was used to control the volume of a sub-osc from Three Body. Really fun stuff, and I always love to collaborate.

Then, today's is a nice Three Body loop through Echo for warming and texture. A bass I'm kind of lukewarm on from Just Friends through QPAS and Bib too. For both of these, I used some varied gate lengths, instead of mixing some envelopes for an ADSR, I explored a new technique I like a lot - having a simultaneously-triggered ASR for the VCA and AD for some timbral element. It's like the percussiveness of the initial hit, but more interesting. An EOR trigger from one of the lead hits gates an octave-up of JF (i6) super-distorted via BL through Data Bender to turn it into noisy rhythm. Finally, Scrooge through Ikarie makes a hell of a texture. I find it a bit of a pain to use, but need more of that!

Also, I'm starting to recognize/acknowledge a...progressive lack in these jams. I'm probably past due for learning the Oxi's performance features!

[kuliak]

Superliminalism.

Fairly simple today, but explores some nice spaces - get it?

Complex osc patch with Three Body, Quadrax, Agogo, and Foldiplier through Echo then into a stereo Matrix with DLD (configured as a stereo delay), QPAS, and Data Bender where the source moves between different chins. Various controls tweaked throughout - in the future, I'd love to sequence through routings via Tetrapad voltages mode!

[kuliak]

Some kind of downtempo with Solar 42

It's amusing how I got here. I actually started planning to just use Solar 42 into DLD for some typically ambient Frippertronics actions. But I got lost with how fun the arp is to play around with and thought, hey, why not actually use "Split" mode for once? The octave switching is such a PITA, but otherwise, it's so good!

Arp from side A into Clouds (pitchshifting I think an octave down too) and Ikarie; side B played manually via touchplates goes through Bib for some gain into DLD, with Cold Mac panning between them based on a Quadrax LFV. Each has a different but pretty long buffer and moderate feedback. They're brought back together in Silhouette to inputs opposite each other, with Shadow patched to ALL and the same LFV moving spot. Auditioning ATMOS settings, I was pleasantly surprised how well the "level" setting kept things under control, even with the feedback swelling or DLD buffers lining up at times.

But here's where it got more, idk, musical? Danceable? Head-bobbable? I intended to just make a nice little Arovaney cymbal pattern, but I was having so much fun making a proper beat with velocity on Oxi I made a whole groove out of it. Archer's Rig (clicky snare here) and Crucible both go through their own channels of Bionic Lester mk1.5, really tying them together and adding a nice crunch to each.

Melody is a little wonky at times, but at least its all in key! Super fun to make this one - not usually what I'd make, but maybe more in the future?

[kuliak]

Classic generative-

Like, a lot more generative than I usually go. The patch is driven by the Oxi Stochastic sequencer and a low-frequency vacillator from Quadrax, all interacting through the patch to send a simple pluck of Three Body through MIVerb, and a bunch of pitch shifted copies into Agogo then Silhouette. Envelopes here controlled by the trig outputs on GX from the LFV, then also EoR and EoF of two additional functions triggered by those triggers (which also affect the patch in subtle ways).

L/R and Light are patched into Shaka, with Bib and QPAS being inputs and outputs; and a third out going to the main mix. Shadow is sent into two different length DLD buffers, slightly crosspanned by the LFV, then Data Bender and Ikarie.

Needless to say, there was a lot of feedback here as various parameters were being tweaked while it ran. Signal chain here was extra-important, I'm compressing pretty heavily with nABC+, only to really drive it with Analog Heat, bringing that really saturated feeling.

Overall, a fun patching exercise and a nice vibe to the sounds. But I feel like I'm missing some key part of the stochastic sequencer. More to explore? But I think that and Matriceal will probably come later; I'd like to focus on the more direct options this month.

[kuliak]

Lingering ambiance

In the spirit of time-sensitivity as mentioned yesterday, I let this piece remain on the simpler side. I spent too long on the melody I didn't have any brainpower left to develop it! Doing super heavy sequence windowing two days in a row just felt corny. Though soon I should start exploring internal modulation to bring the Oxi sequences in instead.

Lead is, as ever, Three Body. Going through Tap-O-Matic here to create the main rhythm; there's also a sub-osc via Osc 1 through the same pattern as the kick (nABC+ SC in to make it pump all nice) going into Morphor, in which I'm really leaning into the feedback to make some more rhythmic noise.

Then, the main nose bed is actually the Solar 42f through QPAS and MIVerb. It started the song as a more prominent element, but between the rich 3B sound and all the rhythm it made the mix feel too cluttered. Hoping the patch I have on it makes a proper appearance in the next couple of days.

As for more subtle things going on here, I am starting to explore the velocity of Oxi. Here it's more subtly, but I used the mod in on Quadrax to have velocity increase volume, shorten attack, and lengthen decay. It's just a little, but I think that goes a long way for keeping the sequence from feeling too stale. In general I should modulate my envelopes more anyways!

[kuliak]

omgyjya-switchsomething

Going back to the cymbals, but this time, making sure the cymbals are actually prominent. Inspired by tracker-style sample ping-ponging, I set up DLD to just be an instantly-reversible, clean buffer (I tried doing this with Data Bender, but it had too much character). I think this is a great technique to revisit with different buffer lengths, source material, etc. This goes into the Echo.

The lead voice is Three Body through BLmk1.5, getting a lot of timbral variation just by playing the controls manually. By default, this is mixed with Archers Rig through Bib for reverb.

HOWEVER! Cold Mac crosspans Crucible and 3B between the DLD-Echo and Bib signal paths for different sections, but I found the Echo was too much on the synth, so I used the OR CV out from Cold Mac, inverted, to tamp down Echo feedback on the right side of the knob.

There's a little modulation of Crucible via a Planar sequence, but otherwise I'm just playing loop lengths on Oxi - I definitely left a few parts run a little too long, but so it goes. If I were fleshing this out I'd want to modulate Archer's Rig, add some alt hits on AR and Crucible, and faux-modulate Lester by CV-controlling mix (maybe through Agogo? I'm writing that down for later). But while part of committing to Jamuary is making sure I make something every day, the other part is knowing when to "call it" on a Jam, whether it's due to ideas being fully explored or just because I'm out of time. I've been doing well at making myself get up and play, I've been very poor at stopping and going to bed.

Overall, fun, interesting stuff, and something different than the last three days of blown-out slow stuff (though, to be fair, I love the blown-out slow stuff).

[kuliak]

Combining programmed and generative elements.

A mono sequence plays on the Oxi, but the envelope triggered by that goes into Multimod, each channel of which is patched into a CV input on Agogo. Modulation and tweaking of Multimod thus changes the expresion somewhat. Each channel is fed audio from a different output of Three Body. Submixes from channesls 4 and 8 go into Silhouette, with Light and Shadow mixed via BLmk1.5 into DLD returned to the All input. This goes through QPAS before Bib and out.

Uncertainty (VU) triggers some additional voices on Just Friends, which goes through Stardust as a pseudo-delay, then Ikarie.

More interesting space to explore here. Maybe by not blowing out QPAS, but on the other hand, it sounds kind of good? And of course all the voltages for comparator levels etc could have been finer tuned. More, slow sequencing to Multimod would add further movements. Overall though, I like this, a way to tap into the NUSS philosophy without fully committing.

Also, in a learning experience I wasn't expecting to sample this month, I chopped this down in Audacity quite a bit. It wasn't too hard at all, if a bit of a damper on my process. But this had so many moving parts to enable/disable, I just didn't have it in me to try another take. I'll keep this option in mind for future acoustically-good takes that just meander too much!

[kuliak]

Whalesong.

I started this, way too late in the day, with the intention to make a quick little cymbal-driven patch. So went that.

Crucible and Worm are mixed through one channel on BLmk1.5 then go through Miverb. Worm settings and mix of each is controlled via Tetrapad.

Three Body is receiving all sorts of modulation from Quadrax, with a few functions directly modulating the PM. The main PM voice goes through QPAS (mono), both channels of DLD in parallel, and Data Bender (red). The square output goes separately into the other BLmk1.5 channel, then into Echo and finally Ikarie. The latter two Quadrax functions control the initial VCA, then time and feedback of Echo, creating the warbley, whalesong-like swells.

Echo is, unfortunately, winning me over more and more with each patch. There's something in its character I'm really coming to love. Which is unfortunate since, really, I don't know I'll have space for it. Something to figure out later!

Finally, Agogo is invaluable, but extremely funny. I was thinking I'd take pictures of each of these patches in case I needed to recreate anything. What a joke, as if I could follow anything going on here!

[kuliak]

Timbral depth.

Back at it with Jamuary! It's been a minute since I've recorded anything, and even longer since I've posted any of it. Whoops! I've been making a lot of changes to my setup which are currently in their trial run. In a few months, if all seems to be working out, I may share some more details on that - the goal this year is to keep the instrument ecosystem as consistent as possible to leave room for learning everything in greater depth.

One of the big changes that's going to keep rearing its head, so it seems worth mentioning, is that Three Body is now the only typical oscillator left in the rack itself, meaning I'll need to work with more of the lovely external synths I keep around. This time, it's Strega.

Strega through Agogo, then Morphor Echo, and finally Ikarie is the main, warm voice; many parts of the chain are tweaked throughout. The second, which starts as just a rhythmic glitch and advances to be its own crunchy voice is Three Body through Bionic Lester mk 1.5 (channels in serial), Time Machine, QPAS, and Data Bender. An envelope through Multimod controls Time Machine level channels.

All sequencing is done via Oxi One, which I'm leaning on to be the backbone of my more structured compositions for the time being. The sequence for voice 1, with its varied ties and rests, reminds me of something I'd make with 0-ctrl. But the icing on the cake here is, since I can do that with a clock beneath it, I'm able to pipe that through the texture and have a second such voice kept in time. ...this should be simple of stuff, but I've been limited by Euro sequencing options for quite a while.

Also, a brief admin thing, I'm going with bandcamp for Jamuary ths year for ease of sharing. Depending on my workflow the rest of the year, I may use it for categorizing recordings into "studies" or I may stick with the more casual tumblr format. We'll see!

[kuliak]

Visit Original Link

Modular is tied up as its setup for a show next month, so taking more time to (re)learn desktop units - here, Neutral Labs Scrooge and Solar 42f.

I've been moving a lot of gear around lately, both in the new studio corner as I find an ideal workflow, and trading unused things to try out others stuff I've had my eye on. Felt like a bit of an ass, had scrooge lined up for trade but gave it one last go before wrapping it up and found a bit of magic that had been missing from it for me before. I feel a lot more motivated to learn my way about it. Next year is all about learning, anyways - maybe Jamuary, for simplicity, I just go for this combo? Seems to be a lot of depth to learn in both sound generation and performance.

[kuliak]

Studio time.

[kuliak]

Visit Original Link

The patch that saved uncertainty?

This isn't pretty by any stretch, but some cool stuff going on. Inspired by the Matt Lowery's awesome video unpacking silhouette, I thought, why ignore the internal "magnetic" modulation? Here I allow it to spin itself, with the feedback swell peaks detected by Uncertainty (VU meter FW) used to clock marbles to clock other stuff.

It works okay - I think more valuable for the technique than for this actual recording. Funnily, my favorite part of this are the nebulae/data bender textures...

[kuliak]

We're so back

[kuliak]

Something pretty and simple, mostly seeing if this works!

[kuliak]

I WILL be back soon. Performance Sunday @ Sound Market @ Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago as _w/o_. EP out 6/20/25 on bandcamp. Single is imminent.

Then, back to sketches and demos! And learning the Solar 42f and Scrooge more fully!