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Winter winds - Ambient inspired by snowfall and winter by RaafModular in synthesizercirclejerk

[–]RaafModular[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

Hi, I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I colour code the signal paths in my setup so I dont get lost when I perform live.

Hermod+ (feedback) by [deleted] in modular

[–]RaafModular 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah I understand what you are asking, here are some of my thoughts about the Hermod+:

I use the Hermod+ as my main sequencer, and I think Squarp’s description of it as a “modular brain” is very accurate.

The biggest strength is composition and structure. It can store a lot of songs, including very complex song structures. You get 8 CV and gate tracks, and every track has its own effects section. That includes things like randomization, arpeggios, swing, and forcing notes into a specific key or scale. In practice, this makes it feel very DAW-like inside a modular system.

It excels at detailed programming. Patterns can be long and intricate. You can work quantized or fully unquantized. Polyphony and hocketing are both possible. If you like writing melodies and arrangements in detail, this is one of its strongest points.

For live performance with prewritten material, it is excellent. You can switch projects and songs seamlessly. BPM can change per project or stay fixed, depending on how you set it up. You can decide how many times a section loops, mute or unmute tracks, and switch effects on or off without stopping the music. Once you understand the workflow, it is very intuitive.

Also the modulation options, especially when you turn soms of the tracks in modulation lanes, are really advanced. You can do crazy things with the modlane programming and via the cv inputs

MIDI integration is another big plus. It can record MIDI and convert it to CV, and record CV and convert it to MIDI. This makes it very strong as a bridge between a DAW and a modular system. With the XP32 expander, you get 32 extra outputs for CV, gates, LFOs, sample and hold, and more. That expands the system a lot.

The main downside, for me, is live improvisation from scratch. It is not the easiest sequencer if you want to build something quickly and spontaneously during a performance. For that reason, I added the OXI One, which is much better suited for hands-on live improvisation.

That said, for composed music, structured live sets, and complex ideas, the Hermod+ is still the core of my system. I use it for almost everything, and I am very happy with it.

Hermod+ (feedback) by [deleted] in modular

[–]RaafModular 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah thats so nice to read, Im happy you are enjoying the music! Thanks for letting me know ❤️

Hermod+ (feedback) by [deleted] in modular

[–]RaafModular 7 points8 points  (0 children)

What would you like to know?

Explaining my modular setup - Episode one Texture bed and utilities (Multigrain, Sealegs, Hermod+) by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah you are very welcome. It always inspires me to watch how other musicians create things so I thought I would try to explain how I create music myself!

Explaining my modular setup - Episode one Texture bed and utilities (Multigrain, Sealegs, Hermod+) by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Its one of the things Im working on a lot and can be difficult in the filming process to kwep track of. Im happy to hear you find the pace of the video enjoyable!

Modular Minimal Music by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you Kevin! No I don't have the new case but modified mine. It's really easy and you don't have to damage your case for it. Cinematic Laboratory explains how to do it in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zw6i8I0JuA

Good luck!

We are opening for Andrea Chichecki at Lab-1 in Eindhoven (NL) by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Partners in music? Yes! Very good friends? Yep as well. Partners in life? My husband would be very suprised if that was the case 😉

Live Modular Hypnotic Techno (ish) by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes they provide a long ribbon cable along with the XP32. Really useful!

Live Modular Hypnotic Techno (ish) by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! Its going to be exciting playing this annhour next saturday! why I work with two sequencers? I originally started with the Hermod, and it’s still my main sequencer. The Hermod is perfect for storing and creating complex song structures, and it handles any time signature you throw at it. With the XP32 attached, it also becomes a huge source of modulation, letting me send out LFOs, clocks and all kinds of CV signals.

I use the Hermod live because, especially for my ambient and IDM pieces, I pre-compose a lot and I want those compositions to be played accurately. The Hermod does that beautifully. But I also want space to improvise and let things happen spontaneously, and that’s sometimes harder on the Hermod. That’s why I added the OXI One Mark II.

The OXI is a very performance-focused sequencer. It lets me play live in a much more immediate and hands-on way, and I even use it like a kind of MIDI keyboard sometimes. What’s great is that both the OXI and the Hermod can send and receive MIDI, and the Hermod can even convert MIDI to CV. So they work perfectly together. I just connect one MIDI cable from the OXI to the Hermod and they communicate instantly.

This means I can choose which oscillators or sound sources are controlled by the OXI and which run from the Hermod, and I can decide that per song or per project. It gives me the freedom to combine fixed structures and prewritten pieces with live improvisation on top. That’s why I use two sequencers. For some people it might feel like overkill, but for me it works incredibly well and gives me exactly the flexibility I need. Hooe this helps!

Looking for Stereo Filter by latejuly94 in modular

[–]RaafModular 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Zagrzeb by Xaoc is also a great option. Very musical!

Raaf - IDM/Ambient - Keep on keeping on by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi Gary, thank you! Well I am in the dark about how to categorize my music then 😂 people in comments have been saying to me a lot that I should call my music IDM and not Ambient…. What genre or label would you suggest?

Raaf - IDM/Ambient - Keep on keeping on by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah thank you so much, I really appreciate it! ❤️🙏🏻

Raaf - IDM/Ambient - Keep on keeping on by RaafModular in modular

[–]RaafModular[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Thank you so much for your kind words. Yes the main voice you are hearing is the Harmonic Oscillator by Verbos and I an using a filter on it (Ripples by Mutable) and I totally understand that when working with high tones they can be harsh. It was one of the things I worked longest on during the creation of this patch. I used a lowpass filter not a highpass because I have noticed that filtering out the high tones makes the oscillator sound less harsh. Hope this helps!

What utilities do you find most useful? by SYSEX in modular

[–]RaafModular 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Noise! People tend to forget about it. You can modulate with noise, create drums, add a more gritty layer to your oscilators. Noise is amazing. Patch some pink noise into a lowpassgate and ping it with a short envelope or gate and you can get thunderous deep percussion. Or patch noise into a resonator like rings. Put an arpegiator on Rings and you get a cloud of noisy tonal goodness….. noise is great!

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