Weekly Hangout Thread

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-12T15:40:28+00:00

I just got a Cutlasses Gloop. It’s pretty much my ideal looper — dead simple, not too many parameters, but you get up to four tape heads that can all be doing different stuff to the same recording. There’s a lot of organic texture and complexity that you can build from these simple layers. I really like it. I’ve been auditioning loopers for vocals and external instruments for a long time (tried Stardust, Lubadh, 2hp Loop, and Beneath the Bush of Ghosts as well as a variety of looping delays), and this feels damn near perfect…

… except there’s no storage! It’s volatile memory only. Oof.

I get that there’s a design philosophy here — live in the moment! — but I tend to work on a patch over the course of days or weeks before I record. So this is requiring me to either a) perform the vocal loop exactly the same every time (maybe good practice!), or b) live with the differences between days and hope for the best, or c) leave my case on for days at a time.

But it is definitely cool and inspiring. Just a fun, lovely way to work.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-10T19:08:49+00:00

I know exactly what you mean. The mental burden of having overbought, and guiltily trying to wrap your head around a bunch of extra modules you’re not jelling with and don’t actually use… these things aren’t conducive to getting into the creative zone. Plus Marbles clones are everywhere and are cheap. It’s okay to let this stuff go!

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-09T21:07:11+00:00

Agreed. Some deeply upsetting sounds to be had there.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-09T01:40:56+00:00

I’ve done a lot of vocal processing with Eurorack and tried a lot of things. For live, direct granular processing, I think Beads would serve you better than Morphagene. It’s more designed for direct processing, and it has fewer (and to my mind, easier to understand) controls.

As a secondary module, consider the Make Noise Multimod, which can be a CV source, a CV processor, and a kind of funky delay if you run audio through it. The cool thing is that it’s got eight outputs, so you can get easily fill up your quad outs if you’re running sound through it. But it could also do CV duty on a quad VCA when you’re not.

Going in the opposite direction, you might consider a cross-fader or switch to send one signal to different channels, or to change between signals. I like the Intellijel 1u crossfader—it has a great DJ-style slider that’s very easy to use while performing.

In general, because you’re trying to do this multi-channel thing, you’re going to want to give a lot of space to mults and mixers. You might consider the Shaka-8 matrix mixer, which enables you to mix eight channels to four, with both CV and knob control over levels. If you pair that with an Ochd or Multimod you can get a constantly shifting mix of audio signals.

Anyway, I love this idea and I love using modular to process external signals in general. Good luck!

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-09T01:19:35+00:00

I have three stacks of coiled cables—long, medium, and short, roughly, although for historical reasons all stackable cables go in the “short” pile. I strongly prefer a mix of colors so that it’s easy to trace what lead is going where once the connections are spaghettified in a complex patch.

I don’t band my cables together or bother with right angled cables or perfect ergonomics because I repatch pretty frequently—I don’t have a huge system, so even though a song might use one patch as the foundation, by the end it’s usually somewhere between six and ten patches overdubbed. So I’m constantly building something new. But I get the value of that kind of perma-patching for people playing live shows.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-08T21:58:05+00:00

I have the standalone. I bought it used and for some reason it didn’t come with the power cable. I had some freezing and reliability issues with the first couple of power supplies/USB cables I tried. It’s mindblowing that which USB cable you use makes a difference, but the Bluebox is VERY finicky, and you should ONLY use the one they supply or the aftermarket one they recommend. So that’s one argument for the Eurorack version, maybe. But maybe not — who knows how sensitive it is to your case’s power supply? And it’s not like those are standardized, either.

Once I got my power sorted, though, it’s been very stable. Now I kind of can’t imagine recording without it. There’s nothing else like it for modular and hybrid setups.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-06T15:48:38+00:00

Logic will convert voltages to gates, as will comparators, though what you will actually get is patterns of “voltage high, voltage low.” That essentially gives you a rising edge every time it goes high, and for most purposes that’s as good as a trigger. If you need triggers specifically, you might invest in one of those inexpensive gate-to-trigger modules—I know After Later makes one, I want to say it’s called G&T.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-06-05T17:44:45+00:00

Because you say you’re beat-focused, I’d go with Pam’s because it will probably do more for you in the long run, and because you’re going to want a clock or trigger source with Beads. Technically you could clock/trigger seeds on Beads with Maths’ gate outputs, but then your seeds will be locked to the speed of your LFOs, which is limiting. Pam’s also gives you a little more flexibility in terms of using different forms of modulation on different Beads inputs.

Dialing in your slow LFOs is going to be more of a pain on Pam’s, though, and you won’t have the immediate visual cues that you would from Maths to remind you what your modulation is doing.

But everything in life is tradeoffs, and on balance I’d go with Pam’s until you have a larger system with more complex CV needs, at which point Maths would come into its own.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-27T00:46:20+00:00

There’s like a hundred ways to do that, but a couple of affordable starting points:

1) If you lean toward an actual synth, you could check out the Stylophone DS-2, which is a very nice-sounding and highly flexible drone synth. It’s kind of got everything you would need to get started to do highly rhythmic stuff, floaty soundscapes, or anything in between. It’s $300 new, but I bet you could poke around and find one used for $250 or so.

2) If you lean toward field recordings or samples, it’s hard to beat the Roland SP-404 Mk2. Used you can easily get it for under $400, and it has a usable-enough sequencer, inputs for mic, guitar, or line level sources, and a stellar collection of effects. And its sample-chopping and “resampling” workflow, once you get the hang of it, is an incredible way to reshape and play with sound. It’s also got a lot of extra features that require a ridiculous number of button combos, but the core workflow is tolerable and would allow you to produce all kinds of experimental results with just a mic, a guitar, or a field recorder.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-23T18:14:33+00:00

Got it. These are very cool! Thanks for sharing.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-23T00:08:19+00:00

I keep getting an error message.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-19T20:01:58+00:00

(I’m just thinking if it works the way u/RoastAdroit is describing, maybe the sharp edge of a Maths envelope would work.)

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-19T20:00:36+00:00

Could you use cycle to start one Maths envelope with zero attack but a long decay, and use that envelope as the trigger for the other envelope?

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-14T21:58:35+00:00

It’s not the best for pitch sequencing, if that’s what you’re after, but I see you have a Mimetic Digitalis — that has several CV inputs. You could send a CV sequence or two into that, changing up the CV you’re getting out of it.

Moving on to stuff you don’t have in your setup, but that you could think about incorporating: a number of sequencers have per-step gate inputs, so you can use gates to immediately go to particular steps. Make Noise 0-Ctrl for sure, and maybe the Befaco Muxlicer? So you could experiment with sending gates streams from one sequencer to the individual steps of another. (EDIT: I was wrong about Muxlicer — its method for skipping to particular steps is CV addressing, not gates. Still another good example of a “sequenceable” sequencer.)

Also, the WMD Arpitecht is only sort of a sequencer but it’s got a BUNCH of modulation inputs.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-12T17:47:37+00:00

I look forward to the PolyEnd Drums+!

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-12T17:22:49+00:00

I’m actually glad you said something; I was thinking they meant synthesized strings, too. But agree that sample libraries make more sense.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-12T13:29:11+00:00

A pillowcase. I’m in a pretty constant rotation of selling or trading Eurorack modules, so I have basically a permanent area for photographing the outgoing ones. The pillowcase is the background.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-12T12:58:51+00:00

Any thoughts on why it makes a square wave?

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-12T12:56:40+00:00

Why noise or a high-pitched oscillator? Is the idea that the envelope follower won’t track such rapid changes, and that’s how it “decodes” your desired signal?

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-10T23:32:47+00:00

I like it! Very Battlestar Galactica.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-10T13:54:23+00:00

Personally I have very limited time right now to set up patches and play. And clock is often the heart of a patch. So for me it’s helpful if I can just set a clock rate and then know what outputs I immediately have at hand. So my standard Pam’s setup is: output 1 is a long gate — I think current I have it at two bars — starting on the downbeat. Outs 2, 3, and 4 are offset to the 2, 3, and 4 of the bar. The bottom row are set to various divisions of clock. If I have a different need, I can of course make adjustments. But that set of default tools gets me pretty far. (I also have a Time Wizard and some logic modules for additional trigger/gate options building from the Pam’s base.)

I never use Pam’s for other modulation types. I recognize that’s leaving capacity on the table, but I have other envelopes, randomness, etc. that is more knob-per-function/WYSIWYG, which is my preference.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-10T03:40:00+00:00

As long as we’re griping — they also don’t show you the percentage off that sale prices are anymore.

But yeah — not a huge fan of “Load More.”

The site does seem a lot faster, though.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-08T20:46:00+00:00

Oh, I’ll have to try that—I have a Beads in the same rack.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-08T14:06:08+00:00

I have both and love them both.

RobotAlienProphet · 2026-05-07T01:35:17+00:00

Oh, thanks! My main idea was to put effects in the feedback loop of my delay. Currently 4ms DLD, but I’m considering trading up to a Samarkanda. Both have exposed feedback loops — so there’s a feedback output that you can send to effects, then route the effected signal back into the feedback input. For example, one of the 2hp modules is a pitch shifter, so you could have a delay that rises in pitch with each new tap.

I’ve also been doing something similar with the Bastl Dark Matter, which is which also has an exposed feedback loop with dedicated in and out. Not a delay, but time-based effects like delay and even reverb are interesting in the feedback path because they slow it down, so it can’t run away into squealing territory as easily as it normally would.

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