A bit less randomness, a bit more control. Instead of creating a generative patch and letting algorithms generate the music within the set constraints, I wanted to take (almost) everything in my own hands. I may have been inspired in this direction by listening to Omri Cohen's modular compositions channel multiple times (you can check it out at ‪@MyModularMusic‬) There was one thing I noticed however while listening to one of his patches: it had a slow energy buildup in the different voices, gradually working towards a climax. But when it reached that climax, I thought to myself: "instead of gradually decreasing the energy level again, I would have just let it drop to one or two voices in a more muted mood". So that's when I knew that I wanted to create a patch that builds in energy and then suddenly drops.

I didn't want to use any handson controls in this patch however, all parameter/voltage changes had to be preconfigured. While this is something that could be done using an external program (like Ableton) and sending that into VCV Rack using MIDI, I liked the idea of keeping it all inside of VCV. So that's where the MindMeld ShapeMaster comes in. It allows multiple channels to be configured, each with their own voltage pattern. And since the patch I ended up with had a lot of values to modify, three ShapeMaster instances were needed to drive everything. In order to reduce the cable clutter for all these connections, I used the Little Utils Teleport modules to move the signals from the ShapeMasters to the different voices.

The first step to get started with the patch was getting a chord sequence to build around. An 8step chord progression is set into the first sequence of Foundry. This progression drives a bass voice which consists of a single Instruo CsL module. Just the CV inputs of this module allow for enough sound modulation that no other modules are needed for the voice.

On top of this bass voice, I wanted two arpeggiated voices. One would be playing fournote chords (root, third, fifth and seventh) while the other would use threenote chords (root, third and fifth) at double the rate.

In the threenotes voice, an Instruo Neóni with some FM modulation from a TsL are sent into the Io47 filter. The harshness of this voice can be changed using different connections to the filter and the oscillators, and the different stages of the volume envelope can also be modulated to change the overall sound. While working on this voice, I noticed that a nice addition would be to allow the voice to be switched between either constantly playing notes, or only playing the first couple of notes in a measure and letting a delay module fill up the rest of the measure with a slow fade out. So that version with the delay is what plays at the start and end of the song, while in the middle of the song it is constantly playing the notes without a delay.

The second arpeggiated voice the one with fournote chords is the only voice that has randomness applied to it, both in notes and in rhythm. A Chances module by Count Modula causes some of the chord notes to not be played, while a Geodesics Fate module will regularly throw in random notes in between the chord notes. The frequency at which these two modules apply randomness to the voice is also changed as the track progresses.
The resulting notes are then played by a Geodesics Dark Energy module, which is sent through a Tap Dancer delay before going to the main mixer.

To complement the arpeggiated voices, The Palette module by Atelier is switching between two notes that are programmed into the second sequence of Foundry. By opening and closing the volume of this voice, these notes can be heard when the first arpeggiated voice is only playing through the delay. Afterwards, this voice is faded in and out of the mix depending on the energy of the other voices so that it is always just below the surface.

To complete the patch, I felt that there was a need for a melodic voice. This is provided by an Instruo Cruïnn that plays a simple melody from the third sequence of Foundry. By sending it in stereo to two filters and volume envelopes, this voice can be moved from a muted (almost French Horn sounding to me) saw synth to a full supersaw as the energy moves towards its climax, and then back again to its more muted form.

As for the title, three words describe this patch to me: BuiLDup, DRop and aRPeggiate...

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__ Setup __
VCV Rack 2.4.1 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 trimmed at the end with Reaper
OBS video and Reaper audio are merged and cut to length using Shutter Encoder.

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