ACL Sinfonion

[Clumsy]

Would love to see the Sin following main CV in by playing the corresponding chord degree and always quantizing to the scale of choice, the way Hasrmonaig does. Its a total different game.

If you're asking for what I think, you can already do this by setting the Mode to Major, Minor and the following modes, and setting one of the CV inputs to Degree.

[Der Mann mit der Maschine]

Would love to see the Sin following main CV in by playing the corresponding chord degree and always quantizing to the scale of choice, the way Hasrmonaig does. Its a total different game.

If you're asking for what I think, you can already do this by setting the Mode to Major, Minor and the following modes, and setting one of the CV inputs to Degree.

There is yet another method, which gives you complete control over the exact chords you wish to play for each step. It goes like this:
Activate the sequencer but set it on pause (no play). Then create a song with 12 steps - one for each semitone. In each song step
you configure which chord to be played for that diatonic step. You even can configure dedicated chord voicings that way if you like, as well!

Then you assign CV1/2/3/4 to "Sequencer Step". The CV reacts to one semitone per step. So for each "note" CV that you send there
the corresponding step of the song will be selected.

This gives you complete control. E.g. you can choose either variant of dominant chords you like. There are so many. Instead of G7 you might
want to play Gsus or Galt or whatever you like.

Also this give you the chance to assign diatonic chords to the 5 non-diatonic semitones. E.g. if you are in C major and get a C# as input for
your CV you could anyway play Cmaj (or Dmin) and no chord based on C#. This allows you to use random voltages for chord selection without
falling out of you scale.

[northerntao]

Waited months for Perfect Circuit to restock. Ordered one as soon as I got the restock notice. Almost 3 weeks later, FedEx has missed three scheduled delivery dates. PC starting trace and claim process in case its needed. Grrr. One of the more expensive things I’ve ordered - why couldn’t they lose the Decksaver?

[Der Mann mit der Maschine]

Good luck anyway!

[ModusOp]

B) Having the quantized outputs hold their pitch value until receiving a trigger or gate, to avoid pitches changing in the middle of a held note.
Yes, there might be some resulting dissonance, but I think it would be fun to experiment with and handy when using non-synced self-generating rhythms.

Der Mann mit der Maschine, might you be willing to comment on the possibility of this being a feature at some point in the future?

[tokidoki]

Another experience with the Sinfonion.

[dumbeat]

Would love to see the Sin following main CV in by playing the corresponding chord degree and always quantizing to the scale of choice, the way Hasrmonaig does. Its a total different game.

If you're asking for what I think, you can already do this by setting the Mode to Major, Minor and the following modes, and setting one of the CV inputs to Degree.

There is yet another method, which gives you complete control over the exact chords you wish to play for each step. It goes like this:
Activate the sequencer but set it on pause (no play). Then create a song with 12 steps - one for each semitone. In each song step
you configure which chord to be played for that diatonic step. You even can configure dedicated chord voicings that way if you like, as well!

Then you assign CV1/2/3/4 to "Sequencer Step". The CV reacts to one semitone per step. So for each "note" CV that you send there
the corresponding step of the song will be selected.

This gives you complete control. E.g. you can choose either variant of dominant chords you like. There are so many. Instead of G7 you might
want to play Gsus or Galt or whatever you like.

Also this give you the chance to assign diatonic chords to the 5 non-diatonic semitones. E.g. if you are in C major and get a C# as input for
your CV you could anyway play Cmaj (or Dmin) and no chord based on C#. This allows you to use random voltages for chord selection without
falling out of you scale.

A bit "long way" but an interesting workaround. Thanks for that! Hopefully this will come as a basic "Mode" in a FW update.

[Der Mann mit der Maschine]

B) Having the quantized outputs hold their pitch value until receiving a trigger or gate, to avoid pitches changing in the middle of a held note.
Yes, there might be some resulting dissonance, but I think it would be fun to experiment with and handy when using non-synced self-generating rhythms.

Der Mann mit der Maschine, might you be willing to comment on the possibility of this being a feature at some point in the future?

I've put this on my list of ideas. At least ;-)

[ModusOp]

B) Having the quantized outputs hold their pitch value until receiving a trigger or gate, to avoid pitches changing in the middle of a held note.
Yes, there might be some resulting dissonance, but I think it would be fun to experiment with and handy when using non-synced self-generating rhythms.

Der Mann mit der Maschine, might you be willing to comment on the possibility of this being a feature at some point in the future?

I've put this on my list of ideas. At least ;-)

Awesome! Thanks for the reply! I will keep my fingers crossed then... but not hold my breath. Haha.

[mdoudoroff]

Would love to see the Sin following main CV in by playing the corresponding chord degree and always quantizing to the scale of choice, the way Hasrmonaig does. Its a total different game.

If you're asking for what I think, you can already do this by setting the Mode to Major, Minor and the following modes, and setting one of the CV inputs to Degree.

There is yet another method, which gives you complete control over the exact chords you wish to play for each step. It goes like this: …

A bit "long way" but an interesting workaround. Thanks for that! Hopefully this will come as a basic "Mode" in a FW update.

I may be overestimating the implications—I don’t have a Harmonaig and have only passing familiarity with it—but if this is requesting a feature that runs counter to what Sinfonion is designed to do, or how it’s designed to operate, then I question its reasonableness. If it would be “copying” an idea at the core of Harmonaig to render the Harmonaig superfluous, then I would question its reasonableness for a completely different reason.

[dumbeat]

Would love to see the Sin following main CV in by playing the corresponding chord degree and always quantizing to the scale of choice, the way Hasrmonaig does. Its a total different game.

If you're asking for what I think, you can already do this by setting the Mode to Major, Minor and the following modes, and setting one of the CV inputs to Degree.

There is yet another method, which gives you complete control over the exact chords you wish to play for each step. It goes like this: …

A bit "long way" but an interesting workaround. Thanks for that! Hopefully this will come as a basic "Mode" in a FW update.

I may be overestimating the implications—I don’t have a Harmonaig and have only passing familiarity with it—but if this is requesting a feature that runs counter to what Sinfonion is designed to do, or how it’s designed to operate, then I question its reasonableness. If it would be “copying” an idea at the core of Harmonaig to render the Harmonaig superfluous, then I would question its reasonableness for a completely different reason.

Not sure what your implying, but instead of guessing ill just explain, i love the Sin and own it, and would love to have this feature too. Seems to me that my wish is much simpler than what you are trying to make of it. This is a very Musical way to improvise and use all the randomness that i love in Modular. doesnt have to be your bag.

[RonZacapa]

I have now had the sinfonion for 6 months.Being rather a beginner in the modular world, a bit overwhelmed by my purchases, it has been a great companion. I'm now getting much less dissonant results.

But today, after having studied the manual, I can only get random structures. I find it difficult to play with other people, to build harmonious pieces and beautiful chord progressions.

I think I need to learn harmony a little more. And I'm at the point of total discovery (even though I've played a lot of music in my life). Where would you start? Do you have any books, exercises, video tutorials etc. to recommend ?

[Keltie]

I have now had the sinfonion for 6 months.Being rather a beginner in the modular world, a bit overwhelmed by my purchases, it has been a great companion. I'm now getting much less dissonant results.

But today, after having studied the manual, I can only get random structures. I find it difficult to play with other people, to build harmonious pieces and beautiful chord progressions.

I think I need to learn harmony a little more. And I'm at the point of total discovery (even though I've played a lot of music in my life). Where would you start? Do you have any books, exercises, video tutorials etc. to recommend ?

Google “ how music really works” and visit the roedy black website. They’re selling you a book, but the first few chapters are online for free. Some of it may be stuff you know, but it’s nicely laid out, and I found it very useful.

[ModusOp]

I have now had the sinfonion for 6 months.Being rather a beginner in the modular world, a bit overwhelmed by my purchases, it has been a great companion. I'm now getting much less dissonant results.

But today, after having studied the manual, I can only get random structures. I find it difficult to play with other people, to build harmonious pieces and beautiful chord progressions.

I think I need to learn harmony a little more. And I'm at the point of total discovery (even though I've played a lot of music in my life). Where would you start? Do you have any books, exercises, video tutorials etc. to recommend ?

Also, to get chord progressions working well, I suggest looking into Functional Harmony.

[djthopa]

Make sure you calibrate each channel of the VCMC against the Sinfonion and note that the Sinfonion range is different to the VCMC. I set my VCMC to -5V to +5V which matches the most useful part of the Sinfonion range for me. The VCMC has rather poor resolution with its low resolution ADC but its adequate for the number of MIDI notes there are. If not calibrated reasonably it can be 1 semitone off on some notes. When calibrated properly it appears to be rock solid. Unfortunately I haven't had time to use my system since properly calibrating things but the combination appears very good.

Excellent - great info thanks for taking the time to respond. I will look into the calibration routine on the VCMC. Did you find it to be difficult? I'm not too confident on those sort of things so it always makes me a little nervous.
Thx again

It is quite easy, VCMC only has a 2 point calibration. It has a mode where it can calibrate all inputs at the same time but I found it better to calibrate one input at a time which gave slightly different results. What confused me completely was the Sinfonion doesn't disable some controls in calibration mode, but I can't recall which control caused several octaves offset so I advise checking the Sinfonion manual which does describe calibration accurately. I lost far more time being confused by the VCMC inputs not going above 74 than it would have taken to read the manual.

There is also a possibility that a poor rack PSU could cause calibration problems because the VCMC uses the +12V supply as a voltage reference for scaling the input. That is generally very poor practice but possibly ok in this specific circuit given the limited resolution of the ADC.

Hi, congrats on the making of such a great module as the sinfonion! I have been using it for the last week and for once im playing my modular with some tuning!

As others before i have tried using the sinfonion alongside the befaco voltage controlled midi controller and an ambika synthesizer.

I upgraded the vcmc to the lastest release.

I calibrated each input with my multimeter, feeding 2v and 8v on each channel.

When i patch the chord outputs from the sinfonion into the vcmc and from the midi out of the vcmc to the ambika im struggling.

I have also gone into tuning mode on the sinfonion and calibrating the vcmc directly from the sinfonion, again, feeding 2v and 8v into each channel trough the calibration process., while switching inside tuning mode on the sinfonion from 2v and 8 volts.

I have set the range as suggested to -5v to 5v on the vcmc for each of the vcmc in cv channels (im using 4)

Someone also suggested calibrating the vcmc with 1v and 2v as 2 point calibration, but when doing this my vcmc screen only shows the 2v and 8v options i cannot choose it to be 1v and 2v, dont really know if that makes any difference, since 1volt is one octave, so its should not matter it think...as long as i calibrate the vcmc from the sinfonion, feed 2v and 8v on each channel of the vcmc and do the same with the other vcmc channels it should be alright no?


Also, what function setting are people using on the cv channel of the vcmc? Cv to note? Cv to poly? Note?

On a last note, it seems the state of the faders on the vcmc affect the midi pitch out of the vcmc? Even though they are not in linked mode with the cv in (attenuator, sum, etc...)

Ill keep trying different combos but for now im not getting it to work :(

Considering going the expert sleepers way, but that involves a computer or ipad....not a module which would be ideal

Again, congrats for such a great module!

[mmontazeri]

Another experience with the Sinfonion.

How are you sequencing this? Lovely!

[tokidoki]

Another experience with the Sinfonion.

How are you sequencing this? Lovely!

The basic clock is generated by a RM1x Yamaha hardware sequencer and then diffracted through modules from Vermona, 4ms, Shakmat Modular, 2hp, Abstract Data, Pittsburgh Modular and Erica Synth according to different clocks, triggers and gates combinations for every Glasgow experiment. The last one tested being Kompas from Bastl, a very surprising clock stirrer. All these modules are VControlled as to be unpredictable. A Moskwa is used for the velocity with Time Warp from WMD. The musicians are vcNOIZ through A-184-1 from Doepfer, the Ultra-Random Analog from SSF with offsets from FRAP 321, the Quantum Rainbow 2 and the german A-118-2 with crossfaders.
And lots of LFOs, we try to modulate everything. The biggest challenge being to find a precise CV to MIDI converter, the piano sounds coming from a XS MIDI expander. We have tried all the CV-MIDI modules and boxes to find the best one and are still trying to find the ultimate converter, every module being partially good but no one being perfect.
Our english is weird but we hope understandable.

[mmontazeri]

Another experience with the Sinfonion.

How are you sequencing this? Lovely!

The basic clock is generated by a RM1x Yamaha hardware sequencer and then diffracted through modules from Vermona, 4ms, Shakmat Modular, 2hp, Abstract Data, Pittsburgh Modular and Erica Synth according to different clocks, triggers and gates combinations for every Glasgow experiment. The last one tested being Kompas from Bastl, a very surprising clock stirrer. All these modules are VControlled as to be unpredictable. A Moskwa is used for the velocity with Time Warp from WMD. The musicians are vcNOIZ through A-184-1 from Doepfer, the Ultra-Random Analog from SSF with offsets from FRAP 321, the Quantum Rainbow 2 and the german A-118-2 with crossfaders.
And lots of LFOs, we try to modulate everything. The biggest challenge being to find a precise CV to MIDI converter, the piano sounds coming from a XS MIDI expander. We have tried all the CV-MIDI modules and boxes to find the best one and are still trying to find the ultimate converter, every module being partially good but no one being perfect.
Our english is weird but we hope understandable.

Very understandable. Thank you for sharing. Love the Glasgow experiments.

[Mad_Rasputin]

So I was able to locate one, many thanks to elevator sound, they made it happen, and quickly. Now I have a question for those of you who are more experienced than myself.. are there any multiple oscillator modules you would recommend for the chord mode on the Sinfonion ? I’m having a hard time figuring this out. Any help would be much appreciated.

And to the creator of this beautiful module, thank you for all your hard work. You’re my hero!

[ModusOp]

So I was able to locate one, many thanks to elevator sound, they made it happen, and quickly. Now I have a question for those of you who are more experienced than myself.. are there any multiple oscillator modules you would recommend for the chord mode on the Sinfonion ? I’m having a hard time figuring this out. Any help would be much appreciated.

And to the creator of this beautiful module, thank you for all your hard work. You’re my hero!

The Qu-bit Chord v2 comes to mind.

[mdoudoroff]

Qu-bit Chord 2 is the cheapest and easiest, but not to everyone’s taste. It happens to be what I use, and I made a video:



There are a bunch of other approaches discussed earlier in this thread, and in various “quad oscillator” threads here on MW.

[djthopa]

Qu-bit Chord 2 is the cheapest and easiest, but not to everyone’s taste. It happens to be what I use, and I made a video:



There are a bunch of other approaches discussed earlier in this thread, and in various “quad oscillator” threads here on MW.

I got the Q-bit chord after watching your youtube demo, thanks for the heads up!

Sounds really good and i can free up my other multi voice Oscs..

[Mad_Rasputin]

I had the qubit chord previously and I was not a huge fan. I’m looking at the 1010 music synth box, the saich(sp?) by instruo, and the demon core by supercritical. But I can’t seem to find a definite answer as to how the polyphony works on these modules and which might be the best option. If anyone has any suggestions or information that you think might help, please feel free to message me. Thank you

[mdoudoroff]

Perfectly fair. Chord 1 was, IMO, a lousy module. Chord 2 is “better” to me only insofar as it serves a simple purpose—I have only one minimal expectation of it: cheap, easy-to-tune, quad droning oscillator with minimal harmonic content but some basic expressivity (in this case, morphing wavetables). Simple pads and supporting roles. If I want to do something more “interesting” with the chord outputs from the Sinfonion, I can always plug them into something else, like my E370.

The key question is probably what you have in mind for the chords.

- Synthbox is a quad voice with built in envelopes, so in the most typical situation, you’d patch take pitches from the Sinfonion and the gates from whatever you want, and Synthbox would do its thing
- Saich is a sophisticated analog quad droner, but only one output
- Demoncore will require the expander to handle the four pitches from Sinfonion

All three of those are pretty different, complex beasties, so you’re just going to have to plunge in to the manuals and demo videos.

[djthopa]

I rather use my e370 for other duties, but i guess its a matter of taste!