Eurorack: better mallets with Rings
Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:54 pm
Using the built-in exciter in Rings is... okay, but doesn't really sound like a nice xylophone/glockenspiel. This does, more or less:
Set up Rings in 4x polyphony (red LED) and modal mode (green). Tune frequency to about 12 o'clock, or possibly an octave up around 2; Structure at about 2, Brightness at about 1, Damping and Position about 12 o'clock.
Set up a triangle VCO with V/OCT controlled by keyboard, tuned about 2-3 octaves below Rings. Modulate the VCO frequency with a fast decay envelope (adjust the amount and rate to taste). Use a slower, but still fast-ish decay envelope for the VCA.
Run that into Rings' audio input and mult the same V/OCT into it.
Adjust everything to taste (particularly the pitch envelope amount/speed, Brightness and position). You may also want to mult V/OCT into the Brightness CV input and set the attenuverter negative, so that higher notes are not quite as piercing.
You can probably use a kick drum module in place of the triangle VCO.
Audio:
http://starthief.net/stuff/rings_glockenspiel.wav
For comparison, here's how it sounds disconnecting the input to Rings and just using the default exciter:
http://starthief.net/stuff/rings_plain.wav
Hammered dulcimer variation:
Use a square VCO. Set Rings to sympathetic strings mode (yellow LED), Structure to 9 o'clock, Brightness 3 o'clock or higher, and Position about 3 o'clock. Give the pitch envelope just a taste of attack time. Plenty of stuff you can adjust about this too.
Audio:
http://starthief.net/stuff/hammered.wav
Set up Rings in 4x polyphony (red LED) and modal mode (green). Tune frequency to about 12 o'clock, or possibly an octave up around 2; Structure at about 2, Brightness at about 1, Damping and Position about 12 o'clock.
Set up a triangle VCO with V/OCT controlled by keyboard, tuned about 2-3 octaves below Rings. Modulate the VCO frequency with a fast decay envelope (adjust the amount and rate to taste). Use a slower, but still fast-ish decay envelope for the VCA.
Run that into Rings' audio input and mult the same V/OCT into it.
Adjust everything to taste (particularly the pitch envelope amount/speed, Brightness and position). You may also want to mult V/OCT into the Brightness CV input and set the attenuverter negative, so that higher notes are not quite as piercing.
You can probably use a kick drum module in place of the triangle VCO.
Audio:
http://starthief.net/stuff/rings_glockenspiel.wav
For comparison, here's how it sounds disconnecting the input to Rings and just using the default exciter:
http://starthief.net/stuff/rings_plain.wav
Hammered dulcimer variation:
Use a square VCO. Set Rings to sympathetic strings mode (yellow LED), Structure to 9 o'clock, Brightness 3 o'clock or higher, and Position about 3 o'clock. Give the pitch envelope just a taste of attack time. Plenty of stuff you can adjust about this too.
Audio:
http://starthief.net/stuff/hammered.wav
