Creating a 'physical' modular synth patch

So the attached clip from my most recent Brixton Radio/Twitch show features an aspect that I'm working on quite heavily at the moment.

I am experimenting with and practising the techniques involved to allow me to in some way play with a physical object or medium, for example by hitting/tapping/banging/scraping etc.

Whilst all the sound will still be generated electronically, the idea of a more physical interaction with the instrument gives lots of possibilities - especially for live performance. A little while back I did an early experiment in this area that I called the Magic Table. This was a table that I could drop things on or tap to trigger sounds from my modular synth.

So this video is primarily using this technique. For those interested, the important modules involved are:

Mutable Instruments Ears
This is the vital part. It includes a contact microphone on the module itselfl (and in this video I'm tapping that microphone) and it also includes a pre-amp with a significant amount of gain sufficient to take the low level signal from an external contact (or regular) microphone up to modular levels.
It can also generate gates and envelopes which can both be used to trigger and vary other signals in the modular.

This patch also uses a Turing Machine module, which generates random voltages. Here I'm using it for pitch and I have patched it to trigger whenever a gate comes in from the Ears module (in other words I will get a new pitch whenever there is a strong tap or hit on the contact mic).

I'm then running the random pitch voltage from Turing Machine into a tiny 2HP qunatiser, to restrict the pitches generated to notes in an actual scale.

Then the pitch (in scale) from the quantiser goes into Mutable Instruments Rings which is a physical modelling synth which excels at bells, plucks and string like sounds. Perfect for creating an atmospheric soundscape.

This all goes through a load of reverb to addd atmosphere and space and is then combined with percussion and other elements from the modular synth to create the sounds in this video.

There is loads more potential for this kind of setup - this is just a starting point. I plan to experiment with attaching a contact mic to physical objects and to have Ears trigger all sorts of other things and events within the modular patch.

The idea is a semi generative patch with a lot of complexity and variety happening, but all played through a single physical object that I would be able to tap, hit, scrape etc.

I'm hoping this will make a very interesting aspect to my live show and I already have a specific object in mind that will also play on the recent focus in the chat banter in my Twitch channel about drinks! (yes the drink cam could be evolving!)

Watch this space and thanks for reading the output of modular obsessed brain!

Have a great day Hive!

Check out my original electronic music via:
https://linktr.ee/tdctunes
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