Mensagens populares

terça-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2017

Clavia Nord Modular G2X + Elektron SIDstation = Amazing Combo!

I said it before and I say it again, as I still think so, the Clavia Nord Modular G2X together with the Elektron SIDstation form a truly amazing combo!


An amazing synth, with a slight crippled interface...
I'm sure that those who have tried the Elektron SIDstation have not been that impressed with the huge amount of noise coming out of it (despite it is normal for SID-based machines), or with the slightly crippled interface it offers (despite you can program it from scratch using the interface, but it's not that pleasant, let's be honest!).


Fortunately, the Clavia Nord Modular G2 can solve both of these problems in a single patch, as I will explain in this post!

I know I promised I would talk a lot about the Clavia Nord Modular G2, but have barely talked about it so far...
But this post aims to start changing that!


As you probably remember me mentioning, in the Clavia Nord Modular G2 you are able to send MIDI CCs using the CtrlSend module.
This is a feature that is unfortunately not available in the original Clavia Nord Modular G1, and that I feel brought the later version to a different level when it comes to versatility!

The CtrlSend is a very simple module that allows you to select the select a CC number and control it!
You can control the value of your CC using a knob present in the module, or you can instead send a modulation source to the blue input available in the module.

My aim with this patch was to do a simple programmer for the Elektron SIDstation (like the old Roland PGs), which means I ended up neglecting that blue input, sticking instead to the knobs available to control the value of the different CCs.
But I promise to later on go back to MIDI control in the Clavia Nord Modular G2 and explore the amazing possibilites this machine offers when you try to control the different CCs with the modulators available (like sequencers, complex LFOs, random sources, etc...).

So, this is the patch I did to control all the parameters that can be controlled with CCs:

SIDCon patch aimed to program the amazing Elektron SIDstation using CCs! And to make the Elektron SIDstation fully usable, there is also a Noise Gate available, to remove all the nasty noise that comes from it!
As I mentioned before, it doesn't control all the parameters available in the Elektron SIDstation as quite some of those are not controllable with CCs, but it really speeds up the programming of new patches!

And if you look at the upper left corner of the patch, you will find a noise gate to remove the nasty amount of noise the Elektron SIDstation outputs!
I tried to keep things simple, so it features only an input module to capture the signal from the Elektron SIDstation, the Noise Gate module, an amp module (just in case), and an output module, but it does it's job very well and makes the Elektron SIDstation very usable!

In case you are wondering, the processing power this patch consumes is really low (around 5% of what you have available), so you can definitely come up with a much more complicated audio chain to process the Elektron SIDstation if you want!
The only thing you should keep in mind is that there aren't many knobs left to control the modules of an extended audio path (if you remember, that was one of my complains on the Clavia Nord Modular G2... the amount of knobs can be a bit too little in some cases... this is one of those cases if you want to process the Elektron SIDstation a bit further).


On top of that, the keyboard in the Clavia Nord Modular G2X feels great, so this is really a great solution to take out the most of your Elektron SIDstation!

So again, Clavia Nord Modular G2X together with the Elektron SIDstation form a truly amazing combo!
Clavia Nord Modular G2X + Elektron SIDstation = Amazing Combo!

1 comentário: