Using the micro modular with triggers

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

I am considering getting a second hand micro modular, but i need it for a very specific purpose and i'm not sure if the micro version will do. hopefully someone here can help me out.

I basically need to trigger a synth with my drum triggers and have three separate sounds for kick, snare, drumpad.. does anyone know if this is possible with the micromodular.. i know this is possible with the original and rack version, as it can play 4 patches at the same time, but as the individual sounds only need to be made with one oscillator each, no effects (just lfo and basic sequencer), was thinking it could maybe be done within one patch...

put in another way, could the micro could run three separate oscillators triggered by three separate notes, eg. note c plays osc1, note d plays osc2, note e plays osc3? and is it possible to put a sequencer on one oscillator, but not the others?

If anyone can help me with this that would be great, as I desperately need to get a backup solution for an old quite unstable synth for upcoming gigs.

cheers

-tom

www.myspace.com/gumtakestooth

Wout Blommers

tomtakestooth

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

Cool, so is the micro modular powerful enough to play three oscillators at the same time with three different notes? Was reading that it has issues with polyphony on complex patches, and obviously it's not multitimbral...

Wout Blommers · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:35 pm Post subject:

An example, less then 33%, so three voices possible on the Micro, otherwise a new note will silence the other voice.

The Master module is for controlling the slaves by the Sequencer. (Don't forget to disable the KeyBoard control)

Wout

ThreeTriggers.jpg

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ThreeTrigger patch

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tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

wow! thanks so much... just tried it out in the modular demo on my pc, and you've pretty much made my setup for me! thanks so much. Just to bother you with one more question, as you seem to be in the know. The patch you made has the sequencer going at a set speed.. how would i go about making it go to the next step every time I hit the note? is it complicated?

Wout Blommers · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:44 pm Post subject:

Just connect the Clock Input of the Sequencer with the Logic Out of the NoteDetector3 and forget about the Clock and the Divider modules.
Every hit on the E4 key will result in one step in the Sequencer.

BTW Do you have the Manual?

Wout

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

Cheers.. actually figured it out myself now... Don't have the manual, but hopefully i'll get one when I actually buy the thing. Thanks so much for doing that patch by the way, thought I'd spend quite some time working that all out once I got the micro, but you saved me all that time and once I get it I'll be able to pretty much play a gig with it after one rehearsal of getting used to using a midi controller instead of the old simmons drum synth we use now.

Never thought I'd get this kind of help, let alone so quickly..

Thanks again!

btw, this is the band I'll be using your patch (although hopefully customized a bit more as there will be so much more flexibility with this setup): www.myspace.com/gumtakestooth

Wout Blommers · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:55 pm Post subject:

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

i tried the same thing.
kind of a result over here

and look for andre duracell. thats an even better example.down here.

nice music you make btw.
neo-converge voice

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

yeah, spoke to andre about his setup when I played with him in france, which was why I was a bit reluctant to use a nord modular, just cos he's already doing that thing, but it is so much more stable than the simmons sds3 we are using now..

Got the micro today and am very impressed with it. Just need to get myself a cv to midi converter for my drum triggers now..

Just out of interest, is that what you are doing? or are you just plugging your drum triggers into the audio inputs of the modular?

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

hey lots of people use a guitar even though more people do.

i use it straight in yes after preamping. then filtering the signals.
at a point i had 2 micro's because i allso wanted to skip through the parts as andrew does. but then in the end a g2 is the best thing to go with.
a trig2midiwould be allso good for 3 trigs yes.

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

ps. cv2midi is the same as trg2midi?

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

yeah... it's the same thing.. how come you don't just run your triggers directly into the nord? why preamp and filter?

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

hmmm... another thing i can't really work out. I managed to recreate that patch above, but can't use it untill i get a trigger to midi converter. How would I go about using the two audio inputs instead of midi. Is there a module that essentially converts audio to a midi key or velocity information?

I tried routing an AudioIn to an ADSR-Env (tried both gate input and amp input) but not really getting the result I want. Basicly I would like the audio to trigger the envelope, but not stop when the audio stops, only restart the envelope when i hit the drum...

any ideas?

Nathan, would you be able to send me the patch you use in that video? that would be a great start...

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

i used it with piezo straight into the audio-in (after a preamp of any sort)
but because you want to use more then 2 triggersignals you would have to differ the signal of for example the bass and snare and filter those out into 2 signals.

patch is not exactly the same, in the vid i actually used 2 micros.
in added patch the left signal will skip through the steps and the right will start the envelope of 3 oscs.
you need to pre-amp the piezosignal before the nord, so run it through a mixer and pan them out or something. allso taking out the low-end is recommended and watch out for feedback.

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

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tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

Thanks a bunch mate. it was mainly those first two modules after the audio input i couldn't figure out.

Thanks to you guys I'm getting very close to simulating my simmons sds3..

cheers!

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

so you made it with 3 signals?
i am curious, could you post your patch?

micromodular_drumset · Joined: Jan 21, 2009 Posts: 1 Location: Chile

Hi everyone!

I would really appreciate if you guys help me out on building a set up for using my drumset with the micromodular.

I have no experience on using triggers with the acoustic drumset. I just bought a micromodular today, and I can see it can be a powerful tool for expanding your ways into drumming.

So Please give me some hints on what else should I get (besides the Nord micromodular) to transform my classic acoustic drumset into an "electro boombox machine".

By this I mean really starting from scratch. I guess I'll need to get an amplifing system that can overcome the volume of the drumset itself.

What would you recommend to this humble newbie?

Thanks! and greetings from South America

nathan · Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 59 Location: amsterdam

-triggers (diy piezo or ddrums) or mics (preferably drummics)
-something to amp the signal before the micro, like a little mixer.
-amp, i use a simple mono 60W bassamp

tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

Thanks to Nathan and Wout here, I finally got my patch sorted out.. Posted a pic of it here in case anyone was interested... could send the patch over to anyone who would want it too..

Basically it simulates the Simmons SDS-3 as much as it was possible. Obviously I'm using midi in instead of audio in.. but apart from that it's just a matter of setting the right knobs to a physical midi controller. I'll be using a Behringer BCR2000.

The one thing I haven't added that the SDS-3 has is the overall pitch dial, but as we don't use it, I didn't bother.. but it's easily added..

Thanks so much guys for your help.. hopefully I'll be using this new setup at our next gig.

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Gum Takes Tooth - Nord Modular Micro Patch

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tomtakestooth · Joined: Jan 07, 2009 Posts: 23 Location: London

hi micromodular_drumset

here is what my setup is:

-Roland Kick Trigger RT10K
-Roland Snare Trigger RT10S
-Roland DrumPad PD6 (like to trigger sounds without the snare or kick sometimes)

This all goes into a Boss MPD-4, which is a midi drumpad which has 3 inputs for extra pads (but could be pads/triggers/anything). This was so much cheaper than a trigger to midi unit, it only cost me £30 on ebay, and it adds another pad to the setup, which my bandmate might use..

This all goes midi in to the Nord Micro Modular. If I wanted to I could even add another two triggers to go into the audio ins of the NMM..

The audio out from the nord micromodular then goes through lots of guitar pedals for extra distortion, delay, ringmod, bitcrusher, etc... Then into a mixer which goes into the PA system in our rehearsal room (or venue at a gig), with an extra sent to a bass amp for a bit more gritty sound...

hope this helps you at all...

-Tom GTT