You can almost hear words

[Keith W Blackwell]

Here is a relatively simple (compared to most of my other stuff) bot with a sequencer that has just one continuous mode with very little variation, what amounts to 3 different kinds of instrument sounds, and a timed delay, that somehow ends up being just a bit mesmerizing, IMHO.  But here's the reason for sharing it:

I just sort of accidentally discovered that by using a 1CP filter, I can get formant-like filtering much, much easier than with BP2 filters -- back in my ChoirBot variations, I would typically use multiple sequential BP2's, but here a single 1CP does all that and more.  Sometimes I feel like such an idiot for not realizing something sooner -- I mean, how long have I been spending endless hours playing with ABox2 now?  I should have known this already.

Anyway, such formant-like stuff is in the top two instrument blocks that end up sounding kind of like voices.

There is a lot of wastage here.  Like those voice blocks (PulseMod Sliding) started out being the same thing that provides the Bass, but I just ended up with something sounding like voices and kind of went with it, without ever going back to change the basic oscillation circuits, even though it should be possible to greatly simplify them for the way they are actually being used.  Similarly, the chorus blocks are probably completely unnecessary.  The UglyRez matrix probably just muddies up the comp sound and could easily be yanked out.  The RoomReverb was just a bunch of delays with various kinds of feedback but without any AllPass filters that usually are important for reverb effects (so it's more like early reflections in a large room rather than a full reverb), and yet the role it plays in the final mix is kind of questionable -- it could easily be replaced with your favorite reverb circuit block as a nice improvement.  The timed delay is only used on the top two instrument voices (the human-like singer sounds), and the "auto-pan" stuff that is applied to all of that is also unnecessary and a complete waste.

The stack for the two lower-note comp instrument blocks was a late addition, but given the short note timing (durations), I don't think it really makes any difference -- just going direct to one instrument block instead of stacking 2 sounds about the same (except for the octave drop that it includes, which still isn't a big deal).

The sequencer has a few pieces in it that are hard to understand.  I mean, even for *me*.  I don't believe there is much actual wastage there -- everything has *some* purpose.  But the basic structure is fairly standard stuff.  Even the quantizer blocks don't ever change scales, and it sticks with a standard western major scale all the time, so there is plenty of room to experiment with how changing all those M->F quantizer scales could affect the result.

The comp'ing instrument voice blocks are labelled with the word "Piano" but of course that was just a general category and it really sounds nothing like a piano.  Maybe a harp, given the LPF'ing done in the end.  But the Bass, which isn't supposed to be any particular kind of bass, just a pulse-mod oscillator that got assigned to that role, actually sounds pretty decent (mostly by accident).

And the moral of the story is:   just play around and maybe you'll happen upon something that sounds satisfying even if it is nothing like what you were originally aiming for.  :-)

--

Keith W. Blackwell

[Steve]

That's gorgeous! Thanks for posting!

-Steve Guardino

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