#INTRODUCEYOURSELF /// LIVE DRUM + MODULAR SYNTH ORIGINAL MUSIC and DTUBE DEBUT by @drumoperator

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Steemians of the future past, the first time-travelin’, eurorack synthesizin’, limosine ridin’, jet flyin’, cybernetic son of a gun has arrived safely from a future where Steem has crested $1000 USD and requests permission to #introduceyoutself via this original piece of modular synth and drumming goodness.

In a bid to become Steem’s first live-drum EDM superstar, percussively-augmented future cyborg @DRUMOPERATOR is here to create synthesizer, drum and recording production videos exclusively on the DTube and Steemit platforms. If he had emotions, they would be soaring with enthusiasm after two weeks of integration into the 2018 Steam community and substantial good advice and encouragement.

@DRUMOPERATOR has already detected numerous deviations from the established 2028 time stream. According to historical records, the run to $8.57 USD was scheduled for January 13, 2018. This deviation caused even otherwise emotionless @DRUMOPERATOR to develop severe cybernetic-fomo-syndrome as continues to wait for additional fiat to clear. Fortunately, he is hard-coded for durability in the face of crippling opportunity loss.

In another deviation from the established timeline, this first video was supposed to consume a maximum of 5-10 hours of labor, especially considering it consists of only two unedited live passes, once capturing the modular performance from a few angles and once again on the drums. Acclimation to 2018’s primitive video editing tools (Final Cut Pro X) proved exponentially more difficult than in simulations. Investing 25 hours on the first video for the platform was specifically recommended against, but @DRUMOPERATOR proved highly particular about all facets. Peculiar indeed.

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Although it seems like there is a lot going on here, the entire patch breaks down to about seven voices, sequenced and triggered live on the Push 2 controlling Ableton. Although it would be amazing to sequence entire pieces using strictly hardware, the dual compositional/DAW nature of Ableton makes it indispensable in modular world. One “side” of Ableton is letting me launch sequences of midi out to the modular via the Expert Sleepers FH-1 modules while the DAW backend captures the live audio stem of each element for mixing later.

A few modules are doing especially good work in this patch. The Make Noise Telharmonic can be quite unruly and experimental but is responsible for the clear bell-like tones from the bridge on … by mixing the two tonal outputs with the noise output and setting it up monophonically we can tame this polyphonic beast into something more easily performed on and retain all the chimney FM goodness that comes with additive synthesis. The noise output makes the resulting sound particularly Battles-esque, which is a good thing 100 percent of the time by advanced cyborgian estimation.

The Telharmonic is also the recipient of some subtle modulation from the Make Noise Maths. When first researching eurorack, the muffwiggler community (definitive, number one source for the eurorack hive mind) universally agreed this is an essential modulation/envelope tool and it would be difficult to disagree. Here it is receiving a slightly stuttered clock from the Maleko Varigate-8 and is generating two different sympathetic envelopes. One of the go-to eurorack tricks for creating complexity without melodic density is applying the same rhythmically triggered envelope to multiple sources. In this case, the Maths is feeding both the centroid control on the telharmonic and the barrel control on the Mangrove (by eurorack module manufacturing royalty Whimsical Raps) … resulting in subtle sympathetic movement to both the Mangrove’s low drone (prominent at the top of the video) and the (for lack of a better adjective) relative amount of clangy “bell-ness” in the Telharmonic. Spreading the same modulation out to different voices is part of what makes eurorack such an inspirational playground, as many of the sounds you discover in this way have little to no bearing on what you were setting out to accomplish. For that matter, it sometimes encourages you to -not- set out to accomplish anything besides exploring what a single modulation is capable of across your patch.

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This was also the trial run for the bank of three Cwejman modules, specifically his VCO, ADSR and VCA. To those not of a eurorack persuasion, these are handmade modules made by one mysterious Polish savant, Wowa Cwejman and they are the intersection of all of the most popular synth bywords: precise, rich, analog. Waiting list of over a year. Impossible hype to live up to. Exceeded expectations.

/// STAY TUNED TO @DRUMOPERATOR FOR MORE MODULAR CONTENT, STUDIO TUTORIALS, GUITAR PEDAL DEMOS AND LIVE DRUM/EURORACK PERFORMANCES ///