Aw, thanks very much man - glad you like it! So, in absolute honesty I'm not sure I can really remember what the Pico DSP is doing on *this* track super-specifically. Indeed, there's a possibility it might not actually be all that present here ... but take something like this one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0L-hB_3o0vI.html. *There* I know what it's doing, and it's the lovely gentle delay line. I personally think the *reverbs* on it do sound shitty, and I've never found much use for the rotary, though the distortion has its uses. But I do think the delays are nice - especially "white", "yellow", and the cloudy/grainy "green". So on that track I linked to above, I'm almost certain we're about 12 o'clock on the top dial, 2-3 o'clock on the second dial, and then about 10 o'clock on the mix. if I'm in the mood for it, sometimes a little gentle stroking of the CV input from one of my PAM's. That's about all I do with it. Reverb is the king though, so what you hear a *lot* more of in my stuff is the Blackhole DSP, which has a number of gorgeous reverbs on it, and then - back on the smaller HP side of things - the FX Aid. In fact, the FX Aid is a definite recommendation for small multi-DSP effects module. Bigger than the Pico, but you can load it up with alternative algorithms really easily through some kind of witchcraft where you play audio from your computer into the CV through their website. There are some nice delays there too, but again it's the reverbs which are my favourite. I do also "cheat" a little bit, because there's the whole ModDuo X business going on outside the 'Rack. Again, a lovely modular effects unit - a bit like a very cut down version of the Zoia - which I mostly use for a nice spread of reverb and general delay. On the other track, for instance, there's a lot of that going on over the nRings and the Disting EX piano voice. There might even be some on the saxophone in the Bitbox actually, although the Bitbox's internal reverb and delay are pretty cool too ... Anyhow, rambling now. TLDR = white, yellow, and green Pico DSP delays are cool, but absolute bang-for-buck is probably an FX Aid if you can find a few more HP.

@@joelnicholson Oh wow! Thanks for this extensive answer :] PicoDSP was one of the first modules I bought. Back then, when I wanted to keep the rack as small and cheap as possible. Those days are long gone ;) I've since realised that I can't get on with multi FX modules (unless they have a bigger display, maybe). I'm just too lazy and have too bad a memory and don't want to have to look at the manual all the time to find out which knob changes which parameter in this or that mode. :D Nevertheless, I'll probably keep the PicoDSP, it takes up too little space to ban from the rack and I actually don't think the Leslie effect sucks, in combination with 2HP Pluck (or any resonator) you can get sounds out of it that remind me of Police guitars if you fiddle around long enough. :) Using it for non-synced delays is also a good idea, thanks for that, I'll explore these modes a bit more. - For synced delays I have the Chronoblob 2 which I love with all my heart. 🥰 Subtle distortion is OK as well with PicoDSP, I find it just gets really harsh and digital if you turn it up too much. Otherwise I have to agree with you about the reverb. :) Reverb is life, as Omri Cohen says. ;) I'm still thinking about it at the moment - I have the 2HP Verb, which sounds amazingly OK for its size and price, but I'm not completely happy with it yet. As I have a hybrid setup anyway, I also use a lot of Plateau from Valley, which IMHO also sounds great. Ah well, and I love the reverb from Clouds/Monsoon! Maybe it's an idea to just buy a second Monsoon and then I'll already have enough reverbs in the rack. :) Cheers!

Thanks very much - I think that's something I was aiming to explore. This whole EP is a bit more about exploring harmonic and melodic tension, amongst some other things. I expect there's a less pretentious way of putting it, but not one my little neurodivergent brain can think of right now! Personally, I like the pizzicato strings in general, if I do say so myself. I think they're supposed to be a little bit reminiscent of the lovely pizzicato bits in Girl/Boy Song on RDJ ...

Thanks very much, glad you liked it - and that's high praise indeed! It's interesting, because I think this particular track was probably more consciously inspired by Mu-zig and the RDJ-era Aphex Twin, whereas there's another track on the EP (not on RU-vid, just Spotify) called Liq Wattr which I think is maybe even more Autechre-y (Autechresque?). But I guess it all lives in the same postcode in my head ... I'm not great with Autechre track names, but I definitely go through phases of listening to Tri Repetae and Incunabula a lot.

@@joelnicholson I don't think anybody can be great with Autechre track names joel 😁 track sounds great!!! Tried making similar stuff on Sunvox last year, got the basics pretty quick but it soon got a bit much and I packed it in, need to revisit it at some point

@@metramusic5292 I think you're right! :) I've never used Sunvox, but can definitely appreciate that any tracker is the right environment to grow this kind of stuff in. I need to get better acquainted with the Nerdseq I have in the 'Rack now too - alongside the Polyend outside - for maximal tracker deliciousness!

Thanks very much, I'm glad you liked it. This whole EP I'm trying to do some more interesting things with harmony, branching out from the more "basic", diatonic, stuff I've focused on previously. And the idea of rhythm blending with melody is also definitely a deliberate attempt with this latest direction for me - the Data Bender module is a fascinating tool in that direction, in particular.

Thanks boss, I'm very happy to take that. It's pretty representative of any of my stuff really, so hopefully there's others you enjoy as well. Some of it is quite deliberately attempting to recapture/reconnect to various tripping experiences, but whether I'm doing it deliberately or not I guess there's always something going on ...

Aw, thanks very much boss - yeah, I really like the sax. I can't remember where I got it from, but the Bitbox is absolutely genius for multisampled stuff and I think the little bit of LFO on the filter here helps give it a relatively 'human' sound. The WZRD continues to serve me very well with visuals too, though potentially I'm looking into other options too as it's just a little bit pricey to work full-time for me ...

Thanks man, I appreciate it. I hope you like the rest of it - basically pretty similar to this, some of it more melodic and other stuff even glitchier. From a quick look at your channel I see we're "MC707 buddies", though it looks like you've gone down the Elektron rabbithole - whereas I've very much gone down the Eurorack rabbithole. I'll have a listen to more of your stuff in a bit but it sounds very cool so far! Thanks again.

True, I'm into Elektrons and typical Elektron's flow, mainly p-locking and quite rapid sound sculpting results. With MC707 is not that fast in my case, although I like this machine for versatility and how I can organize the purpose of each track - MC707 replaced Octatrack, which in case of being so much into Elektrons is like blasphemy :). I'll check your other vids, I can see a psychodelic vibe that attracts me.

@@nightweavermusic Yeah, the p-lock deal looks pretty sweet with Elektron's gear ... I think I'm possibly getting something similar out of the FX lanes in the Polyend Tracker and Nerdseq tracker in the Rack - certainly that concept of affecting each step in a sequence differently, and with probabilities, helps give that organic kind of flow it feels like we're both exploring. The MC707 is a bit of a glorified mixing desk in my current set-up, I'm under-using it. Interesting you replaced an Octatrack with it - I've hankered after one of them for a while, but am just in too deep with the Eurorack to justify it whilst still paying my rent and buying food! :)

Thank you! Yes, I'm pretty happy with both the modulation wizardry and the visual WZRDry going on here ...

Aw, that's lovely boss - thanks very much. As I may have said before - I've certainly said it elsewhere to other people - one of the key things I'm trying to achieve musically is an expression of something organic through electronic music. One of the reasons I love Eurorack is the way I think it genuinely facilitates that living, 'breathing', process as the CV electricity flows through it all. That said, of course, on this particular track it's all in Ableton so it's good to feel I can achieve it more generally!

Thanks very much! Yes, the Disting Ex piano is very cool - I think it's one from Spitfire Audio Labs. It came pre-loaded on there, along with lots of other very usable sounds. I think what you need is multisampling, which the Tracker finds difficult - although in a very time-consuming way with a lot of prep I guess it's possible. You'd use loads of the memory up though... There are potentially options for you with convincing piano, though I think they would take you out of the Tracker a little in terms of synthesis (... you could still sequence effectively on the Tracker, and then even feed the external audio in). Especially with the 16 tracks available on the +. Probably the easiest one to suggest would be something like the Nanobox Tangerine by 1010Music. Now, I don't actually have a Tangerine but I've seen demos which show the piano it comes with is pretty cool (and naturally you could use other multisamples you might find and load them in instead). The Nanobox workflow is certainly pretty straightforward to recommend ...

@@joelnicholson Thanks for the recommendation! I hadn't really looked into the Tangerine but I'm a big fan of the 1010music Bluebox. From everything I've seen so far it definitely looks like something that would be a welcome addition to my setup. Love the piano sounds that I'm hearing from it 👍

Thanks very much - I love such an enthusiastic response! :) Plenty more on the channel in a pretty similar vein I reckon ...

Thanks very much! I'm glad you appreciate the DX7 throw-back - as far as I can tell the Disting EX module firmware has a pretty full recreation in it. I think that 'freshness' idea is being helped by the context, but then I also have 2 different voices running and I used one of the FX lanes on the Tracker to randomly allocate the Instrument so that it's not entirely the same each time it plays through. As always, I do very much appreciate your feedback and interest!

Thanks very much, I'm glad you're enjoying it. This is actually the track I'm proudest of on the whole album - partly because of boring, nerdy, reasons about how it was produced, but even so ... Moments ago I just popped up a remix of it on here as well as a kind of bonus track to the album. A different emotional resonance, but perhaps see what you think!

Thank you!

🥰 thank you! Plenty more on the Channel which is in the same style...

Thanks boss! Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, pretty happy with the "harmony" (... thanks to the Data Bender, I'm pretty sure one of the Rings is too bent out of shape to really be harmonious) and the beats. All the usual probabilistic tomfoolery I normally put together. Stick around the channel for more, similar, stuff in due course!

Thank you! I hear her in everything, so it can be hard for me to be sure what gets communicated to anyone else. As the poet says: "Late spring / A pawprint has remained / Deep in the heart".

Thank you! Yes, I'm pretty happy with the pulse of the bass here ... personally I *think* my favourite of the recent batch is 15m6d2h, but that's at least partly because of "technical", nerdy, reasons about how it was put together. All this recent stuff is up on Spotify now as an album too, which will leave me free to move on to other projects with it all.

Late Spring flowering, Martin marvelling in praise - Gratefully received.

Hey man, thanks very much for your kind words, as ever. Yes, I've been out of music for quite a while. But I think I'm doing better now, and it's definitely good to reconnect and find my feet again. I appreciate your sensitive and thoughtful observations too. There's certainly still an attempt by me to capture something living within the machine: everything animated by the same primal, electric, energy from the brain synapse to the LFO modulating the filter cutoff. I think that's quite a relevant part of my aesthetic, and I'm glad it comes across. There's a few more new ones up now, have a listen and see what you think if you get the chance!

Hey boss, thanks very much. I'm definitely quite proud of the beat and textures on this one. It feels like I'm certainly much closer to firing on all cylinders after a good (or, I suppose, bad) six months away from music. It's just nice for me to reconnect with it all, and - as usual - if anyone else happens to enjoy it, so much the better.

@@joelnicholson brilliant track mate, also video suits it. Is that A.I. generated? Good stuff

@@BrotherDominick1 Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it! Plenty more on the channel which is basically pretty much in the same vein ... Yes, the video is AI generated. I use something called WZRD, which really does nearly all the work for me. You just pick a kind of "theme" and it stitches everything together. Here the theme was "dark sci-fi" or something equally broad; on another recent track - 15m6d2h - it was "nature" and the results are quite different. I think the style suits the music too. I started using AI visualisers because filming the performance would just be blinking lights on various boxes and the sequencer playing through, with occasional bouts of my hands turning different knobs. Not very interesting. But over time I think I've become more positive about having something visual to reflect the sound too. I like it, at any rate.

Thanks man! Glad you enjoyed it. Plenty more on here that's basically the same kinda stuff if you want ...

Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it! The visuals are from the AI visualiser app.wzrd.ai/. It's a bit random, but easy to use, and it produces slightly more relaxed trippy stuff than in the visuals on some of the older videos on here which were more aggressively psychedelic.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm very happy with the sound set-up I have, but definitely need to explore the Iridium Core as the newest part of it - that thing has so much depth and variety to its tones. But I like what I've managed here for sure. I'll try and keep 'em coming!

Thanks man. Like Lester Freeman says "the pieces all fit together". I really do aim for the biological/organic as a theme, and continue to find that Eurorack offers something in that direction. The living flow of electricity through my system: the living flow of electricity through the 'Rack ... a kind of symbiosis. Need to wire it all up, but intrigued now I have a Nerdseq in the mix - which I think means my system has effectively evolved a second brain ... who knows where that will lead, though I'm guessing it will be in the direction of polymetric ambient glitch chaos still!

@@joelnicholson you’ve got this old brain (BSc Hons, Lancaster 1991, Biological Sciences) grinding into ‘action’. I would say our languages can be considered organic, including music. The CV pulse that just started an 8-note sequence ultimately came from a neurone firing: the neurotransmitters which sent the message to the muscle, which pressed the button, which triggered the voltage, which started the sequence, which comes back in through the ears, which sets up the intent to press the button again. It’s a big feedback loop (except for the unexplained mysteries of the creative process). On another level, there’s our heartbeat, breath, walking rhythms, bird and animal sounds and wind and water all contributing to our musical thoughts. Pauses in the music phrases emulate breathing, it’s no coincidence that almost all music exists in the range of our heartbeat - 60 to 140 bpm. I do think your music is very organic - I hear pots being struck and wires being twanged, and the rhythms bubble away like yeast in bread!

Aw, thanks very much! I hope you like any of the rest of the Channel too ... there *are* some guitar-based tunes on here too, but you have to dig back quite a way to find them. Maybe try "With Friends Like These Who Needs Emily's?" as an example.

Thanks man! I think Pluck has the highest quality-to-HP ratios of any module I own, such a lovely and versatile sound ... though obviously the Disting EX competes hard too.

Thanks again! On the video front, WZRD is a great bit of kit - I still use VOGAN+Clips - which you put me on to initially, of course - but do enjoy the slightly more gentle ride I get from this software instead.

@@joelnicholson I gotta try it out! This is the first time I've heard of it.

@@mulangira79 so, you can only cough up free video in 30-second blocks... longer video is a little pricier. But the free blocks work. Some of my videos from before are based on stitching together these bursts... the workflow is a bit fiddly, but still very cool 😎.

Thank you! I'm glad you like it.

Tangerine Dream is definitely an intended point of reference. My goal is to recreate the experience of having a quiet night in listening to some 'Dream or mid-career Brian Eno on your stereo whilst the kids in the flat underneath are holding a 90s jungle revival with a broken CD player. That's how I think I would describe my approach to genre ... I've been out of the loop with making music over the last six months or so whilst I've been having something of a mental health crisis. But ultimately getting back into music is going to be good for me, and I'm trying to find my feet again. I am also aware that, having been away from music, I haven't connected better with the community here more generally. It seems you have been very busy, so I will try and engage more with listening to what you've been up to as well. Thanks, as always, for your kind words.

@@joelnicholson Dude you don’t need worry about watching my stuff - and I engage with music for the same reasons you do 🙏 I’m glad to see you’re active again. I wouldn’t mind a 90s jungle revival next door - instead they are devotees of 130.2 bpm Scouse House which, filtered through the wall, is like the musical equivalent of heart palpitations. However, they are now aware that I have records by Sun Ra, Captain Beefheart, PiL, Crass, Deerhoof, Zappa, lots of jazz and punk and 60s psychedelia AND I have a very powerful Roland keyboard amp, so we have entered into ‘an agreement’! I once met Brian Eno’s daughter - she was lovely and she was willing to talk to me about him quite a bit. I must have come across quite amusingly - this man who claimed to be an amateur musician who was blown away hearing Music for Airports and Apollo and the like. She told me about Bowie popping in for a chat (kinell!) and she liked the music she heard her dad playing but she didn’t really follow it as music wasn’t her thing. I don’t think she realised that even the least switched on culturally would know who her dad was. She was training to be a medic, she knew about Neroli, the music Eno had written for the birth of a child - it was for her! I regret not asking for her email in order to connect up with Brian, that would have been great! For me, not for him 😄 I would try and get him to record some comedy music with me - there isn’t enough comedy ambient around. He was in Roxy Music, the Portsmouth Sinfionetta and Father Ted so he must be game for a laugh!

So, funny (but long) story - yes I *had* the Pulsar 23 finally. I'd been looking forward to it so much, and had pretty much set my mind on the idea that it would really work out for me and be absolutely what I needed and wanted for my set-up. But then reality set in, and after a couple of weeks I just really wasn't finding a way of getting it to work. I could make it play on its own nicely, and was having some fun there by sampling it, but I couldn't align it with the great Octopus which is the Tracker/Eurorack combination I really work from. I have therefore - somewhat reluctantly, but ultimately for the best - returned it. I'm taking it as a lesson in being careful about what you wish for. Pretty much the only thing worse than not getting what you want is getting what you want ... I did sample it a bunch, though, so have that to fall back on through the Tracker and/or Bitbox. I therefore decided instead to boost my melodic and tonal set-up, so I got the God Emperor of synths in the form of the Waldorf Iridium. It has an incredible range and diversity, and I'm already really enjoying the sound design possibilities. It also plays very nicely with the remaining set-up. I definitely value Soma's approach to sound and kit design. I'd toyed with getting a Terra, for instance, but - again - have ended up valuing synergy over novelty. For the moment. I definitely might get an Ether, though, since I think that would possibly make for some great glitchy noises to sample ...

@@joelnicholson I know what you mean about the Soma gear - my Lyra8 and Ornament sort of exist in a world outside everything else in my setup, and it doesn’t really help me compose interesting stuff. But it’s there when I need to hear some wailing FM noises. The Waldorf looks sweet, never played one but those machines appear to go deep. And that screen! The last module I bought was Mordax data - it really helps me if I can visualise the music. Stuff like the Terra and Lyra are a bit like buying a theremin - amazing, responsive, but does it do anything else? And do you need to skill-up in order to play it? I haven’t bought anything for a while but have enough in the bank now for some new gear. I look longingly at the Syntrx2 but i don’t know - there’s always an expectation that new gear will trigger a creative surge, and it sometimes does, but with much kit I end up going back to what I work with most often, like yourself with the Tracker and Bitbox. “God Emperor of synths” 😄

Thanks! Been away from making music for a bit, but have some new stuff cooking soon...

Thanks boss, really appreciate that. The broken beats are - as you know - very easy to achieve on the Tracker, which is pretty much what I use for all of my drums. However, unlike you, that's about *all* I use it for in terms of making noises, otherwise I just use it as a MIDI sequencer ... I'd definitely recommend WZRD as a pretty awesome visualiser. Not loads of control over it, but it does the job for me.

Hey boss, sorry I didn't see this comment before for some reason! Thought it was weird you'd commented on the other recent tracks but not this one ... anyhow, saw it just now. Yes that pitch bend stuff is cool - that's the 0-Coast with some FM modulation. As it happens I can't quite remember *what* was modulating it, but something fairly gentle and a bit random. Thanks, as always, for your enthusiastic support!

Thanks again! That'd be the Hydrasynth, my single greatest synth investment... I watched a tutorial online about how to recreate brass with it and am pretty happy with the effect.

Thanks boss! Yes, very happy with the interplay here ... the tones and beats I'm very comfortable with ready, but this new 3rd dimension of polyrhythm is exciting too!

Thanks very much man! Appreciate it. Plenty more to come I hope... some bits on Spotify too if your eyes need a break from the psychedelic videos! 😁

@@joelnicholson Nice! I will check it out! I have some work on all streaming platforms under the name wrker_

Thanks as always for your kind words. The main pad here is the Disting EX, or one of them, though I think there is some Hydrasynth in there too... honestly can't really remember! The vocal is definitely some reverb drenched vocal stuff from the Rample's pre-loaded samples - no idea where it's from, or even what it's saying. But it sounds nice! I'll take that feedback on the visuals; you'll notice I put another watermark'd track up earlier today too. I can live with it. As for saving up for a new PC, I'm afraid you underestimate the power of the Eurorack black hole ... there is always more kit calling, especially as I've now discovered Reverb as a place to sell gear I don't use so much! But we'll see. No hurry on any email, but colab would definitely be cool 😎.

Thanks man! Yes, very happy with the beats here... mostly Tracker stuff, but there's some Bitbox too. The visuals are impressive. Check the other video out to see the free version in action and see what you think of that style. Still waiting for that email 😁.

Thanks very much. Yes, I feel very happy with the drums now too - between the Tracker, the Bitbox, and Rample I certainly have lots of noises to use, and that's designed to create the kind of juxtaposition I enjoy between soft, sweet, diatonic melody and harmony against crunchy, glitchy, beats. I described it the other day to a friend as being like if you were sitting at home listening to Brian Eno or something but your neighbours downstairs were loudly having a 90s jungle revival night - except their CD player is broken and keeps skipping ... I think you and I have previously discussed it being hard to find the right words for "this" music. Anyhow, thanks for dropping by. Plenty more on Spotify if you're still enjoying my work! Next plan is to be integrating the OXI One I've just bought myself to engage in wider sequencing fun through that, leaving the Tracker to focus more on pure drums and texture ... let's see how that works out!

Hey man, so time for a proper reply now. Great to hear from you, and glad you're enjoying the stuff - been busier on Spotify more than The 'Tube of late, but still very happy with my set-up. I think the percussion flows quite nicely with this one, for sure - but it's all rooted in that gorgeous Hydrasynth sound augmented by the Disting EX's beautiful polysynth texture too. Loving it!

😊 aw, you're so lovely! But, yes, very happy with the tone and textures here. This track puts me about halfway through the *next* EP too ... hard to keep up, I know! At some point between now and the ultimate heat death of the universe I will have to stop making music. But no plans yet! Indeed, just dropped £500+ on an Oxi One sequencer so very much continuing! It should let me use the Tracker purely for beats and samples and do all my MIDI/Eurorack sequencing, looks totally sick 😎. Look up my email address on my About page. I think it is high time for some collaboration ...

@@joelnicholson From what I've seen of the Oxi One it seems like it would be right up your alley. Appears to be well suited to the more generative, organic, evolving sort of music making that you already do so well. I can't seem to find an email in your about section but I would be 100% down for some collaboratory shenanigans 🙌

@@resynecho agree about the Oxi - super generative, and also easier polyphony compared to the Tracker. Email is law_of_23 at yahoo.co.uk (formatting it that way to avoid auto-harvesting, I'm sure you can work it out!)

Aw, as always you say the sweetest things! Yes, the AI strings sound amazing - and then just a little bit of Hydrasynth and Eurorack tweaking around the edges to sharpen it all up somehow ... I hope you enjoy the rest of the EP. This isn't especially my favourite track or anything, realistically it's just pretty much the shortest and I wanted to put up something without having to spend hours and hours sorting a video out. I don't think there's anything ground-breaking on there exactly - same old shit, pretty much! - but I do remain very happy with the sound and process, and certainly still enjoy doing it. See what you think, at any rate.