Jekyll2024-02-21T20:45:18+00:00https://joeynelson.com//Joey NelsonI am Joey Nelson and this is my website lolApril Showers2023-04-09T13:00:00+00:002023-04-09T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/april-showers<p><img src="/assets/images/april-showers-2023.jpg" /></p>A Month of Modular Synth Sounds2023-02-28T13:00:00+00:002023-02-28T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/a-month-of-modular-synth-sounds<p><img src="/assets/images/febeurorackary-2023.jpg" /></p>
<p>2022 was a pretty slow year for <a href="https://wavparty.com">Wavparty</a>. I had just started a new job and most of my creative energy was going into <a href="https://tronf.net">my own music</a>. But I do have a dream of making sample-slinging more than just a hobby so I decided to build some momentum in 2023 with an ambitious project: <a href="https://wavparty.com/febeurorackary/">FEBEURORACKARY 2023</a>.</p>
<p>Every day in Februrary I released a free sample pack of sounds from Eurorack synthesizer modules. The result: 28 sample packs, 780 total samples, 75 loops, 22 Ableton instruments.</p>
<p>Some thoughts:</p>
<ul>
<li>I’m a big fan of setting up a <a href="/routine-creativity-lockdown/">routine</a> that forces me to produce things. When I get in a rut I’m always surprised at how well this works.</li>
<li>I thought I was going to spend January doing a bunch of prep work and getting a lot of these sample packs ready. Turns out I didn’t do that and went in without a plan. It worked out okay!</li>
<li>The most labor-intensive part of making Wavparty sample packs for me is all the auxiliary stuff: making a demo track, preparing Ableton projects, editing videos. I didn’t do any of that stuff for the 24 mini packs and it felt very liberating!</li>
<li>The mini packs were also a great way to try out some weird ideas, like using <a href="https://wavparty.com/downloads/febeurorackary-2023-maths-wtf-mini-pack/">Maths as an oscillator</a>. I got some good experience with a few modules I hadn’t gone deep with.</li>
<li>I’m not going to leave these free packs up for very long. At this point I feel like there is an overwhelming amount of stuff on Wavparty and I’m probably going to move to a finite lifespan for sample packs. We’ll see!</li>
<li>It feels like I should figure out how to promote this stuff. Shit man, I dunno.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’m pretty pumped for some more cool Wavparty stuff coming this year. Let me know if you downloaded any of these packs and made something cool!</p>2022 was a pretty slow year for Wavparty. I had just started a new job and most of my creative energy was going into my own music. But I do have a dream of making sample-slinging more than just a hobby so I decided to build some momentum in 2023 with an ambitious project: FEBEURORACKARY 2023. Every day in Februrary I released a free sample pack of sounds from Eurorack synthesizer modules. The result: 28 sample packs, 780 total samples, 75 loops, 22 Ableton instruments. Some thoughts: I’m a big fan of setting up a routine that forces me to produce things. When I get in a rut I’m always surprised at how well this works. I thought I was going to spend January doing a bunch of prep work and getting a lot of these sample packs ready. Turns out I didn’t do that and went in without a plan. It worked out okay! The most labor-intensive part of making Wavparty sample packs for me is all the auxiliary stuff: making a demo track, preparing Ableton projects, editing videos. I didn’t do any of that stuff for the 24 mini packs and it felt very liberating! The mini packs were also a great way to try out some weird ideas, like using Maths as an oscillator. I got some good experience with a few modules I hadn’t gone deep with. I’m not going to leave these free packs up for very long. At this point I feel like there is an overwhelming amount of stuff on Wavparty and I’m probably going to move to a finite lifespan for sample packs. We’ll see! It feels like I should figure out how to promote this stuff. Shit man, I dunno. I’m pretty pumped for some more cool Wavparty stuff coming this year. Let me know if you downloaded any of these packs and made something cool!Drowning in Bullshit2023-01-27T13:00:00+00:002023-01-27T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/drowning-in-bullshit<p>Maybe I’m just getting old (<em>Editor’s note: he’s definitely getting old</em>) but it’s hard to shake the feeling that online life sucks now. We’re drowning in bullshit and it’s only getting worse.</p>
<p>Google search sucks. Try finding anything: You have to wade through pages of ads, widgets, low information content mill crap, and outright spam to find relevant search results. Yes, Google search is trying to funnel you into places you’ll generate money. But it doesn’t help that the web is just full of bullshit. And of course there’s a feedback loop here: that bullshit only really exists because Google incentivized it with ad cash.</p>
<p>A lot of people are impressed with ChatGPT’s smoke and mirrors. It strings words together convincingly enough to <em>sound</em> like it knows what it’s talking about. You don’t have to look very hard to see the seams<sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup>, but the end result is striking truthiness.</p>
<p>Tech journalism has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/technology/google-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence.html">focused</a> on what this could mean for Google’s search business. Why would people need to search for information when they can just ask an AI chat bot who will give them something that looks like an accurate answer? But I think that’s underestimating the scale of transformation we’ll see.</p>
<p>A lot of today’s bullshit is written by humans being paid <a href="https://www.clippings.me/blog/best-content-mills/">1 to 5 cents a word</a> to grind out something that <em>looks</em> like information in the hopes of getting clicks that lead to ad impressions or affiliate link purchases. This shit has already made search unusable and killed a lot of what old timers like me loved about the web.</p>
<p>But who needs to pay humans when you could just run an infinite number of prompts into a passable AI text generator? Sure, the content might be a little less accurate, but that was never the point--it was always bullshit. And in a lot of cases the writing will be better. What will change dramatically is the scale. This bullshit will be inescapable. How will anyone find <em>any</em> real information? Traditional Google search is toast no matter what.</p>
<p>Your relatives on social media are already falling for the least-convincing conspiracy content in history. What if it was written by a robot that can actually string a coherent sentence together? A tiny automated operation could barf out millions of fabricated posts and memes a day, just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. What would a <em>sophisticated</em> version of this look like? Does it even matter?</p>
<p>Media companies have been gutting newsrooms and divesting in actual journalism for decades now. Why wouldn’t they lean on AI to produce massive amounts of content? Toss in a few facts and let the machines remix it endlessly. This already exists--have you ever clicked on a news link, maybe about <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ultratech-cement-outperforms-competitors-on-strong-trading-day-01674815595-df3bbc97abf5?mod=marketwatch-automation">why a company’s stock price went up or down</a>, and found yourself in the uncanny valley of an autogenerated news story with a few raw facts and no actual insight? <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/media/buzzfeed-ai-content-creation/index.html">Get used to that</a>.</p>
<p>As all this AI-generated content takes over, and successive generations are <em>trained on it</em>, what is our place in all of this? As online life becomes dominated with robots throwing words at each other, do we just burrow down and try to find human spaces and connection?</p>
<p>A less-online life is pretty compelling these days. In the past couple years I’ve gotten off social media services one by one, and it does feel like I’ve dramatically reduced my exposure to bullshit. Maybe we can all just focus on our sporadically-updated, low-readership blogs!</p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Ask ChatGPT a question about a topic you know well and you’re sure to trigger the <a href="https://stepsandleaps.wordpress.com/2020/05/30/you-forget-what-you-know-gell-mann-amnesia/">Gell-Mann Amnesia effect</a>. <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Maybe I’m just getting old (Editor’s note: he’s definitely getting old) but it’s hard to shake the feeling that online life sucks now. We’re drowning in bullshit and it’s only getting worse. Google search sucks. Try finding anything: You have to wade through pages of ads, widgets, low information content mill crap, and outright spam to find relevant search results. Yes, Google search is trying to funnel you into places you’ll generate money. But it doesn’t help that the web is just full of bullshit. And of course there’s a feedback loop here: that bullshit only really exists because Google incentivized it with ad cash. A lot of people are impressed with ChatGPT’s smoke and mirrors. It strings words together convincingly enough to sound like it knows what it’s talking about. You don’t have to look very hard to see the seams1, but the end result is striking truthiness. Tech journalism has focused on what this could mean for Google’s search business. Why would people need to search for information when they can just ask an AI chat bot who will give them something that looks like an accurate answer? But I think that’s underestimating the scale of transformation we’ll see. A lot of today’s bullshit is written by humans being paid 1 to 5 cents a word to grind out something that looks like information in the hopes of getting clicks that lead to ad impressions or affiliate link purchases. This shit has already made search unusable and killed a lot of what old timers like me loved about the web. But who needs to pay humans when you could just run an infinite number of prompts into a passable AI text generator? Sure, the content might be a little less accurate, but that was never the point--it was always bullshit. And in a lot of cases the writing will be better. What will change dramatically is the scale. This bullshit will be inescapable. How will anyone find any real information? Traditional Google search is toast no matter what. Your relatives on social media are already falling for the least-convincing conspiracy content in history. What if it was written by a robot that can actually string a coherent sentence together? A tiny automated operation could barf out millions of fabricated posts and memes a day, just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. What would a sophisticated version of this look like? Does it even matter? Media companies have been gutting newsrooms and divesting in actual journalism for decades now. Why wouldn’t they lean on AI to produce massive amounts of content? Toss in a few facts and let the machines remix it endlessly. This already exists--have you ever clicked on a news link, maybe about why a company’s stock price went up or down, and found yourself in the uncanny valley of an autogenerated news story with a few raw facts and no actual insight? Get used to that. As all this AI-generated content takes over, and successive generations are trained on it, what is our place in all of this? As online life becomes dominated with robots throwing words at each other, do we just burrow down and try to find human spaces and connection? A less-online life is pretty compelling these days. In the past couple years I’ve gotten off social media services one by one, and it does feel like I’ve dramatically reduced my exposure to bullshit. Maybe we can all just focus on our sporadically-updated, low-readership blogs! Ask ChatGPT a question about a topic you know well and you’re sure to trigger the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect. ↩Massive X Stuck Notes in Ableton Live 112022-09-20T13:00:00+00:002022-09-20T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/massive-x-stuck-notes-ableton-11<p>A while back I upgraded to a Mac Studio and this week I was messing around with Massive X (it was pretty painful to run on my old iMac) in Ableton. One thing that’s been extremely annoying is that notes hang forever if you stop playback in the middle of a note.</p>
<p>A little googling seems to reveal that this is a bug on Apple Silicon. Until then you can just drop the aptly-named <a href="https://maxforlive.com/library/device/6871/shutthefuckup">ShutTheFuckUp</a> MaxForLive MIDI device on your track. Thanks, squeeb!</p>A while back I upgraded to a Mac Studio and this week I was messing around with Massive X (it was pretty painful to run on my old iMac) in Ableton. One thing that’s been extremely annoying is that notes hang forever if you stop playback in the middle of a note. A little googling seems to reveal that this is a bug on Apple Silicon. Until then you can just drop the aptly-named ShutTheFuckUp MaxForLive MIDI device on your track. Thanks, squeeb!Modular Jamming on the iPad with Drambo2022-08-26T05:00:00+00:002022-08-26T05:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/modular-jamming-drambo<div class="youtube">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Rug7Vzvw5tM"></iframe>
</div>
<p>Over the past few years I’ve found myself gravitating towards portable music devices that I can fool around with while I’m drinking my morning coffee or have a few spare minutes during the day. I’ve never really been an iPad guy but I’ve been seeing some interesting apps pop up over the past few years and figured it was time to give it a shot.</p>
<!--more-->
<p>I’m glad I did because <a href="https://www.beepstreet.com/ios/drambo">Drambo</a> in particular has been a huge amount of fun. It’s a “modular groovebox” with sequencing features that will feel familiar to Ableton or Elektron users, but every track in the project is a freeform modular instrument that you can wire up with dozens of simple and effective modules.</p>
<p>I’ve tried a lot of virtual modular stuff like <a href="https://vcvrack.com/">VCV Rack</a>, <a href="https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/synths/reaktor-6/blocks/">Reaktor Blocks</a>, and <a href="https://cherryaudio.com/products/voltage-modular">Voltage Modular</a>. But for some reason I never really connected with those. Dragging a bunch of virtual patch cables around on a screen bugs me; it feels like we’re missing the point of what’s great about software.<sup id="fnref:1" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:1" class="footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup> And trying to do all of this in a DAW feels fractured. A modular system feels “too big” to be a VST that you slap onto a track. But sequencing in the rack is fiddly and limiting. I’m sure there are great ways to integrate this stuff into your workflow but I’m immediately overwhelmed. I just want to knock out some weird beats!</p>
<p>But hey, I tried the first generation of iPad software back in the day and I didn’t like that stuff either!<sup id="fnref:2" role="doc-noteref"><a href="#fn:2" class="footnote" rel="footnote">2</a></sup> A lot of mobile software <em>still</em> feels like someone just made an iOS build of a desktop app. UIs that make sense for clicking around with a mouse suck on a touch screen. And I know Audio Unit v3 has allowed iOS devices to route audio around apps. But that never felt like something I was eager to wrap my brain around when I could just use Ableton on a computer.</p>
<p>With Drambo everything is in the same place and having the sequencer tightly tied into the instruments feels natural. Signals generally flow automatically from left to right in the ways you expect but you still have the freedom to wire things however you want.</p>
<p>Drambo’s UI can still be a little clunky at times--I’ll chalk that up to a huge amount of power and flexibility built into the system and individual modules. But it’s the first time I’ve felt like all this stuff really clicks.</p>
<p>I’m still very new to it, but the video above shows the kind of results you can get with a little bit of noodling around using the built-in modules and a few samples (from <a href="https://wavparty.com">Wavparty</a> of course). I’m excited to keep experimenting with it and sharing some projects and instruments via Wavparty.</p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<ol>
<li id="fn:1" role="doc-endnote">
<p>In all fairness I haven’t really checked in with any of those products in the past few years, I’m sure they’ve evolved! <a href="#fnref:1" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
<li id="fn:2" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Things like Korg Gadget and Patterning were pretty great, but still kinda just felt like toys to mess around with while you’re stuck on an airplane. I made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A02LSWKcLc4">this track</a> on my first album mostly in Gadget. <a href="#fnref:2" class="reversefootnote" role="doc-backlink">↩</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>Over the past few years I’ve found myself gravitating towards portable music devices that I can fool around with while I’m drinking my morning coffee or have a few spare minutes during the day. I’ve never really been an iPad guy but I’ve been seeing some interesting apps pop up over the past few years and figured it was time to give it a shot.Making Weird Videos When You Have No Idea What You’re Doing2021-08-19T15:00:00+00:002021-08-19T15:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/making-videos<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz1.jpg" /></p>
<p>When I started releasing sample packs via <a href="https://wavparty.com">Wavparty</a>, I wanted to put <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/wavparty/videos">videos for the demo tracks on YouTube</a> so they’d be easy to post and share. They, uh, quickly took on a life of their own. I get a lot of questions about how I make these things. Here’s what I use:</p>
<!--more-->
<h3 id="zwobot-suite"><a href="https://www.zwobotmax.com/">Zwobot Suite</a></h3>
<p>This is a collection of video tools for Ableton Live that allow you to generate and mangle video in real time. If you use Ableton for making music, the video workflow feels natural. You can set up most parameters to react to audio (“high” and “low” frequencies) and sync changes to your track’s tempo. I make especially healthy use of the Mosh, VHS, and Couleur effects.</p>
<p>It has some quirks and I’ve run into a few glitches, but they keep rolling out updates at a healthy clip.</p>
<p>One thing that’s pretty annoying: I can get a decently high frame rate doing live visuals, but as soon as you start recording (there’s a built in Recorder module), the frame rate basically cuts in half! I’m lucky if I can get 20 FPS on my iMac. I’m not sure what the bottleneck is; this happens even when I’m writing to SSD. My workaround here is pretty dumb: I just slow the track down to half speed when I’m recording visuals and speed up my videos 2x in post. 🤷♂️ I’m curious to see if I can avoid this hack after eventually upgrading my system.</p>
<h3 id="final-cut-pro-x"><a href="https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/">Final Cut Pro X</a></h3>
<p>I bought FCP because I needed something better than iMovie and I didn’t want to pay for a monthly Adobe Creative Cloud subscription to use Premiere. I don’t need much out of editing software here--I generally record a bunch of takes of Zwobot video out of Ableton and slice them up, matching cuts to to the rhyhtm of the track. The recorded video generally looks a little washed out (compared to what I see during recording) so I use FCP to tweak colors and sometimes add effects.</p>
<p>Final Cut’s a little weird--I’m still not totally used to the strange magnetic timeline and I think I would prefer a traditional track-based editor. I know there are other options out there but I’m too lazy and cheap to pursue them.</p>
<h3 id="iphone"><a href="https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-xr">iPhone</a></h3>
<p>I always have my iPhone XR in my pocket. Every once in a while I see something that looks cool and record a snippet of video. I’ll Airdrop it into my computer and plop it into Zwobot. It doesn’t need to look great, it’s gonna get totally scrambled up anyway!</p>
<h3 id="youtube-downloader"><a href="https://yt1s.com/">YouTube Downloader</a></h3>
<p>I like shooting my own video but I’m also a big fan of repurposing weird snippets of found footage. There are a bunch of YouTube download sites that let you plug in a YouTube URL and grab an MP4 that you can drop right into Zwobot and mangle. Don’t narc!</p>
<h3 id="critter--guitari-eyesy"><a href="https://www.critterandguitari.com/eyesy">Critter & Guitari EYESY</a></h3>
<p>This is a pretty recent addition to my setup. EYESY is basically a Raspberry Pi in a nice case. It has MIDI and audio inputs and synthesizes video using Python scripts running the <a href="https://www.pygame.org/news">PyGame</a> library. I’ve only been using it for a week but so far it’s a lot of fun. The workflow is a little clunky and I know just enough Python to fuck things up. People are <a href="https://patchstorage.com/platform/eyesy/">sharing scripts on patchstorage</a> but the community is not particularly active.</p>
<h3 id="some-captured-frames">Some captured frames:</h3>
<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz2.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz3.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz4.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz5.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz6.jpg" /></p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/video-stills/viz7.jpg" /></p>
<p>Anyway, despite not really knowing what I’m doing I’ve figured out a workflow and visual style that works for me. Someday it would be fun to try to do this stuff live.</p>When I started releasing sample packs via Wavparty, I wanted to put videos for the demo tracks on YouTube so they’d be easy to post and share. They, uh, quickly took on a life of their own. I get a lot of questions about how I make these things. Here’s what I use:Routine & Creativity in Lockdown2020-12-28T15:00:00+00:002020-12-28T15:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/routine-creativity-lockdown<p><img src="/assets/images/weeklybeats.png" /></p>
<p>In 2020 I did <a href="https://weeklybeats.com/">Weeklybeats</a> for the third time. Weeklybeats is a free community site where everyone attempts to write and record a new song every week for the whole year. In past years I would start out strong but run out of steam as, you know, <em>life</em> happened.</p>
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<p>Luckily (???) 2020 turned out to be a year where not much life happened and I barely left the house. This allowed me to produce 52 mostly bad songs in 52 weeks, a feat I will almost certainly never match.</p>
<p>There are surely great musicians out there who could rattle off a new song every week and keep the quality control very high; I am not one of them. I’m not even really a musician! So I approach this as a brute force method of generating raw material: most of these songs will suck but if you make 52 tracks a <em>few</em> of them have to be salvageable. If you bank those tracks, you can revisit them in the next calendar year with fresh ears. Turn those into real songs and hey, you’ve got an album!</p>
<p>Sometimes I’m deliberate about trying out a new technique or focusing on a specific piece of gear. Sometimes I wait until the last minute and just throw some stuff together without thinking. Sometimes I just goof around and jam for an hour and then try to edit things down into something that resembles a song. The goal is to get in a groove and mix it up enough so that the weekly process doesn’t become a grind.</p>
<p>I used to spend months working on songs and often they just never ended up going anywhere. It’s almost a cliché at this point, but it’s true: giving myself a ticking clock helped me start to actually get stuff done. And more importantly it allows me to timebox the creative experiments that fall flat on their face.</p>
<p>Every time I’ve done this it’s turned out to be a rewarding process; this year it had the added benefit of keeping me (arguably) sane.</p>
<p>Weeklybeats only runs on even numbered years, but if you’re interested in an exercise like this I would check out <a href="https://streak.club/">Streak Club</a>. Streak Club takes the weekly deadline concept and expands on it. Anyone can create a “streak” that other members can join, and people have created groups for music, art, game development, and more. There’s already a <a href="https://streak.club/s/1444/weekly-music-2021">2021 music group</a> set up by some Weeklybeats folks.</p>In 2020 I did Weeklybeats for the third time. Weeklybeats is a free community site where everyone attempts to write and record a new song every week for the whole year. In past years I would start out strong but run out of steam as, you know, life happened.Good Things From Quarantine: Part 2 - BOOKS2020-09-25T13:00:00+00:002020-09-25T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/good-things-from-quarantine-part-2-books<p>At this point in my life I’m usually able to read 2 or 3 pages of a book in bed before I fall asleep immediately. One nice thing about the past 6 months of lockdown is that there is absolutely nothing else going on and I’ve been able to do a good amount of reading! Here are a few books that I have really enjoyed (please be warned these are not smart people books):</p>
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<h3 id="nba-jam---reyan-ali"><a href="https://amzn.to/3cmt8fN">NBA Jam</a> - Reyan Ali</h3>
<p>This is part of a series of pocket-sized paperbacks about the making of influential video games, basically 33 1/3 but for games. I love this format and I’m just the right age that makes NBA Jam a huge deal for me. Great read, I tore through it.</p>
<h3 id="all-systems-red-the-murderbot-diaries---martha-wells"><a href="https://amzn.to/360dBRr">All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries</a> - Martha Wells</h3>
<p>This is a novella that I basically inhaled, can’t wait to read the rest of the series.</p>
<h3 id="playing-for-keeps---david-halberstam"><a href="https://amzn.to/32VBKa8">Playing for Keeps</a> - David Halberstam</h3>
<p>I read this after watching the <em>The Last Dance</em> and it’s almost like they used this book as the outline, down to the structure. A lot of the supposed revelations from the series were here 20 years ago, with a lot more detail.</p>
<h3 id="making-music---dennis-desantis"><a href="https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/#making-music">Making Music</a> - Dennis DeSantis</h3>
<p>Some chapters are available online for free, and there’s a cheap Kindle version, but I bought the physical book. It’s the kind of book you want to have lying around so you can pick it up and flip to a random page. Extremely practical strategies for getting shit done musically, and it’s beautifully designed.</p>
<h3 id="other-books-i-enjoyed">Other books I enjoyed:</h3>
<p><a href="https://amzn.to/3kLyunx">Old Man’s War series</a> - John Scalzi<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/300pGCD">Point B</a> - Drew Magary<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/3629R1N">Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker</a> - Barry Sonnenfeld<br />
<a href="https://amzn.to/3iZxuf6">Movies (And Other Things)</a> - Shea Serrano & Arturo Torres</p>At this point in my life I’m usually able to read 2 or 3 pages of a book in bed before I fall asleep immediately. One nice thing about the past 6 months of lockdown is that there is absolutely nothing else going on and I’ve been able to do a good amount of reading! Here are a few books that I have really enjoyed (please be warned these are not smart people books):Good Things From Quarantine: Part 12020-09-12T07:30:00+00:002020-09-12T07:30:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/good-things-from-quarantine-part-1<p>Tomorrow marks the 6 month anniversary of my family (and a lot of us here in America) going into full lockdown mode. It has been a miserable and confounding experience that other people are better equipped to write about, but let’s talk about some good things. Here are three good things that kept me from <em>totally</em> losing my mind:</p>
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<h2 id="making-pizza">Making pizza</h2>
<p>During that first month of lockdown people were generally freaking out and panic-buying toilet paper and other staples. It was hard to find stuff, especially if you were relying on deliveries. For whatever reason everyone was making bread and it was impossible to find yeast. I’ve been making pizza at home for a while and had a huge stockpile of flour but we’d run out of yeast right before lockdown and it took us about a month to get our hands on some. That first batch of pizzas was theraputic.</p>
<p><img src="/assets/images/quarantine-white-pie.jpg" alt="first quarantine pizza" /></p>
<h2 id="getting-rid-of-facebook">Getting rid of Facebook</h2>
<p>I don’t want to be one of those guys, but Facebook is bad and I’m not sure why I was even on it anymore other than inertia. If you think you might need it someday to get in touch with family or find some old photos, you can <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/214376678584711">disable your account</a> without totally deleting it.</p>
<h2 id="electronics-diy">Electronics DIY</h2>
<p>Before it got unbearably hot in my garage I was having a lot of fun building DIY eurorack kits. It’s intimidating, but if you’re interested just get a <a href="https://amzn.to/3iBYeSE">decent soldering iron</a> and look for some <a href="https://www.thonk.co.uk/product-category/eurorack-diy-kits/full-kits/">kits on Thonk</a> that don’t have tiny surface-mount parts (you can usually preview the assembly instructions to see how complicated it will be). It feels good to make something.</p>Tomorrow marks the 6 month anniversary of my family (and a lot of us here in America) going into full lockdown mode. It has been a miserable and confounding experience that other people are better equipped to write about, but let’s talk about some good things. Here are three good things that kept me from totally losing my mind:Running an Elektron Model:Cycles or Model:Samples from a USB battery pack2020-07-16T13:00:00+00:002020-07-16T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/elektron-model-cycles-usb-battery-cable<p><img src="/assets/images/model-cycles-usb-power.jpg" /></p>
<p>I recently picked up an Elektron <a href="https://amzn.to/3rinEKb">Model:Cycles</a> and I’ve been pretty impressed with it. One thing that didn’t fully come across from photos and YouTube videos is that this thing is pretty small and light! It immediately made me want their (possibly vaporware?) <a href="https://www.elektron.se/accessories/power-handle-bp-1/">battery pack handle</a>. But in the meantime that DC power port is right there, why not just use your own battery?</p>
<p>You probably have a USB battery pack lying around, but what cable do you need to hook it up? I AM HERE TO HELP YOU, FUTURE GOOGLER. Just buy this one: <a href="https://amzn.to/32tfkwX">Onite USB to DC Cable (DC4+1)</a>.</p>I recently picked up an Elektron Model:Cycles and I’ve been pretty impressed with it. One thing that didn’t fully come across from photos and YouTube videos is that this thing is pretty small and light! It immediately made me want their (possibly vaporware?) battery pack handle. But in the meantime that DC power port is right there, why not just use your own battery? You probably have a USB battery pack lying around, but what cable do you need to hook it up? I AM HERE TO HELP YOU, FUTURE GOOGLER. Just buy this one: Onite USB to DC Cable (DC4+1).Installing Ableton packs2020-05-13T13:00:00+00:002020-05-13T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/installing-ableton-packs<p>Over at <a href="https://wavparty.com/">Wavparty</a> I’ve been releasing sample packs that include Ableton instruments. These user-made Ableton packs are kinda weird. You basically package up an Ableton project and then other people can download and “install it” to open your whole project (or just pull out the tracks they want into their own project). Installing and managing the files is kind of confusing and I get a lot of questions about it so I put together this quick and easy guide: <a href="https://wavparty.com/install-ableton-pack/">Installing Ableton Packs</a>.</p>Over at Wavparty I’ve been releasing sample packs that include Ableton instruments. These user-made Ableton packs are kinda weird. You basically package up an Ableton project and then other people can download and “install it” to open your whole project (or just pull out the tracks they want into their own project). Installing and managing the files is kind of confusing and I get a lot of questions about it so I put together this quick and easy guide: Installing Ableton Packs.Dinky’s Taiko sample pack2020-03-21T17:00:00+00:002020-03-21T17:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/dinkys-taiko-samples<p>Over at Wavparty I put up a new pack of drum samples and instruments: <a href="https://wavparty.com/downloads/dinkys-taiko-pack/">Dinky’s Taiko samples & instruments</a>. This is the biggest pack I’ve put together so far and also includes some Ableton instruments.</p>
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<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/773845072&color=%23ff2979&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe>
<p><br /><br />
I’ve turned into a huge <a href="https://busycircuits.com/">ALM/Busy Circuits</a> fanboy--their modules are great and their aesthetic is so fun, simple and distinctive.</p>
<p>I had never really dug super deep with Dinky’s though. I generally just throw a bunch of modulation at it and steer into the craziness--and if you watch the YouTube videos you’ll see I’m not alone. But some careful tuning produced some great sounds here. And the included waveforms include some fun/weird vocal sounds and some other waves that work well for melodic sounds.</p>
<p>I’ve been learning a lot about Ableton’s built in sample instruments (Sampler/Simpler/Drum Racks) while doing these packs and demos and it was another interesting challenge to but together a good selection of instruments to go along with the pack.</p>
<p>Quick sidetrack: I really like putting tuned kick drums and other melodic samples into these packs but a lot of these modules are a pain to tune. I just got an <a href="http://www.addacsystem.com/en/products/modules/addac300-series/addac306">Addac 306</a> and here’s how I’m doing this now:</p>
<ul>
<li>run drum/oscillator audio out into tuner</li>
<li>run a Addac 306 CV out into oscillator pitch</li>
<li>use the 306’s min/span controls to get the pitch into the ballpark of C</li>
<li>narrow the span control as much as you can while still keeping the pitch in the ballpark of C</li>
<li>use the crossfader to fine tune the pitch</li>
</ul>
<p>Maybe that will save someone else some frustration someday.</p>Over at Wavparty I put up a new pack of drum samples and instruments: Dinky’s Taiko samples & instruments. This is the biggest pack I’ve put together so far and also includes some Ableton instruments.Deep Dream2020-03-21T05:00:00+00:002020-03-21T05:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/deep-dream<div class="youtube">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/topgwvp9Uik"></iframe>
</div>EWF/MGMT2020-03-04T05:00:00+00:002020-03-04T05:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/ewf-mgmt<div class="youtube">
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/loRA5XxACcw"></iframe>
</div>Introducing Wavparty2020-02-29T13:00:00+00:002020-02-29T13:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/introducing-wavparty<p><img src="/assets/images/wavparty.png" /></p>
<p>I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together sample packs so I threw a site together to make them easier to download. Check out <a href="https://wavparty.com/">Wavparty</a>!</p>
<p>BEHIND THE SCENES DETAILS: Just like this blog, the Wavparty site is a Jekyll static site hosted on Netlify for free. Demo songs are hosted on Soundcloud and downloads are done through Gumroad. I have seen the light and I am fully committed to low effort web development.</p>I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together sample packs so I threw a site together to make them easier to download. Check out Wavparty! BEHIND THE SCENES DETAILS: Just like this blog, the Wavparty site is a Jekyll static site hosted on Netlify for free. Demo songs are hosted on Soundcloud and downloads are done through Gumroad. I have seen the light and I am fully committed to low effort web development.Sample Pack: Peaks Drums & More2020-02-20T21:00:00+00:002020-02-20T21:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/peaks-drum-samples<p><strong>Get the <a href="https://wavparty.com/downloads/peaks-sample-pack/">Peaks sample pack</a> for free at <a href="https://wavparty.com/">Wavparty</a>.</strong></p>
<p>If you got into Eurorack in the mid 2010s, you probably had (or still have!) a <a href="https://mutable-instruments.net/modules/peaks/">Mutable Instruments Peaks</a> in your rack. It’s a small dual channel Swiss Army knife that accepts two triggers and can generate envelopes, tempo-synced LFOs, and 808-inspired kick and snare sounds. You can also expand that functionality with <a href="https://github.com/timchurches/Mutated-Mutables/releases">alternative firmware</a>. If you’re starting out with a small system this is incredibly valuable--but as the landscape evolved Peaks began to look like more and more of an anachronism. It has a tricky menu system, knob assignments that you will never memorize, and absolutely no CV control--the audacity!</p>
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<p>Emilie <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mutable.instruments/posts/goodbye-peaksits-time-to-say-goodbye-to-this-little-guy-whose-production-has-bee/1362776447170425/">discontinued it in 2017</a>, but even in a world with more robust multifunction modules, it continues to live on in the form of shrunken down small-batch <a href="https://reverb.com/marketplace/keyboards-and-synths?query=pique">clones</a>. Why? Well, it’s really good at what it does. Clocked LFOs are really handy for rhythmic music and usually only show up in bigger and more expensive modules. But really? It’s the drums. It’s so easy to dial in fantastic drum sounds with Peaks, and being able to generate a kick and a snare at the same time is huge when you’re working with a small system.</p>
<p>I agree with a commenter on that MI Facebook post: Braids might give you more control over sounds, but the Peaks drums just sound <em>better</em> to me. I used them on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSecZv-vcVk&list=PLPSBQd-j1bwwgXO1lVZWxWnm0UiOyXjTQ&index=3">a track on the latest Tron F. Kennedy album</a> and I’m sure they’ll sneak in to more songs in the future.</p>
<p>So when it came time to sample it, I wanted to capture those great kick and snare sounds, but I wanted to see what else it could do. The “Expert” mode allows you to use all 4 knobs to control the parameters of one sound which is great for crafting a wider variety of drum sounds. Dead Man’s Catch also includes a <a href="https://synthmodes.com/modules/peaks_dmc/#drum_fm">FM drum mode</a> with a much wider palette of sound--you can coax some great FM bass and piano sounds out of it. This pack includes 81 sounds:</p>
<p><strong>26</strong> snares<br />
<strong>15</strong> kick drums (9 of them tuned to C)<br />
<strong>16</strong> melodic sounds (tuned to C)<br />
<strong>12</strong> high hats<br />
<strong>4</strong> percussion sounds<br />
<strong>8</strong> toms (two different sets, tuned low to high: A, D, F, A)</p>
<p>You can hear it in action here:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/763846132&color=%23ff2979&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe>
<p><br /><br />
<strong>About the demo track:</strong> I have a lot of fun with these demo songs for the sample packs. It’s a really interesting challenge to put together a track that shows off as many sounds as possible, but still sounds cohesive and interesting (and doesn’t use any other sounds). This demo track was done in Ableton Live with a drum rack and a few instances of Sampler & Simpler (for the melodic parts) loaded with samples from the pack. There is a lot of filtering of samples, chorus/flanger/reverb applied to some of the melodic sounds, and some compression/EQ on everything.</p>Get the Peaks sample pack for free at Wavparty. If you got into Eurorack in the mid 2010s, you probably had (or still have!) a Mutable Instruments Peaks in your rack. It’s a small dual channel Swiss Army knife that accepts two triggers and can generate envelopes, tempo-synced LFOs, and 808-inspired kick and snare sounds. You can also expand that functionality with alternative firmware. If you’re starting out with a small system this is incredibly valuable--but as the landscape evolved Peaks began to look like more and more of an anachronism. It has a tricky menu system, knob assignments that you will never memorize, and absolutely no CV control--the audacity!Sample Pack: Mini Shimmery Hi-Hats2020-02-03T18:00:00+00:002020-02-03T18:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/mini-shimmery-hi-hat-sample-pack<p><strong>Get the <a href="https://wavparty.com/downloads/mini-shimmery-sample-pack/">Mini Shimmery sample pack</a> for free at <a href="https://wavparty.com/">Wavparty</a>.</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bluelanternstore.com/#/">Blue Lantern</a> <a href="https://www.perfectcircuit.com/blue-lantern-mini-shimmery-black.html">Mini Shimmery</a> is a quirky hi-hat module that I’ve had in my rack for a while. It’s easy to dial in 808ish hi-hats, but the trio of oscillators can play off of each other in unpredictable ways to create some interesting sounds. I put together this sample pack of 68 Mini Shimmery sounds (some dry, many running through filters):</p>
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<p>This demo track was put together in Ableton Live with a single big drum rack. There is a bit of filtering and pitching of samples and some compression/EQ on the master bus, but everything else is dry. Every sound you hear is from the sample pack:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/754458940&color=%23ff2979&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe>
<p><br />If the kicks and snares sound a little weak, well they’re coming from a hi-hat module!</p>Get the Mini Shimmery sample pack for free at Wavparty. The Blue Lantern Mini Shimmery is a quirky hi-hat module that I’ve had in my rack for a while. It’s easy to dial in 808ish hi-hats, but the trio of oscillators can play off of each other in unpredictable ways to create some interesting sounds. I put together this sample pack of 68 Mini Shimmery sounds (some dry, many running through filters):Eurorack Homebrew Options2020-01-26T17:00:00+00:002020-01-26T17:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/eurorack-homebrew-options<p>So you want to write some shitty DSP code (or build a goofy sequencer or wonky LFO) and get it deployed into your Eurorack system? Me too! What are our options? Well I’m just a noob surveying the landscape but let’s take a look:</p>
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<p><img src="/assets/images/euroshield.jpg" class="floated" /></p>
<p><strong>1. Euroshield</strong></p>
<p>1010 Music offers <a href="https://1010music.com/product/euroshield1">this 8hp Eurorack interface</a> for the Teensy Arduino chip. It has MIDI in/out, 2 inputs (CV or audio) and 2 outputs (CV or audio). 1010 Recommends using the Teensy 3.2 chip, but it’s compatible with up to 3.6 (which offers more memory and seems to be the best option). This product is a couple of years old now--there’s a <a href="https://forum.1010music.com/forum/diy-kits/euroshield">user forum</a> where some people are sharing code but it’s not very active.</p>
<p><strong>Total cost</strong>: $90 + $20-35 Teensy = $110-$125<br />
<strong>Pros</strong>: Cheapest option, can process audio, lots of repurposable Teensy audio code, small footprint, looks cool as hell in a rack<br />
<strong>Cons</strong>: Already falling behind Teensy development, no display, unprotected PCB, limited I/O, no active community</p>
<p><strong>2. DU-INO</strong></p>
<p>Detroit Underground funded <a href="https://detroitunderground.net/modular/du-ino/">this Arduino shield</a> via Kickstarter and it’s currently available (at a discount) from <a href="https://www.perfectcircuit.com/detroit-underground-du-ino.html">Perfect Circuit</a>. I’ve seen a few cheap ones popping up on Reverb as well. It comes with some Arduino sketches that look like pretty cool (and seem to have fun UIs that take advantage of that display). It’s worth noting that all of the sketches are just CV/Gate I/O, no actual audio processing. There <em>is</em> a <a href="https://github.com/logickworkshop/du-ino/blob/master/src/du-ino_dsp.cpp">DSP library file</a> with a filter implementation, so it seems like you <em>could</em> run audio in and process it, but some examples here would be really helpful.</p>
<p><strong>Total cost</strong>: $219 + $19 Arudino Uno R3 = $238<br />
<strong>Pros</strong>: Tons of CV/gate I/O, OLED screen for interfaces/debugging, nicely documented library<br />
<strong>Cons</strong>: Community seems nonexistent, audio processing abilities unclear</p>
<p><strong>3. Ornament & Crime</strong></p>
<p>While not explicitly targeting coders, the open source <a href="https://ornament-and-cri.me/">Ornament & Crime</a> module has firmware (and <a href="https://github.com/Chysn/O_C-HemisphereSuite">alternative firmware</a>) with lots of modules that look like a great start for hacking. Like Euroshield, o&c runs on a Teensy so there’s presumably a lot of code out there to leverage.</p>
<p><strong>Total cost</strong>: $180-$220 (lots of different incarnations, check <a href="https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=ornament%20crime">Reverb</a>)<br />
<strong>Pros</strong>: Good I/O, screen, lots of existing code to hack, plenty of useful modules for when you inevitably get bored of writing shitty DSP<br />
<strong>Cons</strong>: Not much of a development community</p>
<p><strong>4. Hacking Mutable Instruments modules</strong></p>
<p>MI’s open source modules have spawned an ecosystem of independent builders and alternative firmware that are thriving long after the official production of modules like Clouds and Braids have ended. Émilie Gillet’s contributions to the community can’t be overstated--if you look through some of the links above, you will see tons of code from MI modules reused and extended all over the place.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/music-thing-modular-notes/how-to-get-started-writing-your-own-firmware-for-mutable-instruments-clouds-a08173cec317">Tom Whitwell’s blog post from 2016</a> covers getting set up to write code for Clouds. The biggest challenge seems to be finding the right setup for connecting modules to your computer if you don’t want to constantly load firmware via squawky modem WAV file.</p>
<p><strong>Total cost</strong>: $200-$400 for module and USB connection stuff--but if you’re reading this far your probably have a module you could use<br />
<strong>Pros</strong>: Modules widely available in lots of flavors, lots of powerful DSP code to modify<br />
<strong>Cons</strong>: Getting set up a little more complicated than other options, no screens</p>
<p><strong>Also worth mentioning:</strong></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://tiptopaudio.com/zdsp-ns/">TipTop Z-DSP</a></strong>: Pricey DSP module that loads algos via proprietary cards. If you find <a href="http://midwestmodular.com/numberz-usb-programmer/">this thing</a> in stock you can burn your own algos to blank cards--but the whole package will set you back ~$700.<br />
<strong><a href="https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=217032">Xaoc Devices Timiszoara</a></strong>: Forthcoming (possibly vaporware!) open DSP module that uses the same chip as the Z-DSP (the Spin FV-1) but just regular SD cards that allow you to load anything you want. This was announced in early 2019 but there’s still no word on it. This looks like a dream for homebrew DSP.<br />
<strong><a href="http://www.orthogonaldevices.com/er-301">Orthogonal Devices ER-301</a></strong>: Looks insanely powerful but with a hefty pricetag and limited production so far. 🙈<br />
<strong><a href="https://www.notion.so/Winterbloom-Sol-391c47d773114502aa88a1185f07df2e">Winterbloom Sol</a></strong>: Forthcoming USB MIDI to CV module from Thea Flowers. The module’s code is written in CircuitPython (everything else here is c++) and designed for customization. Preorders look to be starting in a couple months, this is definitely an interesting one.<br />
<strong><a href="https://vcvrack.com/manual/PluginDevelopmentTutorial">VCV Rack</a></strong>: I haven’t played with VCV much but writing plugins seems like a great way to experiment for $0.<br />
<strong><a href="https://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/nts_1/">Korg NTS-1</a></strong>: Ok this is definitely not a Eurorack module but it <em>is</em> a small $100 synth with an effects engine. It uses the <a href="https://www.korg.com/us/products/dj/nts_1/sdk.php">logue SDK</a> so you can write/use custom oscillators and effects that can also be used on full-fledged hardware.</p>
<p><strong>What’s up with the community?</strong></p>
<p>It’s a little disappointing to see the lifecycles of these modules that are designed explicitly for hacking: they get some support, launch with some buzz, and then...not much else happens. I guess it makes sense--we think of the Eurorack community as growing wildly but it’s still pretty niche. And what portion of that community wants to write complicated code when they could be making fart sounds with their modular?</p>
<p><strong>So what am I doing?</strong></p>
<p>Well right now I found a nice deal on a Euroshield/Teensy, so I’ve got that in my rack as we speak (that’s my photo at the top!). I have a few ideas for software that I want to try to implement. If it’s not a total disaster I’ll share some code here.</p>So you want to write some shitty DSP code (or build a goofy sequencer or wonky LFO) and get it deployed into your Eurorack system? Me too! What are our options? Well I’m just a noob surveying the landscape but let’s take a look:Sample Pack: 2hp Snare2020-01-20T18:00:00+00:002020-01-20T18:00:00+00:00https://joeynelson.com/2hp-snare-sample-pack<p><strong>Get the <a href="https://wavparty.com/downloads/2hp-snare-sample-pack/">2hp Snare sample pack</a> for free at <a href="https://wavparty.com/">Wavparty</a>.</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.twohp.com/modules">2hp modules</a> are popular because they cram solid functionality into a tiny footprint at a good price. They do a great job of giving you CV/manual control of the most important elements of a given module, but at that size there’s just not a lot or room for many knobs or jacks. I’ve always thought of my <a href="https://www.twohp.com/modules/snare">2hp Snare</a> as a nice but basic module to generate a pretty narrow spectrum of x0xish snare sounds--until I started sampling it.</p>
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<p>It turns out you can do some wild stuff with it, including respectable bass drum sounds. I put together a sample pack of 86 2hp Snare sounds (some dry, many running through filters, a wave folder, and/or other effects) including:</p>
<p><strong>42</strong> snares<br />
<strong>21</strong> kick drums (16 of them tuned to C)<br />
<strong>9</strong> high hats<br />
<strong>8</strong> melodic sounds (tuned to C)<br />
<strong>4</strong> percussion sounds<br />
<strong>2</strong> claps</p>
<p>This demo track was put together in Ableton Live with a big drum rack and a few instances of Simpler (for the melodic parts). There is a bit of filtering and pitching of samples and some compression/EQ on the master bus, but everything else is dry. Every sound you hear is from the sample pack:</p>
<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/746537272&color=%23ff2979&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true"></iframe>
<p><br />Final thoughts:</p>
<ul>
<li>The short decay time is kind of limiting for kick drums. Not that I’m complaining, it’s crazy that a snare module can even do this.</li>
<li>Most of the kicks are beefed up by running them through a wave folder. They’re also a little noisy. Uh, just embrace the grunginess.</li>
<li>I’m very OK with the inherent tradeoffs of the 2hp modules, but MAN is it hard tuning sounds with that tiny pitch knob.</li>
<li>I’m planning on doing this for some other drum modules. I started with this module because it was supposed to be easy, just a few snares, right?</li>
<li>This blog is a static Jekyll site hosted on Netlify so I wanted to figure out a good way to outsource file downloads. I’m trying out Gumroad with a pay-what-you-want price that defaults to $0. We’ll see.</li>
<li><a href="http://sox.sourceforge.net/">sox</a> is the best</li>
</ul>Get the 2hp Snare sample pack for free at Wavparty. The 2hp modules are popular because they cram solid functionality into a tiny footprint at a good price. They do a great job of giving you CV/manual control of the most important elements of a given module, but at that size there’s just not a lot or room for many knobs or jacks. I’ve always thought of my 2hp Snare as a nice but basic module to generate a pretty narrow spectrum of x0xish snare sounds--until I started sampling it.Bulk Formatting Samples for the Erica Synths Sample Drum2020-01-16T15:39:38+00:002020-01-16T15:39:38+00:00https://joeynelson.com/erica-sample-drum-bulk-formatting<p>Since I mostly use my Eurorack system as a giant, impractical, and expensive drum machine, Erica Synths’ <a href="https://www.ericasynths.lv/shop/eurorack-modules/by-series/drum-series/sample-drum/">Sample Drum</a> has quickly become one of my favorite modules. I’m pretty skeptical of any menu-driven modules but navigating around is intuitive and having a nice screen makes everything super easy. The CV inputs, onboard effects, and performance mode give you a ton of flexibility. I’d want a rack full of them!</p>
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<p>(Side note: I wish Erica open sourced their firmware. This module seems like it would be an ideal platform for homebrew projects.)</p>
<p>If you’re impatient like me, you probably dropped a few gigs of samples onto the SD card, and then got mad when the Sample Drum failed to load some of them. Well, a quick check of the <a href="https://www.ericasynths.lv/media/Sample_Drum_Manual.pdf">manual</a> makes it clear that the module expects 48kHz 16bit mono wav files. Lower sample rates are ok, but I apparently have a lot of 24bit drum samples lying around. The module will also load one channel of a stereo file, but it will make you pick and who has time for that?</p>
<p>I dealt with a similar challenge with the Bastl grandPA and wrote a ruby script to use sox to convert files but that was like 2 computers ago! A quick search revealed <a href="https://www.threetom.com/news/batch-conversion-of-samples-for-erica-sample-drum/">this blog post</a> that actually solves the problem completely. But I wanted to tweak some of the logic in the script and I’m too dumb to start hacking bash scripts. Let’s hack ruby instead:</p>
<figure class="highlight"><pre><code class="language-ruby" data-lang="ruby"><span class="nb">require</span> <span class="s1">'shellwords'</span>
<span class="nb">require</span> <span class="s1">'fileutils'</span>
<span class="n">dir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">ARGV</span><span class="p">[</span><span class="mi">0</span><span class="p">]</span><span class="o">&</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">strip</span>
<span class="k">unless</span> <span class="n">dir</span>
<span class="nb">puts</span> <span class="s2">"tell me the directory dude!"</span>
<span class="nb">exit!</span>
<span class="k">end</span>
<span class="n">dir</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">gsub!</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="sr">/\/$/</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># remove trailing slash</span>
<span class="n">output_dir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">dir</span> <span class="o">+</span> <span class="s1">'-CONVERTED'</span>
<span class="n">files</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="sb">`find </span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">dir</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">shellescape</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="sb"> -name "*.wav"`</span>
<span class="n">files</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">each_line</span> <span class="k">do</span> <span class="o">|</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="o">|</span>
<span class="n">f</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">strip!</span>
<span class="k">next</span> <span class="k">if</span> <span class="n">f</span> <span class="o">=~</span> <span class="sr">/\._/</span>
<span class="n">new_file</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">f</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">gsub</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="sr">/^</span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">dir</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="sr">/</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">output_dir</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># switch to the output dir</span>
<span class="n">new_file</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">gsub!</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="sr">/\s+/</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="s1">''</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="c1"># remove whitespace</span>
<span class="n">new_dir</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="no">File</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">dirname</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">new_file</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="no">FileUtils</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">mkdir_p</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">new_dir</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="k">unless</span> <span class="no">File</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">directory?</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">new_dir</span><span class="p">)</span>
<span class="n">cmd</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="s2">"sox -G </span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">f</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">shellescape</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2"> -t wav --norm=-1 -b 16 -r 48k -c 1 </span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">new_file</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="nf">shellescape</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="s2">"</span>
<span class="nb">puts</span> <span class="n">cmd</span>
<span class="nb">puts</span> <span class="sb">`</span><span class="si">#{</span><span class="n">cmd</span><span class="si">}</span><span class="sb">`</span>
<span class="k">end</span></code></pre></figure>
<p>If you save this as <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">convert.rb</code> and run <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">ruby convert.rb my-drum-samples</code> it will normalize & convert all the samples in that directory and maintain the internal directory structure (these things are usually grouped by sub directories for <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">kicks</code>, <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">snares</code>, etc) and drop them in <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">my-drum-samples-CONVERTED</code>. It will also remove whitespace from directory names to make them easier to see on that little screen. You can rename that directory to something short, drop it on your SD card and you’re good to go.</p>Since I mostly use my Eurorack system as a giant, impractical, and expensive drum machine, Erica Synths’ Sample Drum has quickly become one of my favorite modules. I’m pretty skeptical of any menu-driven modules but navigating around is intuitive and having a nice screen makes everything super easy. The CV inputs, onboard effects, and performance mode give you a ton of flexibility. I’d want a rack full of them!