Tag: scales

Intellijel Scales & Steppy in 3U – NAMM 2019 News

 

Intellijel is presenting two rather small modules. But please do not underestimate them.

New module No1 is the 3u version of the already popular 4-track/64-step programmable gate sequencer Steppy. Until now only available in 1U. Meaning it is restricted to the ones with one of these Intellijel 4U/7U cases. Steppy itself can be seen as the continuation of the old uStep. But then again…it is much, much more than that!

Doubling the track count to four and allowing for up to 64 steps now is just the tip of the iceberg. Almost every wish you might have for a compact programmable gate sequencer is fulfilled here.

Per track you now have: Individual track length from 1-step to 64-step, gate length, clock divider, swing, delay, step-probability and shift/rotate. Performance features for muting and on the fly looping are furthermore nicely integrated into this highly useful module. Polyrhythm-offbeat-shuffle-madness…here we come!

 

Strike No2 is also based on an old acquaintance:

To much disappointment of our customers, the uScale quantizer has been discontinued as of 2018. But now…voila: Scales!

Where uScale admittedly had some hard-to-remember shift combinations, Scale has been …scaled to meet the demands of those in need of an easy and fast to use fully dual (if you want) quantizer.

Trigger on quantize – a feature that we love e.g. from the indestructible Doepfer A-156 can now also be found here. That way you can turn LFOs into arpeggios or your Pressure Points (or Doepfer A-155) finally into a full and chromatically tuned note sequencer.

The additional Shift CV-input enables you to conveniently transpose output A and/or B or change scales or the root note or even use it as a second quantizer input! Yeah!

Since Scales has its own (micro)keyboard it was logical for Intellijel to also add a sequencer mode. Output A is then your “normal” quantizer out, while B plus the Trig-out fire sequences on the fly or from one of the 35 patterns in storage!

With Metropolis, Shifty and now Steppy and Scales, Intellijel has a serious sequencing package to offer. Not to mention what would happen if you were to add a Planar 2 to all of this!

Break free! -> Micro tonality and “other” tunings

Musicians tend to not always comply with the norm and that’s a good thing, where else should innovation come from? Who else but the artists in our society should move borders? Nevertheless, most musicians still go through this one door that ties them to a norm they may not even notice.

“A440 or A4 (also known as the Stuttgart pitch), which has a frequency of 440 Hz, is the musical note of A above middle C and serves as a general tuning standard for musical pitch. The International Organization for Standardization classify it as ISO 16.” (Wikipedia)  …..sounds boring, right?

The world offers more than one door to walk through. When it comes to musical scales, there is almost as much diversity as there are languages. Different cultures developed their own aesthetic understanding of music, and the western tone scale is just one of many. So why limit it to one musical language?

This is why we have decided to show you some ways to break away from this standard. For this reason we organized a workshop about micro tonality and „other” tunings at SchneidersLaden. If you have not been able to participate in the workshop, this article may answer some of your questions about this topic. First of all, you could achieve micro tonality by using an analogue sequencer like the Doepfer A-155 with its continuous voltages per step. So with precise settings of the knobs for each step you could dial in almost any tuning, but it would take quite some time setting up each step separately and you would need a good and suitable tuner for this task. Another convenient way would be a quantizer. But almost all quantizers on the market are restricted to scales within the “Standard tuning for musical pitch”.

Haken Continuum

So what else can you do? Another option would be to use something like a Sequentix Cirklon. But even this remarkable sequencer was not made with micro tonality in mind. It can do it, but it is not easy to set up and not everyone is willing to pay the price to experiment with micro tonality. Then there is the Haken Continuum Fingerboard, a powerful instrument to play microtonal tunings in a very expressive way. There are some interesting videos of artists using the Continuum on the official Haken website. But the Haken has got an even bigger price tag than the Cirklon – and it is totally worth the price as it unique and constantly being developed further. If you want to keep everything within your modular synth there is the Orthogonal Devices ER-101 Sequencer, but it is only available directly from the manufacturer in the U S right now and their website states: “Now taking orders. Lead time for orders submitted now: 10 weeks”.

So what are your options for eurorack if you don’t want to wait for months?

There is the long known Mutable Instruments Yarns. As a MIDI to CV interface and 101-style sequencer it has a lot of fans. And there are some good reasons for this, eg. the deeper functions as clock divider, digital VCO, MIDI Clock, MIDI Start  –  and micro tunings! The Yarns can convert MIDI note signals into different “other” tunings and output them as CV’s ready to be sent to your favorite VCO. It is a very versatile module and worth a look if you consider turning MIDI note information into microtonal CV’s.

utune YarnsAnother option would be the new µTune by Tubbutech. As the name already suggests it is a module to handle exactly the task we are talking about. It first looks like a standard MIDI Interface but it is capable to convert not only MIDI to CV but also CV to MIDI and USB-MIDI to CV and so on. Another interesting thing is its quantizer functionality. So you can use any CV from your modular and let the µTune quantize it to any of the dozens of preinstalled scales, scales imported by SD-Card or scales you set up your own. The quantized microtonal note information can then be sent to your favourite MIDI-Synth, both hardware and software. Or you stay within your modular system and sent it to your favourite VCO’s.

Back to our first example: Setting up a good old Doepfer A-155. With a µTune you can now convert both CV sequences of the Doepfer into microtonal pitch information – always staying in tune. Of cause this is also possible with any other CV sequencer or CV source. A third option within the eurorack standard is the Ornaments&Crimes DIY project that is also capable to output quantized CV to microtanal scales.

If this has aroused your curiosity, come by and visit our showroom to discuss this topic, try out the different options and find your way off the beaten track.

This is by no means a complete overview of available modules nor a full review of the discussed modules. The what about… text are here to give you new ideas and maybe another perspective on things. All these modules offer more features than we have talked about in this post. For further information please click the provided links or – even better – visit the shop and ask the SchneidersLaden experts in the showroom.

ABOUT STROMKULT


STROMKULT is our platform for updates and news on SCHNEIDERSLADEN and SUPERBOOTH, selected electronic musical instruments and events related to modular synthesizers, sequencers, competent drum machines, analog modular systems, midi tools, controllers, converters and related products of all kinds. You can find all kinds of events related to these topic in our EVENT CALENDAR. Also on this site you will find lots of videos from SUPERBOOTH – the world’s largest trade fair for electronic musical instruments, news about events and workshops at SCHNEIDERSLADEN.

Herr Schneider started in 1999 with SCHNEIDERSBUERO as a sales and marketing platform for the smallest manufacturers and inventors of electronic musical instruments. Products were shown online, in our showrooms and at the original SUPERBOOTH – workshops and countless reviews have been featured in magazines all over Europe.

These very special instruments and tools are now often available from specialist dealers all over Europe and can be purchased directly from our webshop SCHNEIDERSLADEN worldwide.