Improvisation XXIII – L’Origine du Monde

Here’s a new work:

No overdubs, everything is done on a Doepfer A-100, recorded with Ableton Live and mastered with Steinberg Cubase. And we have some video material with blinkenligths…

Track length is 21:55.

We have six voices here, in pairs of two:

1 + 2) At the beginning, you hear a simple melody (taken from my „work in progress for years“ second symphony), unisono on two solo voices, slightly panned left and right. First one is an A-111 VCO (saw out) sent through a modulated A-137-1 Wave Multiplier I and then into an A-106-5 SEM VCF (LP/HP out) and an A-132-3 VCA. The second one is another A-111 VCO (also saw out) sent into a modulated A-137-2 Wave Multiplier II and an A-124 Wasp VCF and an A-132-3 VCA.

3 + 4) These are sequencer / bass lines we hear somewhat later. First one (panned slightly to the left) is made of thee A-110 VCOs (triangle and saw out) mixed and sent into an A-121 VCF (HP out used) and then into an A-132-3 VCA. VCA output is then processed by an A-188-2 Tapped BBD, two A-108 VCFs (one for each BBD mix out) and an A-101-3 Vactrol Phaser. The other sequencer line (panned slightly to the right) is also built from three A-110 VCOs (triangle and pulse outputs used), mixed (with some white noise) and sent into an A-101-1 Vactrol VCF and an A-131 VCA. After this, we go into an A-199 Spring reverb (with an A-188-1 BBD inserted into its feedback path) and an A-126 VC Frequency Shifter, controlled by an A-143-9 Quadrature LFO.

5 + 6) The last two are kind of percussion voices: Some A-117 Digital Noise is put into an A-101-2 Lowpass Gate and then into an A-132-3 VCA. The other one uses some colored noise from an A-118 sent into an A-106-6 Xpander VCF. Four of its outputs (4B, 2H1L, 4L and 2L) are then sent separately into an A-151 Sequential Switch. The 2H1L is sent into an A-189-1 VC Bit Modifier, the 2L into an A-115 Audio Divider before switching.

That’s it, basically. There are 6 A-140 ADSRs in use, some controlling via joystick and ribbon controller, as well as usage of master clock and midi recording of the main melody from Ableton Live (via Kenton interface). Rhythmical complexity is derived from two A-155/154 Sequencers (only using prime tone and octave), as well as some trigger twisting via A-160/A-161/A-186-1/A-162/A-165 and an A-113: the 113 being mis-used here as a programmable and automatically switchable clock divider for triggering the sequencers. Switching between stored divisions of the master clock is done as wel manually as automated via the two sequencers.

Have fun,

Andreas