26.10.13

Advanced Modular Research #4 ~ Harmony is actually a really fast rhythm



In music, harmony is a special case of rhythm: it can also be represented as rhythm. You can hear a chord's rhythm if you slow it down. It's like the difference between CV and audio-rate modulation.

Here's the patch. The yellow signals are control voltages, the green signals are audio. For better sound and musical inspiration check out this mp3 featuring the rhythm/chord-patch and some drums.

The rhythms you'll hear when you turn down the VCO (harmonic clock) are of the complex polyrhythmic kind. At higher speeds you'll hear a three note harmony most of the time but only if the A-151 V2 is switched to position '3'. This produces a perfect fifth (3/2). The shifts in pattern~harmony are caused by the A-163 Frequency Divider which resets the A-151 at a slowly varying rate. The A-163 also produces octaves, so sometimes you'll only hear the (faint) perfect fifth interval and a lower or higher octave; not a real chord.

The patch map shows an A-110 VCO but in the video you'll see a Plan B Model 15 oscillator. That's because the Model 15 is better at demonstrating the rhythm~harmony effect. The ADDAC Intuitive Quantizer in the video is replaced by the A-156 Quantizer in the map. The A-150 VC switch can optionally create pattern variations for the Quantizer by adding an inverted signal (sloppy audio-rate reversing sync...). Adjust the tempo with the left LFO, and the melodic range and feel of the Quantizer input with the right LFO and the A-129/3.