Patch Mutator and Variation

  • I would love to have 2 features that I use constantly with my nord modular G2...


    1. patch mutator: be able to take 2 patches as "parents" and interpolate them to make "children" patches that are a cross between the 2 parents. ideally, you could sweep between the two patches with a MIDI CC


    2. variation storage... have each patch be able to hold a number of variations, that can be called immediately. I tried using program changes to get this effect, but it wasn't fast enough (16th note program changes didn't always change fast enough)


    for instance, you could have a bass patch, and there could be 8 (or more!?) variations to that patch. perhaps variation 1 is staccato, variation 2 has a slow attack, variation 3 has a bit more distortion etc. you could assign velocity to the variation, and each note you sequence, depending on it's velocity, would play a different variation.

  • I usually use the soft knobs for these kind of things. Many times I have created a patch that for example turns from a kick to a snare on the extreme edges of the knob and in the middle it morphs slowly between them. I sometimes also use the mod wheel for these kind of things. The thing is that you have to program those things yourself into the synth using the modulation matrix (and for that you need to know what you are doing). The nice thing about modular synths is that the number of connections you can make is virtually unlimited. On the Virus it's 6 sources, to 3 destinations each. Sometimes I feel I could do with a bit more...
    Anyway, look through the Virus' onboard patches, many of them respond to the soft knobs just like I explained. And the soft knobs respond to automation, so you can do 1/16 note variations with them.

  • Yes, there are certainly work arounds to achieve similar results, but work arounds often turn out to be cumbersome and time consuming. Having this as a built in feature would just make it fast and simple!

  • Having read the above notes, I'd like to add, perhaps, the overall mutation/ randomize patch kinda ability would be useful, similar to what Absynth of Native Instruments (Software synth) have. Its a simpler great way of either making new patches from existing patches, or having some sort of variation of your own patch. That makes for a great creative way to vary things. In Absynth 5, for example, i have taken a patch, and mutated it several times over, one mutation on top of the other, and things quickly change. And i would say this can be a very powerful feature for an already powerful hardware! :)