Morphagene

Written by Sam Wolk, April 2019

Feel free to edit add to or share this guide! You can download it as a markdown file here. If you make changes or additions that you think should be integrated into this document, please make file a pull request on GitHub!

Sam

Table of Contents

  1. Concepts and Controls
  2. Key Combos
  3. Overdubbing & Delay
  4. Simple Drum Machine/Sampler
  5. Resampling
  6. Precision Splicing
  7. Chronological Scanning
  8. Granular Synthesis
  9. Granular Percussion Synthesis
  10. Resources
  11. Videos

Concepts and Controls

 

Hierarchy: Reel > Splice > Gene

  • Reel : An approx. 2.5 min RAM buffer, or space to store/record audio. Can be thought of as the active bank of audio. 32 available reels.
  • Splice : a subsection of a Reel which you are working within. Up to 300 splices per reel w/ latest firmware.
  • Gene : A microsound, or "grain" - a chunk of audio that gets played back from the active Splice.
  • Slide : determines the start point for a Gene, i.e. where the gene starts its playback from within a splice. "Grain start" or "grain location" in typical granular synthesis nomenclature.
  • Gene Size : determines the size of a Gene (how much audio gets played back). "Grain size" in typical granular synthesis nomenclature.
    • Morph : Determines spacing between Gene creation/playbackback, from one after another with gaps between Genes to overlapping Genes. Similar to "grain density" in typical granular synthesis nomencalture. Also controls panning and speed/pitch of Genes once it is fully CW.
    • Varispeed : Controls playback speed (and thus pitch) of Genes (grain speed in typical terms). Speed indicated by color. 12 o'clock is 0 speed (Genes do not play)
    • Organize : Selects which Splice is active.
  • Shift: a gate will automatically advance to the next splice at the end of the current gene.
    • Splice : A gate will add a new splice point wherever the playback head is, dividing the current splice into two splices.
    • Record : toggles recording state (if Clock is not high, will wait until it goes high - rec light strobes to indicate recording armed, solid to indicate recording)
    • Play : While the gate is high, new Gene generated according to the Morph. When low, no new genes are created. Rising edge (low-to-high transition) resets gene playback. Normalled high, so by default, Gene generation is active.
    • Sound-on-Sound (SOS) - controls the balance of live input vs. Morphagene playback signal - useful for overdubbing, delay feedback, resampling, and more!
    • Clock - The clock enables three different functionalities.
  • Gene Shift vs Time-Stretch
    • When Morph is below approx. 10 o'clock, Gene Shift will be active, advancing the playhead to the next Gene at each clock pulse.
    • When Morph is above approx 10 o'clock, Time-Stretch will be active, warping each genes based off the rate of the incoming clock rate without affecting pitch.
  • Record Quantize - while a clock is patched, pressing Record will not immediately activate recording, instead only arming it. The next clock that arrives at Clock will activate recording, allowing for a recording to be synchronized to a "start" signal from elsewhere in your synthesizer.
    • CV Out : Envelope follower of amplitude
    • EOSG : End of Splice/Gene Gate - pulses whenever a Splice or Gene ends.

Key Combos

  • Splice : create splice
  • Shift+Splice : delete splice marker (join adjacent slices)
  • Shift+Splice (3sec) : delete all splice markers
  • Record : begin/stop recording
  • Shift+Record : delete audio for current splice
  • Shift+Record (3sec) : delete audio for all splices (clear reel)
  • Record+Splice : create a new splice and begin recording
  • Record+Shift : auto-adjust input level (good for switching between line/modular)
  • Splice+Record : enter/Exit REEL mode
  • Shift+Record**(in REEL mode)** : delete REEL
  • Shift (after inserting new SD card) : mount SD card (load settings and reels)

Overdubbing and Delay

After you have recorded a slice, you can layer additional sounds into it. When starting out, set Gene Size, Morph, and Slide fully CCW. While the splice is playing back, just hit Record! This will begin overdubbing the buffer. The Sound-on-Sound control will determine the balance between your new incoming live signal and what is already in the splice, this then acts as a form of feedback control, and turns Morphagene into a delay/decaying looper, where loop/delay length is set by the size of the splice. Each pass through the splice, the sound already recorded into it will be further attenuated according to the SOS knob - fully CW, the splice will be fed back at unity gain and will be frozen, however the live input will not be heard. To hear the live input while the loop is still frozen, simply deactivate recording and adjust SOS accordingly.

Simple "Drum Machine/Sampler"

  1. Load a Reel where each Splice is a different hit.
  2. Keep Gene Size and Slide fully CCW (at least when starting out)
  3. Send triggers to Play to trigger hits.
  4. Organize CV selects which hit to play. Using a sequencer allows programming specific drum hits, while using CV sources like LFOs or random sources allows for more stochastic hit selection.
  5. Sending the same trigger to Play and Shift will play back the splices sequentially.

Resampling

  1. Find a splice (or splices) you would like to work on.
  2. Press Record + Splice to begin recording to a new splice.
  3. You will continue playing back within the current splice, but all the modulations that you are hearing of the current splice will be recorded into the new Splice.

Precision Splicing

Suppose you record a bunch of different sounds like drum hits, vocal samples, melodies, or drones onto a reel. Now you would like to divide the reel up so that each distinct sound is its own Splice, allowing you to play them back one at a time, navigate to different sounds using Organize, or play them back sequentially using Shift. To do so, you will want to perfectly place a splice marker at the start of each sound.

  1. Set Gene Size CW while looping (Play is unpatched). This will loop an incredibly short chunk of audio.
  2. Then use Slide to find the start of a sound.
  3. Then dial Slide back to just before the start of the sound.
  4. Press Splice to add a Splice marker precisely at the start of the sound.

Now you can use Organize to select which sound to hear, and triggers into Play will oneshot the sound.

Chronological Scanning

Chronological scanning allows you to slowly scrub through an audio file without timestretching or pitch shifting it, creating a cloud of grains which can form a beautiful drone that plays a soundfile back in slow motion.

NB: Consider changing GNSM (Gene smoothing) parameter on SD card to 1.

NB: Consider changing VSOP (Vari-speed option) to 1 or 2 for V/oct control when scrubbing through tonal material to allow for tonal transpositions while scrubbing.

Technique 1: Slide Scrubbing
  1. Select a Splice you would like to scrub through using Organize.
  2. Patch a trigger or gate source which is low to Play.
  3. Set Slide to fully CCW (minimum - invert to CW for reverse scrubbing).
  4. Set the Slide attenuverter to fully CW (maximize - invert to CCW for reverse scrubbing).
  5. Set Gene Size to a short time (CW), 20-200ms.
  6. Set Morph to 2-4 overlapping Genes (10 o'clock - 2 o'clock).
  7. Patch an LFO or envelope which slowly ramps from 0V to +8V into Slide.
  8. Send the same trigger or gate from step (2) into the trigger/gate reset/fire input of the LFO/envelope.
  9. When you are ready to play your sound back, fire your trigger/gate.

NB: Adding modulation to Varispeed, Gene Size, and Morph can help make the chronological scan feel more organic and evolving. Mixing a random voltage that fluctuates between 0V and +1V in with the ramp before it gets to Slide can also add some organic variation to how the scrub advances.

Technique 2: Gene-shifting
  1. Select a Splice you would like to scrub through using Organize.
  2. Patch a clock (repetitive trigger/gate source) into Clk (you can also use the EOSG gate).
  3. Set Morph to below 9pm (with Clk patched, this activates gene-shifting)
  4. Every time a new clock arrives, the playhead will jump immediately to the next gene.
Technique 3: Splice-shifting
  1. Divide your sound up into many Splices (e.g. hundreds - one way to do this quickly is to patch the EOSG gate to the Splice trigger input with relatively short Gene-Size and scrubbing through the audio with Slide to automatically add splice markers via the EOSG gate).
  2. Patch a clock (repetitive trigger/gate source) into Shift.
  3. Every time a new clock arrives, you will advance playback to the new next short Splice.
  4. Try patching a random voltage source into Slide to randomly select Genes from within the splice.

Granular Synthesis

NB: Consider changing GNSM (gene smoothing) parameter on SD card to 1.

NB: Consider changing VSOP (Vari-speed option) to 1 or 2 for V/oct control when scrubbing through tonal material to allow for tonal transpositions while scrubbing.

NB: Consider modulation Vari-speed in both cases for an additional layer of complexity in grain generation.

NB: Consider activating recording and using SOS to control granular feedback level.

Technique 1: Single Splice Granulation - (Attenuated Random + Offset) > Slide
  1. Find a Splice you would like to granulate using Organize.
  2. Patch an offset into a mixer. Set the channel to full amplitude. This offset will control the location within your splice which a granular cloud will be generated from.
  3. Patch a random (or semi-random) voltage source into the same mixer. The amplitude of this channel will control how far grain generation can deviate from the original location. An audio-rate signal - even morphagene's own output - will do when you don't have a random source.
  4. Patch the output of the mixer into Slide - set the knob fully CCW and the attenuverter fully CW.
  5. Set Gene Size to a short time, 20ms-200ms.
  6. Set Morph to 2-4 overlapping Genes - 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock (push farther CW for more extreme effects).
  7. Patch a gate source into Play to turn your granular synthesizer on and off; alternatively, set SOS to minimum and use an envelope to open.
Technique 2: Reel Granulation - Random > Slide / Location = Organize
  1. Divide your sound up into many Splices (e.g. 50 to 100 - one way to do this quickly is to patch the EOSG gate to the Splice trigger input with relatively short Gene-Size and scrubbing through the audio with Slide to automatically add splice markers via the EOSG gate).
  2. Use Organize to select location within Reel for granulation.
  3. Patch a random voltage to Slide to randomly generate grains from within a small Splice.
  4. Set Gene Size to 20ms-200ms.
  5. Set Morph to 2-4 overlapping Genes - 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock (push farther CW for more extreme effects).
  6. Patch a gate source into Play to turn your granular synthesizer on and off.

Granular Percussion Synthesis

  1. Choose a Splice of any recorded audio to turn granulate into a percussive hit.
  2. Patch an exponential envelope into Morph to create lots of simultaneous grains (with added pitch/panning randomization) at the start of the percussive hit, which die out to fewer grains at the end of the hit.
  3. Patch the same exponential envelope into Varispeed to create a pitch spike at the start of the percussive hit.
  4. Patch noise (or even just an audiorate source) into a VCA opened by the percussive envelope and patch the output to Slide to control where grains are pulled from. At the start of the hit, the grains will come form many different locations, resulting in a more complex timbre. Mix an offset with the envelope before patching to Slide (or just adjust the Slide knob) to contorl where the "default" location of your sound is. This will affect the timbre of each hit.
  5. Patch the envelope to Gene Size to create short grains at the start and longer grains at the end of the hit.
  6. Keep SOS to its minimum, and send the exponential envelope to SOS to strike the percussive element!

Resources

Videos