I bought the 301 for panning, switching, and sample playback… since then, I have found space to do this with other modules [not sure why I did that]. But it is SO useful – it can do a lot anyway. What do I do with it instead? I was thinking of using it at a kind of ‘digital noise oscillator’, trying to emulate some of the cyclebox’s behaviour – with whatever looseness – for starters [with cv control of mode switching yay]. What do you think – inspire?
It’s pretty fun for polyphonic patches. I use it a lot as a very configurable mixer/effects unit. One thing I really like about it is that you can recreate existing modules.
The 301 can do a lot of things but what it’s best at is sample recording, playback, and manipulation. I think it’s easy to forget that once you’ve gotten patching down and realize you can build whatever you want.
For me I try to keep oscillators and sound sources in my rack since the dedicated modules are always going to sound better and be more immediate to use. Recently I’ve been using the 301 to record and save any sketches I’m working on so I can listen to them again later once everything’s unplugged. Potentially I can chop them up and use them again later.
Some ideas for inspiration:
- use the 301 to record things
- record some cv and use the recording to modulate a parameter
- record some noise and pipe it into a S&H plus scale quantizer
- record some samples, pitch them way down and use it as cv
- record some samples and play them back at different rates at the same time
Sometimes a simple idea can lead you to a new sound you never even expected.
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I used it for pretty much everything. It generates base waveforms, and wavetable oscillators, which then go through external (analog) filtering. It then takes those intermediate filtered waveforms at the inputs, mixes them with drum one-shot samples, does the final mix-down and output from the system. In the interim it also provides delay-style effects as well as some granular processing to taste.
An amazing amount of musical content can be generated with just a 301 and a sequencer. I actually moved it out of the main case and into a microsystem with a teletype so that I can wiggle it mostly on it’s own. As of now, I haven’t turned the main case on in a couple months and the microsystem gets used several times a week.
My next personal goal is to use recording function more and integrate into my workflow.
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Try some audio rate modulations on generated waveforms or samples. FM, AM, ring mod, phase modulation. It’s really good at this!
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thanks for your replies… i would like to build up, rather than down. so starting out with a simple idea / concept of how to achieve a basic version of what i will end up with, then organically getting something more tweakible from that. so e.g. the core idea of ‘cyclebox’ or complex AM [which may be what i want to start with]
that’s a fair approach, one i don’t try enough really – you could think of it as an analogy to something more grittier and mic based [field recordings, contact microphones etc.]
i have a ring mod [pedal, it’s nice] and FM is achievable elsewhere. AM sounds good fun, but i wanted to ask – if i may go on – by ‘phase’ modulation do you just mean customizable phasers?
He means modulating the phase of the oscillator. Since the osc units have a phase control you can audio rate modulate that.
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