4 levels of chord progressions

so today we will have a look at a few modules that can help you create and build chord progressions in vcv rack we will start from the simplest way and work our way up from there this video was chosen by my patrons by the way so feel free to join our little community there and on the discord channel and the first module we look at is the note sequencer from jw this one here and this is probably the easiest most quickest way you can create code progressions it's perfect for generative codes as well and it can create very interesting results so first of all let's set the number of voices we want so how many notes will be in the chords in this case i will go with four notes so in the right click menu we have polyphony channels i will select four so now we have a four channel polyphonic signal and i will use interzone from valley in this case which is also polyphonic so i will send the pitch information to interzone and the gate output although it says gate here it's actually a trigger so we send the gate output to the trigger input of intel zone and you can see that interzone is going to one channel of the mixer from bug audio this mixer has an option you can see it here it can spread the polyphonic input to the four channels so i have it spread to the four channels again we have four notes and i have them append a bit right so now if we go back to the sequencer we can choose a scale as you can see it here we have node octave and scale i will go with f minor right and now we can randomize the grid by clicking this button here right and with the dedicated node we can select the amount or the density if i take it all the way it will be just full right so let's go with something something like this maybe all right and now let's set this also to four steps right so we will have a four a step code progression we'll have four codes and we can trigger it and i will use a opelach and i will use a slower clock every clock divided by 16 so this will trigger let's just reset everything quickly all right so this will trigger the clock let's listen to this for a second all right three chords let's wait for another one right and we have a basic progression but of course it can get more interesting by triggering for example the rotate function here that will rotate the grid we have also flip and shift if you want to experiment i will use it divided by 32 clock to trigger the rotate here let's wait for it right so now we get even more codes now again this is the this is simple and intuitive perfect for experimentation amazing for generative patches great for people without a musical background who just want to get some codes in their patches without the need to actually go code by code and enter notes and such i have here another example right i have here another note sequencer in this case i have it running randomly so under the mode i chose random right this is sequencing an fm operator which is also polyphonic again i'm using the mixer here there is also some delay ready to sound like this right so we have even more chords before i show you another voice that i have here i just want to mention the big brother of the note sequencer which is this one here again from jw this one has many more um features as you can see here it has also a game of life feature which is quite fun it has individual outputs again polyphony and monophonic outputs as well so you can also experiment with it and create even more complex chord progressions and the last voice i have here is actually an arpeggio so i'm taking the chords and i'm arpeggiating them i'm playing one note at a time and again with the fm operator i'm using for this the arp from bug audio which is quite useful for this stuff and this will sound like this [Music] [Music] [Laughter] another module that is quite easy to use is progress from hampton harmonix now here we also don't have to enter notes but we do have to select the codes so you will need a bit more musical theory background for this but it's still very beginner friendly now another difference here is that on top of the poly output we have also individual pitch outputs for each node right so in this case i have four oscillators from wool they have two basal oscillators and two bleak oscillators i have some modulation with oct again i'm mixing them with a mixer and i have some filtering going on so let's connect i will connect one two again this is the pitch information three and four and let's unmute this right and already we get a code now we can change the root note and maybe i will zoom in a bit we can change the root note here up but down as well right i will leave it at c we can change also the type so major minor seventh and so on right i will go with mine of course we can change also the inversion [Music] right so let's set a three step sequence we have eight steps all in all let's select three and now i will use a clock to drive it every clock divided by eight so this will type the sequence so let's also reset everything [Music] and now let's change a step two to be for example f minor f minor and step three to be g let's say f minor seventh actually and the third step to be g i will go down to g and then again minor seventh and change it to be the first inversion [Music] right and now with the length control you can see here we have length and i can change the length of each step so we can have for example step three playing twice as long [Music] so again with this sequencer we have a bit more control over the chords that will play and we can create a more complex progression right now because we have the individual outputs which much it's much easier just to add a base to it so here for example i have psych performance true going through a filter and some delay so if i just use output 1 as my base notes right it will output more or less always the base note right now hampton harmonix have also a dedicated app module right this one here that works really well with this record sequencer so again i will use it and to arpeggiate the codes basically separating them into individual nodes but i have it here set to random so it will output the nodes in a random sequence so if i use the pitch information the polyphonic pitch information all of the four nodes to the voltage octave it will sound like this [Music] okay another level of complexity about that would be the code key from impromptu here we can enter up to four nodes per code by using the keyboard and we can sequence the codes with external pitch information or external voltage now there's an expander from impromptu called for view that might be useful for seeing the names of the nodes so if you just put it next to the code key as you can see it just has to be close to it we can see the names of the nodes right now also here we have individual outputs but there's an option to merge them into a polyphonic signal so in the right click menu we have here poly merge outputs into top note and we can select all of them right so now the upper output will be a four channel polyphonic output so in this case i have here energy from the geodesics which is again also polyphonic it's going through a mixer and a delay for now the delay is all the way down so if i send a pitch information to the volt per octave input and i will unmute it we have a code right now before we use also the gate output let's program a few chords so i will zoom in a bit let's go the first note the first row let's go with an f right and again we can see the names here then the second one will be a g then we will go with the b flat and which will be this one here here we can also change in four view we can change this to sharp or flat i will change this to flat because we have a b flat and not an a sharp and then the fourth one will be a df just have to bring the octaves up and then the fourth note will be a d this will be the first chord right now in the right click menu we can copy this code copy code i go with the index to the second slot and i can paste it right now instead of a d let's go with the c and instead of a g let's go with an e flat right so those will be the two chords we have one and two right and now for sequence sequencing this we can use something like the a ddr sequencer from bug audio which is perfect for stuff like this right let's drive it with a divided clock every clock divided by 4 and also let's reset everything already very nice now we will have only four steps right and this will go to the cv input to the index cv input you can see that it says 0 to 2 volts this is the range of modulation we need so now let's leave step 1 with the first chord but we will change steps 2 3 and 4 to be the second chord all right i'm just moving them a bit so we have one two two and two right now let's use the gate as well right this will go to the multiply input of energy which is a sort of a built in vca and for sequencing this i have here the gate sequencer from impromptu set with four different sequences and i'm merging them into a polyphonic signal again we are working with polyphony here so this will go to the gate input of the code key [Music] right and we get the chord progression but with rhythmic variation right now i can add some delay to this again the wet was all the way down until now but i can introduce some delay right so again this one the code key gives you a bit more control so you can pick the individual notes of each code but again it means also that you will have to know a bit more what you are doing and let's add some drums to this eve here another gate sequencer from impromptu sequencing a few drums from vcv i'm sending a copy of the drums a mixed copy of the drums to two different comparators for crushing the sound and the phaser will sound like this and now because we are using a polyphonic signal out of the chord key there's a module we can use to extract the bass note in a musical way this one is called bass from sievely this one here in this case i have it set to lowest so it will output the lowest note of the codes right and as the base i have the percussive vibration from live for modular right so i will just use the polyphonic signal to the input of this base module and it's a realism i want to show you another way of creating codes and progressions and that's in a more modular way by using a shift register basically a shift register will work similarly to how assembly and hold works but the shift register will also shift the sampled signal through its outputs so when sampling pitch information we can get a few intervals at once creating a code and by the way if you want to know more about shift registers sample and hold and other basic concepts of synthesis in the modular environment there's a link in the description to a series of videos i created where i go through the different building blocks of modular so in this case i'm using a simple sequencer to generate pitch information and i'm sending the pitch to the shift register right and then to four different oscillators i have two fm operators and two basal oscillators from volt with some modulation with oct mixing them also with some modulation on the level right so with each clock we get a different result [Music] right we get chords from a simple sequencer with one output now i want to mention quickly a few more options you might want to check out there is the commercial module from vcv um codes again also here you can program codes and sequence them in all sorts of ways let me unmute this i have here just the vco1 going through the vcf [Music] right you can advance them with the trigger you can use cv to sequence the different codes you can have individual outputs or again a polyphonic output [Music] right and of course there is also foundry from impromptu now this is more of a complex deep amazing sequencer and but you can really easily use it also for codes you have here the keyboard that you can use to program the different tracks you have four tracks so you can program chords without four notes right here i'm sequencing the fm operator right and i'm sure there are other modules available but this will definitely get you started and i hope that this video was helpful and thank you for watching and cheers

Channel: Omri Cohen

Views: 31,375

Keywords: vcv rack, chord progressions, eurorack, vcv rack chords, eurorack chords

Id: jYe8rrIQloE

Length: 19min 21sec (1161 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021