Short demo/explainer by Sam showing how he patches an SQ-1 sequencer into Intellijel Scales and a 2hp Pluck module inside a Eurorack setup. He routes CV from the SQ-1 through Scales to quantize notes to a chosen scale, uses Varigate to modulate Pluck's decay, runs audio through a Moog Sub 25 filter and Strymon Big Sky reverb, and improvises with random vs. predictable sequencing settings. Dialogue includes a second speaker offering brief suggestions.
Chapters
Hey, I saw somebody in the comments on my last video mention that they wanted to use an SQ1, maybe with their Eurorack. So that got me a little excited. So I decided to try it out myself. And what I'm running here is I'm running this beautiful module called pluck. It's by 2hp, it's pretty affordable and it makes this gorgeous pluck sound. And then I decided to throw it through my Eurorack, but also through my SQ1. So what I'm doing is generating a little sequence over here by basically just turning the knobs on the sequencer and I'm sending the note information, the cv, into scales. That way I can make sure whatever I do over here on my. On my sequencer, it ends up on a scale. So it's going to be musically cohesive, right? And then I play around with my scale. Like, for example, this is my roots, like minor scale. So I've got an A, flat 2, B, C, D, E, F, G, right? So I've got my root, my flat 2, my 4, my 5, my 7. And I kind of play around with scales and what that lets me do is just mix up the kind of melodic melodies that are coming out, right? Less notes or more. Here's a six. Now two, mix it up and then I can play with my notes over here. It's already randomly playing these, which. That's just how I plugged it in. It came out that way, but I'm just sort of jamming these knobs so I can make it come out more high, you know, or low, depending on how I turn these knobs, right? And then as they get hit at random, my melody will come out lower. So the rest of the patch is I've got the MIDI coming in over here, so it's on a clock. That makes it easier to make a song out of it in Ableton, right? And then I'm sending the notes, as I mentioned, from the spin cable into scales. So that's going to force it onto my scale over here. It also. We also need the clock to get into the urx. I'm using Gate out and I'm using Varygate because I want to do a couple of things. What I'm doing, the first thing I'm doing is I'm telling Pluck, hey, you know, here's your gate, here's your clock. So now it's getting the note. My pluck is getting note information from scales and then the clock information too. And it can send out the music, right? But then I'm doing one more thing, which is I wanted to jam this button over here, Which is the. I believe that's the dampen. Oh, no, I'm sorry. That's the decay. And so what I did is I. I decided to modulate that over here on track one of my varigate. So what we're doing here is. So now I get to jam over here, my notes, the scale over here, right? Remove notes that don't match the scale or force everything onto the scale over here and then play with the decay over here, modulate it right as it goes through the sequence. So now I have the ability to do all of this beautiful managing of the melodic information I'm bringing out over here on my Eurorack. And then from there where it's going is I'm actually using this sub 25, the Moog sub 25, just using it as a filter. A little bit of, right, like, resonance. And then the last thing I have in here, in this patch is I have Big sky adding reverb. So beautiful. So it's pretty simple, right? But beautiful and gorgeous sounding and combining Eurorack with a synth on my desk and a reverb that I have. And then this organic jamming over here. With playing my. My scales over here, right? Adding or removing notes in the scale. It will bring in a three.
Get rid of the flat two for now, Sam.
The flat two and the four and a five and the six play together really well in this. It's a really beautiful, beautiful little scale we have here. I'm turning the knobs all counterclockwise on my SQ1, so I'm gonna end up with a lot more lower notes, right? See now, like, I'm stuck over there mostly on the roots, right? You see that? The red buttons lighting up. See, there's nothing but rebuilds left now. Or just about adding more high notes back in. It will stop playing a random sequence.
And give it more predictability over here, Sam.
Feel like I lost some magic when we went away from random. So let's get back to random.
