Ring (and/or Balanced) Modulation for the modulator masses

[Dandolin]

Geza X= always--any excuse to post=your good deed for the day

[lordgalvar]

Geza X= always--any excuse to post=your good deed for the day

Stood next to Geza at that show I posted above after the deadbeats played. Just smiled and said "Thanks for coming out." haha. Weirdos, Avengers, and John Cooper Clarke all did shows there too. Geza and John Cooper Clarke were the highlights for sure.

[duffmcshark]

any tips on using ring mod in a hardcore/punk setting?

I like running one pre-dirt and dialing it in just enough to make everything sound more interesting. It makes power chords sound like there's a lot more going on and really brings out some musical dissonance.

[BoatRich]

Thanks for all the advice. Dissonance is definitely what I'm going for. Especially on single note runs since I'm the only melody instrument in my project. Pitch shifters are all to perfect/pretty for what I'm trying to achieve and ring mod octave up is gnarly.

[lordgalvar]

The Carlin is a gem for the octave up stuff. Or RMA tetanus booster into passive. Should've built the Carlin a long time ago.

[BoatRich]

I definitely should pick up a Tetanus Booster.... https://ramathorne.bandcamp.com/releases . This is what I'm working with if anyone is curious. We're working on adding synth and such right now and I've been using a lot of RM there but I haven't been able to make it useful for bass/vi yet. I'm thinking a green ringer is what I want though. I messed with the Tentacle at work today and it was definitely getting that octave fuzz intermodulation sound pushing my HM-2 and kept my "clean" tone weird. The demo's you've posted of the Carlin are sick! Honestly all of the stuff you do with RM is awesome and inspirational as shit. I've mainly used it for drone and synth texture before so it's cool to see it used in such a chaotic manner as opposed to trying to get pretty bell tones or faux octave up.

[chrisdermo]

You know how the ring mod on the Pigtronix Mothership is 'intelligent' in that you set your tone and it tracks your input notes and alters the mod frequency accordingly? Do any ring mod pedals do that with the modulation on your input sound, rather than having to effect a synth sound?

[lordgalvar]

I definitely should pick up a Tetanus Booster.... https://ramathorne.bandcamp.com/releases . This is what I'm working with if anyone is curious. We're working on adding synth and such right now and I've been using a lot of RM there but I haven't been able to make it useful for bass/vi yet. I'm thinking a green ringer is what I want though. I messed with the Tentacle at work today and it was definitely getting that octave fuzz intermodulation sound pushing my HM-2 and kept my "clean" tone weird. The demo's you've posted of the Carlin are sick! Honestly all of the stuff you do with RM is awesome and inspirational as shit. I've mainly used it for drone and synth texture before so it's cool to see it used in such a chaotic manner as opposed to trying to get pretty bell tones or faux octave up.

Good stuff on the band camp! Going to go on my work iPod.

Chankgeez can speak to the tentacle vs. green ringer og. He's the dude on that haha.

Thanks for the kind words! I wish I had good recordings of LG live. The chaos might just be function though...lack of talent/ability.

You know how the ring mod on the Pigtronix Mothership is 'intelligent' in that you set your tone and it tracks your input notes and alters the mod frequency accordingly? Do any ring mod pedals do that with the modulation on your input sound, rather than having to effect a synth sound?

Parallel paths with a divider or pitch shifter? Maybe the subdecay? Ring thing too.

Are you saying that the carrier is a synth sound or the mother ship synth sound can't be bypassed (never used one or really watched a demo haha)?

I used one of those micro samplers (revolver) into a passive to sample my guitar signal and ring mod it against micro loops. Works well. Tried using dividers and PLLs with less success (though I could probably work through latency and other hangups now).

If it is the sound/waveform of the carrier you are talking about, I think simplier just works better in some cases.

But the subdecay is probably easiest.

[Chankgeez]

Chankgeez can speak to the tentacle vs. green ringer og. He's the dude on that haha.

I didn't like the Tentacle quite as much as some other Green Ringer clones I've played, but it's splitting hairs. They're all pretty close and all of 'em sound great. It's a simple circuit. So, there's not really that much variation (unless you've got some of those mods thrown in there).

[chrisdermo]

Parallel paths with a divider or pitch shifter? Maybe the subdecay? Ring thing too.

Are you saying that the carrier is a synth sound or the mother ship synth sound can't be bypassed (never used one or really watched a demo haha)?

I used one of those micro samplers (revolver) into a passive to sample my guitar signal and ring mod it against micro loops. Works well. Tried using dividers and PLLs with less success (though I could probably work through latency and other hangups now).

If it is the sound/waveform of the carrier you are talking about, I think simplier just works better in some cases.

But the subdecay is probably easiest.

The Ring mod on the mothership can't be used with the synth sound bypassed..... oh shit I'd unconsciously completely ignored everything to do with that subdecay vitruvian ring mod assuming it was 'just another ring mod' (please don't hurt me ), but that is basically exactly what I was talking about. AWESOME. now to hunt some demos down.

Also splitting my signal into 2 paths, one going into a pitch shifter and combining into a passive ring mod is an absolutely genius idea! This just skyrocketed to the top of my to do list.

[Dandolin]

One for the modular list:

CHD ELEKTROSERVIS 7-701 Spectral Ring Mod

http://www.chd-el.cz/index.php?id=504&lngid=en

Snipped for maximum relevance:


"The Spectral Ring Modulator is based on a pure analogue signal multiplier. Both ring modulator inputs are equipped with a signal limiter. The module contains a special circuit to create additional harmonic frequencies.

Processes both AC and DC input signals.
Spectrum control for feedback modulation.
Mixed output with "Wet/Dry" audio signal balance control.
Carrier and Modulator input level control.
Limiters on both Carrier and Modulator inputs.
Pure analogue circuitry (no DSP technology is used)."

Hmmm

$125

Sounds quite interesting (demos on website)

Piccy:

NSFW: show

Circuit diagram:

NSFW: show

Also--Delptronics ring mod module is passive with carrier in for $90 new--my attention has been flagged.

[lordgalvar]

That CHD is either a tab101 (or the equivalent nos Hungarian copy...which are the ones I picked up) or an AD633 probably. As far as I can tell, the limiters are low pass filters that cut frequencies above 20khz (at least that is the way the manual says it). Guessing spectrum is some kind of filter bandwidth?

Neat. Good find man! Looks like they are really trying to zero in on a good dedicated dual vco detuned waveshaping kinda setup with it.

[Dandolin]

^^Hmmm--they say something like: "side frequency signal input level control" to describe the Spectrum control, and then give some charts showing a tonne more harmonics with the control dimed. I'll have to mull for a while to suss what they're on about, but one of the samples sounded like somebody sweeping that control and I liked it.

Kinda like fine tuning a shortwave?

[crochambeau]

Might be modulation percent, ratio of carrier amplitude in relation to your input signal. Goes from tickle to pummel?

[Dandolin]

Yeah-I can see that - - thanks!