Transcription
Hi, and welcome back. Shift registers are slightly complex but fun and creative tools. Today, I show how they can be used to create easy harmonies based on a single sequence. They are great for anything from performances [Music], existing layer textures [Music], and slow ambient and generative patches [Music].
In short, the shift register gives you the possibility to take one sequence like this [Music] and send the same sequence with a delay to a second voice [Music], and even a third or more voices [Music]. Thank you for this video. I would use my Step 8. To be clear, this is not a sponsored video, and you can use other shift registers. I just enjoy sharing tips and ideas for modules I use. This module can do a lot more, though, and I did a detailed video about it a while ago if you are interested. If you'd like to support my videos or you want to get access to PDF sheets with hundreds of patch ideas I used in my videos, have a look at my Patreon. You can also support my channel for affiliate links in the video description. But now, let's dive right in [Music].
Just in case the shift register is new to you, let's have a look at the core concept first. Or, of course, you can use the timeline to jump straight to patch ideas. Simply put, a shift register is a combination of a single sample and hold circuit and multiple delayed versions of that signal. You can feed the sample and hold section anything you like, but for the purpose of this video, here you see a simple sequence used as the input. The sequence only has five notes: A, B, C, D, and E. Anytime the module is triggered, like a sample and hold, it samples the input value and holds that value at the output until it receives a new trigger. If you feed the module a sequence from a sequencer, you can use the clock or gate output to trigger the module. In this case, it holds each step of the input sequence, and the output is the exact same sequence. Just this sample and hold signal allows you to create derived sequences in combination with something like a clock divider. I'll come back to that later in the patch ideas [Music].
Beside the sample and hold section, a shift register has several delayed stages of the first output. The Step 8 has 7 additional outputs, so that's what I show in the illustration. Let's demonstrate this with a very slow sequence. The first time the module receives a trigger, it holds the input signal at the first output, as you saw before. When it receives a trigger again, it samples a new value for the first output, but at the same time, it shifts the old value to the next channel. This works for all channels. So, when it receives another trigger, the second note is shifted to the second channel, and the first note onto the third channel. When it receives another trigger, all steps are shifted again, and so on. Each of the channels ends up producing the full five-step sequence that is sent to the input. Channel 2 has one step delay, channel 3 has two steps delay, and so on. The shift register keeps sampling what you feed it, so it responds to changes in the input sequence [Music].
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Two things are key for this trick: the exact time the module is triggered, more specifically, if that's a fraction before or after the sequence changes, and the amount of voltage droop that happens in the delayed stages. I use the Step A because it's extremely accurate and worked without any help. If you do have a shift register with a loss of voltage through the stages, you might need to send its outputs through quantizers to keep things in tune. Let's start by setting up the core patch using three synth voices. In order to keep things clear, a simple oscillator, filter, VCA voice is used. The VCA is just there for manual volume control, so no modulation is added. The filter is modulated with a simple attack-decay envelope. An oscillator with wave shaping possibilities is used, and an LFO is modulating the shape for added dynamics. This voice just needs a one-volt-per-octave and trigger input to work. This exact setup is copied three times, and in the rest of the video, I replace each of the voices with this simple building block. I've got one voice here, one here, and one here. Of course, how each of the voices sound and how they sound together is crucial for a nice effect. I will tweak some of the settings throughout the video, but the voice patches will stay exactly the same. Here you see the three voices and the shift register. A sequencer is used to send a one-volt-per-active signal to the input of the register, and the clock is used to gate it. Three outputs are used to pass the one-volt-per-active signal onto the oscillators in each voice, and multiplications of the clock are sent to trigger each of the envelopes. One voice is panned hard left, one hard right, and one is kept in the middle. Here you see the sequencer sending a single high note through the shift register. Only the first voice is plugged in, so let's add the second and the third [Music].
Changing the position changes the delay [Music]. Each voice will follow the created sequence [Music]. Now it comes down to experimenting with the input sequence, speed, and sound of the voices. Here are a few examples with the exact same patch [Music].
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You can add depth to the core patch by adding a few basic ingredients to it. First off, a very simple trick is to use any of the CV outputs to modulate parameters in one or more voices, for example, the filter or decay of an envelope [Music]. Instead of triggering all envelopes of all voices at the same time, you can create variations, for example, by sending a copy of the clock through a clock divider. Here, one envelope is triggered with a divide by three, and another would divide by five division. Especially uneven divisions are fun to explore [Music]. You can use a copy of the one-volt-per-octave signal to sequence one voice directly. This voice's envelope is triggered with a copy of the main clock, creating a regular speed sequence. Now you can experiment with the speed of the shift register for the other voices, for example, by sending the clock through a divider before progressing the register. Copies of the clock division are used to trigger the other voices again. This is most fun with uneven divisions because that creates shifting patterns [Music].
Instead of a clock divider, you can use other tools like switches or, of course, a trigger sequencer. This gives you the possibility to create rhythmic variations. Again, experiment with uneven patterns, for example, a 15-step trigger sequence [Music]. You can push the very trigger concept as far as you like. Here is the same setup when it comes to sequencing. This time, though, one voice is triggered with a direct copy of the trigger sequencer. A copy of that signal is sent to a clock divider, and the other voices are triggered with a divide by three and divide by seven division. This causes even both hard-panned voices sequenced by the shift register to have different envelope modulation [Music]. Because all voices follow the same input, it's a lot of fun to play with stored sequences. Here's the exact same setup as the core patch, but in this case, the BeatStep Pro is used as a sequencer, so it's easy to switch between several stored sequences [Music].
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Of course, the BeatStep Pro makes it easy to add other elements like drums to the setup [Music].
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A trick that really shines here is to use a single offset control knob as a micro control. For example, you can send the same offset voltage to modulate the filter in all three voices [Music]. Let's use all tricks together [Music].
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Of course, it's also fun to tweak the sequences live [Music].
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Pro dynamic sample drums as well as macro control and other things. If you like to dive deeper into any of these topics [Music].
Playing with the input of the shift register is key for dynamic results. Another thing to look for are sequencers with creative options. In this video, I'm using Masfa, which has a lot of useful options. One of them is the randomization option [Music]. Another feature that I love about Masfa is that it offers some alternative options for the often boring transpose function. I don't focus on music theory on this channel, but for example, if you have an 8-step sequence covering a full C scale and you transpose that sequence, meaning each note goes up a note, the result is no longer in C scale. With the shift register creating delayed sequences, that easily leads to a hot mess when layering sequences in different scales. An interesting alternative for that is the range control on Masfa. Instead of transposing, this stretches the CV range of the output voltages, but this is done before quantizing. This creates an alternate melody that is still limited to the selected scale [Music]. The transpose function on Masfa also works before quantizing. Here, an offset voltage is sent to the transpose input, so I can control it with an external knob. Instead of transposing, the result, Masfa transposes the sequence before quantization. The result depends on the exact note setting and transpose input, but again, always creates results within the selected scale [Music].
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These kind of sequences are also really fun to improvise over [Music]. There are many subtle variations to explore within this setup, but I hope this gives some inspiration to get you started. If you'd like to learn more, have a look here. And as always, smash that like, subscribe, and bell button if you want to see more and more content from. But that's it for now. Thanks for watching and see you next time.