Sumu: 10 patches in 10 minutes

It's easy to enter a state of flow when patching with Sumu. Adjusting a single parameter can completely mutate an idea. This is where the Save function is real friend. It allows us to not only keep our favorite patches as presets, but also to travel back through a patching session via snapshots. It's always nice to have a camera in your bag while hiking isn't it?

Today we're taking 10 minutes to view 10 of Cam's recent Sumu snapshots. He's also written some notes about them below and made them available to download and modify.

PATCH NOTES (work in progress)
1. forever moire
A saw pad with an intense spectral chorus created by the Pulses module. The preset "env to pulse noise" was the starting point, I changed Envelope to modulate the speed of the Pulses instead. The Pulses then go to the Gate to modulate the level of each partial. The spice of this patch is the LFO on the Pulses' "hi scale" parameter. It's fun to change the shapes happening in the Envelopes and Pulses for different textures.

2. WHATEVER
The Partials module can really mangle source material with its time four inputs. I spent a lot of time doing this. What better way to show this than scrambling speech? Try adding an LFO to time and playing with the slew rate for extra laughs.

3. zychimer
A sort of sitar or dulcimer like sound. Sustained notes reveal patterns in the FM fabric.
Pulse generator 1 to mod index. Here I found a trick I used in a lot of these patches: Patch Input module's time to Partials' time with slight negative attenuation, making the partials going slowly creep backwards. Then patch the Envelopes to the + time input. Now the Envelopes' hi-scale will strum up and down the partials.

Also added a bunch of LFOs that stuck around throughout this session: Pulses speed, Pulses hi scale, Partials tilt, shape, and slew – all wiggling.

4. telephone poles
Similar to the previous patch but with a more atonal gong sound. The envelope scrubbing through the partials creates bleeps that makes me think of busy telephone lines.

5. eel language
The time-modulating shenanigans intensify thanks to the Noise LFO on the pulse generator's output level that then goes into Partials' time multiplication input.

6. confetti chord
Using the same time enveloping trick I described in patch 3, the "nylon-guitar-chord" sample makes a nice major triad with a fluffy digital texture.

7. shave your groovebot
A rhythmic patch that makes use of both pulse generators to make a nice buzzy groove.

8. spitbug piano
Similar to patch 6 with a piano sample. The partials ripple forward on the attack, hold still during the sustain, and release backwards.

9. bamboo chatroom
A variation of patch 5, sounds nice with an arpeggiator. Something interesting happens when you modulate the attack of the envelope.

10. euphonia
The end the session, I wanted to go back to basics. This is a simple brassy key sound with light FM and vibrato.

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:32 1. forever moire
01:53 2. WHATEVER
02:23 3. zychimer
03:23 4. telephone poles
04:18 5. eel language
04:39 6. confetti chord
04:56 7. shave your groovebot
05:19 8. spitbug piano
06:12 9. bamboo chatroom
09:35 10. euphonia
10:20 Outro

#madronalabs #electronicmusic #synth #synthesizer #modularsynth

[crowkangi]

I got the whole bundle. I love the care and elegance in all of the design. such a unique and beautiful synth

[msld_sound]

Great demonstration, Cameron! Great work on Sumu, Randy! I often fall into the rut of using synths in the same way as I do traditional instruments. This video has me very inspired to use Sumu for textures and soundscapes.

[studiobrootle]

you guys put out some really good plugins tbh.

[DD-cozn]

Some very nice and charming pieces here. I have listened a few times. Good work, I think this will sell quite some licenses if you can get people to hear it.

[bitegoatie]

The sounds are lovely, but I was hoping the programming/patching of them would be exposed in more detail. Thanks for the crazy sounds, all the same.

[nrosko]

I really love this synth it's so unique & powerful I get lost for hours playing with it. But i hope that the way you import user partials can be improved, having to import the entire folder again if a new parial is saved into it from vutu. And then Vutu itself is pretty awkward importing samples to convert to partials as you are having to navigate through windows explorer back and forth from the sample location to the save section. So i have to open 2 folders in windows & copy & paste the address of the folder location each time to try & speed up the workflow. Also i can never get used to the way the dials snap to my mouse click, I wish this could be an option.

[Tachy_Bunker]

Do you think you will ever include an MTS-ESP tuning switch? It'd be cool for easy microtonality hehe

[JazJazgot]

I really enjoy using Madrona Labs devices, and I own and use several of them. However, there’s something about Sumu that I find unappealing. It seems to be related to its sound profile or character—I'm not entirely sure. The sounds it generates feel quite irritating to me. This is very strange.

[phelper]

Would be nice to see a few updates for your old plugins for example still no drag and drop sample import for Kaivo. Or a good preset browser the list goes on and on. I bought all your plugins but this time I will pass until you show some love to your old customers!

[squeebbb]

This stuff reminds me of early Oneohtrix Point Never

[judef]

Amazing plugin, very high cpu usage but very cool

[RDHamel]

madrona labs have some amazing synths. The only reason I haven't bought in is they don't seem to offer a stand-alone version. There's probably some sensible development reasons for that...

[MiaGoth]

this thing is made for sci-fi game scoring