2020 is a semi-modular beat-making app created by Yotaro Shuto (dubrussell). In his own words:

“2020 is a SEMI MODULAR BEAT-MACHINE. It doesn’t offer a traditional timeline view but instead lets you manipulate, randomize, wire, process, and perform beats in real-time, all in a single window. With 2020, you can explore millions of beat patterns on the fly.”

Rationale

While 2020 is packed full of real-time randomisation, there is no function to generate random presets in the Samplers, Synths and FX. Why would you want to do that? As DUB-Russell says, “Don’t think, RANDOMISE!” (he said “BEAT” but…you know…)

Updates

31-08-2024 Major update: now added PRESETS and MIXER tabs so you can recall presets and change mixer settings as part of performance

20-08-2024 WARNING: changed behaviour for RESET. Now RESET is a button that resets any selected parameters (it’s no longer a selection button) 19-08-2024 Added support for SLICER (on the TONE group tab). See below for information. 18-08-2024 Added support for the TONE group: LOOPER1, LOOPER2 and LOOPER3

How does it work?

First off, if for some reason you’ve reached here and you don’t have it, you need 2020 Beat Machine

Then you need TouchOSC MK2 by Hexler

TouchOSC MK2 added super-powerful LUA scripting which is what 2020-R uses to interact with the 2020 app.

I’m not going to teach you how to install and use Touch OSC. The guides and tutorials on the Hexler website are good.

Interface

Each of 2020’s “Groups” is organised into tabs and the tabs are named the same way e.g. GRP1, GRP2 etc. Within each tab there are the same sub-groups (samplers, instruments etc.) as you find in the 2020 app.

Within each sub-group there are two sections. On the right-hand side are the Send Controls. Here you can select if you want to send random absolute values (VALUE) or send randomised Probability and Range for the 2020 parameters that support that function. You can also elect to reset parameters back to their default values by selecting the RESET button.

The remainder of each group section is the Parameter Selection buttons. These are the ones that match the colour of the tab…and a similar colour to the corresponding Group in 2020) and are loosely organised into parameter types e.g. you’ll find all Envelopes grouped in a “ENVS” group, all LFOs groups in a “LFO” group etc.

How to use 2020-R

You first need to select the parameters you wish to randomise. You can select as many as you like.

Then on the right-hand side, select whether you want to send random absolute values (VALUES) or Probability and Range values (RANGE). Or both!

Then press/click on the RANDOM button to send random values to 2020.

You can also reset the selected parameters back to their default values by clicking/pressing on the RESET button. Note this behaviour has changed since the 20-08-24 update.

That’s it!

FX Tab

The FX tab is slightly different in that ALL of the FX parameters are grouped together. However there is an additional ‘hidden’ helper button in each FX type. Press/click on the strip below the grouped parameters to toggle the selection on/off.

(TONE) SLICER

Controls to randomise parameter for the SLICER group can be found on the TONE tab.

Most of the control work in exactly the same way as other groups apart from the controls in the SEQ section. Here you’ll find switches for STEPS, RES and a radial dial labelled DENSITY

STEPS will randomise the vertical value of the current steps in the sequence. The DESNITY radial control controls how densely the seqence will be randomised.

RES (resolution) randomises the number of divisions per step.

Usage

Feel free to use and modify it however you feel/need. You can dig into the script files in the TouchOSC editor but I’ve also included the LUA source code as separate files in case you find those useful. The same code is attached to buttons/documents in the TouchOSC project.

If you find it useful and want to support my work and future updates then you can show your appreciation here:

Support My Work 🙏

If you like my work and use it or learn from it, please consider supporting me or just a donation to say thanks:

If you like my work and use it or learn from it, please consider supporting me or just a donation to say thanks:

Rationale

The main objectives for MMMSEGUI were:

• have the ability to output directly into a list message for use with the curve~ Max object
• make it very simple and fast to use while minimising modifier key requirement
• have the ability to add and delete nodes quickly and intuitively
• have the ability to easily alter curve shapes and move graph segments around
• have it easy to add to other projects and save the settings with your patchers
• have it be very customisable

In addition to this, recent updates include:

• automatic resizing of the graph when resizing the JSUI window
• commands to clear the graph and also to create a graph through a message list
• poll the graph to sample single values at a given point in the time (X) axis
• the ability to set the X, Y and control point of a single node via messages

For any previous users please read the following section regarding the November 2023 update.

How Can I Get MMMSEGUI?

MMMSEGUI is freely available on my Github repository:

MMMSEGUI Repository

Important - Major Update and Refactoring November 2023

A soft apology to any existing users, especially if you’ve incorporated MMMSEGUI into any of your own projects and patchers. This update has MAJOR changes:

It was difficult to incorporate many of the changes without some collateral damage. I hope it’s not too painful for you and have faith that the ground-up refactoring has improved the overall structure so this situation won’t happen in future. Shouldn’t happen. Never say never in development!

18/11/2023 Update Overview

The entire documentation has been updated but here are the highlights:

• setting up and instantiating is now WAY simpler. Sensible default values are generated rather than making the user define them.
• changed mouse behaviour adding and removing nodes: now just double-click instead of SHIFT + click
• the curve shape of a segment can be reset (to linear) by holding SHIFT and double-clicking the segment
• MMMSEGUI will now resize itself if you resize the JSUI window
• the @parameter method of setting customisation has been removed in favour of dedicated messages
• there is now a much simpler fillcolor, strokeColor, and bgColor to set the graph colors along with a set of new messages for customising other features (see below)
• there is clear command to reset the graph (customisations are persistent)
• added a graph command to define a graph numerically for making templates and presets etc.
• similarly there is a graphfromcurve command that lets you define a graph numerically using MMMSEGUI output format (input format for Max [curve~])
• you can now move a graph segment in both the X and Y axis (hold SHIFT and drag the curve segment), previously you could only move a segment in the Y axis.
• two new commands to sample the graph Y value at a point in time, getvalue uses a normalised value as the X position where getvalueattime lets you specify a time in ms.
• some new commands to modify position and control point parameters for individual nodes

Updates

13/02/2024

Added “Phasor Mode” - a special mode with restrictions to use the the phasor~ object.

Content and Installation

• mmmsegui.js is the main JSUI file you need to use MMMSEGUI.
• mmmsegui.maxpat is the demo patcher to demonstrate all MMMSEGUI’s features - play around with stuff
• readme.md this file.
• mmmseg_audio_demo_1.maxpat demo of MMMSEGUI using a very basic step sequencer that drive a monophonic synth voice. Two step sequencers control pitch and LPF cutoff. Three MMMSEGUI envelopes control pitch, low-pass filter and overdrive modulation.
• mmmseg_audio_demo_2.maxpat a simple 4-step sequencer steps through four MMSEGUIs, each of which modulate the pitch of a [rect~] oscillator. You can change the metro tempo and also whether the MMSEGUIs loop (the curve~ objects are re-triggered when they reach their end point).

Adding MMMSEGUI To Your Patcher

Put the mmmsegui.js file in your Max search path(s) then add a JSUI object to your patcher specifying the MMMSEGUI filename:

1[JSUI @filename mmmsegui.js]

The default MMMSEGUI only contains two nodes, the end and start nodes. These cannot be deleted and only their Y position (and curve shape) can be changed. To add more nodes (or delete them) you need to use the mouse (and keyboard).

Adding, Deleting and Moving Nodes. And Curves.

Customisation Messages

Customisation is done via Max message objects. For data type see the Notes column. Some error/range checking/clamping is done but I’m sure you can break it if you try.

Color Messages

For the color messages that have the RGBA data type there are 4 values, so your message will look like: [fillcolor $1 $2 $3 $4] where $1 is the red value, $2 is the green value, $3 is the blue value and $4 is the alpha value. This is standard RGBA format in Max and is the output from [colorpicker @compatibility 0] or [swatch] etc.

Auto Output

Auto Output is on by default (turn it off with [autooutput 0])which means anything you do that changes the nodes, curves or timescale will cause MMMSEGUI to output the current graph as a curve~ formatted list. If you set Auto Output to off, nothing will be output from MMMSEGUI until you send a bang message to its inlet. The only exception to this is the getvalue and getvalueattime commands (see Command Messages), for obvious reasons. Sending messages to MMMSEGUI that only change the graphical look of the graph will not cause output of node list.

Phasor Mode

“Phasor Mode” is a feature requested by a few members of the Max Discord channel for use with the phasor~ object. In Phasor Mode there are a few changes and restrictions to the way MMMSEGUI works:

Selecting Phasor Mode

The message setphasormode is used to turn Phasor Mode on/off. 0 turns it off (default) and 1 turns it on.

However you must also then use the clear message to reset the graph which means if you intend to use Phasor Mode on a MMMSEGUI object, select Phasor Mode first, then clear the graph before setting nodes etc.

Clearing the graph is necessary so that the graph starts with nodes that respect the restrictions of Phasor Mode. I thought about just adding some validation code so that you could switch between Phasor Mode on/off but that would also modify your graph. Clearing the graph is simpler and easier.

Command Messages

In addition to customisation there are some messages that control MMMSEGUI:

Set Value Commands

A new set of commands to enable you to set the position and curve shape of individual nodes in your graph. This has some interesting uses especially using an external signal to modulate node coordinates.

setxat n x, setyat n, y and setcat n c are used to set the X, Y and control point of node n

setnode n x y c allows you to set all the properties of a node in a single command.

Node number n needs to be a valid node in the current graph but MMMSEGUI will just reject the command silently if the node number is invalid.

The X position is constrained by the X position of the previous and next node in the graph.

You cannot change the X position of the first and last node. The first node is node 0.

Setting the curve point, c, affects the shape of the curve to the right of the specified node n.

Get Value Commands

Another two new commands, getvalue and getvalueattime allow you to sample the graph with a position/time input and get the normalised Y value at that point.

The value is output from [outlet 2], 0.0 to 1.0 with 0.0 being at the bottom and 1.0 at the top.

getvalue input is clamped to 0.0 - 1.0 whereas getvalueattime will post an error to the Max Console if the ms time is outside of the range of the current timeScale setting for the graph.

Graph Commands

There are two further new commands that let you send a list message to MMMSEGUI to define a graph numerically. This is handy if you want to make your own presets or templates for example. The two command messages are [graph] and [graphfromcurve]

When you send either the graph or graphfromcurve message, the graph will be immediately updated and the values mirrored at outlet 1.

[graph]

The first command, graph, lets you create a new graph with normalised values:

1[graph x1 y1 c1 x2 y2 c2 x3 y3 c3] etc.

• xn is the normalised position of the node along the X axis, 0.0 to 1.0, left-to-right
• yn is the normalised magnitude in the Y axis, 0.0 to 1.0, top-to-bottom
• cn is the normalised curve value, 0.0 to 1.0, 0.5 is the middle (linear curve)

This data form parallels the MMMSEGUI internal data form. It’s a more simple structure than graphfromcurve as it’s easier to visualise and because the X values are normalised you can define a graph independent of it’s timeScale setting.

[graphfromcurve]

You can also send MMMSEGUI a [graphfromcurve] message to define a graph numerically but this time the data format is exactly that of MMMSEGUI output (the same format as input message to Max’s [curve~] object).

1[graphfromcurve y1 d1 c1 y2 d2 c2 y3 d3 c3] etc.

The parameters are slightly different from the graph command in order to be compatible with [curve~]

• yn is the Y axis position of the node but is inverted, 1.0 is the top, 0.0 is the bottom
• dn is the delta time in ms from the previous node
• cn is the curve~ curve shape value, -0.999 to 0.999

The advantage of graphfromcurve over graph is that you can hook up the output of MMMSEGUI to the right-hand inlet of a message object and then use that output directly to form a graphfromcurve message.

The disadvantages of graphfromcurve compared to graph for manually typing in a graph definition are:

• it’s tricky to visualise and calculate the delta times
• MMMSEGUI has to calculate the timescale (X axis) from the delta times of the X position of the nodes and then it automatically sets the timeScale parameter from this

Saving

MMMSEGUI has an internal save structure that will save all of it’s parameters when you save your patcher and restore itself when you reload your patcher. On one hand this is convenient and simple but MMMSEGUI is always saving - any changes you make to MMMSEGUI while playing with your patcher will be saved when you save.

Inlets and Outlets

• [inlet 1] handles all the command and parameter messages

• [outlet 1] outputs a list of nodes and delta times from the current graph shape

• [outlet 2] is used to retrieve a single Y value at a point in time

See Command Messages for details on the various commands.

Using the Output from MMMSEGUI

As already mentioned, the output is deliberately formatted as a list that will be immediately accepted by a [curve~] object.

The output format is a trio of parameters per curve:

1[magnitude deltaTime curveFactor]

• magnitude is the Y axis value

• deltaTime is the time in milliseconds from when the [curve~] previous node (or when the curve~ was triggered) and is calculated from the timescale setting

• curveFactor is the control-point value that describes the curve shape. The value range is -0.999 to 0.999 - for some reason if you go to -1.0 or 1.0 things start to go a bit weird with the [curve~] object. That’s a Max issue, not MMMSEGUI!

Each trio of parameters makes a stage of a multi-stage curve in a [curve~] object.

Using the Output From the [curve~] Object

The output from a connected [curve~] object will be a float value in the range 0.0 to 1.0 so you will need a [scale~] object or other ways to transform this normalised value into something useful. I’ll leave that for you to work out.

I may look at other output features such as exponential scaling for future updates.

Rolling Your Own Output

If you want to create your own output format, look towards the bottom of the mmmsegui.js file for the function called this.outputList. This is the internal function that is called by MMMSEGUI whenever it needs to output the node values.

 1this.outputList = function() {
 2  var out = [];
 3  // Add first node to output list using a time delta of zero
 4  out.push(1-this.nodeList[0].y, 0.0, 0.0);
 5  for (n = 1; n <= this.nodeCount-1; n++) {
 6    // Add next node Y value
 7    out.push(1-this.nodeList[n].y);
 8    // Add node delta time
 9    out.push((this.nodeList[n].x - this.nodeList[n-1].x) * this.timeScale)
10    // Add node curve factor
11    out.push((this.nodeList[n-1].cp * 1.998) - 0.999);
12  }
13  // Send output list to first outlet
14  this.outputFlag = false;
15return out;
16}

Here I’m creating an empty array, out and then iterating through the nodes pushing the Y value, then the calculated delta time and then the curve factor. The variable this.outputFlag is used to only trigger output when there has been a change in the graph that requires outputting. The final line returns the output array for sending to the JSUI outlet.

@parameter Style Customisation

I made the decision to remove this in the November 2023 update. Several reasons, the main one being that you can’t tweak the parameters as jsarguments without causing MMMSEGUI to recompile which was deeply annoying. Poor design decision on my part: I hold my hands up.

However, if the removal of these is the worse news ever for you, here’s how you can implement them yourself.

The basic code for interpreting the @parameters follow this form. Put this in the mmmsegui.js code just after the instantiation line:

 1jsarguments.filter(function(arg) {
 2  if (arg[0] == "@") {
 3    var val = jsarguments[jsarguments.indexOf(arg)+1]
 4    switch (arg) {
 5      case "@nodesize":
 6        mmmsegui.setNodeSize(val)
 7        break;
 8      case "@timescale":
 9        mmmsegui.setTimeScale(val)
10        break;
11      default:
12        break;
13    }
14  }
15});

So you can add as many or as few as you like by adding more case clauses to the JS switch statement. You can see there are two MMMSEGUI function calls, mmmsegui.setNodeSize(val) and mmmsegui.setTimeScale(val). These function names are the internal functions that handle those parameters. val is the value you place after each of the @parameters

As an example, let’s say you wanted to add a parameter called @padding to set the padding inside the JSUI window. Add another switch clause before where the default one is in the code:

1case "@padding":
2	mmmsegui.setPadding(val)
3	break;

The @parameter names don’t have to match the function names, you can call them whatever you like.

The list of functions you can use is here (though could be subject to change but I’ll endeavour to update this section if any future updates affect them). I won’t describe them as their function should be fairly obvious from their name.

The obvious omissions here are the functions to set fill, stroke and background colors. This is a bit more fiddly to implement as @paramters because you need four float values (RGBA) and the example code above will only copy with one parameter. If you need that and want help with it just get in touch.

Node and Line setNodeSize(), setLineWidth(), setPadding()

Input and Output setTimeScale(), setAutoOutput(),setMouseSpeed()

Mouse-over Highlighting setNodeHighlighting(), setCurveHighlighting()

Node Visibility setAutoHideNodes(),setNodesVisible()

VOLDRED is a Touch OSC editor for the Korg Volca Drum. It adds power, speed and convenience to your editing experience and has a ton of tricks up its sleeve to transform the sound designing process on the Volca Drum.

Support My Work

A huge amount of work went into Voldred and I resisted the option to force other users to pay for access. However, if you like my work and use it or even learn from it, please consider supporting me or just making a small donation to say thanks. I have quite a few new features and improvements in the pipeline for Voldred and knowing it’s appreciated is the best inspiration for working on it further.

🙏

Why Do I Need VOLDRED?

Let’s face it, sound editing on the Volca Drum is fiddly. No offence, Korg. Too much menu diving, too much cycling between Parts. Too much damn scrolling through the oscillator/modulation/envelope combinations to dial in the configuration you want. And trying to do all of this via the tiny knobs and tiny screen. Fiddly.

VOLDRED pours petrol on that, sets it on fire then walks away in slow-motion.

• Intuitive touch-screen interface that lets you see and edit ALL Part parameters on a single screen
• Loading and saving of up to 16 “kits” that can be instantly recalled via a single click/touch and also recalled via MIDI messages. These are stored inside VOLDRED
• Copying parameters between Parts
• Sysex exporting and importing of Kits
• Edit Layers independently or linked, with the added feature that you can edit both layers simultaneously and the parameters of each layer retain their numerical relationship to each other (more on this later)
• Full randomisation. Similar to randomisation on the hardware but adds further randomisation to the FX parameters (Pan, Bit Crush, Fold etc.) and also the Waveguide parameters. Plus any parameter can easily be “locked” to prevent it being randomised
• Layers/FX/Waveguide can be instantly initialised with a single touch
• Fast switching between Parts for editing the entire kit
• Pads for MIDI triggering the six tracks (Parts)
• Mini-keyboard for playing the Volca Drum melodically or for using keyboard input to set the pitch of the oscillators
• Super-flexible mappable Macro knobs - control almost every parameter with one knob!
• Customisable colour-scheme!

YouTube Video - opens in same window

How Can I Get VOLDRED?

VOLDRED is freely available on my Github repository:

VOLDRED Repository

Requirements

You’ll need a Volca Drum. Buy one or borrow one: it’s easily one of the best of the Volca range.

You’ll also need Touch OSC, and a device to run it on. And some sort of MIDI device. And a MIDI cable. You know the score.

If you don’t already own Touch OSC I can’t express strongly enough how good it is. Plus, the developers, Hexler, are hardworking independent artists in their own right and these kind of people benefit from our support where we can. I am in no way affiliated to them or paid by them: they just make really good stuff for audio and visual artists.

UI Walkthrough

Part Selector

Across the top of the UI is the Part Selector. Here you can quickly switch between Parts for editing by just tapping on a tab. This is also where you can access various settings and functions such as Loading and Saving Kits via the Settings Tab

Below the Part Selector is a heading strip showing you the different sections of each Layer etc. It doesn’t do anything clever apart from give you a visual indicator of the various parameter groups.

Layer Controls

Below the Part Selector are two identical groups of controls that contain the parameters for Layer 1 and Layer 2 of the currently selected Part.

Here you can see Oscillator Level, Oscillator Shape, Oscillator Pitch etc. for Layer 1. The controls for Layer 2 are identical.

The cluster of buttons below the Oscillator Level radial control various options and modes for linked editing and randomisation. See Layers: Linked Editing and Randomisation and Initialisation for more details.

The button in the top-left corner is to open the Controller Window. See Controller Window for details.

Part FX and Waveguide

To the right side are the parameters for Part FX (Pan, Bit Crush, Drive, Waveguide Send etc.) and also the parameters for the Waveguide.

Settings Tab

The last tab in the Part Selector takes you to the Settings page:

Here you can load/save kits, copy parameters between Parts, change the UI colours and set various other parameters.

Loading and Saving

The top section is where you can load and save kits to one of 16 slots, which are saved when you save VOLDRED’s Touch OSC project file. For more details see “Loading And Saving Kits”

It’s also possible to recall kits via MIDI control. See Loading Kits Via MIDI for an explanation.

Copy Parts

Immediately below the Load/Save section is the controls to copy parameter settings between Parts of the current kit.

For more details see Copying Parts

Sysex Backup & Restore

Below Copy Parts are the two controls for exporting and importing your Kit data as a MIDI sysex file.

For more details see Sysex Backup and Restore

UI Colour Settings and Editor Options

At the bottom left is where you can change the hue, saturation, lightness of the UI colour scheme. You can also change the alpha of the UI background colour. There are also several editing options you can set here. More details under Changing the UI Colours and Editor Options

Setting Up and Getting Started

Load VOLDRED into Touch OSC and in the Connections window make sure you have a MIDI output configured to send MIDI to your Volca Drum. VOLDRED sends all of the parameter changes via MIDI messages (from the Lua scripting). It does not use OSC.

Editing Layer Parameters

The parameters in Layer 1 and Layer 2 should be pretty obvious as they correspond to the same settings/controls on the Volca Drum hardware.

The cluster of buttons below Oscillator Level won’t be so obvious. They control the editing mode and also options for randomisation and initialisation of parameters.

Layers: Linked Editing

The default editing mode lets you edit each Layer independently. However the Layers can be linked while editing meaning when you change parameters on one Layer, the parameter(s) on the other Layer will also be affected.

To enable linked editing tap on the LINK icon to the right of the Layer name. It will turn red when active.

Depending on the state of each LINK button, linked editing behaves in two slightly different ways:

Randomisation and Initialisation

The two buttons under the Oscillator Level control, RAND and INIT are used to randomise and initialise parameters respectively. Exactly how and what the RAND and INIT buttons affect depends on the three toggle buttons above them: LY, FX and WG

Linked Randomisation and Initialisation

Similar to how the Layer Link button behaves when manually editing the controls, Layer Link also affects randomisation and initialisation. For example if you have LINK enabled on Layer 1 and you press the Layer 1 RAND button, the parameters in Layer 2 will also be randomised.

Locking Parameters from RAND and INIT

There is a hidden feature (read: not so obvious from the UI) that enables you to lock out any number of individual parameters from being affected by RAND or INIT. Simply tap on the parameter name. If it’s locked it will have a box around the text.

Here, Modulation Type is unlocked while Amount and Rate are locked.

PITCH and Q

You’ll notice above the slider that controls Oscillator Pitch, there is a toggle button labelled Q

This is to enable or disable the Volca’s pitch quantisation (QPI). When disabled the oscillator pitch isn’t quantised. When enabled the pitch is quantised to semi-tone intervals.

In Korg’s wisdom they gave us just one Pitch Q control per Part so if you enable/disable it in one Layer, it’s also enabled/disabled in the other Layer as a visual reminder that Pitch Q affects both Layers.

Reloading Part

Tapping the circle-arrow button at the top-left just underneath the Part selector will reload the currently selected Part from the currently loaded Kit.

Part FX and Waveguide

FX

Both Layers in a Part share the parameters in the FX section. These are PAN, BIT (crush), FOLD, DRIVE, DRY (gain) and SEND (Send is the send amount to the Waveguide). I don’t think there’s anything more to say about FX.

Waveguide

Similar to Volca Drum FX parameters, there is only one Waveguide section which is shared by all Parts, though each Part does have its own independent Send that controls how much of the output of each Part is sent to the Waveguide processor.

The Waveguide is shown on each Part’s display but if you change any of the Waveguide parameters on a Part page it applies to all Parts. I’m sure you know this as a Volca Drum user but it’s worth reinforcing here as each Part might seem to have its own set of Waveguide parameters: they don’t but I display the Waveguide in each Part for editing convenience.

Alternative Radial Control

As much as I 😍 Touch OSC, I’ve never been a fan of the fact that the only way to move the Radial control is to rotate your touch around it. Often I find that awkward and wish there was an option to enable you to just touch and move your finger vertically (or horizontally) to change the value.

Until that time, VOLDRED has an option in Editor Settings - Extendad Radial control?

What this does is add an invisible overlay over the Radial controls to enable you to control the Radials by moving your finger vertically on them. Look at this image of the Oscillator Level control. I’ve made the overlays visible so I can explain the details:

When the Radial overlay are enabled, you touch the control and move your finger up or down: up increases the Radial value and down decreases it. You can see that the overlay is split into two halves. The right side is for fast/large parameter changes while the left side gives you finer, more precise control.

This is the same for all of the smaller Radial controls too (FX, Waveguide) and also applies to the Macro Radials though on the Macro Radials there is only one overlay. I did this as I feel the Macro controls are more aligned with performance rather than preceise editing: there’s already plenty other ways to edit the Part parameters if you want precision.

Controller Window

VOLDRED includes a secret Controller Window that combines Drum Pads, Mini Keyboard and Macro Knobs in the same floating window. To open and close it, tap on the small square icon in the top-left of Layer 1.

The window is a multi-function window so its appearance will depend on the last time you used it. It will either be in Drum Pad, Mini Keyboard or Macro mode.

Drum Pads (Triggers)

In this mode, tapping on each of the pads, P-1 to P-6 will trigger the sound on those Parts (tracks) on the Volca Drum.

Velocity is mapped to the position you tap on the pad: maximum velocity is in the middle and it reduces the closer to the edge of the pad you tap.

Drum Pad Icon

To switch to Mini Keyboard tap the keyboard icon at the top-right.

Macro Icon

The circle icon takes you to the Macros but we’ll look at the keyboard first.

Mini Keyboard (Pitch)

OK so this one will take a little more explaining than the Drum Pad/Triggers mode. It was also one of my favourite VOLDRED features to realise!

I’ll go over the controls first and then explain a bit more about what’s actually going on:

Keyboard

The keyboard is just over 1 octave of touch pads (16 in total) starting at C and ending an octave-and-a-bit above at D#/Eb. The nearer to the bottom edge you tap, the higher the velocity.

TRG - Trigger

This toggle-button controls whether the current Part is triggered as you tap the keys on the keyboard. Handy if you’re modifying a Part with the sequencer running, for example, so that you can use the keyboard to change the pitch without repeatedly triggering the sound.

OCT - Octave

You can change the current octave of the keyboard. The current octave is displayed on the two “C” keys.

LYR - Layer

This radio-button toggles the target Layer between Layer 1 and Layer 2. You might only want to affect the pitch of a single Layer so this is how you do it.

How Does It Work?

As per the comment above, the Volca Drum does not respond to MIDI note numbers so you have no normal way of triggering the sounds in a pitched or melodic way. The way the mini keyboard works in VOLDRED is by sending MIDI CC values for the Oscillator Pitch and then (optionally) triggering the currently selected Part to mimic MIDI Key-On message. It isn’t perfect. The main quirk is there is some unfathomable lag or slew when you change the Oscillator Pitch parameter so it always sounds like it has some degree of pitch gliding. The other unavoidable problem is that in order to work it has to modify the current Part.

Macro Controls

This one will also take a bit of explaining. Settle in.

Macro Control

First thing, get to know the controls of a Macro Control. Each of the 6 Macro Controls are identical.

Macro Dial

The dial in the center is what controls the output of the Macro Control. Once parameters are assigned to it, rotating the control will send values to the mapped parameters.

Mapping Button +

Tap this button to enable mapping for this Macro. When in mapping mode the Macro name (M1 in this case) will flash as a warning that you are in Mapping Mode. More on this below.

Clear Button X

This simply clears any mapping from the Macro.

Mapped Controls Indicator

The circular indicator at the top-left indicates if any parameters are currently mapped to this Macro. If it’s off then this Macro has no mapped parameters. This is mainly so when looking to map parameters you can see at a glance any Macro Controls that are currently unused.

Dial Mode

The diamond-shaped button at the top-right controls what happens when you move (and then release) the Macro Dial. When this button is unlit, once you release your finger/mouse on the Macro Dial, the value of the dial stays where you left it. If this button is lit, when you lift off your finger the Macro Dial will snap back to zero.

Mapping Parameters to Macro Controls

Here’s where it gets a little weird. Weird is good.

Wait, There’s More!

I know what you’re thinking: sure, that little keyboard thing is handy but it often gets in the way of the Layer controls. Well…you can move it! I know: I’m good.

If you tap-and-hold anywhere in the big empty part at the top, between the two icons, you can drag the window around and place it somewhere out of the way when you’re editing parameters but still want to be able to trigger the Parts or play the Volca via the mini-keyboard.

Loading and Saving Kits

A few things to get out of the way first:

• Touch OSC projects cannot save any sort of data to the host filesystem. Loading and saving inside of VOLDRED uses a clever hack (here we go again!) to store hidden data within the Touch OSC (.tosc) file itself. When you save the Touch OSC file the ‘saved’ data is saved with it and can be recalled when you next open the .tosc file.
• Volca Drum doesn’t have MIDI out or any way of externally reading the parameters. The kit numbers within VOLDRED bear no relationship to the kit numbers in the Volca Drum.
• Consequently when you load (send) a kit from VOLDRED to the Volca Drum, the currently selected kit on the Volca Drum is temporarily modified - as if you’d instantly tweaked all the controls.

In short, VOLDRED kits exist in their own bubble inside of the Touch OSC file. Of course, you can load a kit in VOLDRED (sent to the VD) and then use the VD Save Kit to save the current settings to one of the 16 kits on the VD. If you don’t save the kit on the VD, then you power it off or change kits on the VD, whatever you sent from VOLDRED will be lost (though still inside VOLDRED of course). I’m probably making this seem more complicated than it is.

The other thing to bear in mind is loading and saving PRGs on the VD. When you change PRGs the kit with the same number as the PRG is loaded. This works slightly differently from loading a kit (on the VD) as you can load any of the 16 kits and keep the same PRG sequence. You’ll know this if you’re a seasoned VD user but it’s worth mentioning here as it has implications on VOLDRED’s loading of kits: if you send a kit from VOLDRED and then change PRGs, the VD’s kit will change also.

How To Load and Save in VOLDRED

With all that out of the way you’ll be reassured to know that actually loading and saving inside VOLDRED is fast, convenient and intuitive. To access loading and saving go to the SETTINGS tab.

Slots

The 16 numbered boxes across the display are your kit slots. To load one just tap it. It will load pretty instantly and you’ll get a message in the status box (the text box above) telling you it loaded.

If you look directly underneath each slot there is a small rectangular indicator. If this is on/filled it means a kit is saved in that slot. If it’s off/unfilled that means the slot is empty. If you try to load an empty slot you’ll get an error message telling you that nothing was loaded.

Saving

To save the current kit to a slot, first tap on the SAVE button. It will turn red indicating that it’s waiting for you to select a slot. Tap a slot to save. If you change your mind, tap the SAVE button again to cancel the save operation.

Clear

The CLEAR button will clear the currently selected slot. There’s no undo but if you’ve just selected a slot to clear it, that slot will still be loaded. So, if you accidentally clear a slot, just save it again. If you try to tap CLEAR while SAVE is active you’ll get an error message telling you to cancel SAVE before you can CLEAR the slot.

Switching Kits Via MIDI

It’s also possible to recall Kits using MIDI control. Sending a Program Change message on Channel 1 to VOLDRED (inside Touch OSC) with the program change number 1 to 16 will recall the corresponding Kit. If the slot you try to recall is empty it will just fail silently and leave the current kit intact.

Copying Parts

This should be fairly self-explanatory. You select the source Part on the left (P1-P6) and the destination Part on the right then tap COPY to copy the parameters from one Part to the other.

The L1, L2 and FX buttons next to the COPY button are toggles to let you filter what parameter groups are copied:

• L1 means everything from Layer 1 is copied when COPY is pressed
• L2 means everything from Layer 2 is copied when COPY is pressed
• FX means the FX parameters are copied when COPY is pressed

There’s no option for copying Waveguide parameters as they’re common to all Parts.

It should be obvious but you can select any combination of L1, L2 and FX to copy exactly the parameters you want.

Sysex Backup and Restore

As well as storing the 16 kits inside of the the .TOSC file when you save it, I recently added the ability to export and import Kit data from VOLDRED!

Sysex Setup

Sysex: How To Use

As mentioned above, you’ll need some sort of sysex librarian/tool software/app to receive and send the sysex data. I use “Sysex Librarian” on OSX (free) so find one for your own platform/setup. Once you’ve setup the MIDI connections in Touch OSC as detailed above, actually using the send and receive controls is very straightforward. I’ll describe the process in relation to Sysex Librarian but I’m sure other software have a similar method.

Sysex Sending

On Sysex Librarian you have to click on “Record One” to engage receiving. Once it’s waiting for sysex data, go to VOLDRED and tap on the SEND button:

Your Kit data will be sent to Sysex Librarian and the file will appear in the app’s library as an unnamed file. From there you can either leave it in the internal library or export it as a .syx or .mid file. This is useful is you want to send or share your Kit sysex or move it to another device etc.

Sysex Receiving

To import a sysex Kit you first need to engage the RECEIVE button. When VOLDRED is waiting for sysex data the receive button will be coloured red.

Go to Sysex Librarian, select a previously exported Kit file and click on the Play button (or double-click the file in the library list). The sysex data will be received by VOLDRED and then decoded into the 16 kit slots.

Changing the UI Colours

On the SETTINGS tab you can completely alter the entire colour scheme for VOLDRED.

There are four sliders: H (hue), S (saturation), L (lightness) and A (background alpha). Slide these around until you get your perfect colour scheme!

Setting Individual Colors for Parts

The column of toggle-buttons to the right select which colors you’ll be modifiying when you move the HSL sliders. By default they are all on, meaning whatever color you set will be applied to all Parts, Waveguide, Controller etc.

If you want to set an individual color for a Part, for example, uncheck all of the toggle-buttons and only turn on the Part you want to change the color of. Now when you move the HSL sliders only that Part will have its color changed.

P1 - P6 should be very obvious. UI applies to the Settings tab, the Waveguide and the Controller overlay though there is also an option in Options to have the color of the Waveguide and Controller overlay follow the currently selected Part tab.

Editor Options

These may be changed or expanded in the future but for now these are the Editor Options:

Load Kit 01 at Launch A convenience option to have VOLDRED send the kit in slot 01 to your Volca Drum when you run VOLDRED.

Pads/Keys Fixed MIDI Velocity By default, the position you tap on the pads and keys in the keyboard window determines the MIDI velocity of the triggered sound. If you’d rather this didn’t happen you can have the velocity fixed.

Radial/Fader Relative Response This option switches between the two response modes of the Touch OSC controls. The default is absolute which will set the current value of the control to wherever you touch it. In relative mode you can click/touch anywhere on the control and the value won’t change until you drag your finger/mouse. Just an editing preference really.

Extended Radial Control This option turns on the invisible overlays for all of the Radial-style controls so that you can use your finger to swip up or down to change the value rather than having to rotate your finger around the Radial. The overlay is split into two halves: the right side gives you faster/coarser control while the left side allows you finer and more precise control.

This also applies to the Macro Radial controls though there is only a single overlay for these as the Macro window is more of a performance feature rather than something you’d use for finer editing.

Mute MIDI When Mapping When you’re setting the control range for macro mapping, by default the control you’re adding to the macro map will send out MIDI data to your Volca just as if you were using the control normally. Sometimes this is handy but sometimes you might want to silently set the macro range. Turn this on and when you’re setting the range, the control you’re mapping won’t send out MIDI data. Note this is only while mapping is active. MIDI function will be resumed if either the Macro window is closed or none of the six macro controls are in mapping mode.

WG/Controller Color Follow Parts Adding the option to set individual colors for the Parts threw up a couple of consistency issues. This is because the Waveguide is common to all parts, as is the Controller Overlay (Keys/Pads/Macros). This option is to decide what to do with those elements.

When this option is off, the Waveguide and Controller use the same colors as the Settings tab (UI in the color options). When this setting is on, the Waveguide and Controller will change color depending on the color of the currently selected Part tab.

Roundup

I guess the important thing to remember is to save the VOLDRED .tosc file - if you don’t do that then all your editing and saved kits will be lost. It’s far from ideal but there’s no way to get around that limitation, mostly due to the lack of MIDI Out on the Volca Drum (and thus the ability to read/dump the kits from it).

The other big restriction is the inability for Touch OSC to access the host’s filesystem. I’ve tried (and I think it’s pretty successful!) to compensate for this viw the sysex exporting and importing of Kit data. How useful that will be to you will very much depend on your own system and setup, especially the lack of a in-the-box solution for iPad. And though I can make it work for me using Sysex Librarian and wireless networked MIDI to my Macbook, I don’t own a Windows or Linux machine that I can test on. Worst case: keep saving the .TOSC file and save multiple versions for different kits.

I genuinely hope you find it useful and creatively inspiring. Once you get the hang of using it there’s a lot of fun things you can do.

Technical Stuff

Due to the nature of Touch OSC files and the Lua scripting you can freely poke around inside the project and see how I did stuff. Most of the scripting is done in the root of the project file.

If you’ve any questions or issues or suggestions, drop me a line at info@marmotaudio.co.uk

Neil

Support My Work (just in case you missed it at the top)

If you like my work and use it or learn from it, please consider supporting me or just a donation to say thanks:

🙏

The inexorable march of time. Plus I’m so, so easily distracted by an interesting new project. And I’m just fucking terrible at finishing anything.

Good question! In spirit: yes.

Just before closing down my old website I posted this which explains things a little more:

The time has come to close the shutters on Marmot Audio. I’ve been neglecting it for some time now. Apologies to any potential customers who might have emailed me in the last few months and received no reply: that was uncharacteristically rude of me and I hope you found help elsewhere with your projects.

There’s no drama. I took a full-time job at a brewery last year and since then I’m running the place. As such it’s demanding much more of my time and more of my physical and mental energy. Something had to give.

I’d like to express gratitude and humility to everyone who trusted (and often confounded) me with their projects. I got to work on some amazing audio gear and made many friends along the way.

I’m sure some of you have stumbled across my recent adventures in Max and OSC. I’m still pretty active in those areas (handy to be able to do your projects on a laptop!). I’m going to consolidate (and archive) a bunch of stuff and you’ll be able to find it all on a new website which is hosted on my Github repository.

Which brings us right here!

So what is USE HEARING PROTECTION then?

Truthfully it’s my attempt to try to consolidate all the little bits of me, current and archived projects, into one place on the internet. If that sounds awfully vain, believe me that it’s selfishness masquerading as altruism.

No, I mean why USE HEARING PROTECTION?

Well, from a safety and the long-term health of your hearing point-of-view, it’s just some good advice.

There’s a much longer story about growing up in Manchester in the 80s and how that is a deep part of my creative psyche. The short answer is it’s inspired by Peter Saville’s iconic FAC 1 gig posters from his when he was the designer for Factory Records. Here’s the design used on the 2019 box-set “Use Hearing Protection: Factory Records 1978-79”:

And here’s a photo of one of the original FAC 1 posters:

Now what?

Expect sporadic updates and long periods of neglect. Like most of my other projects. I make no apologies.

Archive of all of my old NES audio tools.

NES AUDIO