I should be mixing the new album, but I couldn't help spending time this weekend with a couple of the latest welcome additions to the studio: STG Soundlabs' Time Modules, and my second Serge "boat" (the lower of the two Serge rack units at left).The Time Modules are unique in that they're designed to be clocked by the DIN sync output of a drum machine, rather than having an internal clock like most sequencers. The Time Modules utilize a bus on the backside to distribute clock and start/stop signals sent by the drum machine (they also have front panel jacks for interfacing with other trigger sources instead). There are separate modules for variable voltages and for triggers. A companion module allows you set the number of steps that each of the other modules will step through. So you can create some pretty complex rhythmic sequences really easily.
The Serge, ah... the Serge. Before now I only had one "M-odule": the Creature. This little beast is a most interesting module, capable of all sorts of controlled voltage mayhem. It's easy to spend hours building up the most bizarre percolating self-running patches. So I decided I needed to ground myself with some pure sound shaping capabilities, and went for the Dual Oscillator and Wave Processor modules. I've only begun to scratch the surface with these (or with the Creature, for that matter), but I can already tell I made the right decision. These modules are d..e..e..p...