PULSAR-23 by SOMA

The organismic power couple!

Yin and Yang…

2 Likes

A wee question for the Pulsaratti.

I mentioned elsewhere that besides the OP-1, the Lyra was the first machine I bought that took me out of the step-sequence paradigm, which I think has contributed to making it a thoroughly absorbing machine in which I can really lose myself in the delight of “off the grid” exploration. Perhaps reflecting its “organismic” nature.

I’m somewhat attracted to the Pulsar as the rhythmic “off grid” equivalent and wondered if it is a machine that lends itself to such adventures, albeit in its own organismic fashion. It’s like with the Lyra, I just love the places I can go with it, and the idea of something that does drums / fast attack noises and can go to its own wild places is really appealing.

I don’t own any other semi-modular / modular gear and I’m not planning on doing so (“ho ho ho”, we’ve seen that one before" :slight_smile: ) and with the price tag I would be looking to it as something as a sonic investment over time.

Did I ask a question?
Oh, there it is! :slight_smile:

1 Like

The Pulsar is awesome at making its own weird groove, when you mix up/add clock pulses, it makes so weird swings. This + lfo driven drifts.

3 Likes

So I’ve had mine for one day and it’s awesome, for all the wrong reasons…

The inherent sound isn’t really awesome, hitting the pads when it was straight out of the box was very unrewarding… luckily you can quickly patch up some nasty timbres, my favorite being to feedback loop the BD track via out and ext pin. Audio rate patching is where I’ve had the most fun as of now…

Here’s a jam illustrating just that, straight into the dial up music top 10…

https://www.instagram.com/p/COTnB4yB41h/?igshid=13tjjbf4ye94x

Edit: as a side note, while Pulsar is great on its own and great with Euro, it is with the Octatrack that it became a real monster. Just being able to route audio in and out of Octatrack is incredible!

8 Likes

Damn, never tried this feedback thing with the separated outs. Wicked.

I love the Pulsar even sometimes I take ages for now to go where I want.
In this Techno patch, everything came from the machine :

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKzItf_ghy0SpHtbCAe9VUdrguWD1xc_Yoqxvc0/

For now, I have a love hate relationship but this is such a unique machine, worth to spend a lot of time with it !

2 Likes

I think the trick to really get what you want out of feedback patching is sticking an attenuator in the signal path, haven’t tried that yet.

2 Likes

It must be noisy in your studio then !

https://www.instagram.com/p/COVgsnTB0ja/?igshid=wtg9uen4rzsa

The Pulsar is definitely something else. I was messing around working on a drum sequence when I ended with this patch including the bass drum modulated by the shaos, a drone with a feedback and the hats module.

No external FX, just the machine.

:japanese_ogre: Make sure to use your headphones :japanese_ogre:

4 Likes

Ok Pulsars!

I’ve done some research on the Diode pin and it turns out it is everything!

First two patching examples I’ve done (one is mentioned in the manual)

1st patch: trigger Velocity
Patch a trig to the trigger of a track, patch the lfo output to diodes right pin (the cathode) patch the left side (anode) to the same trigger. Now you get velocity on the trigger based on the frequency of the lfo.

2nd patch: CV Glide.

Patch a trigger to the bass track, patch a shaos output to the CV in on bass track (make sure bass track is in CV mode) patch the lfo to the right pin (cathode) patch the left pin (anode) to the CV in of bass track. Now you have glide on the CV based on the frequency of the lfo, you can switch between upward glide, downward glide or both by tweaking the ramp knob on the LFO…

Really cool stuff… I suggest tOObing Diode to get a better understanding of what a diode does…

8 Likes

When those first pulsar vids were coming out I always pictured it being perfect for free improvisation with a live drummer. It’s now a reality!

6 Likes

The kick is weighty!
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CO1sdjFBDT1/?igshid=o3i8qr6jcbv3

2 Likes

Just to chime in on this topic, as i recently scored a Pulsar-23 to go with my OT, Lyra-8, and Sequential Pro-3.
My setup is this with OT serving as mangler/mixer/effects:
In A: Lyra 8
In B: Pulsar-23
In CD: Pro-3

Having a total BLAST with this setup!
OT and Pulsar are a match made in heaven!
I still need to configure midi on the OT to control stuff on Pulsar. Can’t wait to have LFO’s route from OT to the pins on pulsar!

Fun!!!

3 Likes

I am still trying to figure out how to play the bass module notes with the Rytm pads. Triggering works fine. I have read the manual and still confused.

That really does sound like fun!

1st: I assume you do the MIDI learn with the bass module correctly.

I don’t know the Rytm. Do the pads output ordinary MIDI note on’s? I had issues using my external drum controller with my Pulsar-23, which I fixed by using a REAPER plug-in to increase the MIDI notes’ velocities. If Rytm can be set to have its pads output a constant velocity of 127, perhaps try that and see what happens.

I have one on loan from a friend, didn’t rtfm and just went for on night one using the 0 ctrl as a sequencer.
I stitched together 2 takes for this.
I love this thing :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

10 Likes

whoooa what is that sound that comes in at 2:41 it sounds like a vocal sample!? crazy good

1 Like

It’s all pulsar! The Bass channel.

1 Like

that was my guess but you hit such a strong sweet spot that i couldn’t wrap my mind around it!