Track 1
First a simple standard sawtooth is heard, this slowly diminishes in volume. Then the same tone is heard through a single Mutator channel (mono) with the controls set as seen in example 1, page 9 of the manual. As the volume of the input descends so the cut-off frequency of the filter (under envelope follower control) follows it down taking the filter resonant frequency with it. This resonance however, tends to "hang"on the harmonics of the wave, picking each one out in turn - resulting in this rather musical effect.
The purpose of track 1 is to demonstrate purity and musicality of the filters, a quality normally only found in ye old analogue synths and not found in modern day digital equipment. Don’t be surprised though, as our filters closely replicate the circuits found in early synths.
Track 2
OK, I’ve got the naffest bass sound I could find (it turned out to be a DX7 sample) then I played the corniest old bass line I could think of into my sequencer (a simple 2 note octave low then high repeating.) This was not easy but finally I reached the cut-off frequency control and slowly swept it downwards to about the 10 o’clock position. As the cut-off frequency descends, harmonics from the DX7 are picked out and - unlike equalisation - these boosted frequencies follow the pitch of the sound source and are always perfectly tuned (such is the nature of this type of resonance.) As the cut-off frequency gets down in to the bass area all of the above becomes very significant, as the (potentially huge) amounts of in tune sub harmonics can be added (thin sounds turn into fat sounds, DX7’s turn into Moogs etc.) Anyway, I then turned up the LFO depth control. Now the bass is swept by the LFO. Then I switch the waveform control to various different settings so that the two sides of the Mutator are different, now you get a pseudo stereo effect (mono in ? out.) Finally you hear the Mutator LFO sections with different rate and waveforms to each other.
Track 3
Crap string sample with a little delay on, is held in one continuous chord. Then the same chord is Mutated this time under midi control. (Any note played on a keyboard will cause the cut-off frequency to reset itself to that note). I have played two simple riffs into my sequencer and set one to each channel of the Mutator. This gives the illusion that a sort of melody is being played whereas in fact all that’s happening is that different harmonics are being picked out rhythmically. Unlike most other midi devices the front panel controls will act additively to any midi input and towards the end of this track you can hear me showing this as the track fades out under midi volume control. Yes, you can use the Mutator simultaneously as a volume, gate and filtering automation unit.
Track 4
A bog standard drum loop gets done in!! A regular note (four beats to the bar) is sent via midi to the Mutator, re-triggering the LFO. Just like all the previous tracks the input (or inputs) -audio or midi- are never changed during a track but on this one the LFO rate, waveform and depth are changed quite radically (about every four bars or so.) The result, well it just mutates for itself.
Track 5
A flat boring organ is playing the same two chords over and over. Then suddenly drums are switched in. As the drums are also being sent to the external controls of the Mutator (see example 2, page 9 in the Mutator manual) the organ is immediately mutated by the drums. Sorry, but I accidentally leant on my delay feedback controls during this one! Please note that all the sounds on this track apart from the drums originate from just two chords being held down on an organ sample.