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2. Patching your first sound in Bazille CM

1 So, you’ve flipped through Bazille CM’s presets and your mind has been blown by two things: the epic sound… and the epic quantity of cabling used in even a fairly basic patch! In reality, it’s not as scary as it looks – let’s build a retro synth pad from scratch to see how easy it can be. Enter the Patch Browser, and load the 00 User » INIT patch. 2 There are already two cables: the red output of Oscillator 1 is connected to a grey input on the Filter; the Filter’s red LP24 (low-pass 24 output) is routed to Out 1. So, it’s a standard single oscillator and filter setup. In the Oscillator 1 module, twist the PD knob to morph from a sine to a sawtooth wave using phase distortion – set it to 100 when you’re done. 3 The two dropdown menus below the PD knob set the ‘target’ waveform. With the second at its default of ‘Same’, the first works like a standard waveform selector. However, with the second menu set differently, the oscillator plays the two waves back to back. Set the waveforms to Saw and Impulse for a squelchy tone, and adjust PD to hear the tones available. 4 Let’s use Envelope 1 to sweep the PD knob automatically with each note played. First, set PD to 20 to give our modulation some ‘headroom’ to work with. Now, see the unlabelled knob next to PD? That’s the Phase Distortion Modulation control – drag from Envelope 1’s leftmost red output to its grey input to create a connection, then set it to 60. 5 So far, no audible change… turn your attention to Envelope 1 and adjust the sliders to shape the modulation – we set Attack to 15, Decay and Sustain to 50 and Release to 80, giving a long tail. This also affects the volume of the patch, and that’s because in the Out 1 section, the menu below Volume is set to Env1 – not every modulation routing requires a cable! 6 Our sound now has tons of juicy harmonics – ripe for filtering! In the Filter section, pull Cutoff down to 115 and set Resonance to 20. Let’s get the filter moving: drag from LFO 1’s left red output to the Filter’s lower-left grey input to modulate the Cutoff. Turn the latter’s knob up to 10 for a gentle throb. Adjust LFO 1’s Wave parameter to 25 to change the waveform to a softened sawtooth shape. 7 For greater atmosphere, double-click the LFO’s Rate knob to slow it right down, and turn on the FX: Delay module (bottom-right) to drench the sound in tape-style echoes. How about bringing in Oscillator 2? Drag from its lower red output to the Filter’s spare input. Set the Osc 2’s Volume to 16 and Tune to 12 (ie, an octave above). 8 Let’s use Oscillator 2’s Fractalize section to create a hard sync effect. Set its dropdown menu to Saw, and twist the adjacent knob to hear its effect – set it to 1.10 when you’re done. To add yet more movement, drag from Envelope 2’s red output to the Fractalize Modulation knob’s grey input, increasing the latter to 1.30, so that the envelope controls the effect. 9 Finish off by setting Envelope 2’sA, D, S and R to 0, 70, 0 and 70. From here it’s up to you, but we have a few ideas: detune Oscillator 2 with the Modify knob; increase Filter Drive for a harder sound; patch in a different filter type with the six red outputs; or select Envelope2 in LFO 1’s Rate Mod menu before cranking the latter right up, for envelope-driven LFO speed.