Syncopated combs...

When I created Comber, the dual comb filter with too many LFOs, I thought that I had taken the concept quite far enough. But tonight my inspirational muse struck, and before I knew it, there were four independently modulated comb filters, the same dual auto-panning, and joining them was an extra LFO to modulate the Wet/Dry mix. It is probably too many LFOs in one effect, but it is great fun to tweak.

With all those extra gain controls and modulation of just about everything, then adding a Limiter after Hairbrush is quite a good idea. Ping Pong Echo also jollies up the sound a bit, and a Saturator is good for beefing up a sound. All of which gives us a chain which looks like this:

[Synth] -> [Saturator] -> [Echo] -> [Hairbrush] -> Limiter

Exploring the possibilities could take some time. (I'm one of those synth freaks that has to set every LFO to a slightly different value, every VCO slightly detuned, every filter slightly modulated, etc. It is probably no surprise to learn that I loved the sound of the original (203a) Moog PolyMoog, but hated the design with all those voice cards that were a nightmare for maintenance.) But back to Hairbrush, and the same tweaking principles apply - LFOs to different frequencies, prime numbers rule when all else fails, and syncopation is your friend. 

( Hairbrush is gradually being loaded to the MaxForLive site as I go through the conversion cycle for the two profiles of Live and Max... )

Related articles

• Syncopation and the Score