A two-panel Serge system #
Having played with the mighty Serge modular system at EMS Stockholm several times over the years, I had until recently thought that I wasn’t a Serge guy. With quite extensive experience of Buchla 200 and 200e-systems since 2011, and patching various Eurorack-systems since 1999, I was quite satisfied with that. However, when I got an opportunity to get hold of two newly built panels by Nensén Electronics, I had to give it a serious try.
Early explorations #
The Norberg festival patch #
Since I had an upcoming gig at the Norberg festival, part of the KMH EAM Showcase, I decided that this would be a good opportunity to dive into the Serge and use it live for the first time.
The theme for this year’s showcase was transients, which is a challenge in the festival’s Mimer venue with its 10+ seconds of reverb decay time. I was experimenting with various rhythm generating patches using the SSG coupler, inspired by YouTuber videos like this one:
My version of this patch ended up sounding like this:
I decided that this should be the foundation for my short set at the festival, to be explored with my usual Parsimonia based setup.
Possible Blasphemy #
A common problem when you travel to a gig is how you pack your stuff. I realized that none of my bags fitted the two panels. But I do have a custom-built Buchla-blue Zero Haliburton case modified by me to house a Buchla 200e system and a built-in ES-8 soundcard.
Since I have switched to another case for the Buchla modules, the Haliburton had been collecting dust in a corner for a while. I got help from Jon at Nensén Electronics to fit a separate power supply for the ES-8 in one of the boats, and then…
You can even close it patched if you unplug the stacked cables, which is very good for festival gigs when there’s not much time to set up.
