How do you know analog and patch cords are really back? It’s the return of the patch book. The beloved SOMA PULSAR•23 just got an 80-odd-page tome full of patches for this unique “organismic” instrument, from community members and friends of SOMA.
They’ve grouped these, interestingly, by genre – well, loosely, as you get:
- techno
- noise/drone
- electronic (wait… as opposed to?)
- digital hardcore
- “weird and unexpected”
- “dope”
- “groovy”
- and… “other”
Looks like one of my categorization systems. There’s a beautiful combination of folks, so let’s name them all – including the likes of Surgeon and Freddy Fresh:
Domenico Policaro, Surgeon, ZEFEAR, Dayflight, BbartokK, Stu, spheric, Kostas Kosmos, Libor Vanc, FFRWD, Colin Swegman, Dexba, uisato, zagm0g, John LG butcher, TAET, Electrohed, Erik Verhulst, Mesak, Libor Vanc, just ask, Punisha, Nicky Bagels, David Dufour, Brijss, Soma Love, Dopesmoker, Krismenn, Ina Vukmirovich, Nealwho, Severin Lüst, Steve Curcuru, Muh, Bombmotion, Freddy Fresh, Andrew Huang, Aqeel Aadam, BLUSH_RESPONSE, attowat
And you get results like this (just to needle-drop):
This one even uses NASA asteroid data and TouchDesigner:
Most come with SoundCloud or YouTube demos and a few come with really copious patch notes. (Hyperlinking makes the online version of this useful, then.)
It’s a beautiful collection. Got a piece of gear (or concept) for which you’d like to see something like this? Let us know; maybe we can make it happen.
Grab the patch book, even just to peruse, alongside the Pulsar’s other documentation:
But wait, there’s more – SOMA also just unveiled an interactive manual for the PULSAR-23. Just click on an element to get information. That seems an idea worth repeating (and might even make folks read manuals, ya know…):
https://pulsar23manual.somasynths.com/
Oh, and PS speaking of “do you have ideas for other instruments to try this out with,” it was good fun working on CDM’s Moog Matriarch guide with patch notes! So there’s a 2023 resolution – let’s do more!