The Harvestman

I specifically chose The Harvestman because I wanted to talk about The Harvestman modules not the new Industrial Music Electronics modules.

I love mine, they are hard work at times, but the rewards are there with patience and deeper understanding and appreciation for the finer qualities of these modules.

They are capable of producing the most lovely bell tones or the nastiest noise you will ever hear and everything in between.

They are also unobtanium - there's hardly anything available anywhere!

Any love for The Harvestman here? What is your favourite and why?

Yes, yes, and yes! Superb complex deep modules with amazing tones for days. My friend has a bunch in his setup and that is one reason why I got into Eurorack in the first place trying out his systems. Now for me, I have the Kermit MK3 and Bionic Lester MK3 that are fantastic and looking at Piston Honda MK2, Hertz Donut MK2 and Stillson Hammer MK2 as they are less expensive now that the newer versions (except for Stillson Hammer) are out now and Harvestman rock. Orange knobs rule. Kermit and Piston Honda are my favorites because I love wave shaper/wave table synthesis and they do so much besides just that. They have a very hard industrial sound unique to synths and I use that for industrial soundscapes.

EDITED Oct 31st 2020, 18:03

Yay! Good to know there is another fan here - they really are superb hey!

It took me a little while to fully understand them, but now I absolutely rate the Hertz Donut mkII as one of the best complex oscillators out there!

My tips to get the most from it as a new user:

Turn all attenuverters to their centre position, Discontinuity, Tracking (off) and Modulation to zero, choose Sine waveforms for both oscillators and just patch the main Sine out to the mixer.

Really important: Tune the oscillators to each other < seriously, take your time here, they are super sensitive, but your experience will be transformed if you get it right!

Then turn on the through-zero FM and slowly bring up the Modulation knob to discover lovely FM bell tones!

Once you have found this you have found the most pure of Hertz Donut sounds, from there just adding a tiny bit of any of the 3 flavours of Discontinuity wave folding will give you endless timbres, after that, well, just experiment... remember less is more, but sure... why not go all out and turn it all into a snarling cacophony of sound!!

Pro Tip: use Argos Bleak to generate the ratios ad intervals for your oscillators in FM mode - prepare to be amazed!

Enjoy!

Harvestman stuff is...just not right! I love it...if you want "normal", it can do that, but where these shine is on utterly bats**t racket generation. Modules like the Zorlon Cannon, Tyme Sefari, etc are optimized for sonic wreckage. But it's also worth noting that Harvestman was on the Polivoks tip before most everyone else, plus they had one of the first Euro MS-20 interfaces out there.

Only thing I don't like is that new, nondescript name. C'mon...we ALL know this stuff as The Harvestman, and it got its deserved sonic notoriety under that name. Change it back...the old name sounded odd, was memorable, and had a few hints of eldritch bad craziness ala "The Secret of Harvest Home", "The Wicker Man" (albeit NOT Nick Cage's hilarious version!), etc to it.

Hehe yep :)

I have the mkII modules except the Polivoks VCF & LIDER Suboctave and the mk I Double Andore, it's a very stable box, I am not changing much around in it, it could well be as it is now forever.

Agreed re. the new name, it's just so boring in comparison, I have no idea why...!

Totally agree with you Lugia, the old Harvestman name should have never been switched to IME- Industrial Music Electronics that was a bad move on Scott Jaeger's part in my opinion. Yes, sonic mayhem that is the sweetspot for me I love it besides you cannot really get that crazy madness in traditional synths and modular power in the exploration of sound. I plan to get a bunch of the older Harvestman modules MK2 as they are less expensive now and from working with the menus of MK3- I am not really a fan of them and prefer simple knobs, dials and switches. I mean the MK3 is great and still very much hands on for the most part and presets are cool but give me basic dials and switches and lower prices. Sonic mayhem like this patch I made tonite for Halloween:

Heh all good fun!

Agreed re. the new IME modules, too small for me!!

Here's a random recording of The Harvestman from the other night:

https://ln.sync.com/dl/708de7660/cj2tui8q-9gdhaxhg-hhs8cgx2-9gz6jwrf

@Kel_ dude that is freaking amazing very chilling halloween too! Would love to see a video of you walking the patch for learning and teaching purposes. One thing that I love to do as a beginner is help others. Here is me patching my system with Noise Engineering and Harvestman/IME modules:

I do get a lot of haters for some weird reason who downvote my videos on YT channel with no valuable feedback.

Gosh! Thanks... I mean it's just a little messing around?

The patch is quite simple:

1) SH mkII one channel sequence > Argos Bleak
2) 2 channels of Argos Bleak > HD mkII (already tuned as perfectly as possible as described in my previous post)
3) Main osc out of HD mkII > L&R inputs of TS mkII (in Tap Tempo mode tapped/clocked to taste)
4) Various outs from Kermit & ZC mkII direct to modulation points in all of the above
5) That's it - Enjoy & have fun!

I am sorry but I never make videos, even the thought gives me anxiety. I recommend you ignore the downvotes, it seems some people just do this, it's completely meaningless.

The only thing that truly matters is that you enjoy yourself!

If you would like to relieve yourself from the powerful psychological manipulation these views/likes elements invoke, I highly recommend 1Blocker - install and then select the elements on the page you want to hide - create a new rule - done! Never see the likes and dislikes on any YT video ever again, unless you want to - 100% win in my book :)

Thanks for sharing your creative process with your patches Kel_

I understand and for me, I don't really care if folks love or hate my videos. I really do it for myself and to share with others who are new to modular world and want to learn from my experiences. I am glad that I took advice from folks to buy logic module and other tools as I need them now in patches. S&H is great and I have a Doepfer one in first rack as well as two in my second rack that help spice up patches. The other Harvestman modules are on my list now that MK2 ones are discounted price once I get a larger new case. Just waiting for Doepfer Monster base cases to arrive toward end of the year then I can get a Hertz Donut MK2 and few other MK2 modules to pair with a sequencer/mixer/tools and so forth in the base case.

Do you know of a store that has any of the Harvestman items in stock?

A friend is looking for a TS mkII!

Love Harvestman stuff half my system is Harvestman and the other Make Noise. I am desperately after Double Andore MK1 and Bionic Lester MK1 if anyone has any leads, I got cash waiting to leave my pockets and based in UK

There's almost nothing left available anywhere is there... wow!

I sincerely wish you the very best of luck... it took me quite some time to put this together;

EDITED Feb 25th 2021, 01:28