Ethereal Electronics - Shooting Stars

Shooting Stars is a generative CV sequencer that lets you shape the behaviour of a melody without entering notes one by one. Four encoders control how often rests occur, the average pitch, the note range and a separate modulation voltage called Drift. Sequences can repeat over a chosen length or keep generating new material, with notes quantized to your selected scale and adjustable variation to introduce changes along the way. The LED columns show parameter values and passing notes as falling shooting stars, hence the name.

Mean and Range have CV inputs with attenuverters, so a short repeating phrase can move through different registers or spread across more octaves under external modulation. A Root input sets the root note of the scale, while two pitch outputs provide the melody and an adjustable offset version, both quantized to that scale. Patch them to two voices for related melodic lines, with the gate output handling articulation and Drift controlling a filter or another parameter. Slew, vibrato and accents add further movement, while Reseed generates a fresh sequence and Restart takes the current one back to its beginning.

Another nice idea here is Save & Recall. It allows you to save a combination of rest probability, average pitch, range and Drift, then adjust the controls to a second state. Triggering Recall returns to the saved settings and starts a gradual transition towards the new ones, over anything from a second to several minutes. Alternatively, you can control the transition directly with CV. It’s a useful way to develop a phrase while it plays, making changes by ear without having to edit individual steps. You set the direction and listen for what’s worth keeping.

Features:

• Stochastic CV sequencer for generative and evolving melodies
• Four encoders with secondary functions and LED note visualisation
• Main controls for rest probability, average pitch, note range and Drift
• Selectable sequence lengths up to 32 steps, plus continuous generation
• Ten scales, including major, minor, pentatonic, chromatic and Bohlen–Pierce
• Root 1V/oct input with manual transposition
• Mean and Range CV inputs with attenuverters
• Two 1V/oct pitch outputs with an adjustable scale-quantized offset
• Gate output with adjustable length and trigger mode
• 0–5V Drift output with optional note accents
• Adjustable variation, vibrato and pitch slew
• Save/Recall parameter transitions with timed or direct CV control
• Clock, Restart, Reseed and Recall trigger inputs
• Clocked, quantized sample-and-hold mode
• Clock division from /1 to /32
• Firmware updates via audio