Advantages of going modular?

Sorry guys I would’a responded sooner but I was off stuffing my face with christmas food :stuck_out_tongue:

If someone wants…

The album sounds great Djeroek. Love the sounds on it, and the overall tone of the tracks. It reminds me of VI Scose Poise & Sim GIshel from Autechre’s Confield album. I’ve been threading in that kinda direction lately myself, with spectral blurred, granulated, time-stretched sounds. A lot my stuff doesn’t have much musicality to it though, at least not yet anyway. Primarily because I’ve gotten quite interested in more abstract electro-acoustic stuff, and because I’ve been playing around with the idea of self generating songs created with the phrase editor and sample banks. So it’s all very all over the place and experimental.

Thanks for the songfiles, I’ll download them and play about with. Reference material is always great. Much appreciated :slight_smile:

So have you already tried thinks like reaktor?

No I havent tried Reaktor before at all. I have seen it though in pictures from old Sound on Sound articles. The closest I’ve ever gotten to anything remotely like it I suppose would be Max/MSP and Pure Data, but I only did very very basic entry level patching in that like: generating a kick drum, making a randomised sequencer, making one oscillator modulator another, by watching step-by-step tutorials. That was about it because I bought Renoise then and just got stuck into sample based music for a good while. So yeah very limited in terms of cable noodling really, but enough to get me off the ground I suppose. Although I’ll just be going back and rehashing what I did in the best to refresh my brain anyway. :walkman:

I’ve heard feedback being talked about, which kind of led me to believe that it’s got great sound design qualities, but I still haven’t really gotten into the thick of how to use it for such purposes yet. I’m working my way through Curtis Roads Computer Music Tutorial (really slowly :stuck_out_tongue: ) but I know he uses it a lot so I’ll no doubt be coming across it soon enough.

I dunno if any external sequencers were involved, it sounds as though it could well be stuff without any pc… Now this game seems another different obscure game to me, and it is more like trying to steer controlled randomness into mindblowing results, than deliberately composing stuff. This sounds cool sometimes, but is not really my preference, I just write it so you get a little more idea of what is happening. Mod synths don’t have to be used this way, but it seems to be a deeper discipline in using them. Like it is not only about ways to wire up custom synths, but also a whole shitloads of techniques to kind of create sequences of sounds that partially work via analog wired logics. A bit like creating so called “rube goldberg machines”, kind of…

Many people owning stuff seem to rather like to make tweaking sessions with experimentations and such, and record them to disk. And then use the galore of different sounds chopped in samplers as material for their works. This makes more sense to me for more deliberate and controlled content creation.

Yes as I mentioned above I’ve been interested in the idea of randomness lately and I know that in modular setups you can have clocks modulating clocks and all kinds of crazy setups, so I’ve really wanted to test that out and see what kind of things I can cook up. Because I’m not always great at imagining pre-defined structure in my music before I start, I like to create using randomness for either the entire piece, or for creating long passages of sound which I can pull out chopped melodies and sounds from, as you yourself said before re-arranging into more formal structures :slight_smile:

Maybe wait for Bitwig 2.0? Some rumors said it could be released in january. Maybe it will be fully modular then. No reason to use anything else then…

Maybe wait for Bitwig 2.0? Some rumors said it could be released in january. Maybe it will be fully modular then. No reason to use anything else then…You’ve lost faith in Renoise?

I’ll have check it out when it’s released so. Only thing is, I prefer the vertical tracker display to the horizontal piano roll/waveform. Makes more sense to my brains, so I dunno if I could work with it really. It could be a hindrance more than a help is what would worry me :unsure:But hey, everythings deserves a chance so I’ll check it out :slight_smile:

ffx_away, on 28 Dec 2016 - 03:43, said:snapback.png

You’ve lost faith in Renoise?

Did I write that? Mh, no, I try it to see like Taktik suggested. Renoise is still fine for what they sell it. Not a DAW in first, but a sophisticated sample mangler / sampler. Only Bitwig becomes really what I always wanted, and I don’t see such things for Renoise in the future. Obviously lot of inspiration in Bitwig comes from Renoise.

Did I write that? Mh, no, I try it to see like Taktik suggested. Renoise is still fine for what they sell it. Not a DAW in first, but a sophisticated sample mangler / sampler. Only Bitwig becomes really what I always wanted, and I don’t see such things for Renoise in the future. Obviously lot of inspiration in Bitwig comes from Renoise.

Wops sorry about that! That was my actually my initial question but I changed it then after I went and checked out Bitwig, I must have accidentally left it in instead of deleting it. My bad

I didn’t like it all that much myself, buthttp://www.mutools.com/mux-product.html might be an option if you wanna do some modular stuff.

Even though it might be fascinating and a change from the usual routines, it is time consuming and you need to have some patience and maybe start with looking at preset patches to get an idea where to start. The more complex the harder to keep track of everything. I personally prefer a more organized view of things and not just a lot of cables noodling about. I wouldn’t mind filling a wall with some of those though, i think i eventually will end up with something similar built with partly homemade stuff, but i need the time and place.

I have a nord modular for almost 20 years …and yes it’s digital …but still verry capable …And …it handles feedback verry well :slight_smile:

Either you go fully analogue…but beware … people call it a rabit hole …there’s no ending to it …

Or get a nice buchla inspired 'make noise ’ zero coast

Quote from gentleclockdivider…

“Or get a nice buchla inspired 'make noise ’ zero coast”.

I just got it recently, its my first modular… very flexible (for the cost and size).

For example, by accident of course,

I was able to do some poly-rythms by clocking the gate

and modulating the balance between the fundamental and overtones

with the slope generator (which can be cycled).

The clock at one speed and the slope generator at a different speed.

No midi input since I don’t have a midi interface…

but being able to have Renoise communicate to it would be more than welcome.

Anyway, from the man himself (No Coast topic and demo starts at 23:44)…

ContinuuCon :: Tony Rolando on East Coast/West Coast Synthesis

Also, on a different subject (software synth)

be on the look out for Sonic Charge’s Synplant update in 2017.

I don’t know if it will be modular but its suppose to be a game changer in terms of “discovering patches”.

I didn’t like it all that much myself, buthttp://www.mutools.com/mux-product.html might be an option if you wanna do some modular stuff.

Even though it might be fascinating and a change from the usual routines, it is time consuming and you need to have some patience and maybe start with looking at preset patches to get an idea where to start. The more complex the harder to keep track of everything. I personally prefer a more organized view of things and not just a lot of cables noodling about. I wouldn’t mind filling a wall with some of those though, i think i eventually will end up with something similar built with partly homemade stuff, but i need the time and place.

Mux seems to be interesting. :slight_smile: But, I am still hesitating, as I already have modular software synths (Wusik and others), modular enviroments (Bidule, Usine) … Maybe it is already more than enough for me.

I am afraid that you can spend years making patches, without making any music, once you started with a modular synth. Because it is so interesting to patch around. And if you do it with hardware, you just need to remember how you wired everything to recall a patch - in software it is different, there you have the convenience of fxp files. :wink:

If I win the lottery and have enough time to take the keyboard lessons, I’ll want to have a look at the Matrixbrute. Not fully modular, but it looks like the better user interface, and can remember all patches, besides other cool features. For now, I stick with my small sequencers (or software), no need for a big keyboard, as long as I cannot type with ten fingers LOL

Mux and Reaktor experts: How is their CPU usage? I do not know them, but from other modular software synths I know that is not difficult to exhaust the CPU with a complicated patch. Even 16 GB of Ram would not help, as I learned. So, how is it with Reaktor (or Mux) if you want to use several instances at once?

And here is another one that also works on a Mac or Windows PC…http://sound-guru.com/software/tangle/

mostly use mine as mood light swag.

How bigs your electricity bill?

125-300 a month.Jeesus wtf?

wow, i blew off that 0coast thing. but, looks much cooler than i thought it was. it’s very well thought out.

this guy is printing! and programming (in pd) his own modular-alike environment that he can wear! while performing :panic:

http://onyx-ashanti.com/

anyway, if you do decide to get into this stuff get some function generator type modules very early in. pittsburgh envelope, maths, function, a 171-2 doepfer, rampage, whatever. they won’t loose functionality no matter what direction you upgrade in. how often do these come up used? rarely because. this affordable and assembled serge/buchla ‘analog computer’ ‘patch programmable’ stuff that doepfer’s fit-it-in-euroracking ‘standard’ eventually became impregnated with is (not all, but…) an important part of it’s appeal.

figuring these out (not hard) will quickly twist your thinking around to realizing what modular really is. and can serve to lead future expansions with less guesswork.

tbh eurorack is a pretty mediocre standard. not bad, just not great. sometimes bad. still great accomplishment overall. the thing about standards is that the most important part is how many people jump on board and go with it, not how good the standard really is. ‘good’ standards can be incredibly contentious! which makes them fail without some amazing leadership or powerful force behind them… but then, those often turn into tyrannical one man shows then they maybe don’t exactly fail, but do… whatever they do… yeah… way off topic now…

so, yeah, if you must do it, do it. and ig i suggest you first do the usual and get some eurorack setup and some osc and filter that you like and some function generators and see what happens.

messing about and seeing what happens is one of the advantages of modular. being a gentlemanly hobby is another. certainly, more [edit]humane[edit] than writing poetry or shooting deer or foxes.

ooo.

hornet modular synth - very nice compact design design: http://wp.thesynthi.de/

Modular vs groovebox

If you need any help getting into this stuffs IM YOUR MAN! I’ve recently calends down on the less then perfect to interface with DAW aspect and turned the treble up for the euro!! Have a full rack right in front of me as we speak :wink: they’re SO FUCKING FUN!

I know what’s up and can help you get a feel and idea what your gunna need…

For instance I haven’t and will ever give Renoise up fully, I use live until I get expert sleepers killer module but then I’m thinking of going straight up Euro (video and audio) PD and renoise… for a live interactive experience… :wink: