Modular - why bother?

The Lounge General Discussion
#62

I agree with that regarding modular synthesis itself…
On the other hand I can totally see the appeal of building a personalized groovebox/setup with “macro modules”, full synth and drum voices, a nice sequencer and some fx.
You can choose the synth and drum voices that totally appeal to you - in regular grooveboxes, I usually always find something that isn’t quite right.

Also, there is the potential to pack everything you need for making tracks in one single case, that only needs one power source, instead of cluttering all your desk with single drummachines and desktop synths etc…

Of course I know many clutter all their room with dozens of modular cases… But that’s another story :slight_smile:

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#63

Yep, good points.

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#64

I bought the DFAM cause it was so simple and direct… to each their own indeed :slight_smile:

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#65

Frisbee Golf - why bother?

Just play golf instead.

Painting - why bother?

Your pictures are lame. Look at photos. Come on man.

Gardening - why bother?

Just pick up some veggies at Whole Foods. Your flower blends are silly too.

…

Accepting that some people have interests that you don’t have and that doesn’t make them stupid or pointless - why bother?

:roll_eyes:

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#66

This.

I’ve got everything I need for music making down to a small suitcase and an Octatrack.

To achieve the same in a non-modular setup wound be significantly less portable.

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#67

Ok, now this is cool… and doesn’t sound like what I think of as ‘modular’ at all.

#68

I think you are correct, yes… I’m probably basing my initial opinion on my personal exposure to/experience of seeing modular setups used.

If I step back and use a guitar analogy, it’s like a similar comparison to someone using an elaborate pedalboard and amps, compared to someone using something like a Helix (although that introduces the digital v analog debate)… but, I can see how someone would build up a dedicated instrument using modular gear.

I just don’t think I’ve seen many people using modular gear in that way… it always seems to be the ‘wall of modules’ or a case or two, played/controlled from within itself.

Maybe it’s the way I think/categorise tools for making music… I know what my Sub37 does, I know my Peak, A4, etc, etc… and I know what tool I will reach for for any given job, so maybe I just don’t have ‘modular’ in that repertoire/vocab?? (Honestly think I’ll keep it that way too, unless the Matriarch changes my mind…).

#69

So, cringy “prove me wrong” provocation of the original post aside…

As someone who has messed around with conventional synths, samplers and drum machines for several decades now, the reason for me to explore modular is to make sounds conventional hardware can’t. Whether it’s down to the core sound being generated, or the way that it’s able to be modulated, or the interaction of those sources in novel ways, it’s about making new sounds beyond the inherent constraints of conventional gear.

For some people generative bleeps and bloops are what they want from their modular setups, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I look at it more as an additional set of tools in an audio toolkit.

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#70

Your music is a great example of modular used with musicality :heart:

#71

Why not both modular and regular hw? There is no reason to make a distinction…

My own problems with the modular was that I wasn’t able to reproduce the interesting sounds I could get. That was bothering me. This and the fact that it is super expensive, and makes it hard to commit to a setup.

The journey was very interesting though, I learned a lot in term of synthesis, discovered tricks I had no idea before…

In the end I sold almost everything, and only use Elektron machines now. To each their own, but one thing is sure: without judging others, if you feel that modular is not your thing, don’t dig further, stay on your ground and save money! There’s already a lot to do with a Digitone alone ^^

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#72

For me I love modularity because of the flexibility of the synthesis. Doing audio rate modulation of various parameters, patching signals from a filter back to control parts of the oscillator. Building your own effects chains. I tend to sequence it with the digitakt and do fairly traditional pattern based stuff but it allows you to go wild with the sound generation and shaping. I think this is the real key to “finding your own sound”.

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#73

I am not using hardware modular at the moment but I actually found Eurorack to be a comparatively distraction free music making experience. A typical synth, sampler or plug-in has many features that I either don’t understand or would never use, and yet there I go twiddling those knobs. With a personally designed modular setup, you don’t have all of these extra options. I only had a couple ways to do anything.

There are loads of ways to experiment with modules to extend their limits, or what you thought they could do, but by and large I was usually just building a very simple version of a synth, or a very personalized signal path for a sample to be processed.

I use Blocks now when I need that experience because I wanted to get back to making dance-ish music, which I enjoy more doing on either an elektron box or my laptop, but I often wish any of these devices were as simple and direct as modular.

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#74

To be fair, James Holden uses his modular as a single instrument in a whole band of musicians playing other instruments.
And it is usually sequenced by his Max patches.
It is certainly not made entirely with modular as the reply would suggest.
But it is very good indeed, and certainly musical.
This is probably the closest I’ve seen to him do entirely modular but even this has Camilo Tirado on tabla and his laptop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkbLqNeKafg

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#75

I fear I’ll develop patch hands. The Make Noise stuff looks interesting but not something I need.

#76

I realized since I don’t make money from making music I can’t modular. Semi-modular is as far as I’ll take it.

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#77

My attraction to modular lies in the fact that

  1. You can literally build any unique synth that you want
  2. Happy accidents are everywhere - less so either desktop gear
  3. Constantly answering my curiosity about “what will happen if I plug this into that”
    It is prohibitively expensive though!

Huge problem in modular! 2 channels of modular into OT makes sure I can keep any good sounds.

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#78

As we‘re on elektronauts, I would say the a4 is a nice reason to bother about(?) modular.
At least when it didn‘t have midi but now also.
I got 2x the elektron cv adapter kind of by accident( ordered and had to wait long in a shop, ordered again directly)
I kind of regret that i was too distracted ny other stuff and turned off by saving etc on a4 to concentrate on just that and erebus v1 at the time. I just have some semimodulars and no concept and nice results now but dream about structuring/cleanig up with a4 mk2 and one bigger modular sometimes.
( will for sure buy a4 mk2 when my mk1 dies someday)

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#79

As many people already reacted I’ll stick to a personnal thing I noticed since I became a teacher on the subject of sound synthesis, using modular synthesizer as a teaching tool.

Most people who never used modular, even if they have been using synthesizers for years at great effect in their music and know their way around what they own and use everyday; still almost all of them have actually NO idea about how it actually work inside.

Once you get to patch your sound from scratch a few time you end up discovering and learning a lot. My own journey was very much the same, and even tho i’ve been a bit on the collecting side of things, I always considered each my modular system as an instrument of his own. I do use them to make very complex thing as well as studid acid basslines sometimes.

Anyway for me it was a very interresting journey, I don’t buy much modules nowadays as most of I have already a very nice set of very different systems that I like, each a quite different interface and take on synthesis and i’m happy with those.

I do think modular are not for everyone at all, but those are a great way to understand how synthesis work, in the very deep sens.

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#80

Might just be that nobody jumps directly into modular gear with absolutely no prior experience with the more conventional synth world so you see people who were “tired” of normal synths and therefore trying to do deep stuffs.

Like you, they owned a few synths… then a semi-modular synth arrived, like a Matriarch.

oh, my A4 can send a randomized sequenced LFO into the delay time of my Matriarch and wow, that’s fun. The sound is always evolving with just hooking a cable from an external gear.
Then you want to create more and more evolving patches.

But you could totally recreate a synth with 3 oscillators, a SEM filter followed by a Moog style filter, a loopable envelope where you can set different curve algo and an euclidien sequencer with a few extra features from other modules…
that’s why modular gear is so great but well it’s a rabbit hole for sure haha

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#81

I see modular as a type of music that only certain people will like; as opposed to classic electronic music - made with classic gear - that is more universally liked and understood.

I’m talking about regular non-music listening folks, if you show them modular music, they may not find it listenable. If you show them classic tracks made with classic instruments, they may dance.

I don’t do modular, even though it seemed cool when I started experimenting with sounds.

My main interest is composing sequences, not shaping sounds it seems.