#104

I totally understand the cost of kits I’ve made at least 100+ guitar pedals a couple tube amps and a bunch of Fracrack modules. I’ve ordered parts thousands of parts from Mouser and Tayda.

I guess, my post was more about making the observation that there seems to be little economic advantage for the beginner in buying kits.

1 Like
#105

I really dig your both modular artists which i think show exactly what you wrote.

But as long as everyone buys the same modules which are beeing hyped and promoted on every social platform by some few bloggers/posters/artists. everyone will end up doing the same patches/music, this will sooner or later kill all innovation and inspiration of going your own way and maybe result in what this thread is about.

#106

I’m not sure I agree. There are many pianos, not everyone who sits at a piano will play the same music, not by a long shot. Not all combinations of notes have been played.

I believe that the make noise shared system series of recordings is a great example of the instrument not dictating the music made. Alessandro’s record and Bana’s are certainly not the same…

A combination of modules may lend themselves better to creating a specific sound, and make others very difficult. A squelchy filter may beg you to make acid, but thats not the only thing it can do.

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#107

I totally disagree. A huge percentage of people who own guitars only use it to play Wonderwall while they’re hanging out with their friends, but the guitar market hasn’t slowed down any. Innovators and talented musicians will continue to make good music and amazing modules no matter what. Taking the output of what is really a tiny cross section of the community(i.e. people who use social media, who are into synths, and are confident enough to post any of their work online for people to see) as a representation of the health of the entire community is a mistake.

To find good work, you have to dig deep.

However, I will say that there is definitely a sort of social media carousel around popular modules and companies, and especially a fetishization of large systems because of their size and not on the merits of any of the sounds coming out of them. I think it’s possible however to lead by example, use the same methods these popular companies are using to generate hype(well produced, easy to follow videos, good sound demos, popular musicians using their gear) to push people to be more thoughtful and experimental in their patching. Rings and clouds are capable of so much more than what people usually use them for, you just haev to show them a sample of what’s possible and they will do all the rest.

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#108

Having been into modular/euro since 2006 (not as long as some, but possibly longer than most) I think I can shed some light on those charts, particularly the “modular synthesizer” one.
In 2006 (and probably earlier), you had to already be somewhat into modular synthesizers to even know general terms like “Eurorack” or even names like Serge or Buchla, let alone Doepfer or Analog Solutions/Systems. You pretty much had to search “modular synthesizers”. Fast forward to maybe 2010 and ‘eurorack’ had become a relatively known name, and by 2012-2014 actual brand names were becoming well known. So none of those charts surprise me too much within that context.

On the actual tipping point topic, I don’t think we’re there yet. Most trends follow a graph that looks like a bell curve that got stepped on. There’s usually some initial movement upward, then an exponential jump - which I think is where we are now, possibly on the latter half, but not the end. There doesn’t seem to be any deceleration in sales. Then there’s several (~4-7) years of what is kind of like a plateau. It’s not dead flat, but it’s neither an average growth or reduction during that time. Then begins a downward turn, which usually is slower than the initial exponential growth.

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#109

Well said, especially the second part!

#110

Musical history is full of sound design trends that mainstream listeners can recognize. Some of those are genre-related, some are technological; most in the 20th-21st centuries are a bit of both.

The Hammond/Leslie. Funk wah rhythm guitar. Electronic disco toms. Mournful steel guitar in the intros of country songs. Gated reverb on drums. The DX7 electric piano. The 303, the 808. Stutter edits. “Telephone” bandpassed vocals. The exaggerated lo-fi tape/vinyl sound. Even if listeners didn’t know what exactly was making those sounds, they’re recognizable.

Now compare the “Rings (internal exciter) into Clouds (end of chain reverb)” cliche to any of those. Is it really taking over? :slight_smile:

If you look at the top ten sound sources and FX on ModularGrid by popularity – yes, Clouds and Rings and Morphagene are all at the top, but you’ll also see DPO and STO and Dixie and Echophon, and I don’t recall anyone complaining about them.

Rambling a bit here, but: thinking about the surprise release of Tides 2018, I wonder how tempted Olivier is to release a new Rings version that has no internal exciter but offers, say, stereo inputs, additional models, more DSP power etc. I also wonder why there’s so little competition in modular for physical modeling beyond basic Karplus-Strong and closed stuff like Mysteron and Plonk. I believe Rings is where it is because of that lack, and Plonk was an attempt to move in on that space but missed Rings’ best feature.

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#112

Even if you solder the pots and sockets to the board, you have to (well, you probably should…) provide customer service.

#113

Actually we deliberately tried to avoid making Plonk anything like Rings or Elements. Despite using the same kind of technology, we wanted to try something different.
It’s also been one of the best selling Intellijel modules of all time, so I would would say it was a success.

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#114

My impression was that Rings was something Olivier was happy with, whereas Clouds wasn’t.

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#115

Okay, I’ll amend what I said :slight_smile: The direction Plonk went didn’t appeal to me personally.

Based on playing with things like Chromaphone, Prism, Modelonia, Kaivo, etc. as well as Rings, I have the general sense that we have a wealth of exciter sources in modular that we can patch ourselves, but a relative famine in “the back end” of physical modeling that we could apply that to – and to me that is the exciting thing that Rings does (pun unintended until I noticed it :slight_smile: ).

Even among delays there aren’t many that can track 1V/OCT beyond bass frequencies and sound good doing it. I’d love to have a delay similar to the one in Aalto, for instance.

He’s said that Rings and Tides were his favorite modules, and he did just update Tides. He’s also expressed some frustration at how typical Rings owners rarely seem to use it to the fullest and maybe including the exciter was a strategic error.

That said, my thought about a “new Rings” was wishful thinking on my part. :wink:

#116

Hey, you never know. Seeing that Rings was part of Elements, I guess it’s possible. I hope we finally see the new Clouds soon.

#117

I’ve very excited about the Supercollider bubble the Norns is about to inspire!

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#118

Since the man himself does drop in from time to time, he might speak to that, but knowing that quote and seeing how Tides 2018 is laid out, I kind of wonder if he was talking about the at-the-time-unannounced new Tides when he said that.

#119

This thread has reached its tipping point… I wonder if there is any subject this forum can’t turn into consumerism and lusting after new objects.

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#120

the Democracy thread doesn’t seem to have gone there ^-^

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#121

…yet. :wink:

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#122

I’m not sure :thinking: Gibson is going bankrupt but Fender is beating expectations.

#123

yes there is a saturation happening in eurorack.

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#124

can’t wait for the next big music thing(s)

https://www.musicthing.co.uk/modulegenerator.html

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