#35

It works perfectly with wine now (didn’t always) so no need for a vm even.

1 Like
#36

This is good to know!

#37

Glitchmachines Quadrant and NI Molekular. Though they aren’t as robust as some of the programs you listed they definitely have a modular design, especially Quadrant with its patching.
Also Propellerhead’s Reason if I am not mistaken, the GUIs for their stock VSTs are designed like a giant rack that you can patch together.

1 Like
#38

a small shout out here for Axoloti… in the vain of nord modular , but only costs 65 euros, is open source hardware and software. http://www.axoloti.com

its easy to patch, and contains some tutorials, examples etc … it also has an active community for patching, and creating new objects, as well as hardware integration. also new version has a patch/object library. see http://community.axoloti.com , so a good/cheap way to learn modular synthesis on a digital hardware platform. (imho)

(Im an active contributor to axoloti and a keen fan :slight_smile: but in no way connected financially etc)

4 Likes
#39

I had forgotten about Quadrant. The patching reminds me a bit of the way Aalto works. Also really need to try Molekular as I’ve been spending more time with effects lately. (Does it come with Komplete?)

Always meant to look into Reason but it hasn’t happened yet.

Axoloti looks like the bee’s knees.

#40

Reason is only really modular in the way any studio is modular.

It uses the metaphor of patching for IO from rack gear - audio in and out - and it also uses a metaphor of what it calls “CV” and “Gate” for what is really “pitched/control data” and “rhythmic data”. Sometimes, there are direct patch points to particular controls of a synthesizer… but that’s about it. Of course, as a DAW, it also has automation, which you could argue is a kind of CV control - but patching the LFO of a Thor into the Filter of a Subtractor is pretty much impossible, if I remember rightly (versions of Reason I’ve used heavily: 2, 4 - and then a bit of 6, when they moved to the mixing desk metaphor).

Of course, I do really like Reason’s mixing desk metaphor, which it follows through on. But it feels more like a studio with lots of patchbays than anything that resembles modular synthesis, to me.

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#41

I found a video which I think is a very good break down of a modular synthesizer

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#42

I’m a copyright lawyer in real life. I’d be happy to try to do some research if anyone has copies of the books that they could scan the front-matter of…

#43

Just heard in this interview that Curtis Roads and @trickyflemming are working on Foundations of Modular Synthesis, which will undoubtedly be required reading once released.

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#44

Hah! I was just listening to this with the morning coffee. We’re in the early stages, but I’m very excited for it.

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#45

Awesome - looking forward to it! When you say “in the early stages”, have you got a ball park idea of when we might expect it?

#46

Oh man, very exciting! Looking forward to this one!

#47

I don’t suppose you’ll need “beta-testers” for the book? :wink:

#48

Oh wow, that’s really great news!

#49

There’s now a nice Eurorack 101 on the intellijel site:

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#50

I’m new to modular synths and found reading about them to be more helpful than youtube videos. In some videos unfamiliar terminology is thrown around and I have to look up a lot of it while watching the videos. So far I’ve found these two articles blogs/helpful.
https://www.keithmcmillen.com/category/blog/tutorials/simple-synthesis/page/2/
https://www.synthesizers.com/begin.html

#51

As someone who spent the better part of ten
Years reading and decoding Modular Synthesis
Before I could afford any modules I have
Simplified it to this.

Break modules down into these categories:

Audio Generator (VCO, Sampler)
Audio Modifier (VCF, VCA)
CV Generator (LFO, Seq, EG)
CV Modifier (Atten, Seq switch, Shift Reg)
Utility / Expander (mult, trunk lines)

Realize that most euro modules fall into more than one category. Start with the standard subtractive
Patch and move on from there. Use you ears.

It’s never that simple anymore but a good frame of reference to start.

Learning the Serge Color coding system will help too.

And of course, hands on experimentation helps
Most of all :wink:

3 Likes
#52

Just now seeing this. Any update on the project? It sounds pretty cool! :slight_smile:

#53

I’ve been enjoying this YouTube channel exploring some synthesis techniques as well as compositional techniques for modular! https://youtu.be/1CoyvGY74PE

1 Like
#54

Would love to hear if there is an update on this project as well!