Modular Music Notation

[c1t1zen]

Before unpatching I record audio of the patch. Then I consciously retrace what parts of the patch works. Unpatch and start over. Over time I have a mental recall of a bunch of building blocks of patches that I like reusing.
But I don’t expect exact recall of sound ever on a modular, I’m always looking for new patches.
For live shows maybe some notes/photos but mostly just practice practice practice.
I have seen some modular notepads with diagram blocks and connections and some who use a front panel layout and then draw the wires.

[laborcamp]

I am definitely interested in this subject

The two avenues you guys described apply to me at the moment:

1. Trying to learn/internalize strategies, or building blocks rather than complete patches, and

2. Recording audio of just extended improvisation that then can be carved down into something self-contained.

I find that I lean towards 1. more frequently, as I tend to think of modular as an “in the moment” instrument. But, when it comes to performing live, I am trying to figure out a way to “notate” certain aspects of the piece. A general momentum of particular segments, or textures, or levels of intensity etc. So, rather open-ended ideas that would need to be interpreted on the spot.

BUT

I also have attempted to “write down” patches that were developed for particular performances. I posted this image on the old forum, but it probably belongs here:

[myecholalia]

you have just posted my new desktop wallpaper.

[lyckland]

awesome picture @laborcamp

[beo]

(i’m looking at your drawing with a cellphone) and this beautiful hypomnema looks like mitochondria

[koam]

But, when it comes to performing live, I am trying to figure out a way to “notate” certain aspects of the piece. A general momentum of particular segments, or textures, or levels of intensity etc. So, rather open-ended ideas that would need to be interpreted on the spot.

This made me think of Christina Vantzou and this video where she describes how her music is performed live using a combination of her own notation, a giant digital clock and flashcards to call certain musicians back to their individual motifs at certain points throughout the piece.

[Larry]

I think this was posted before somewhere around here:
Eliane Radigue has a very interesting approach to notating modular patches. It’s basically a grid of all inputs and outputs, kind of like a patchmatrix on the vcs 3.
I guess the big problem with notating modular music is notating temporal qualities/changes

[glia]

love love love radigue

she is part of why I do this at all
(I know this off topic but I have a huge appreciation for her contribution to music history + her processes/ideas about sound)

[c1t1zen]

@laborcamp those are the notes I was thinking of. Looks like air traffic control. Clear for landing at runway CV1.

[laborcamp]

Two years ago I constructed a 9 hour performance around the ideas of immaterial labor. The project called “Permanent Labor” included a station for the audience to participate in a communal singing/reciation of passages/words culled from Lazzarato’s text. The dynamic for this part of the project was inspired partly by the call and response public speakiing format of the Occupy Movement, and partly by Shape Note singing practice. To give this open-ended engagement some structure I prepared these “Voice Books” consisting of the text lines paired with an abstract visual scores suggesting musical interpretations. No specific information was given as to how these need to be interpreted. In the end, sometimes they became a guide for pitch, other times intensity.

While not strictly a notation for modular synthesizer, this was definitely notation for modular performance. And it illustrates (to certain extent) the kind of “open” character of the abstract visual system only alluding to musical dimension of the event itself. I should also add that there was a live percussion for the entire duration of the event providing a rhythmical “bed” for the ad-hoc choruses that developed over night.

[Wakermusic]

Eliane Radigue is great, as is her way of notating patches, but I suppose ARP2500 lends itself to that type of representation due to the patch matrix design.

[chapelierfou]

@chapelierfoumusic

[strettara]

Looks like my life.

(20 characters hates one-liners.)

[wintercat]

I recall seeing a good interview with bill

where among other things he talks about a shorthand for live video performance…
like a graphic notation for video synthesis…

I think this is it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkH8w2x7XWM

most relevant from 7:35 on…

-though the whole thing is well worth watching.

edit:
further elaboration
from 40:00

[sandy]

I think one of the things I like about modulars is their impermanent nature and I’ve never really felt the need to notate my patches. But, I play live very rarely and the “studio” based noises I make are usually improvised and/or processed in some way. They’re not something I’m aiming to repeat necessarily.

What I do remember is patching details. That’s what I call them anyway. Patching details are transferable and can be used in other patches than the one I may have discovered them in. Things like - if I put an audio rate source into a certain CV input on this module it makes it go “screeweeeblrrrrrrg.”

[lijnenspel]

Somebody made a markup language (and parser) for patch notes! Now all we need is a robot arm to do the patching for us and we’d have presets in modulars!

SpektroAudio/Patchbook

VOICE 1:
	- Metropolis (Pitch) p> Braids (1v/oct)
	- Metropolis (Gate) g> Function (Trigger)
	- Braids (Out) -> Optomix (Ch1 Signal)
	- Function (+ Out) >> Optomix (Ch1 CV)
	- Function (- Out) >> Braids (Timbre CV)
	- Optomix (Out 1) -> AUDIO INTERFACE (input)
	
	* Metropolis:
	| BPM = 124
	| Swing = 0
	| Root = F
	| Scale = Minor
	| Mode = F. Forward
	| Stages = 16
	
	* Braids:
	| Mode = Fold
	| Timbre = 30%
	| Timbre CV = -20%
	| Color = 0%

	* Function: Rise = 50% | Fall = 50% | Curve = 30%
	* Optomix: Damp = 0% | Control = 100%

[jasonw22]

This is really well done, bravo!

[oscillateur]

Yeah, I saw that on Muffwiggler (once in a while there’s something interesting there), this indeed looks pretty cool.

[wolfgangschaltung]

Reminds me of my own patching note system, in comparions I don’t care to describe the connection type (like audio, gate, pitch…), but as I am using patchcables with color coded length, I need to describe the patch cord length:

[razzkazz]

This thread seems to have gone dead, sorry if reviving it offends anyone I had hoped Patchbook could be useful but development seems to have stopped and any patches I create with it are a visual mess and very hard to read. I have been exploring a patch for a month now and it’s something I might do concerts with at some stage. I think it this method was mention here, the method I tried was create a Google Sheet (spreadsheet) with drop-down menus, with one column for source connections, another for destinations and some columns for notes/settings etc. Settings are not as important, though I might fill in some, and add some notes, it was more the connections themselves that I wished to recall. It wasn’t a very satisfying experience, kind of like doing a tax return, but I guess they are necessary too I’m not a notebook guy so maybe this might work when I need to document something, and I like something that can be readable from my phone easily, though haven’t tested it with this method yet. Anyone else work this way? Here is a link to it if anyone wants a look at my accounts https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ljszHtOk7ezWDNWhv0SJ1lqg9nrUuzueFSG16lYEB8I/edit?usp=sharing