Kids and Modular synths… they grow so fast. Mine is currently going through the disobedient teenage years where it wants to be everything and nothing at the same time …

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What’s the module with the pink PCB with the woman on the back? It’s a cool graphic!

I think that’s ALM’s Pamela’s Workout! (maybe the NEW one, idk)

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Correct that’s the new Pam’s. I’ve ended up with one in every case I build…

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Just got the Sampleslicer! So excited to use it…
Also discovered the full power of Just Friends! I’ve been so confused about how to use it for the last couple months… I should’ve looked at the thread on lines before I got it/did a sort of impulse buy to be honest :sweat:

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Still have a small heap of older stuff sitting here waiting to be bought, but in the meanwhile I’m digging my current setup, which finally came into place this evening after I shuffled a bunch of parts around. So far, my new outs (the most recent Befaco: Output V3) is working nicely; its headphone cue pairs really well with the solo functionality of the ADDAC quintet mixer. I’m just beginning to dig into the Fourses (the newest-to-me thing here), but the 2HP Filt’s low-pass seems to work really well in tandem with it and the Swoop, just keeping the high end in check. I love the sounds and possibilities of the 4ms Spectral thingamabob, though I’m pining for the per-channel audio outs of the ADDAC filterbank I swapped out for the 4ms, even if the ADDAC was overkill for my little rack. I’m not totally sold on the 4ms concept of the individual spectrum envelopes being more useful than individual spectrum audio outs (and maybe that is an option, and I’m simply clueless), but I imagine I’ll come around — or I’ll sort out another way to extract specific bands (like using a second 2HP Filt for just the bandpass). There is room here for 23 more HP on the bottom row, so if you have suggestions, lemme know. I may swap out the Trigger Man for a Temps Utile. I will say I’m really enjoying the Disting, though I didn’t use it in this patch. (The idea of having several Distings is starting to make sense to me.) Anyhow, that’s the report from this little corner off my desk.

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Hahah, I’m reading this not far from Shimo-Kitazawa (our office is 10mn walk from there), the little badge under the lower row of the modular made me smile… :slight_smile:

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That’s so cool. I got that pin back around 2008/2009.

Out of curiosity, what were you anticipating when you got it and what did you discover today? I’ve been looking for new ways to use/rediscover mine recently.

Sorry for anyone that saw this in the bugbrand thread but thought it would be suitable here too for those that don’t venture in there.
Adding the 2 clock dividers to my system has enriched my workflow at least ten fold. This system and my workflow has gone through a bit change lately. For the first time Ive started actually tuning my oscillators and making tonal music with the system, previously I had kind of ‘made up’ my tunings, but I must say some conventional harmony has been quite enjoyable! I also use a keystep with this for that purpose.

I was watching a video where Charles Cohen explains the buchla easel as ‘complex control over simple sound/voice architecture’. That idea resonated with me quite a lot, and lead me to remove and separate most of my red modules, especially drm1, to get the more out of fewer sound sources, and work with a variety of rhythmic and gestural devices for variation. I’m finding the results much more rewarding than my previous methods!
I seem to be doomed to go on long GAS journeys only to return to ‘less is more’ every time.

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This sounds like a great approach. Do you have anything one could listen to? Would love to hear some results of this way of thinking.

This is what I’m working on at the moment, my main voice being a Doepfer A-143-4. I’m (very slowly) getting there!

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super worms my heart to see the fsr box coupling with such royalty. :saxophone:
i hope it is working well for you!

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Not currently, life has been very much getting in the way of recording anything ‘properly’ recently, and i’m away for the rest of November. I am hoping to have time to really dig in in December, i’m overdue a release - my label partner has made 2 since our last tape batch!

If I remember correct I believe Charles was making a differentiation between the complex control of a simple sound being a Buchla/esoteric synth paradigm and the simple control over a complex sound that was very much prevalent before the modular re-ignition (i.e. classic monosynths that have the standard signal path and very little CV interface, or FM synths with a keyboard and not much more than a pitch bend wheel for real time manipulation). I felt the way I was working before was to set up several texturally rich voices whereby my only control was to ‘trigger’ the sound and maybe pitch sequence one or two of them, removing voices and adding control has felt way more satisfying.

Ignoring delays and reverbs, the basic audio path architecture is your standard monosynth components, oscillators, filters, VCAs (incl. wavefolding & saturation). But it is the interconnectivity that makes it interesting, using an oscillator to FM the cutoff of a filter it’s being fed into, dividing that oscillator’s frequency down to clock a sequencer that alters the same oscillators pitch, summed with the cv from a keyboard etc. Having so much inter-dependency in the control portions of the system that minimal gestural changes can have cascading effects across the entire sound construction. Being able to program an analog patch with complex control in that sense, and keep it musically well considered in terms of gesture, emotion and the sense of ‘human’ input is what i’m looking to achieve at the moment. Sorry for the brainfart ramble!

I will post clips whenever I have them hopefully around christmas :slight_smile:

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I don’t actually know eurorack in the slightest, but that module looks wonderful! What are you using as your ‘complex control’ beyond that module’s own i/o?

It works 20chars of great!!

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Speaking of the Doepfer A-143-4, I was wondering if there is any word of a successor to the A-111-5, the way Dark Energy II (and then III) replaced the Dark Energy. I read that A-111-5 sales were very low, so maybe that is the end of the line.

Short answer is, it’s a work in progress :slight_smile:

Longer answer is that I’m currently using a couple of passive FSR tiles that I put together, and another passive tile that has a momentary button. Using these to let CV through from random source, other LFOs etc. Also, the VCO/LFO switches on the A-143-4 itself are handy, you can get pretty big shifts in sound by flicking one of them.

Recently I’ve had it paired with a Benjolin and a sequential switch, and got some nice results. I’m thinking of working on that, and maybe adding a second Benjolin. And Clouds? Maybe. I’m listening to a lot of Xenakis at the moment :sweat_smile:

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Where do you even buy Modcan B stuff? Always been super curious about 'em!

Modcan B (and A) series modules have been, and unfortunately remain, out of production for several years due to the illness of Modcan’s owner Bruce Duncan. The only way to get them at the moment is used.

As far as I am aware some Euro versions have started to trickle out due to their having a relatively automated production process, opposed to the more hand-built approach of A/B series.