modular.

where do we think it would be fun to head next? im considering an envelope generator, possibly the intellijel one?

The Intellijel dual ADSR is nice, yeah. Doubles as an LFO too.

moving down the road from london modular in a few weeks. woop

oh yeah. i fookin love good modules.

latest was a borg 1 and A101-3 vactrol phaser. oh yes

http://blog.thisisnotrocketscience.nl/projects/blok-modular/

the blok is bak

sold some old keyboards and audio interfaces, picked up some second hand modules, and im pretty much done with this case. the most fun ive ever had with a synth x 1000. so glad i started collecting this a year ago.

i kept meaning to explore some other manufacturers, but i was just so blown away by the mutables and makenoise stuff i kept buying it.

just found out about https://www.modulargrid.net/ this is so awesome!!

Finally took the plunge into modular. It was going to happen sooner or later :)

I have the TipTop Audio HEK, will probably get a Bento Box case for it.

My first module was the Atlantis (i'm selling my sh101 to fund it, no regrets after comparing the two side by side) and now my 2nd one is on order, the Mutable Instruments Braids.
Intellijel Dual ADSR and µVCA are the next up.

Then probably getting MI Clouds after that, and a good filter or two (ripples is a candidate).

Current rough plan:

I'm really curious about how you run all those systems with so few VCAs ?

I have a full 6u 84hp and a half full skiff which contain dpo,maths,peaks,warps,clouds,echophon,woggle,pitts vcf,braids,plog,rené and geiger counter...

I use an optomix, planar and quattro figgaro as vcas ( for a total of 10 + modules which have their own strike input such as clouds and dpo ) and I plan to get a doepfer quad exponentiall because I find I'm often running low on vcas...

here's the guy for visual feedback :

How do you manage to get going with so few vcas ?

Regarding casing, it seems that a revolution's coming for those interested : http://www.kahncomod.com/

so, 2 years later, i finished my first rack today with the addition of a second hand pressure point + brains. 

this was the best musical decision i ever made. ive got a prophet 08 i pretty much dont even touch because the fun and power of sound that comes out of this thing is just ridiculous. 

case number 2 is getting bought on payday this month. 

not quite modular but ive been loving the Make Noise 0-coast. Sounds fantastic and unique, sits great in mixdowns and it a lot of fun to play with a patch with the mother 32..  Think im gonna get a sq-1 to start some experimentation with live sequencing instead of using it with the mpc.  MN really know how to make good sounding gear it seems.  Love the tight envelope, the insane amount of possible FM sources and lfo/slope on it but its got me wanting MORE!  thankfully the m32 modulation is enough to keep my from wanting to branch out into proper modular for now.  Still have so much to learn with the 0coast, seems to be a real gem

makenoise are amazing. they dont have any modules i wouldnt want to explore. im choking for the DPO and Rene sequencer. 

i fucked my modular off, sold it a few months ago...i just never had time to get into it or use it properly. it's a shame, and maybe i'll get back into it one day...i work a full time high pressure job, am married etc and when i do find a few spare moments to do some music-making i need immediacy. fucking about for 2 hours (often more) patching in one sound simply isn't viable...i'd never get anything finished, takes me long enough as it is. i really love the idea of modular and the possibilities, but the reality is that i didn't have the time for it - it's a valuable lesson for anyone thinking of getting into it - you will need to dedicate LOTS of time and effort to get results that (in some cases) you could have achieved much more quickly with a normal synth.

i also found it difficult to integrate the modular with the rest of my gear...it'd be a case of either just using the modular for the whole track, or using everything else but and the modular just sitting there flashing it's lights hopefully. i never seemed to be able to get everything working nicely together...even though the modular had a midi/cv converter i could never get it to really work properly, there were always little oddities, missed notes, or non-responsiveness to messages etc which was dead annoying.

also, decent modules are a lot fucking more expensive that i thought they would be - like £300 - £500 sometimes, the price of a whole standalone synth. be warned, it's a bloody expensive and time consuming hobby, often for not much pay-off.

expensive i cannot disagree on, think ive spent around 4500 at this point, as for not much payoff, ive had a prophet 06, an oberheim 06, and a moog sub-phatty sitting in the studio for months now, i barely touch them. every time i turn on the modular and plug in a couple of cables, im blown away by the unique power and character of its sound. its hard to control, sure but i dont really like hearing the same classic synth sounds that have been filling tracks for decades, i want to hear to some weird shit, and its unparalled in its ability to achieve that.

also, the shapeshifter is a digital synth, but its the best bass ive ever heard. you can absolutely rip your arse off with it. 

it does suck your time up though. i have shitloads of free time, sometimes i just sit and get drunk and record everything i do on it for 2 hours, then steal and arrange pieces of the file later. 

Sounds amazing! Quite Jealous. Like BCM I don't have much free time for music so need tools that inspire me quickly. 

I always vowed to stay away from modular because of many reasons and I know if I even delve slightly i'll get sucked in. Trouble is, a mate has gone in and started a small rack and bought a few fun modules and I had a little blast, DAMN! stay strong haha

  On 11/13/2016 at 5:40 PM, messiaen said:

it does suck your time up though. i have shitloads of free time, sometimes i just sit and get drunk and record everything i do on it for 2 hours, then steal and arrange pieces of the file later. 

that's what i like to do, just do jams and record them and try to figure out ways to forge that into a track later. maybe sample bits and pieces. i've been using image line's harmor plugin for resynthesis which i really like for pitching bits up and down and also messing with harmonics and mangling sounds in a ton of ways. that allows me to then have some ability to resculpt what i recorded from the modular, into something more suiting a track in a daw, later.

i also like using modular to process sounds from my pc, using different LP/HP/BP filters, distortions, modulation effects, and i have a cool resonant filterbank based on the one on the old polymoog, which i wanted for years after seeing a guy on youtube make a vid of one that he took from an actual polymoog and was running other synths through it. but there are a lot of ways to process sounds in a modular.

those are my 2 fav uses. havent used it so much for making something like a traditional synth voice.

i just got this sequencer varigate 8+ from malekko. it's badass

yeah that looks cool as fuck. 

Yeah, I started my modular journey. Resurrecting this thread!

Trying to figure out a good sequential switch and filter.

Cheers to all the broke as fuck knob twiddlers.

i had the rossum electro filter recently but didnt really enjoy it. you have to dig right into some digital menus to actually alter the filter characteristics on each cube, too fiddly. the korgasmatron 2 is awesome. its still my main output module, operates as a dual vca/mixer and filter, sounds really nice aswell. 

the mannequins three sisters is meant to be awesome. thats the one i want next.

  On 11/10/2015 at 8:20 PM, Ragnar said:

http://blog.thisisnotrocketscience.nl/projects/blok-modular/

 

the blok is bak

Back when I used Buzz a lot I probably used Blok more than all of the other Buzz modules combined.

A few weeks ago a friend told me that a guy he's trying to start a business with teaches at the local university and convinced them to buy an ARP 2500 so one of my goals for the next year or so is to work out something to get at least one full day to go in there and just sample it for hours.

I keep looking at things like the tiptop happy ending kit and thinking that one day I'll probably end up putting together a small setup.. but then again, my friend at work who does modular stuff keeps telling me about spending $300 on an oscillator or how he's frustrated that there's no ideal sequencer for what he wants to do, and it makes me appreciate my OT+nord modular setup and its ability to save sequences/patches and not have to spend money if I want a different configuration..

.. but I still kinda want to at least try a small modular setup :P maybe I'll just get a 0-coast or SV-1 blackbox or something

yeah, the 0-coast is super cool as a little intro into modular as it actually requires some patching. it also sounds real good. it can be mounted into a eurorack case as well later, if you want to.

but yeah, modular is a money sink. it's insanely fun (to me) though, and for every new module you get you expand the possibilities for your existing ones even further.

i sold mine, huge money and time sink, most decent modules are the price of a synth (which is i guess what they are). i don't have loads of time to spend working on patches etc and found that i wasn't using it hardly ever. i also found that even though i had a midi/cv converter module, it wasn't straightforward getting it to work with my other gear - again ended up spending more time than i wanted syncing it every time i turned the thing on. they're lovely bits of kit and really cool but you gotta be so dedicated to it...