Modular and why it is so popular right now.

[Mudfuzz]

Other than some of Devine's work, I have yet to find interesting modular musicians, most I have heard are just that typical 4/4 techno dude or teh ambient drone guy.

Yep.

My take. you guys don't want to hear as it will make you all act like angry monkeys

[Jwar]

Other than some of Devine's work, I have yet to find interesting modular musicians, most I have heard are just that typical 4/4 techno dude or teh ambient drone guy.

Yep.

My take. you guys don't want to hear as it will make you all act like angry monkeys

I honestly do want to hear it. I'm interested in thoughts all around.

I think if you listen to music, there's modular stuff in there sometimes and you don't even realize it. Rock musician of all kinds have used modular gear over the years. There are certainly applications where it works in the studio. I'd almost think that's where it works the best.

My limited bout with modular of any kind is those standalone Metasonix boxes. That's about as close as I've gotten. Recalling settings is IMPOSSIBLE on some of those. They are finicky, power hogs, but man they are just so different. I've yet to find anything quite like them. They can really take a hit from hot signals too.

[popvulture]

Yeah, the recall thing is a big deal, and it took me a minute to accept it (to be honest, it's still tough). The idea of setting up a patch and playing it for a week, a month, or however long, recording a piece with it, then tearing it down knowing that it can pretty much never happen that way again is a complete mindfuck to me. But that's sort of it, though—it's a completely different way to approach things. For the longest time I tried to really make it fit into the way I've been creating music for my whole life, and letting that go was a hugely exciting new thing. And once again, you can still make stuff the old way with your other things if you want—that stuff doesn't have to go anywhere.

So yep, I think it's well worth getting into. My big advice would be to follow the suggestions I originally ignored (and regretted), which is to plan out what you wanna do with it and buy wisely / slowly / cautiously. It can be easy to make a rash decision and buy a bunch of stuff, only to realize you've got something that really just doesn't do what you'd hoped it'd do. And that feels really, really shitty.

[adamajah]

Great topic. I think I'd been waiting for a discussion like this without consciously knowing it. I've definitely been trying to understand my euro-inclined brethren as it's gotten more popular and relevant to what we pedal people do. I've never touched modular but it looks intimidating and enticing at the same time - like programming a painting before hand, rather than diving in with a brush. I love it in theory - especially integrating nature and randomness into a composition with biofeedback modules for example. It's like taking a Manet into Pollock territory, letting gravity and microclimate enter into your piece. I'd love a pedal that uses biofeedback to create modulation.

[Jwar]

So, here's a questions. If you cannot recall things, what do you guys do if you are playing a song you'd previously recorded? I mean, I've never understood how Trent Reznor does it, but I think bands will just have it pre-recorded and then play that shit versus pulling something modular on stage. I could be wrong? I'm really curious about that. Sometimes I can't even recall shit I've created on my midi controller. LOL!! It's because I literally can't remember how I made it.

[popvulture]

I think a lot of that stuff is triggered samples, but I could be wrong. From what I've seen though, most of the modular setups I've seen bands using have been pretty small, so that wouldn't be too hard to recreate. Plus if you have one patch set up, you can get a lot of variance of sounds by just tweaking a filter, envelope, waveshaper, or even a little bit of routing, so you can definitely still come up with different vibes from song to song.

A big, generative patch, though? Haha no way...

[Mudfuzz]

Other than some of Devine's work, I have yet to find interesting modular musicians, most I have heard are just that typical 4/4 techno dude or teh ambient drone guy.

Yep.

My take. you guys don't want to hear as it will make you all act like angry monkeys

I honestly do want to hear it. I'm interested in thoughts all around..

Ok..

First music is music and what you use to make music shouldn't matter to you if you love playing and creating music, what you use be it a bird bone flute or a app on your fone should be a matter of personal taste based on the sounds you need to make for what you want to achieve.

Yes we all are aware the modular has been a part of popular music for a very long time. Not worth really getting into this as it is a known and the past.

So: why is modular so popular right now?

First there is the cost factor, up until the last few years due to the digital age taking hold modular became harder to acquire AND it was never an affordable medium. But you have a percentage of people that always wanted to do the types of sounds they heard they favorite musicians do. Once the net came about and info on building the things and interest in them was able to be spread over the whole world there was a market for inexpensive [per-say] options. So nostalgia driven similar to the vintage guitar trend.

Also. There are a lot of people that think that buying new gear will make them more creative. You just need more stuff, then you will be able to write the next Sgt pepper and everyone will love you.. or at least put up with you.

More also.. just like model train and magic the gathering card collecting, showing your massive collection in your basement to everyone online make you feel like you have done something with you life while being obsessed with buying sparkly things. You make vids and post songs and every one "loves them" because they want you to post more pictures and reviews and demos so they can see if they want to also buy the sparkly thing.

People are bored with guitar rock because there is very little to say that has not been said in terms of a "new sound" [no I am not talking about song writing, just fads] and are just trying something, anything new, even if it is actually old and already road that has been gone down.

People that think you need more than a spork and creativity to make good noise music

[coldbrightsunlight]

A lot of good posts in this thread already and I agree with most other people. It's just a new shiny thing and we like new shiny things. The acquisition of new shiny things brings social status.

Personally, I got into it as a new shiny thing because I was getting bored of constantly looking for new shiny pedals.

Then I messed around with some modules, decided I found the format fun and got a bit more focused on what I wanted to build it to do. I've always liked making weird noises so I used to buy a lot of pedals that did that, then get bored of them. Now I have simple pedals, and when I play guitar I'm focused on playing the guitar. I find I enjoy playing much more when I'm not worrying about pedals.

I now haven't changed my modular synth rack in ages, and it's just one of my instruments. It makes fun sounds, but if I just want to play a simple synth line I'll grab a standalone key synth. If I want a guitar part I'll play guitar. If I want... noises? Or to drone out for half an hour? I'll grab the modular. It's fun to jam with. It's not what I reach for if I know what to play and I know what it should sound like already.

I should be clear that I am under no illusion that I'm doing anything clever or interesting with my eurorack gear.


I will say one general thing. I've seen people talk about "modular music". That's completely stupid to me. A modular synth is just an instrument. You can make techno, you can make ambient music, you can make metal if you try hard enough. It's like talking about "guitar music" (which I know people do but that is also completely inane and has been since the first time someone said it).

So, here's a questions. If you cannot recall things, what do you guys do if you are playing a song you'd previously recorded? I mean, I've never understood how Trent Reznor does it, but I think bands will just have it pre-recorded and then play that shit versus pulling something modular on stage. I could be wrong? I'm really curious about that. Sometimes I can't even recall shit I've created on my midi controller. LOL!! It's because I literally can't remember how I made it.

I don't currently play any songs live I've used modular bits and pieces on, but I wish I had a band to play my stuff live. I'd just strip it down to regular live instruments. Guitar, keys, bass, drums because the fun of playing live for me is jamming with humans. And, with respect for perfectionist musicians, getting everything to sound exactly the same every time you play a song is for nerds.

People that think you need more than a spork and creativity to make good noise music

It's fun to have fancier sporks but they're not necessary to have fun and make noises.

[Chankgeez]

[coldbrightsunlight]

He was a straight talking man who called a splayd a splayd. He'd played knifey spooney before and he knew this weren't no spife.

[lordgalvar]

So, here's a questions. If you cannot recall things, what do you guys do if you are playing a song you'd previously recorded? I mean, I've never understood how Trent Reznor does it, but I think bands will just have it pre-recorded and then play that shit versus pulling something modular on stage. I could be wrong? I'm really curious about that. Sometimes I can't even recall shit I've created on my midi controller. LOL!! It's because I literally can't remember how I made it.

There are ways to recall things. It just depends on how much you want to do on the fly and how much you want to invest. I think some people dig the "it's different everytime" aspect and just knowing certain techniques/patches will get you where you are going. The kind of fleeting aspect is probably some of the appeal.

Just constantly record. There is one guy on YouTube Michael palinki I think that does these beat things were he sequences all his vintage synths and samplers with an old atari computer...records once and tears it down knowing it will never be replicated. Even with guitar, I know I'll never play the same way twice or even remember what I play ever.

I've seen videos of NIN where it's more of a framework like, "I set up this 16 step rhythm for popping Tom sounds and then kind of just play noises over the top". Less about the exact duplication and just creating a feel (and it has to mesh with live musicians...playing to a perfect clock doesn't always work so adjust on the fly).

Guys like Plotkin are more or less just using stuff (not always modular but something similar like that monome box) to treat live musicians' instruments.

I saw Ezra Buchla play with mae shi with a full modular and it fit in just perfect (not my style, but it didn't distract or anything).

I'd still always take playing guitar to modular, but different situations, I play different stuff (and modular can be more compact that a full midi setup or not). I also wanted more ring mod experiments which modular kind of worked well for.

Another thought about modular: they've been very good at supporting and releasing DIY projects.

I don't listen to a lot of modular music...I just like to do my own thing. I don't really care what other people are doing or needed somebody to inspire me to go that way...something caught my interest and I tried it. Don't really care if most of the stuff is boring, ambient, or 4/4...sounds like a music problem in general instead of indicative of modular music.

[MrNovember]

Other than some of Devine's work, I have yet to find interesting modular musicians, most I have heard are just that typical 4/4 techno dude or teh ambient drone guy.

Alessandro Cortini does awesome shit on modular. So does r beny, Lightbath, Nathan Moody, Shipwreck Detective

So, here's a questions. If you cannot recall things, what do you guys do if you are playing a song you'd previously recorded? I mean, I've never understood how Trent Reznor does it, but I think bands will just have it pre-recorded and then play that shit versus pulling something modular on stage. I could be wrong? I'm really curious about that. Sometimes I can't even recall shit I've created on my midi controller. LOL!! It's because I literally can't remember how I made it.

It's actually not as hard to recreate a patch as a lot of people seem to think. Sure you can't just press a button to recall it, but when you know your system and your modules well, it's definitely possible. It still takes work, though. Generally, just write down a ton of notes. Also, a lot of the time people will put together a patch, record it, play some shows with it, then start over again and won't even consider trying to recreate it later. (lordgalvar pretty much just said all this)

And a lot of bigger artists like NIN tend to have a bunch of modular, as well as other synths on stage. For instance, there's a rig rundown with Alessandro where he shows off two separate modular systems, a multitrack tape deck, an OP-1, a Nord Drum, an Octatrack, a Prophet 12, and a bunch of rack stuff and plug-ins. He seems to have the two modular systems patched up for some specific sounds that he can trigger in different songs.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMXEvNUjgCg[/youtube]

As for my modular journey, I mostly just got bored/frustrated with pedals because I could never really do what I wanted to with them (seriously, I have no idea how some of you stack so many pedals and make things sound good). I'm also a shit guitarist and don't have too many people to jam with. So after collecting a ton of pedals, I sold most of them and got into eurorack. Eventually, I realized that everything I was doing with euro could be pretty easily done with standard synths and wasn't happy with the gotta-collect-em-all nature of eurorack. So I ended up selling most of my euro (I wrote about that more in depth here in another thread somewhere). Now I have a pretty diverse collection: some euro, some keyboards, some samplers, some pedals.

[lordgalvar]

As for my modular journey, I mostly just got bored/frustrated with pedals because I could never really do what I wanted to with them (seriously, I have no idea how some of you stack so many pedals and make things sound good). I'm also a shit guitarist and don't have too many people to jam with. So after collecting a ton of pedals, I sold most of them and got into eurorack. Eventually, I realized that everything I was doing with euro could be pretty easily done with standard synths and wasn't happy with the gotta-collect-em-all nature of eurorack. So I ended up selling most of my euro (I wrote about that more in depth here in another thread somewhere). Now I have a pretty diverse collection: some euro, some keyboards, some samplers, some pedals.

Similar feelings. Having a mix when I don't have anybody to jam with has been kind of helpful getting ideas out of my head.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o4yFxumAuA[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o4yFxumAuA
He recreates a patch in that video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvLeBCPCZg[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNvLeBCPCZg
Kind of the two sides...Vince Clarke and a Buchla guy...he shows how he made a judge show theme haha

I think ultimately what gets you where you are going it shouldn't matter the format. If it's fun, it's fun.

[greyscales]

There are a lot of reasons why I ended up getting into modular and why it's taken so much of my interest but I'll try to be succinct.

Guitar pedals have always been fun, but at the end of the day I still have to overcome the physical aspect of playing notes with guitar, bass, piano, etc. It's easy to fall into patterns and feel like you've played the same thing for a decade. Breaking out of that requires a lot of physical effort. Modular helps me escape the physical input of notes/melodies/rhythm. I can find sequencers that open up new ideas very quickly and can be played with easily. I'm not just going to minor pentatonic scales or the key of C major all the time. That's a lot more fun for me. It's a matter of mental vs. physical, and I'm more cerebral than athletic (for lack of a better word).

Modular feels a lot like playing with another musician for me. It's not a one-sided activity even though I'm the only person controlling it. It's much more interactive and I get to be as reactive as I am proactive. I come up with an idea for a patch, the sound plays and gives me ideas of how to sculpt/change/add to/subtract from it. Not knowing exactly what is going to come out every time is a big bonus. Maybe other people would find my daily modular bouts boring but it's like a jam session to me. And yeah, there are good sessions and bad sessions like jamming with a band. But at least with modular I don't have to feel shitty about how much effort it took to get all of the people there at one time or the fact that one person cancels every goddamn time I organize something. I've always said that I wish I had clones of myself to start a band because so much would get done, and I get closest to that with modular. I get to control drums, bass, leads, mixing, and effects.

Synthesizers as a whole, not just modular, have replaced a lot of my interest in pedals. I just didn't realize you could do so much with synths because I didn't know about them. The internet has opened that opportunity up a lot more recently. Now I prefer to let my guitar sound like a guitar and not try to make it sound like a (shitty) synth.
If I had my own house with endless space and no plans to move, I might not be as interested in eurorack specifically. That format just happens to be the best of a lot of worlds for me (fairly compact and light as far as synths go, wide range of modules, not prohibitively expensive for someone in their mid-20s). I would love to have a Juno 106, Minimoog, MS-20, Mono/Poly, Prophet 5, 909, 808, 606, Linndrum, and a bunch of samplers instead of a eurorack setup. But that isn't feasible for a lot of reasons. Eurorack is just the best option for me right now, and I'm sure a lot of other people too. We all want a wall of old-school Moog modular with big polysynths and vintage drum machines but none of us have the budget or space for them. However my pedalboard two years ago could easily pay for my current rack and it made me a lot less happy.


As far as recalling sounds/songs, it doesn't seem any different than guitar with pedals. You just have to know your synth well enough to know what everything does. If you just randomly stack pedals and twist knobs without understanding what you are doing, you won't be able to replicate it. Same with a synth. Can't remember what you played? Record it, make notes, take a picture!


Don't get me wrong, I still love the feeling of playing bass at a live show and being able to jump around and move with my instrument and play with other people. Nothing makes me as happy as playing music with friends. But as the people I want to do that with get busier (or lazier), I like having other alternatives. Modular just happens to be the most fulfilling of those.

[Chankgeez]

Also, think of modular as a splayd: it can do some things well, but not everything: