Modular and why it is so popular right now.

[lordgalvar]

I eat sandwiches*...it's the only way to be a real food eater...with your hands


Screw tools for food.

*Quesadillas and calzone are sandwiches.

[Chankgeez]

What kind of modular would the Earl of Sandwich play?

The kind he could control one-handed.

[lordgalvar]

Wiggle out the jamz

[MrNovember]

Not going to lie, I really want one of those. No idea if I'd actually use it that much, but it looks fun!

[lordgalvar]

Ha, I kind of do too. I've resisted though. I kind of wanted it as an expression pedal Devo style strapped to my guitar.

I was going to put a pressure points on guitar but I think a custom solution might be better.

[Heraclitus Akimbo]

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.

This probably speaks more to the sort of music I seek out, but I can't think of (m)any instances of seeing modular-type stuff live for song-type music. Most stuff I've seen is in the improvised/experimental end of things, so exact replicability matters less (and as others have pointed out, some people are full-on against it).

When I saw Suzanne Ciani this year, I was told she had someone travelling with her whose job it was to set up patches on the afternoon of each show.

[D.o.S.]

Not terribly dissimilar from paying someone to tune your guitar and make sure your pedals are set correctly.

[Chankgeez]

That's because she's a boss.

[PeteeBee]

I've always resisted modular for myself because I'm too broke for it, but i would find a way to spend too much and it would be unhealthy.

I think about it like this, maybe someone with experience can enlighten me if it's an apt or daft analogy. Playing music is like swimming. Most effect pedals function as tools like a snorkel or flippers. They allow you to do things that you couldn't otherwise or would at least be very challenging. Modular (not always, but mostly, also as well as some effect pedals) are like scuba diving. It's clearly related to swimming and requires many of the same skills and elements, but it's kind of doing a whole other thing. All great things to do, but they lend themselves to different goals and have different inherent benefits and limitations.

[gnomethrone]

Serious question
You guys keep mentioning Divine. All I can think of is:

Her songs were badass and definitely synth heavy, but i'm guessing that's not who you're talking about?

Also I just saw Thom Yorke perform last week and the best part of the night was a drum machine malfunctioning. It sounded kinda cool, the crowd went wild, he looked frustrated and then told us "looks like my drummer has forgotten this one." He was twidling some modular stuff but all it seemed to effect was a little delay on his vocals? I dunno.

Not trying to shit on the whole medium cuz I've seen people do fun stuff with their spaghetti walls but man, that was a snoozer of a show.

[PeteeBee]

Not trying to shit on the whole medium cuz I've seen people do fun stuff with their spaghetti walls but man, that was a snoozer of a show.

I've seen great shows use modular setups in three ways, and I assume these are some of the more common:
-ambient soundscapes textural bloops
-noise rig, with or without a grind band
-tiny set up incorporated into some low key house music. The last one is my favorite. My buddy calls his style "deconstructed techno" and it's v enjoyable for me. He has a tiny little set up that he plays in conjunction with some elektron stuff, not sure which ones exactly.

[Chankgeez]

Not trying to shit on the whole medium cuz I've seen people do fun stuff with their spaghetti walls but man, that was a snoozer of a show.

That's the thing though, I think a lot of modular peeps don't view their performances in the same context as band performances.

With a lot of 'em there seems to be less of a performance aspect and more a "sound design through a big P.A.-type thing" happening.

(Beat to punch by PeteeBee! )

[lordgalvar]

My wife drags me along to a lot of Radiohead/Thom yorke/atoms for peace stuff...

It's kind of his thing to be boring from what I can tell. Don't mind the music too much but they ain't much for stage shows/reading the crowd/makin' people move...I think it's more about the feels?. Don't think it will ever be TSOL in a tunnel or anything though...or even your local performance artist (I'm a lotus with cymbals on my feet).

It's about the same as watching dude fiddle pedals. Sometimes it's good and sometimes not.

I wish Divine played modular...I'd go to that.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vfOGBf3tbA[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vfOGBf3tbA

Last show I went to because I wanted to was Forward and Jewel's Catch One (George Clinton is palying there next week! It's just a bar...well, a legendary gay bar...but still kind of a dive).

[PeteeBee]

There is something magical about modular, maybe less so for the initiated. I think of when I saw pedro the lion recently, and there were two times where they had "big crazy wild feedback times." For me, both times it was very obvious that the guitar player was just stepping on the momentary switch on a Meteore. I don't know what it is exactly, but there's something about that pedal that I can just hear it exactly. After the show, I snooped and confirmed my suspicion. That being said, it seems like there is more mystery in modular, like "how did they create this sound?" and the way the sounds are impossible to exactly replicate allows you to just enjoy it instead of writing it off as gimmicky or just thinking about how to recreate it.

maybe not, I'm just procrastinating. Trying to avoid studying for finals.

[MrNovember]

Not trying to shit on the whole medium cuz I've seen people do fun stuff with their spaghetti walls but man, that was a snoozer of a show.

That's the thing though, I think a lot of modular peeps don't view their performances in the same context as band performances.

With a lot of 'em there seems to be less of a performance aspect and more a "sound design through a big P.A.-type thing" happening.

(Beat to punch by PeteeBee! )

That's the thing, I'm mainly into modular for the sound design side of things. And because of that I have very little interest in playing out with it because I doubt I could find many crowds that would be down to listen to a half hour of weird textural soundscapes around here.

Not trying to shit on the whole medium cuz I've seen people do fun stuff with their spaghetti walls but man, that was a snoozer of a show.

I've seen great shows use modular setups in three ways, and I assume these are some of the more common:
-ambient soundscapes textural bloops
-noise rig, with or without a grind band
-tiny set up incorporated into some low key house music. The last one is my favorite. My buddy calls his style "deconstructed techno" and it's v enjoyable for me. He has a tiny little set up that he plays in conjunction with some elektron stuff, not sure which ones exactly.

The first and the last one are the two things that I really try to do with my modular. Key word, try...


Also, I wish Thom Yorke/Radiohead played around here more often