Astricii wrote:most people use Buchla systems for bleeps and bloops but others like Cortini have used them to much more musical ends.
You know that Don Buchla designed most of his instruments while working with composers like Morton Subotnick, right ?
I really like Cortini's performances (the one you linked is excellent), but he's not the only one making music with these systems. And let's not get into a discussion about what is music, the latest one that happened on Muffwiggler was painful enough to read.
But I agree with your point that once you know it well, you can make music with any system/modular. The point is to make it your own instrument, not someone else's idea of what your instrument should be.
That's good to know, I was pretty afraid of getting a cool modular setup and then totally being stuck with a loud bloop machine. It's good to know that I can still get musical pleasing stuff out any modular. One less fear to tend to, I just remember getting a chance to use a modular with a braids and a polivoks filter and I don't know what the rest was but I remember falling in love with the way it sounded.
It was at Control in NYC and that place is a pretty dope yet tiny store.
Do you make tonal music ? If so, getting some sort of CV controller will make things easier to understand/use for you. I have a QuNexus, it has a few flaws (small slew on the outputs, etc.) but it's really nice to play the modular and as a small lightweight CV master controller. I also have a Koma Kommander as a CV controller and it's nice for live control too. It all depends on how you want to use the modular to make music. But unless you want to make only drone/noise, think about getting some sort of sequencer and/or a cv controller.
you can totally sell your stuff on ebay or muffwiggler forum. in portland or LA craigslist you find modular synth modules and cases everyday. if you live near a modular synth store in NYC you can buy and sell new or used with two different stores. there are about 1000 eurorack modules on ebay right now. buying a used lunchbox is harder than selling one. they sell in a day on muffwiggler forum. the bottom row of that lunchbox is tiles. as of right now only 3 companies make them that I know of and I am one of them. erthenvar has 25 tile modules in his store but he actually has a lot more that he has shown me. I think tiles are a must in every euro case for a small setup. you can buy modules for $30 or build them starting at $3. synthrotek has a tile case also but its too big for your first case I think.
Thanks for the advice, I'll be looking at ebay to get one of the lunchboxes at some point. I see peoples point in it being really small, but it does have power and midi in and ouitput jacks on the side so I assume that will save me a good deal of space for just having fun stuff on the front panel rather than necessary utilities. I'll keep a keen eye and see what I can find, I'm sure between being back and forth from NYC and Chicago, I'll find mostly used modules. I'll take a look at those tile modules and see what kinda stuff they may provide since they seem extremely small.
I do make tonal music, although I like to ramp up to chaos at times, I generally just tweak LFO's and filters (until they oscillate) to do those type of things. I was hoping to be able to use the keyboard on my moog or something through a midi to cv utility for live/studio usage and maybe get something small and portable for everything else.
people buy expensive moogs so they have a CV keyboard built in. this means you do not need to mess around with midi cv converters. anyway you would have a long wait to find a used lunchbox. the cheaper one I linked was without midi DIN jack or the headphone outs. that is a $75 option. also, if you do get that option it does NOT include midi. just the midi jack. you would still need to buy this
Ahh I see, hmm well a friend of mine could possibly build me a wooden case, how difficult would it be to put a power supply in there. I honestly have little soldering skills and less wood working. I'm an apartment city slicker so I don't have much space for that sort of stuff. I guess I could use the moog keyboard with the CV expander to have a keyboard for it. Then again I still would need midi for my sequencer.
Gosh this is getting dizzying, maybe I should write down the things I want and need so it gels with my current setup of Moog/shruthi/Dw-8000/tempset sequenced from my bandmates MPC instead of just asking too many questiions haha.
sergiomunoz74 wrote:Ahh I see, hmm well a friend of mine could possibly build me a wooden case, how difficult would it be to put a power supply in there. I honestly have little soldering skills and less wood working. I'm an apartment city slicker so I don't have much space for that sort of stuff. I guess I could use the moog keyboard with the CV expander to have a keyboard for it. Then again I still would need midi for my sequencer.
Gosh this is getting dizzying, maybe I should write down the things I want and need so it gels with my current setup of Moog/shruthi/Dw-8000/tempset sequenced from my bandmates MPC instead of just asking too many questiions haha.
Yeah writing stuff down definitely helps. But I also keep lists for like everything so that might just be me
Also modulargrid.net is amazing for planning you modular
what moog do you have? I don't think you need the expander. you will not be able to build a cheaper lunchbox unless you build 10 of them and do the metalwork yourself. I would also not trust your friend to do soldering on your case unless he has experience with eurorack or at least modular synthesizer power systems. even if your friend works for free, you will have a case that is not as nice for maybe $20 less than what it costs to buy. I built my own case and I regret it kinda. it is way too bulky and I was too cheap to build a bigger busboard so I got this little one. the location of the bus board is costing me more money because I need longer power cables for my euro modules.
I second the suggestion for the Tip Top Happy Ending Kit. 84 hp + power for $150 isn't a bad deal. You can add more rails (racks in this case) and power as your grow. Plus if you need to be mobile you can grab one of those Black Market Bento Boxes. They come in 3u, 6u and 9u varieties. I have the 9u case, and am about to purchase my last HEK to finish it out.
Also, since you already have some sweet synth gear you could just buy a module here and there and use it to process sounds from what you already have. A wavefolder or bitcrusher module would be a nice addition. Or even a sequencer for your Moog. You don't have to start out with a complete instrument in your situation.
I have a Moog Voyager, and I guess I just realized that I don't have to use the expander to use the CV out of the keyboard. I haven't done any CV connecting as I can't seem to figure it out as easily as I have with just sending midi CC messages to all my gear. You are right though, I asked my friend to quote me on a materials cost and she said that at the end of the day, the production model would be cheaper than buying raw materials and building it on a "paid in burritos" work budget.
also that tip top happy ending seems perfect since it has rack ears I could just shove it in my mixer rack which is woefully empty since I'm creating a janky home studio with non-janky equipment. At 150 it seems absolutely stellar, I'll definitely put that on my list with possibly one cool processing type module. I never really thought of just getting something for mostly processing!
Edit: just had a real thought, so I have a couple boss ps-2's which you can make self-oscillate by connecting the input to the tuner input could I in theory use that to create drones which I could then turn into something pretty with a modular? possibly even sample it to my buds MPC for creating chords!
connecting CV from your moog is easy. you patch the CV out to any VCO 1v/oct input. you patch the gate to any ADSR or AD or AR or ASR. AD is cheap. you can use something like this tile for simple gate to AD conversion. http://erthenvar.com/store/tilemodules/slew
you patch one of the vco outs to the vca. the vca out is your main out.
you can probably create that same feedback sample right on the MPC with no other pedals. any pedal will oscillate when you connect the output to the input. good luck controlling the frequency without a tone knob on the pedal. you also have no control over the waveshape and you still need a VCA to get something interesting happening with the volume. as for using the MPC, I don't know how loading in a sample of a square wave from a guitar pedal makes it more interesting than an MPC really is. I love the MPC and I would say they are great to sample synths but I would prefer not to do my synthesis through menu diving on an MPC.
instead of a happy ending kit, try a erthenvar 3U + 1U frame and just use the tiptop uzeus for power
this is all a great personal reminder on why i'm not super jazzed on modular stuff.
just gimme that damn thing so i can make musicsssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!! sounds like a headache for my brain and my wallet. eff that noise.
