Live Coding Modular Synths
a talk given at the Live Coding & The Body Symposium, University of Sussex, Brighton, 6th July 2014 http://www.livecodenetwork.org/body/
Why modular synths…?
I fetishised vintage the Roland synths used to make electro and techno in the 1980's and 1990's and wanted to be able to make the same sounds I was hearing on vinyl, so started collecting…
In the late 1990's glitch and laptop music rose in popularity due, for instance, to more affordable portable Apple Mac Powerbooks like the curvy Pismo and developments in realtime audio software applications such as Cycling74's MAX.
The MEGO label from Vienna put out a lot of interesting music from people such as Farmers Manual…
But with my own music production, I kept hardware and software separate…
…mainly because I struggled to get things done on my computer.
Prices of the the old Roland gear I wanted kept on going up and up…
But thanks to a friend, I discovered the Eurorack Modular format and the Muffwiggler forum…
And began organising the Brighton Modular meets in 2012.
So, thanks to various sources, this modular gear is nice and accessible…
And I could carry on fetishising synths/music-making artefacts again, and even begin piecing together dream-synths…
…without the frustration of using software.
However, these modular synths do come with limitations.
Mainly to do with money…
Or space (which could actually be seen as money…)
Availability of modules is also a big factor.
It really does boil down to how much money you have…
I know I mentioned patch cables before, but I need to show these next two slides:
…Invisible patch cables?!
I can’t afford them, so I will have to make do with what I have.
Anyway, another key point for me about modular synths is the idea of ownership through DIY. Thanks to companies like Thonk I can build a lot of my own modules from the kits they supply.
The Turing Machine Random Looping Sequencer, for instance, is a great bit of open source hardware developed by Tom Whitwell with kits sold and supported by Thonk.
So, for me, part of having a modular synth is the idea of creating a learned system, with modules I have chosen and placed where I want them.
Giving me the illusion of control.
Anyway, what about some differences between a modular synth and my idea of making music on a computer…?
For me, the main difference goes back to the fetishised object.
Computers don’t have the curves the Pismo Powerbook had, nor do they look as cool as this anymore:
And maybe computers, or even software, don’t attain such mythical status as certain modules…
However, I think emulation is another thing with modular…
But why bother when these things can do so much more than replicating an old Roland SH101?
(stay focused, Andrew)
There is a ‘live-ness’ to modular
maybe it’s down to how these things work…?
(I think at this point I remembered to plug in my rig)
There’s also a ‘code-ness’ to modular…
And the physical interaction the user has with it plays a huge part.
Happy accidents are a part of the process, a painful part sometimes when you can’t work out what is happening or why, and it isn’t easy to get back to these points either.
At this point it’s time to walk through a patch and demonstrate how it all works…
So here we go…
Pamela’s Workout is my main clock or timing device sending triggers out across the modular.
A simple 4 to the floor trigger is going to the Kick Drum module whilst a different pattern of triggers is going to the Hi Hats module.
White noise from the Truing Machine is being used to make the snare sound and a sequence of note/CV is changing the pitch of the Hi Hats.
Maths is creating the envelope for the snare.
The Réne is stepping through groups of notes that are being sent to the SID GUTS for the bassline. Groups are repeated on the X axis for a certain amount of time until another trigger from Pamela’s Workout nudges the sequence up the Y axis.
The SID GUTS uses an old SID chip from a Commodore 64.
The 4MS Pingable Envelope Generator is creating wobbly LFOs that are being sent to the filter for the bass line.
The Sea Devils Filter.
Scaled CV from the Turing Machine (that was being used for the Hi Hat pitch) is also being used to control the DPO.
All six outputs (different waveforms and final ‘folded waveform) are being used…
…in the Boss Bow Tie switching module. This sends out the different inputs depending on the scaled random voltage coming in from the Wogglebug.
The Wogglebug is being triggered by Pamela’s Workout.
The Optomix and uVCA are being used to amplify and apply envelopes to the final sounds before they go in to the Echophon
The S.B.G. is an effects loop send/return, some of the DPO sound is being sent out to…
The SuperEgo pedal, which is basically an infinite sustain effect, very nice!
The final sounds are mixed here and send out of the output module to the speakers.
Now you know how how a modular works!
This isn’t the end though, yet.
(At this point I was demonstrating that the synth was controlling some video effects on a live webcam stream. The Ardcore has been loaded with a sketch which sends and receives data to my laptop and a MAX patch)
The future of modular…?
Lots of development work is also going in to the application of Raspberry Pi modules such as the ‘rpio’ and the ‘qu-Bit’, these are running modified versions of SuperCollider and Csound.
Thanks to everyone who has contributed modular memes to the muffwiggler forum.
