MODULO: The analog synth documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 พ.ค. 2015
- The story of early electronic instruments, and the nearly forgotten Canadian music pioneer who created the first synthesizers. As told through interviews with three modern-day modular synth musicians.
A musical documentary about modular synthesizers, and a tribute to Hugh Le Caine.
Shot and edited by me. Produced by Ryan Gibson.
MODULO screened at Resolution 2014, Sled Island Festival 2014, and was nominated for Best Director - Documentary at the Ottawa Independent Video Awards 2015.
Featuring:
Arturo Brisindi (AKA Hard Science)
Edmund Eagan
Mike McGrath (AKA Muff Wiggler)
Thanks to the CBC, Soshal, The Library and Archives Canada, The Science and Technology Museum, Artengine, CHUO, Weird Canada.
Listen to the CBC radio version produced by Ryan Gibson:
soundcloud.com/ryanpaulgibson/modulo-ottawas-synth-secret
Modulo was featured in issue 17.2 of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community journal, eContact:
econtact.ca/17_2/
Watch MODULO on Vimeo here:
vimeo.com/82193303 - เพลง
![แม่กลองสองใจ - ซีแกรม โตเกียว มิวสิค [ OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GSQfVjcr_f4/mqdefault.jpg)
We miss you, Mike🎶🎶🎶
I'm so elated to see that digital sound synthesis enthusiasts are going strong in Canada. Thanks for creating this fantastic documentary, it really inspired me to focus on learning though experimentation and discovery over theory and practice. It's a tough balance however it's reassuring and empowering to learn what people like Hugh Le Caine have accomplished. Thanks again and much love from Alberta. 🙂
Julian Cope loves his mellotron.......great to see his daughter getting involved.😎👍
... and it's three days later ... and it's still playing. Lovely
RIP Mike. We spoke a lot more back when we were beta testing the first Bugbrand modules but the other brief conversations we had since then were always as friendly and amusing and enlightening.
I really liked the format, who was the 1 person who had to go and dislike this? You should be ashamed.
A *a* documentary, not on the full history. Still dope to see, thinking of trying modular.
This is so wonderful! Thank you for documenting this amazing microcosm of creativity.
Wonderful short film. Now I want more !
Thank you! Such fascinating looking machines by some genius I haven't heard before.
Great video. Wish it had been longer. 👍
Well THAT was an unexpected thrill. Thanks for making this. Just wonderful. I grew up in Ottawa and had a mad appreciation for early prog so of course this was really exciting.
Thanks for watching! Glad you found it.
Appreciate the work & history. Always good to give credit to the inventors.
Thank you-
Love this video. Brings back memories. I built an analogue synth from a kit back in 1977. Love the intro and outro music.
Amazing History ! Very Cool Thanks
brilliant work, thank you!
This was so cool. He was a man way ahead of his time.
That was fun! More please.
RIP Mike.. We will miss you. :(
The Sackbut !!! I saw a synth called the Sackbut demonstrated at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa around 1976 during a seminar about electronic music. I don't really remember much about the synth or who demonstrated it but I do remember the whole keyboard moved side to side which allowed you to modulate the pitch. The musician commented that he had gotten very used to it and found himself trying to bend notes on the keyboard when he played piano. Funny that I remember those details after 40 years. I was a real synth nerd back then and I guess it made a big impression on me!
funny because continuum and expresive E are releasing the osmose Synth wich does this for each key individualy... Great time to be alive for keyboardists
That intro piece is so good!
Great video guys!!!
Can't help but feel sad that these machines are tucked away in a warehouse, and not lent out for current electronic musicians to document and create sounds on them that can be enjoyed now. I would think Mr. Le Caine would appreciate that as well.
This needs to be longer :)
Its better to be in a museum. Fucko, there's better stuff out there now
@@virgobro2025 its not about having better or worst. Its about creativity!! And inspiration of course :p
daikuone You guts are funny
Virgo Bro fuck off, digital and analog are completely different thing each with their own benefits
Excellent film, thank you!
Thanks for watching!
Awesome.
And RIP Mike.
Thankyou for making this!! And without a robot voiceover. Real people and cool interviews. :)
Robot voice? I would of thought it appropriate for this documentary..
@@NathanChisholm041 haha not for more than a few minutes. There have been a couple great docs that were unfortunately unlistenable 2 hours of speech synthesis. This one is just awesome - a lot of fantastic work.
Totally fascinating. I am currently studying music theory and just explored the world of modular synths
I was taught Subtractive Synthesis on an EMS VCS3 at school in 1995.
Good times.
i know both
@@MostlyPennyCat nice i know that synth
Would be wonderful to see this stuff working again on display in a museum where people could spin knobs and hear the results.
9:00 !!! Scary Haunting 🙌
these things should be on display at the music hall in calgary
Insanely fascinating to see a VCS3 next to the Voyager in the same studio.
this is amazing
This is fascinating! It's enough to get me to visit Canada again (it's been a while), just to check some of this stuff out!
Well shot & edited, Travis. Thank you for sharing 👍
Appreciate it. Thanks for watching!
perfect explanations ..clear proper..god bless you :)
Thanks! All credit to our brilliant subjects.
Excellent.
This is so awesome!!! Thanks for making this
+OfficialDJAvalon Thanks for watching!
Hi Travis. I'm looking for some abstract electronic composers. Any suggestions? thank you
great documentary
0:08 - 0:13 For a few seconds this sounded like the intro to “Rhapsody In Blue”!
Very interesting... so happy to have stumbled upon this. Can't believe just 411 views!
Some synthesizers have modulation matrices, such as Prophet 12, and Prophet 08 ( now rev2). While this is not as flexible as a modular, it does have some advantages in terms of ease of use. I wanted a modular, but decided a Prophet 12 was more practical for me. Hugh is thankfully getting more exposure due to the internet. He was a pioneer in electronic music. I still need to listed to his music concrete stuff ( I have a mixed feeling towards music concrete, loving the idea, but often being bored by the execution.)
thx for this update
Great information
very nice documentary! thank you
Thanks for watching!
This is wonderful. I had no idea how far back this goes. You should consider getting a Kickstarter campaign going so a longer version of this can be done. I think the mod synth community would contribute. Even better, get enough money together to put some of these back in to commission and used by artists. I'd pay to see that.
Lance Smith it’s been done already. I think you can find it on Netflix called “I Dream of Wires” it’s an incredibly well done documentary over 2 hours long.
INSANE!!!
It would be great to see some HQ stills, I can't find anything online. It would be cool to do a pastiche of the serial sound generator on a euro panel in honour of Hugh Le Caine. Thanks for the documentary.
dope! more! :)
That was great! Well shot and edited. Awesome to hear about these Canadian musicians(/synth nerds). I hadn't known anything about Hugh Le Caine before this and I'm glad that I now do. I wonder if that tape loop instrument that they were checking out towards the end of the film is what he used to record Dripsody with.
Thanks for making and sharing this.
+Adam Ploof Thanks for watching! Nice theory about the tape loop instrument and Dripsody.
That second guy isn't from our own solar system.
great videoC:!
Thanks for watching!
R.I.P mike mcgrath
Sounds still going two days later.. ghost in the machine. It could still be going when you are no longer here. An eery thought really.
The electricity grid is always on. So its not that weird at all.
Why not? It's what I would expect if I never had turned it off.
Ghost In The Machine, was that an album the English rock group, The Police made back in 1984? "We are spirits in the material world?
Cool little movie
Nice one
Cool! How did I not see this until now????!
Just discovered it today! Pretty cool so far. :cloud:
Today! In quarantine days!
awesome :)
check out Pretty Lights! He has started touring with live analog synthesis and his most recent album was all live sampled with professional musicians and PL on an analog synth
Inspirational
niiiIIIIIIICE
Unbelievable 😮😵🎉🎈🎊
great vid
The aluminum foil of the Le Caine piece, above the keyboard, is a capacitor...doubtless used for tuning, by sliding around the top piece-of-machine-crapology-what-the-hell thing :)
I wish they could have recorded every note of the "telharmonium" - all they know is that it sounded "pure and crisp". Unfortunately no tubes or any electronic way to cut records, about all you could do in 1897 is wind a coil. Last one was dismantled in 1962 - if it still worked, why didn't someone wind a match transformer and tape it? Would be so cool to hear
I agree!
It's a kind of magic :)
8:00 .... You sunk my battleship!!!
that ems is so great ,waht ppl think about the cloney or the vostok?
Muffwiggler's Daughter is going to be a monster synthesist.
Rhythmicons, or she'll flee from it at top speed when she realizes the level of nerdom it comes with.
armweak13 She will be Lady #14 in the entire worldwide community.
Hopefully not.
Rhythmicons I think there may be more ladies into synths than it appears at first glance, which is definitely a good thing. Guys do outnumber them, that's true, but thankfully, I don't think it's as bad as one might imagine.
slipknotboy555 It's definitely a demographic that needs to be improved.
RIP, Mike McGrath
Wonderful video! Wish the lens stayed a little more in focus?
Focus, goddammit!
Digital is nice, but I miss analog technology so much. I mean not with just music equipment, but telephone equipment, audio equipment in general. I always felt like it had a much better sound to it.
I use both and love my Elektrons as they combine the best of both worlds analog and digital with plenty of knobs and switches
cool :)
Did LaCaine come up with the concept of voltage control or was it Bob Moog?
03:55 wow 😍♥
Millions of people, all over the world, playing with knobs.
17:15 I saw that rocket engine on the shelf and was wondering if that was part of the instrument lol
9:34 - Is it me or does that melody playing in the background sound a lot like "The Soul That Creates" by Skinny Puppy?.
Love this documentary. It's clear, concise, and you cover all the fundamentals to understanding the world of modular.
Can I pull some audio dialogue for constructing an Ableton kit?
Thanks, appreciate it. I don't know what that means, but go for it!
do you know which osc he's using at 3:19, when he says "coolest oscillator around?"
Definitely. I can hear it morphing and if you look where his hand is when he says it, then look at that spot when they give a better shot of the system you will see it there.
I wonder how many of these ended up at the National Music Centre in Calgary
Christ on a bike... the focus on the camera... the aperture must have been like 40 feet across!
Haha! Whoops.
yeah, just because the lens goes to f1.4 doesn't mean you need to.
Don't discount presets for live performances they are quite useful!
14:12 I have the same sticker above my bedroom door and one on my gun safe
I must have missed it in the video, but what is the museum called and where is it located?
The Canada Science and Technology Museum. It's currently being renovated, so I'm not sure if it's open. The archives featured in the documentary I believe can be toured by the public, if you get in touch and schedule in advance.
wish people would learn and talk about feedback loops
th-cam.com/video/HyA83xBQ6WE/w-d-xo.html
I WANNA BE A WIRE SOO I CAN PATCH FOREVER AND BE FREE
What was the music at the start? And what synth was it done on?
"Short Presentation of the 1948 Sackbut" by Hugh Le Caine
those stand wobbles, making me nervous Bro..... 3:00
close to, or above 2000 clams..... wobble smash woops
Bah, they're fine ;)
What is the website mentioned around 4:33 please?
Here it is: www.muffwiggler.com/forum/
Merciii :)
What is that pressure sensitive analog modular synth that Edmund Eagan has?????
Totally custom! Sadly, I no longer remember any details about it.
I designed and built it :)
Does anyone know the name of the synth used at 7'45?
Anthony Dama it is an EMS VCS3 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMS_VCS_3
Tip for you Anthony, when pointing to a specific time write it like this and it hyperlinks for users 7:45
I also wanted to add that it's interesting to hear about pioneering artists like Hugh Le Caine receiving public support from their government. I'm not sure how things are up in Canada today, but in the US public funding for the arts has overall decreased by about 26% over the past 20 years (when adjusting for inflation)*. I think it's important to consider the consequences of arts funding policies on our culture. What would Hugh have done had he been forced to look for
commercial support for his life's work? I'm not trying to be preachy here, just pointing out that his legacy is in some ways a legacy of Canada's arts policies at that time.
* www.giarts.org/article/public-funding-arts-2014-update
Here in the states things like art & music has declined in schools.
Ciao a tutti 1:)
Polyphony please!!
Multi-track ;)
James Reeno 'polyphony'? U mean... polyphony in mono going to a lonely tweeter. DESTROY A PAN heehee Human panning (AKA running back and forth the room with the tweeter :p ). Fk stereo ay. Mono all the wayyy. Huuummm or maybe I mean... GO MONOPHONIC FK POLLY :D
Trom Droid ?????
I am a very big Le Caine fan and would have loved to have joined you on that tour. However: Why where the only musically relevant bits in this whole video played by him already about 70 years ago? I think I know the reason: Knobfetishism in stead of musical inspiration. That seems to be the general state of electronic music today. No wonder the Electronic Sackbut never took of. One actually had to play that one.
17:13 What’s that rocket engine doing there!?
Also what I think might be a Satellite at 12:59!
@@TravisBoisvenue and the world's first tape recorder at 17:25 on the left.
No chords???
I MUST HAS THAT WAREHOUSE
cute!
I just saw the vcs3 in the thumbnail
01:41 wtf is that TR-505 doing there lol...
Gary D it sounds good
Hugh Le Caine created the first synthesizers? Yeah right -- check out Harald Bode.