Walker gets it. That's what it's all about. Everything is an experiment. Try something new every time. There is so much therapeutic value just in turning knobs and moving sliders guided by the feedback of our ears. The act of creating need not meet specific goals nor produce finished works beyond experiencing the act itself. The healing is in the act.
you probably dont give a shit but if you are bored like me atm you can watch all the latest series on instaflixxer. Have been streaming with my brother during the lockdown xD
Hey Walker, as everyone else has said, Thanks for the patch ideas and videos! My story - after owning an 0-Coast and Mother-32 for a few months, I drove up to Asheville and bought my first modules from you and the Moog store. It was quite a treat to walk / stumble into Make Noise and find you sitting there. And then to have you give me a personal lesson on many modules was something I will never forget. The eurorack modular community in general is always so willing to help. It blows me away. I have emailed Dieter Doepfer about DIY power supplies. He answered enthusiastically. I REALLY hope to return there one day soon to buy my Mimeophon from you or Eric. Please keep the vids coming! Thanks!!
Hey Shawn, thanks for this reminiscence! Just about nothing is more fun to me than to talk to enthusiastic fellow synthesists. We'll look forward to the next time you make it by! -W
Very nice statement on what modular is all about. I am a bass player and love my role in a band situation, but modular gives me a whole new way to create sound. I love the fact that you don’t need to know anything about modular synthesis to enjoy the pleasure of experimentation. You can’t break anything by trying a patch idea... only the “rules” can be broken and that is so perfect!
After a few hours of making crazy sounds/patterns/noise with my synth, I get in the car, start driving, and turn on some "music". And I am blown away by how much more details I hear and appreciate, that I never noticed before. I find the contrast between the two ways of making sounds exciting, and increases my enjoyment of both. My synth noise sessions have increased my awareness of nonlinear sounds I hear, when walking in nature, and around machines. Anyone else experience that? PS in addition to my synth experiments, I play other instruments in more traditional contexts, both solo, and in bands.
Your observations reminded me of an article about listening I read a long time ago, by a great musician and synthesist: "Some Sound Observations" by Pauline Oliveros. It's almost a catalog of all the things she listens to, "musical" and (mostly) otherwise, and made a huge impression on me.
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC , Thanks very much for the reply. It led me to this website: rubinmuseum.org/blog/pauline-oliveros-deep-listening-sound-meditations Great reading on the subject of listening awareness. Your video, reply to my post, and websites, like the one above, are the jewels of the internet.
That was an amazing exhibit! I was lucky enough to get to make a visit during a trip to NYC for Machines in Music in October 2017. Didn't realize that the web support was so robust! Thanks for the link! -W
For me it’s a mind soul rush exploration of planned reasoning often shattered ... there is nothing like a self generating patch that starts from some sort of harshness that breaks my mind and then somehow comes together into this beautiful piece of audio art that takes on a breathing life of its own as the voltages move about the system... Living Breathing Electric Art!
Thank you for this Walker. It is exactly the sort of simple joy of patching and exploring that makes the modular synth so much fun. You encapsulate this idea very succinctly in this video.
Loving these patching philosophy videos. I think the modular synthesizer has re-wired my brain. It has made me more creative, inquisitive, analytical, and unafraid to make mistakes in more aspects of life than just music. I feel like I learn something new with each new patch, which then creates a slew of other exciting questions still waiting to be answered. And it all started a few years ago with the 0-COAST.
What a great perspective! It reminds me of something our friend Tyondai Braxton wrote for the back page of Wire Magazine a few years back: "You can still sound like yourself. It is still your musical voice, just using a different method. This was a massive revelation... I started to embrace the x-factor more and it was unbelievably liberating... I also started going out more and I'm less stressed out as a whole. Philosophically I feel a lot more open and am less wary of trying things outside of my comfort zone. I'm absolutely serious when I say: modular synths and their process of creation have taught me how to be more natural, more human."
Thanks for the video affirmation, and ideas, Walker. As others have commented, this vid is capturing the Zen of Modular. Patching...a means without an end, is pure sonic experimentation without a goal, or "finished product". I really enjoy the flash of discovery when a jack is connected, or a knob tweeked, that makes you go, whoa, how did that happen? Endless, goal-less exploration. Since receiving an 0-Coast last Christmas, I have had hours of fun pairing it with my ancient Korg MS-20, using a Keystep Midi'd to the Coast, and the CV and gate for the Korg, or just the two synths alone, with the Krell patch modified to include the Korg. Crazy, unpredictable stuff, that I occasionally record just to hear parts that I really didn't pickup on, during the "creation". Looking to pick up the 0-Ctrl for even more "madness"!
I feel you've touched on the heart of what these instruments do, at least for me as a composer. They invite unrestricted creativity and exploration. It is almost like fumbling in the dark sometimes, and I mean it in a very positive way. One of my mentors at one time or other has referred to patching as being a meditation, or yoga even! =P Your instruments (and many other manufacturers as well in eurorack) have severely changed the ways I listen, create, and interact with music (sound?!?) Keep up the good work guys, you rock the house.
This also reminds me of a quote from Devarahi in "The Complete Guide to Synthesizers" from 1982 (which I was going to include in this video but it was getting too long). It's about approaching synthesis with "the beginner's mind." He writes: “This approach to the synthesizer is intuitive, nonlinear, a cybernetic meditation. The synthesist can become indistinguishable from the machine and the music. Your hands move and you have a broad idea of what will happen when you control or modify a module with another module, but you are not going anywhere. There is no goal. Sound happens. When the process has reached completion you know and you stop.”
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC love it....and yes, it evokes the "beginner's mind".....a kinda childlike approach to "to what happens if I do this?"......creatively, that is very invigorating
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC It's like something I read recently, that those first moments with a new instrument/module/synth are always so rewarding, having no idea what is supposed to be done, but simply doing and exploring.
I really like the more philosophical bent of this and the previous video. It's easy to find information on which module to buy, harder to find things like this where you consider what it is you're doing with a modular synth. Great video!
I started with YT videos , I was hooked in no time , patching relaxes me , I dropped all the synths for like a year , just turned it off and worked only on modular , it gave me clear understanding of regular synths , suddenly it all became more clear , keep patching !
Yes! I record very less and play live even lesser and often people ask what/where I'm at with my music. It's hard to explain to most that I'm having fun in my room with my headphones on and no, I don't need to record, release or perform or even justify to others what the joy of a modular is :)
Another thing I was thinking about: historically probably 90% of people who play, for example, piano, are not professionals or even performers (I include myself in this number). So this is nothing new really :)
I find it funny that people look down on you when you have gear (especially expensive gear) and don’t have releases or perform live. They consider you a poseur. Yet grandma had her organ...maybe their parents had a spinet...and they don’t jibe them for not having anything on SoundCloud.
@@deanrinehart There's so many people with acoustic guitars but once you get an electric guitar and some effect pedals you're suddenly supposed to be a working musician. I guess it has something to do with the culture of electronic music in some way? Investing in hardware automatically means you're a "serious musician" (whatever that might mean) even though you could theoretically spend the similar amounts of money buying VSTs and messing around in a DAW. I don't know, it's a hard one. But whatever, I still love my modular and I have lots of fun with it! :)
i am always happy to walk away from my system feeling more fulfilled by the process than any final product - recorded or not. thank you MN for always pushing forward & left & right & up & down & all the other spaces in between! big shout out to all in the modular community!
It's funny before I saw this video I was just looking back at some of my first recordings. I think you perfectly stated why I love modular synthesis so much, so many hours spent patching just to see what happens. I started with a 0-coast Make Noise has always been a great inspiration, thank you.
Hahaha, when you said "Sound and Vision" early in the video, I wondered if it was a Bowie reference, then you said "Breaking Glass", love it! Always stellar videos and philosophy to boot
My real first time with actual modular outside of the mother 32 was in a hotel room in Asheville after visiting MN 4 years ago. I had no idea what was going on but I knew I wanted to be in that space. I had not loved an instrument this much in decades, thanks for all your hard work and inspiration!
Thanks Walker! You folks at Make Noise are really moving the modular world forward! My entry into modular occurred right after I purchased a Mother 32 and guess what my first modular purchase was? After that, I didn't dare looking back...rabbit hole ensued....
Your analogy between patching and breaking glass in your room was perfect! Make Noise and your tutorial videos are a very big reason I decided to get into modular, and I cannot thank you enough!
To be honest, my first modular was the MN CV Bus Shared System and I hated it. I expected these drones and soundscapes you could do with a PC, but couldn't get anything useful out of it. So I added Plaits, Yarns, a mixer and a Z-DSP. I think the Shared didn't even survive one week in its original form. I filled four CV cases 'trying to solve my problem' but in the end I realized it was me trying to recreate a PC instead of discovering the magic of a modular. By the end of 2019 I came full circle and screwed the old CV Bus back in its original configuration. It took me the long way home. It's now part of my 'Shared Museum', which includes all discontinued silver modules like RxMx, FxDf, Mysteron and Dynamix. My favorite system is now a mix of the Shared, Cartesian & Tape/Microsound. It has its limitations compared to a PC, but the biggest difference is that the system is a real instrument, like a violin or a guitar and you have to become part of it.
I think there are plenty of people who try to "recreate a PC" because that's what they know. Of course I'm not knocking anybody's way of working, just trying to dig into some of what lights me up about modular, and a big part of it is that I'm NOT doing things I already know. Glad you have a similar experience, and thanks for sharing so much of your music with us! -W
I can completely relate. How interesting! “Half asleep, slumped over...entranced by where we take one another “ I told my wife even if it was weird, I’m not the only one. Love my Shared System! “Living the connection...”
I can listen simply just to my telharmonic with only the H output and without any filter or modulations for hours long... ty for that. :) Sometimes the joy of patching relaxes me without any "big" musical achievement. Offen it plays a huge roll in my mental recreation, like playing with lego blocks without any manual, just for the fun of creating something new. :)
Modular ist just crazy addictive. Just figuring out the perfect system, even before I bought it was so fascinating. Thinking about which OSC to choose over another while at the same time physical limitations like the size of your case is like techno Tetris.
As often as possible, I try to give my 2 year old an unrestricted go at patching up the modular system. It's so rewarding when he decides to patch a cable from one place to another, the sound suddenly changes, and I can practically see his brain light up with activity and new neural connections in real-time. Patch up the system, patch up the brain, same thing... Make Noise, Make Connections
the "breaking glass" as you put it is all I ever really wanted from modular. I almost never hit record. I'd previously tried software platforms, like Creamware's early DSP-based software modular, but the lack of tactility and immediacy was infuriating. I also love hearing about all the wildly different directions people are taking modular systems. Seeing Guy Ben-ary's series of three cellF performances here in Sydney - living cells, effectively in a petrie dish of sorts, interacting simultaneously with a modular and human musicians! - absolutely blew my mind.
In these physically locked-down times I’m grateful to visit new worlds in a jungle of patch cables. Still finding new territory with the 0-coast (and TMSMM), thanks for the inspiration!
A very inspirational video in these times, thank you! What I enjoy so much about the modular is that it grows with me and it feels like we jointly decide the direction with each new module and each new thing we learn about each other. Currently it is difficult to jam with people and the modular replies when I do something, a little bit like a human would. No drum machine or standard synth could do this!
This is a great point - I wouldn't say the modular is a "substitute" for a human collaborator, but to play it is nonetheless to have a musical conversation :)
My first experience with a modular was the shared system! One of my favorite things about it is how often (even now) I would start with a specific goal and gradually change my mind between listening/playing and ending up further and further out.
That's one of my favorite things too! I usually find something better than what I was "planning" and even reorient my whole piece or performance to fit it. I especially love when it happens during a live performance and I end up so dangerously far out to sea. It's exhilarating :D
Love to see you and your experience. Sometimes it is just patching for the sake of patching. But sometimes there is a patch that starts a path to something more and then it is like a flower opens.
Thanks Susanne! That is a really good point, it can certainly also be a means to an end, even if it's not one we had expected. Sorry we had to miss you out in Berlin this year. Hope you are safe and well!
Some of the patching examples you provided the beginning of the video seem so obvious after the fact. For example, I never thought to modulate certain parameters using clock signals (like you did with the Tempi into the DPO’s shape, angle and fold). It’s so simple to think of, yet it never dawned on me. That’s why I love modular. I would love to see more videos of your suggestions for patching or maybe what you have learned over the years with a modular. Thanks again for posting.
It still amazes me how many things I HAVEN'T tried yet, and how each one of them can lead to more places than I've yet been. We'll keep posting videos and ideas of course, but make sure to check out the 250+ videos we already have on the channel! Check out the "Deep Dives" playlist for example: th-cam.com/play/PL0jGFC0FWQsiL6dkTl4bOxhnh5-8A6ndq.html
Last night I took the sub out from Strega into a VCA where I was piping audio of the Tarzan yell with some AM from Wogglebug. It was weird. I was happy.
This is me for the two or so years since getting into modular. Still don’t know what I’m doing. Still just playing about. My biggest mistake is buying a new module before learning what I already had ....... but I think that’s the rabbit hole people were talking about!! 🤪
ok nice to know i'm not the only one that does this lol ! brilliant way of explaining the openness of patching... like from the movie charlie and the chocolate factory where charlie states: "candy has no point, that's why it's candy"
I would love to hear an EP on Make Noise Records from you soon, haha. I am no pro judge of "quality" which is subjective as always but I would totally be into hearing some of the ideas being developed and captured on a proper medium. Another well put content full of useful insights. Some ideas I have never came across in my patching which I will try with my system soon enough. Now this is a story related so let's be honest and sail off to that realm. My modular adventure became a reality after I spent some time in a triple A studio full of that vintage gear one could ever dream of. Let's talk og Prophet's, SH's. Jupiter's. EMAX, Mono/Poly and much more. Some of the gear that wasn't being used was stored in a nearby cellar (yes an actual cellar!) in a great company of a really neat mastering chain at the control mastering desk. A room contained within a room for the best possible reproduction. It was in Prague, dating a year prior to this day and a couple weeks. At that time I was running a humble setup consisted of mostly analog vintage gear then being processed and ran through outboard + Max for Live (for control and extra depth) or other digital enviroments. I had all these great synths there but there was this one little couple HP system sitting on the mixing console just on its own, by its own. I was never a preset guy so it got me really intrigued. Patched couple wires and suddenly I was running a triple VCO moog style bassline sequenced by a Beatstep Pro at the time. Instant vibes. Latency wasn't really an issue as the subtle drifts made the whole endeavor much more enjoyful. Some time passed and I started building my own system. Maths was my first choice and it serves me well to this day. The blue knobs version (really great one). It was the time when I was finishing my third university degree and was going through a lot of "life changes" and this was always there for me. Since I had the luxury to spend at least 12 hours a day exploring the system while smoking "some" it got me to places I was never able to go with pre-wired hardware or market standart for synths of that time. I view music as my hobby but since then the production itself got the sound and it is much more enjoyful to work with. You never know what happens next. Even reworking or repatching one patch from the scratch always yields different results. That's the beauty of it. It flows like life itself. It's true. I view the beauty of it in the way the circuits intertwine with each other.
Thank you for sharing your story! I do release music, at walkerfarrell.bandcamp.com - mostly of much more complex/difficult nature than the patches in my videos, which are made of course to function not just musically but also instructionally. I have considered compiling some favorites of just the synth audio, vocal tracks removed, but again I'm not sure these pieces would stand up on their own. Something worth thinking about nevertheless, and thanks for the kind words! - W
Can you do a very beginner video on how Make Noise modules map to traditional things like VCA, filter, oscillators and so forth? The Make Noise west coast stuff is very confusing to me.
Amazingly inspirational and all that (and on that note, why doesn't most companies do this? Different type of usages and even just how some modules sound can be damn impossible to find) but seriously, what's that you got there outside the cameras field of view? You keep looking up as if distracted, nay tantalized, by it. Is it something even better than patching? Is it pre-patched synths?
Hey, thanks for the feedback! I'm still ironing out a new setup since I have to do everything in a room by myself at the moment with no other humans. I've been keeping a miniature winged unicorn around as an assistant but it keeps trying to distract me haha
Haha. Fun. Love the liberal paraphrasing of David Bowie. The rest of his line- "don't look at the carpet. I drew something awful on it." just for completions sake. So many good weird squelchy synth noises on Low. I feel the same way about messing with older samplers. I just wish they were as patchable and flexable as modular systems. Cheers!
I wasn’t going to get explicit about it, but what the heck. Low was formative for me for many reasons. It is simultaneously intimate and distant, and in its mythology it is about artistic creation that’s totally insular/closed-off while also being brutally adjacent to major historical events… it all seemed particularly resonant at the (historical) moment in which I scripted this video. -W
Nice one, Walker. This is exactly how I feel about making music on a modular - getting lost in experimentation, and treating the synth as a source of ideas as rather than a tool. I also like your point about listening and playing as being in equal partnership - hit the nail on the head... Material agency is a thing, and I feel it so much in a modular. Have you read Malafouris' article At the Potter's Wheel? You'd dig it.
I'm glad to hear this! Ooh, no I haven't read, but I'm adding it to the list! I'm a fan of agential realism at least in the Karen Barad sense, don't know yet if this is related but intrigued regardless, thanks! -W
I'm glad that wasn't lost on you guys. Weirdly was watching Bob do an ocean scene not 10mins before I saw this video. Maybe it's time to make a synchronicity module ? For those cosmic happen chances
Me, a timid fool: I love working with Rene, but I probably shouldn’t push the inputs too hard, it is a _computer_ in there after all Walker, a genius: What’s good fam, today I’m gonna clock Rene with one of the outputs of the VCO I’m sequencing with Rene. Should be fun! “Why stop anywhere”, indeed.
I dunno about genius but you should definitely not be afraid to patch anything anywhere, we always make sure they can handle more than you can throw at them :D Actually you can see in this video some spots where I send René a clock that's too fast for it to read and it stops. The area right around that line can be fun to play in!
thank you Walker & MN for continuing to advocate for the Patch and not just the Module.
Absolutely!!! 🎶🎶⚡️Great way of putting it
so well said. @donaldjasoncrunk
Walker gets it. That's what it's all about. Everything is an experiment. Try something new every time. There is so much therapeutic value just in turning knobs and moving sliders guided by the feedback of our ears. The act of creating need not meet specific goals nor produce finished works beyond experiencing the act itself. The healing is in the act.
oh, AMEN
Agreed! Thanks for sharing :)
Love this video (and all your videos). The joy is the most important part! Thanks Walker & MN
Thank you Andrew! Hope you are staying safe and sound!! -W
you probably dont give a shit but if you are bored like me atm you can watch all the latest series on instaflixxer. Have been streaming with my brother during the lockdown xD
@Gage Adrien yup, I've been watching on instaflixxer for since november myself :D
Hey Walker, as everyone else has said, Thanks for the patch ideas and videos! My story - after owning an 0-Coast and Mother-32 for a few months, I drove up to Asheville and bought my first modules from you and the Moog store. It was quite a treat to walk / stumble into Make Noise and find you sitting there. And then to have you give me a personal lesson on many modules was something I will never forget. The eurorack modular community in general is always so willing to help. It blows me away. I have emailed Dieter Doepfer about DIY power supplies. He answered enthusiastically. I REALLY hope to return there one day soon to buy my Mimeophon from you or Eric. Please keep the vids coming! Thanks!!
Hey Shawn, thanks for this reminiscence! Just about nothing is more fun to me than to talk to enthusiastic fellow synthesists. We'll look forward to the next time you make it by! -W
Very nice statement on what modular is all about.
I am a bass player and love my role in a band situation, but modular gives me a whole new way to create sound.
I love the fact that you don’t need to know anything about modular synthesis to enjoy the pleasure of experimentation.
You can’t break anything by trying a patch idea... only the “rules” can be broken and that is so perfect!
Well said!
After a few hours of making crazy sounds/patterns/noise with my synth, I get in the car, start driving, and turn on some "music".
And I am blown away by how much more details I hear and appreciate, that I never noticed before.
I find the contrast between the two ways of making sounds exciting, and increases my enjoyment of both.
My synth noise sessions have increased my awareness of nonlinear sounds I hear, when walking in nature, and around machines.
Anyone else experience that?
PS in addition to my synth experiments, I play other instruments in more traditional contexts, both solo, and in bands.
Your observations reminded me of an article about listening I read a long time ago, by a great musician and synthesist: "Some Sound Observations" by Pauline Oliveros. It's almost a catalog of all the things she listens to, "musical" and (mostly) otherwise, and made a huge impression on me.
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC , Thanks very much for the reply.
It led me to this website: rubinmuseum.org/blog/pauline-oliveros-deep-listening-sound-meditations
Great reading on the subject of listening awareness.
Your video, reply to my post, and websites, like the one above, are the jewels of the internet.
That was an amazing exhibit! I was lucky enough to get to make a visit during a trip to NYC for Machines in Music in October 2017. Didn't realize that the web support was so robust! Thanks for the link! -W
For me it’s a mind soul rush exploration of planned reasoning often shattered ... there is nothing like a self generating patch that starts from some sort of harshness that breaks my mind and then somehow comes together into this beautiful piece of audio art that takes on a breathing life of its own as the voltages move about the system... Living Breathing Electric Art!
Well stated! Thanks for your thoughts : )
Just loved this philosophical ramble on the nature of patching. Keep it up! Keep Make Noise weird!
Thank you!!
Thank you for this Walker. It is exactly the sort of simple joy of patching and exploring that makes the modular synth so much fun. You encapsulate this idea very succinctly in this video.
Thanks for watching!!
Love that quote from Tony! So true!
Loving these patching philosophy videos. I think the modular synthesizer has re-wired my brain. It has made me more creative, inquisitive, analytical, and unafraid to make mistakes in more aspects of life than just music. I feel like I learn something new with each new patch, which then creates a slew of other exciting questions still waiting to be answered. And it all started a few years ago with the 0-COAST.
What a great perspective! It reminds me of something our friend Tyondai Braxton wrote for the back page of Wire Magazine a few years back: "You can still sound like yourself. It is still your musical voice, just using a different method. This was a massive revelation... I started to embrace the x-factor more and it was unbelievably liberating... I also started going out more and I'm less stressed out as a whole. Philosophically I feel a lot more open and am less wary of trying things outside of my comfort zone. I'm absolutely serious when I say: modular synths and their process of creation have taught me how to be more natural, more human."
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC This is amazing and really resonates. Thank you for sharing, I had not seen this quote!
Thanks for the video affirmation, and ideas, Walker. As others have commented, this vid is capturing the Zen of Modular. Patching...a means without an end, is pure sonic experimentation without a goal, or "finished product". I really enjoy the flash of discovery when a jack is connected, or a knob tweeked, that makes you go, whoa, how did that happen? Endless, goal-less exploration. Since receiving an 0-Coast last Christmas, I have had hours of fun pairing it with my ancient Korg MS-20, using a Keystep Midi'd to the Coast, and the CV and gate for the Korg, or just the two synths alone, with the Krell patch modified to include the Korg. Crazy, unpredictable stuff, that I occasionally record just to hear parts that I really didn't pickup on, during the "creation". Looking to pick up the 0-Ctrl for even more "madness"!
A beautiful statement on the wonderful symbiotic relationship between human and machine! Most inspiring!
Thank you!!
I feel you've touched on the heart of what these instruments do, at least for me as a composer. They invite unrestricted creativity and exploration. It is almost like fumbling in the dark sometimes, and I mean it in a very positive way.
One of my mentors at one time or other has referred to patching as being a meditation, or yoga even! =P
Your instruments (and many other manufacturers as well in eurorack) have severely changed the ways I listen, create, and interact with music (sound?!?)
Keep up the good work guys, you rock the house.
This also reminds me of a quote from Devarahi in "The Complete Guide to Synthesizers" from 1982 (which I was going to include in this video but it was getting too long). It's about approaching synthesis with "the beginner's mind." He writes: “This approach to the synthesizer is intuitive, nonlinear, a cybernetic meditation. The synthesist can become indistinguishable from the machine and the music. Your hands move and you have a broad idea of what will happen when you control or modify a module with another module, but you are not going anywhere. There is no goal. Sound happens. When the process has reached completion you know and you stop.”
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC love it....and yes, it evokes the "beginner's mind".....a kinda childlike approach to "to what happens if I do this?"......creatively, that is very invigorating
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC It's like something I read recently, that those first moments with a new instrument/module/synth are always so rewarding, having no idea what is supposed to be done, but simply doing and exploring.
I really like the more philosophical bent of this and the previous video. It's easy to find information on which module to buy, harder to find things like this where you consider what it is you're doing with a modular synth. Great video!
Thanks for your thoughts. Buying the module is only the first step! :D
I started with YT videos , I was hooked in no time , patching relaxes me , I dropped all the synths for like a year , just turned it off and worked only on modular , it gave me clear understanding of regular synths , suddenly it all became more clear , keep patching !
Thanks for sharing!!
Creating problems... breaking glass... I love it :)
Yes! I record very less and play live even lesser and often people ask what/where I'm at with my music. It's hard to explain to most that I'm having fun in my room with my headphones on and no, I don't need to record, release or perform or even justify to others what the joy of a modular is :)
Another thing I was thinking about: historically probably 90% of people who play, for example, piano, are not professionals or even performers (I include myself in this number). So this is nothing new really :)
I find it funny that people look down on you when you have gear (especially expensive gear) and don’t have releases or perform live. They consider you a poseur. Yet grandma had her organ...maybe their parents had a spinet...and they don’t jibe them for not having anything on SoundCloud.
@@deanrinehart There's so many people with acoustic guitars but once you get an electric guitar and some effect pedals you're suddenly supposed to be a working musician. I guess it has something to do with the culture of electronic music in some way? Investing in hardware automatically means you're a "serious musician" (whatever that might mean) even though you could theoretically spend the similar amounts of money buying VSTs and messing around in a DAW. I don't know, it's a hard one. But whatever, I still love my modular and I have lots of fun with it! :)
i am always happy to walk away from my system feeling more fulfilled by the process than any final product - recorded or not. thank you MN for always pushing forward & left & right & up & down & all the other spaces in between! big shout out to all in the modular community!
Thank you!!!
It's funny before I saw this video I was just looking back at some of my first recordings. I think you perfectly stated why I love modular synthesis so much, so many hours spent patching just to see what happens. I started with a 0-coast Make Noise has always been a great inspiration, thank you.
Thanks for sharing!
I needed this today, Walker. Thank you.
Hahaha, when you said "Sound and Vision" early in the video, I wondered if it was a Bowie reference, then you said "Breaking Glass", love it! Always stellar videos and philosophy to boot
My real first time with actual modular outside of the mother 32 was in a hotel room in Asheville after visiting MN 4 years ago. I had no idea what was going on but I knew I wanted to be in that space. I had not loved an instrument this much in decades, thanks for all your hard work and inspiration!
Thanks for sharing! Glad you are loving it!
Thanks Walker! You folks at Make Noise are really moving the modular world forward! My entry into modular occurred right after I purchased a Mother 32 and guess what my first modular purchase was? After that, I didn't dare looking back...rabbit hole ensued....
Hope you are having a blast!
Your analogy between patching and breaking glass in your room was perfect! Make Noise and your tutorial videos are a very big reason I decided to get into modular, and I cannot thank you enough!
So glad to hear it! Happy patching!!!
To be honest, my first modular was the MN CV Bus Shared System and I hated it. I expected these drones and soundscapes you could do with a PC, but couldn't get anything useful out of it. So I added Plaits, Yarns, a mixer and a Z-DSP. I think the Shared didn't even survive one week in its original form. I filled four CV cases 'trying to solve my problem' but in the end I realized it was me trying to recreate a PC instead of discovering the magic of a modular. By the end of 2019 I came full circle and screwed the old CV Bus back in its original configuration. It took me the long way home. It's now part of my 'Shared Museum', which includes all discontinued silver modules like RxMx, FxDf, Mysteron and Dynamix. My favorite system is now a mix of the Shared, Cartesian & Tape/Microsound. It has its limitations compared to a PC, but the biggest difference is that the system is a real instrument, like a violin or a guitar and you have to become part of it.
I think there are plenty of people who try to "recreate a PC" because that's what they know. Of course I'm not knocking anybody's way of working, just trying to dig into some of what lights me up about modular, and a big part of it is that I'm NOT doing things I already know. Glad you have a similar experience, and thanks for sharing so much of your music with us! -W
Patching brings me so much joy, especially after watching one of Walker's videos!!
Haha thanks Ben!
Ditto!
I can completely relate. How interesting! “Half asleep, slumped over...entranced by where we take one another “ I told my wife even if it was weird, I’m not the only one. Love my Shared System! “Living the connection...”
I can listen simply just to my telharmonic with only the H output and without any filter or modulations for hours long... ty for that. :) Sometimes the joy of patching relaxes me without any "big" musical achievement. Offen it plays a huge roll in my mental recreation, like playing with lego blocks without any manual, just for the fun of creating something new. :)
Thanks for sharing! I feel the same :)
Modular ist just crazy addictive. Just figuring out the perfect system, even before I bought it was so fascinating. Thinking about which OSC to choose over another while at the same time physical limitations like the size of your case is like techno Tetris.
As often as possible, I try to give my 2 year old an unrestricted go at patching up the modular system. It's so rewarding when he decides to patch a cable from one place to another, the sound suddenly changes, and I can practically see his brain light up with activity and new neural connections in real-time. Patch up the system, patch up the brain, same thing... Make Noise, Make Connections
Awesome, thanks for sharing that!! "Music table" is great :D
the "breaking glass" as you put it is all I ever really wanted from modular. I almost never hit record. I'd previously tried software platforms, like Creamware's early DSP-based software modular, but the lack of tactility and immediacy was infuriating. I also love hearing about all the wildly different directions people are taking modular systems. Seeing Guy Ben-ary's series of three cellF performances here in Sydney - living cells, effectively in a petrie dish of sorts, interacting simultaneously with a modular and human musicians! - absolutely blew my mind.
Thanks for the comment! I'll have to check out those performances, hopefully there is some good footage on the internet.
In these physically locked-down times I’m grateful to visit new worlds in a jungle of patch cables.
Still finding new territory with the 0-coast (and TMSMM), thanks for the inspiration!
Glad you are having fun! Thanks for watching :D
Well said. Would love more of these. Thank you.
Thanks!
Thank you for all the patchers and the information you give us thank,s man,,,
Thanks for watching!!
A very inspirational video in these times, thank you! What I enjoy so much about the modular is that it grows with me and it feels like we jointly decide the direction with each new module and each new thing we learn about each other. Currently it is difficult to jam with people and the modular replies when I do something, a little bit like a human would. No drum machine or standard synth could do this!
This is a great point - I wouldn't say the modular is a "substitute" for a human collaborator, but to play it is nonetheless to have a musical conversation :)
Yes, that’s it! Thanks for articulating.
My first experience with a modular was the shared system! One of my favorite things about it is how often (even now) I would start with a specific goal and gradually change my mind between listening/playing and ending up further and further out.
That's one of my favorite things too! I usually find something better than what I was "planning" and even reorient my whole piece or performance to fit it. I especially love when it happens during a live performance and I end up so dangerously far out to sea. It's exhilarating :D
Bit late to the party... but, oh boy, does this resonate with me. Well put statement, Walker. Well put, indeed.
Love to see you and your experience. Sometimes it is just patching for the sake of patching. But sometimes there is a patch that starts a path to something more and then it is like a flower opens.
Thanks Susanne! That is a really good point, it can certainly also be a means to an end, even if it's not one we had expected. Sorry we had to miss you out in Berlin this year. Hope you are safe and well!
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC Thank you. I am and keep on patching every day.
Some of the patching examples you provided the beginning of the video seem so obvious after the fact. For example, I never thought to modulate certain parameters using clock signals (like you did with the Tempi into the DPO’s shape, angle and fold). It’s so simple to think of, yet it never dawned on me. That’s why I love modular.
I would love to see more videos of your suggestions for patching or maybe what you have learned over the years with a modular.
Thanks again for posting.
It still amazes me how many things I HAVEN'T tried yet, and how each one of them can lead to more places than I've yet been.
We'll keep posting videos and ideas of course, but make sure to check out the 250+ videos we already have on the channel! Check out the "Deep Dives" playlist for example: th-cam.com/play/PL0jGFC0FWQsiL6dkTl4bOxhnh5-8A6ndq.html
MAKEN0ISE Thank you!!! I have watched a great many of these awesome videos already and they are fantastic. As always, keep up the great work!
great video, says it all! really good one, Walker!
Thanks Joey!!
You Are Perpetual Inspiration
Mille Grazie
Thank you :)
Last night I took the sub out from Strega into a VCA where I was piping audio of the Tarzan yell with some AM from Wogglebug. It was weird. I was happy.
That sounds awesome ⚡️⚡️
Great episode (as usual, but sums up what I feel about everything Make Noise) Kuodos!😉😘
Thank you!!
Great video.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Well-stated 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
This is me for the two or so years since getting into modular. Still don’t know what I’m doing. Still just playing about. My biggest mistake is buying a new module before learning what I already had ....... but I think that’s the rabbit hole people were talking about!! 🤪
ok nice to know i'm not the only one that does this lol ! brilliant way of explaining the openness of patching... like from the movie charlie and the chocolate factory where charlie states: "candy has no point, that's why it's candy"
Haha yes! I remember loving that line :)
I would love to hear an EP on Make Noise Records from you soon, haha. I am no pro judge of "quality" which is subjective as always but I would totally be into hearing some of the ideas being developed and captured on a proper medium. Another well put content full of useful insights. Some ideas I have never came across in my patching which I will try with my system soon enough. Now this is a story related so let's be honest and sail off to that realm. My modular adventure became a reality after I spent some time in a triple A studio full of that vintage gear one could ever dream of. Let's talk og Prophet's, SH's. Jupiter's. EMAX, Mono/Poly and much more. Some of the gear that wasn't being used was stored in a nearby cellar (yes an actual cellar!) in a great company of a really neat mastering chain at the control mastering desk. A room contained within a room for the best possible reproduction. It was in Prague, dating a year prior to this day and a couple weeks. At that time I was running a humble setup consisted of mostly analog vintage gear then being processed and ran through outboard + Max for Live (for control and extra depth) or other digital enviroments. I had all these great synths there but there was this one little couple HP system sitting on the mixing console just on its own, by its own. I was never a preset guy so it got me really intrigued. Patched couple wires and suddenly I was running a triple VCO moog style bassline sequenced by a Beatstep Pro at the time. Instant vibes. Latency wasn't really an issue as the subtle drifts made the whole endeavor much more enjoyful. Some time passed and I started building my own system. Maths was my first choice and it serves me well to this day. The blue knobs version (really great one). It was the time when I was finishing my third university degree and was going through a lot of "life changes" and this was always there for me. Since I had the luxury to spend at least 12 hours a day exploring the system while smoking "some" it got me to places I was never able to go with pre-wired hardware or market standart for synths of that time. I view music as my hobby but since then the production itself got the sound and it is much more enjoyful to work with. You never know what happens next. Even reworking or repatching one patch from the scratch always yields different results. That's the beauty of it. It flows like life itself. It's true. I view the beauty of it in the way the circuits intertwine with each other.
Thank you for sharing your story! I do release music, at walkerfarrell.bandcamp.com - mostly of much more complex/difficult nature than the patches in my videos, which are made of course to function not just musically but also instructionally. I have considered compiling some favorites of just the synth audio, vocal tracks removed, but again I'm not sure these pieces would stand up on their own. Something worth thinking about nevertheless, and thanks for the kind words! - W
Wonderful video!
Thanks!!
Can you do a very beginner video on how Make Noise modules map to traditional things like VCA, filter, oscillators and so forth? The Make Noise west coast stuff is very confusing to me.
thanks and stay save.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this video! Time to try and see if my friends can be interested into this world too :D
Good luck! :P
You guys should also do a live stream!
We're thinking about that, stay tuned!
good bowie reference haha!
;)
Basically shared my story
Amazingly inspirational and all that (and on that note, why doesn't most companies do this? Different type of usages and even just how some modules sound can be damn impossible to find) but seriously, what's that you got there outside the cameras field of view? You keep looking up as if distracted, nay tantalized, by it. Is it something even better than patching? Is it pre-patched synths?
Hey, thanks for the feedback! I'm still ironing out a new setup since I have to do everything in a room by myself at the moment with no other humans. I've been keeping a miniature winged unicorn around as an assistant but it keeps trying to distract me haha
Haha. Fun. Love the liberal paraphrasing of David Bowie. The rest of his line- "don't look at the carpet. I drew something awful on it." just for completions sake. So many good weird squelchy synth noises on Low. I feel the same way about messing with older samplers. I just wish they were as patchable and flexable as modular systems. Cheers!
I wasn’t going to get explicit about it, but what the heck. Low was formative for me for many reasons. It is simultaneously intimate and distant, and in its mythology it is about artistic creation that’s totally insular/closed-off while also being brutally adjacent to major historical events… it all seemed particularly resonant at the (historical) moment in which I scripted this video. -W
Thank you
Thanks for watching!
Nice one, Walker. This is exactly how I feel about making music on a modular - getting lost in experimentation, and treating the synth as a source of ideas as rather than a tool. I also like your point about listening and playing as being in equal partnership - hit the nail on the head... Material agency is a thing, and I feel it so much in a modular. Have you read Malafouris' article At the Potter's Wheel? You'd dig it.
I'm glad to hear this! Ooh, no I haven't read, but I'm adding it to the list! I'm a fan of agential realism at least in the Karen Barad sense, don't know yet if this is related but intrigued regardless, thanks! -W
Yes !
Yes! Let's do this, 4 min and counting ;)
That happy little patch cable needs a friend
I have thought seriously about doing a Bob Ross homage video with patching at some point 😄
I'm glad that wasn't lost on you guys. Weirdly was watching Bob do an ocean scene not 10mins before I saw this video. Maybe it's time to make a synchronicity module ? For those cosmic happen chances
@@franknada6427 Please put me in for a pre-order of the synchronicity module. I need to patch it with Wogglebug Ego/Id for my Jungian archetype patch.
@@precarious333music I'll talk to the Cat and back to you. Depends on how resonant he's feeling
Is this an intentional reference to "The Joy of Cooking" book? 🤣
I mean probably 😛
Me, a timid fool: I love working with Rene, but I probably shouldn’t push the inputs too hard, it is a _computer_ in there after all
Walker, a genius: What’s good fam, today I’m gonna clock Rene with one of the outputs of the VCO I’m sequencing with Rene. Should be fun!
“Why stop anywhere”, indeed.
I dunno about genius but you should definitely not be afraid to patch anything anywhere, we always make sure they can handle more than you can throw at them :D Actually you can see in this video some spots where I send René a clock that's too fast for it to read and it stops. The area right around that line can be fun to play in!
Don't look at the carpet. I drew something awful on it.
;)
iungo ergo sum
Bob Ross approves.
Hope so! :)
50% Chris Martin 50% Danny McBride
I don’t know who Chris Martin is, but I think I’ll avoid googling them and just assume this is a compliment 😛
@@MAKEN0ISEMUSIC compliment certified
Why do you do a cut every time you make a sentence..it's annoying.