Inspiring Modulation (a mindful tutorial)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 มิ.ย. 2024
- Being a (hopefully) thought-provoking video to explain modulation and inspiration strategies for modular, emphasis on the mighty Music Thing Turing Machine. I saved the most important point for last. Support on Patreon yea? / mylarmelodies
Also features Basimilus Iteritas Alter, Turing Machine Expanders, VCAs, LFOs, Envelopes from Mutable Instruments Stages, Sophie, Elektron Machines, DFAM, and more.
SUPPORT LE CHANNEL
➡️ Support this channel on Patreon? / mylarmelodies
➡️ Buy things (modular, hardware, software, etc) from Gear4music via this affiliate link: tidd.ly/3zBYb22
➡️ Buy music on bandcamp: mylarmelodies.bandcamp.com/
MORE INFO/VIEWING
➡️ Obligatory modulargrid of the system: www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/v...
➡️ Turing machine at Thonk: www.thonk.co.uk/brand/music-t...
➡️ Me building a Turing Machine in real time, in full, on the internet: • Building a Music Thing...
➡️ That tweet with the quote by Sophie: / 1511509687421788164
➡️ And if you want to mull more on these topics, check out my podcast with Make Noise as a lot of this is discussed further: www.whywebleep.com/whywebleep...
00:00 Let's modulate ourselves.
00:46 Hands, LFOs, Attenuation
01:48 VCAs and LFOs
02:52 Turing Machines, Stepped modulation
06:30 Voltages Expander, Klee Sequencers
07:34 Taking inspiration from gear
10:35 Inspiration from Elektron & SOPHIE
12:55 Inspiration from the DFAM
15:29 Ergo, this system & 'the ratio.'
18:36 Envelopes for modulation, Mutable Stages
21:34 CV-controlled Decay time (posh)
22:32 Step sequencer VCA'd Envelopes!
24:37 Modulated clocks
25:43 Held voltages with an LFO & S&H
28:28 Trad random with noise and S&H
31:44 One very important final thought - เพลง
This video is absolute poetry
thanks meight 🙌
PLEASE DON'T ENCOURAGE THIS
The presentation style of this vid is top notch, you're becoming the Bob Ross of synths
shoot. let’s make some happy little patches, riiiiight there. 🖼
@@mylarmelodies Give those happy little patches!
Well he also has the paint brush for synth cleaning. Just beat the devil out of it.
🤣we don't make mistakes, just happy accidents. And on the way we spent buckets of money. I’m thinking of picking up painting again.
Minus the hairstyle. Mylar, you know what you need to do now.
I think of that Sophie quote often!
Totally. It’s such a good approach to bear in mind when messing with modular, or anything with lots of available automation.
Finally a video who show the patches of start to end. That's very precious for the beginner who I am. And your comments bring myself a better understanding of my system and of what I can do whit it.
Even if as a french girl my english is limited ;)
Thanks a lot
Great to hear things panning around in the Stereo Strip and multiple Turing Machines is a lovely thing ey!
Great bit from Sophie. RIP 💕
This is great I’ve always thought of the BIA as an Autechre machine, it just goes to these formless places as you’ve demonstrated here so well.
this feels really timely for me because i've been playing with metropolix a lot and really thinking about listening to what metropolix _wants_ to do rather than trying to wrestle it into the forms i naively approached it with
Man, i've learned more from this video that from most the tutorials i've watched. It's interesting how the poetic way of explaining things makes it easier to understand. Thank you!
That was a very nice deep little journey in to the modular space. I always enjoy how you use your voice!
I always love your Videos. They always help motivate me and get me back on track with my "tiny" live Modular that im practicing to get a show out of. I have all the modulation. I just have to use it more!
I absolutely love your style and ideas. Very well done video. This will actually inspire me to just play around with what my DFAM as a sole instrument can do. Thank you for that.
Very cool & necessary conversations you bring up to have with ourselves and each other. It was really difficult for me when I started out to not feel like I kinda needed EVERYTHING before I even understood what I needed or why. You and many other great artists such as yourself have helped me immeasurably not just learning what to do with all these amazing music machines...but have helped me be more patient and gain perspective on the bigger picture with my system. Thanks again
Almost fell asleep in the middle of the day because your voice is so calm.
Such a well thought out video, I'm only 2 years into my eurorack journey although I'm proud of the choices I've made, especially in not just getting carried away with sounds sources because functions and modulations is what really brings the whole thing to life. This way I can watch your videos and not have the exact modules you do but then have that eureka moment where I realise I can do these things with what I have. I think the whole 'get creative with what you have' ethos was also something I took from your previous videos.
This is absolutely delightful and one of the best things I've seen on TH-cam. Beautiful!
🫶
What a treat! Definitely thought-provoking about how I have built and patched my modular. Sometimes limitations do breed creativity and inspiration. Also, the axiom of "You can never have too many VCA's" has been superseded by "You can never have too many modulation sources"
Absolutely fantastic sir! Thanks for putting this together. Great food for thought.
I've had my system for almost a year now, and I just had the most fun I've ever had on it, after watching this. Thank you ❤️
Man, this video is so helpful. I am just getting into modular and trying to learn more before I go nuts on getting modules. You have such a logic to the way you teach, that it makes the complex more digestible. You also are just a good musician, so the example you create sound cool, which aids inspiration. Really top notch. Thank you.
You are one of the most inspiring talkers and finger twiddling synth personalities out there.
Learned a lot from you and eager to hear anything you have an opinion about.
Also…thanks for the Turing Machine love letter ❤️
After a stressful day nothing kind of inspires and relaxes better than this video 😍 really cool one
🙌
Love how ya start off manually triggering, while making the patches Made me smile
Fantastic, there's so much inspiration here, thank you!
Can't stress enough how entertaining and informative this video is! You should make tutorials for pretty much everything in life man I'd watch the shit out of that! But let's start with modular XD
Seriously, this is grade A stuff!
Love the use of three turning machines here for the different “layers” of modulation - you can improvise new phrases at different levels of the sound. Fantastic!
For us non-modular folks, the BIA plugin is looking ever more tempting now :D
You can get the Turing machine as a Max for live thingie too
absolutely brilliant -- huge inspiration -- love yr work
I have been enjoying your videos for a while, but I think this is one of my favourites. Cheers! off to patch now...
🙌
I wish Ken Nordine could watch this.
This is an extremely inspiring video. Really really appreciate it.
Oh! I didn't realise I needed THREE Turing Machines... Thanks for that.
I don't love BIA for that reason, not necessarily needing 3 turing machines, but you do need a ton of modulations sources if you want to get more than one or 2 sounds out of it.
"Looping makes randomness intentional, and you get to take credit for the idea!"
That’s Techno™
Can we get the voice track of this video for putting it on a RadioMusic?
Please release this whole video as a music album :) I could listen to it all day! Love the video.
Awesome video. Great work in breaking down a major why of Modular, making it accessible, and making it not about having that one more module. I’ve got a ALM Dinky’s Taiko I was thinking about selling, and this has shown me that I really haven’t got close to exploring its potential. Gonna get patching. Cheers Mylar! 🤘🏽
“Don’t forget to Modulate your modulation” Eric schlappi
I also love to thinking in minimal ways to modulate on my channel.
Great job ! Best video!
insightful and entertaining as always, thank you
What an experience! Love it!
One more for the books Alex! Thanks for the creativity!
One of my fave mylar videos! Alan turing would be pleased!
I love this. Love the Turing Machine!
Hugely inspiring stuff. Great vid Alex
Thanks Lee 🙌
Beatstep Pro owners: use the velocity CV outs for stepped modulation 🤤
the main reason i watch gear-youtube is for inspiration with the stuff i already have. i love getting new gear, who doesn't, but it would feel too empty if i didn't (over time, on-and-off) get as much as i could from it. i also think it helps develop your voice and find new sounds if you try to sort of not-quite copy someone. i have a shapeshifter, and enough else to do stuff like this - i am inspired to have a go at thinking in this way too :) great vid, thanks!
Brilliant and highly inspirational! Love this
@mylarmelodies Don't know if you're using it, but you should check the Qiemem alt firmware for Stages: adds random type (can be 6 Turing machines, uni- or bipolar), attenuverters and more.
so glad I finally remembered to watch this
Loving this!
You are an inspiring human. Thanks for the story 🙏
this was absolutely lovely, thank you
thank you!
Brilliant, inspiring. Thanks!
Really informative vid and a pleasure to watch, as was your building of the Turing machine live - it was quite therapeutic seeing you build that, I just had to watch until you had finished it, which was quite amazing as I don’t usually make it to the end of a movie without falling asleep. Cheerz Alex.
P E A C E : )
haha thanks - was a durational piece that, just glad it worked!!
@@mylarmelodies I did urge you on the live chat to ‘solder’ on to complete it that night. I need to start getting modules for my still unopened RackBrute and the Turing Machine will be top of the list. Hope you do some more Why We Bleep interviews soon - Steve Davis would be a good chat.
Darnit Mylar now you convinced me to get some of those Turing machines! They are useful like having an Ornament and Crime module.Love my DFAM and Elektron boxes. BIA is great and love my Queen of Pentacles module.
Haha love how the thing you took away from this is “buy a thing”
Love this, always an inspiration. Recently got an Alan and did a similar thing with that and Voltage Block on BIA :)
Fantastic video! I love the BIA. First module I ever bought :) And even in this video I hear it do things I never heard before. Amazing.
Really inspiring 💥
Re your Sophie quote, I liked seeing you show the DFAM for that kind of thing. And it's why I've got a Befaco Percall.
Thanks for the ideas
Hearing you talk about SOPHIE and them using the Monomachine makes me feel so validated. Hearing how they crafted this completely unique sound, and it's on a box that's over 10 years old. I feel conflicted about getting one, because the prices for these used is nuts, but more importantly, I think SOPHIE just took the Monomachine, and pushed it to do so much, that that box is just theirs now. They did more with one piece of gear than entire artists do with studios full of gear.
And so I've settled on trying to figure out how to make a Monomachine in eurorack, and I feel crestfallen because it seems like I just need more than I can ever properly afford, and while the modern Elektron offerings are extremely incredible, they just don't scratch that Monomachine itch.
It's why I got into modular in the first place, trying to replicate the sonic possibilities that SOPHIE had. And then I realized the amount of gear I need is insane, lmao.
Whoops yeah, in short SOPHIE changed my life in more ways than I can possibly describe, and it's because of them that I had a genuine, complete turnaround in my life, and I've fallen in love with making music again. The world really lost her too soon.
Thank you for this vid, Mylar.
You’re welcome, definitely modular is the harder way to do it cost wise - what about software/VCV? Sophie certainly used that too (well Serum etc) - be careful not to fall into the “toolbox” trap (I’ll make great music only when I have X)
@@mylarmelodies You are absolutely on point! I've had to force myself to pump the brakes on that and re-evaluate before I sink thousands of dollars into it, hahaha.
Now if only I could actually get decent recordings together, lol. I feel like I can never trust what I record, it always sounds absolutely awful.
Thank you for your reply tho Mylar. I've mostly stayed away from Serum just because EVERYONE uses it, but considering sampling that would certainly be doable, I might just get it soon-ish.
@@Ariakiri_ "everyone" used Minimoogs and ARP2600s when those were the top tools on the market. Would that stop you from using one now? If you must be a rebel, Vital is pretty sick and also free.
This was one of the first videos I found when I started getting into modular. Ive found so many fun uses for the Turing Machine so far. Most recent idea is use the gate output from Hermod to advance the turning machine per note and use it to modulate envelope CV :)
I'm a home hobbyist, recently got my first semi-modular, and this is a really terrific explanation, demonstration and introduction to modular synthesis. Thanks! I subscribed. "Made lumpy by envelopes." lol!
Thanks for the fresh ideas.
Man I missed the videos in which you gave us master class about modular. Suggested systems should make a comeback.
Love this! 🎨
More of these mindful videos would be very most welcome!
my fav "modular channel" with good reason
Mylarpoetry?
Very nice and inspiring intro.
Congrats!!
Thanks meight
super nice, savored this video
Really exciting video for me that touched on two ideas I’ve been exploring lately! 1 is ALOT of stepped modulation with Rene V2. And 2 is just ONE super involved “voice” rather than “polyphony” or a bunch of layers going at the same time. (Lots of luck with my QPAS and MMG for this as QPAS has decay envelopes and two frequencies and MMG has a LPG/filter setup with a drive and variable multi mode filter knob. Pair this with an erbe verb or mimeophon (or both) and you’ve got a lot of sound design potential!)
Thank you for this, always looking for ideas about patching. :)
Best modular vid ever. So simplified
So clever. Fantastic! Thx :)
Just makes me wanna get a bunch of extended music things... and some really expressive conrollable synth
Beautiful and inspiring
🙌
Masterclass! Thanks.
It's informative, it's musical, it's ASMR... great video! 👍
Awesome monomachine / SOPHIE shoutout
Very inspiring!
Just lovely. 👌
Fantastic!
excellent video :) realised recently that probably too much of my rack is for sound making and not enough is for modulation/sequencing so youre providing some much needed inspiration (modulation) for how to shake things up
Opposite in mine, at one time i realized that i have about 50 Modulation sources but about a handful of targets.
Very inspiring! Ty!
Great video as usual and inspiring indeed. I have Permutations plus the expander from Grayscale but now I want a Turing machine from MTM LOL
My favorite video from you so far. It inspired me to fire up my voltage block and get modulating. Any plans to do a live set based on this concept?
Thanks!! I’m planning to load up my live system with Turing machines, yes!! ;) Watch this space
Fantastic and inspiring video, thank you!
Would love (as a not-modular (yet)) to see a follow-up or even a ‘here’s how to apply this in the software realm’ with the MaxForLive Turing Machine. I’ve loved it for notes but failed to wire my brain to make use of the voltage/pulse sections for modulation.
It's interesting that you start this video with the BIA because I ended up buying a Pam's because I needed more modulation for the BIA. 🙌
Thank You for the wonderful and inspiring thoughts on modulation. Timing is perfect as I've spent the last week experimenting with really slow modulations and you are presenting lots of ideas here that I would like to explore.
Mind bogglingly good
A Modular Modulation Meditation from Mr Mylar Melodies.... Marvellous M8
Had to watch a second time! Conceptual modular! Spoken word! Futurity! Let’s imagine a liberated future, utopia, what can be! Soundtrack the revolution! Beep-boop music for racial justice, techno to turn you gay…
I need more Turing Machines...
Thank you haha!
very good video, for me there are lots of new ideas on how modulation can be used, thanks! my problem was that i started to buy many modules, most of them not easy to understand, and i got confused with all my big system, now i should start from beginning :)
It’s ultimately a matter of exploring all the possibilities, is it not? The ‘orchestra’ had been in business for a couple of centuries before your Varesi and your Stockhausen and your Zappa took it to its outer reaches. Similarly, the modular architecture has been around for sixty years and it’s only now that its own extremes are being explored- by adventurous engineering in addition to imaginative patching. You can use it to recreate guitar-bass-drums if you want (and I sometimes do), but you can also use it to make ‘music’ that has never previously even been sighted in the middle distance.
Anyhow, thanks for making us think. Again.
There was a terrific article from the equally terrific Bernie Hutchins in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, some 40 years ago, on achieving a "fat" sound, using modulation. Keep in mind that, at the time, we didn't have velocity sensitive keyboards or after-touch, so the goal was to make synth sounds more interesting than the stagnant stable timbres of console organs and such. Hutchins noted that peak fatness tended to come with around 3-4 sources of modulation. More than that, made it too busy to appeal, and less than that made it uninteresting. I'm probably blurring the recalled details of the article in the intervening decades, but it is worth digging up.
that sounds interesting and matches my real world experience. Maybe this is why most non-modular synthesisers are designed 3-4 mod sources
That's odd, because only specific modulations add to "fatness" (pitch and delay, mainly) whereas just about all contribute to interest.
@@vampiresforesl Well, it *was* 40 years ago, so that may have been prior to any finer differentiation between "fat" and "interesting". I may also be remembering it poorly. I know I have a photocopy of the article...somewhere... but I'd have to sift through at least 10 very thick binders of such material to find it.
I did my own thang and ended up with a Churning Machine. Thanks for the tips.
Stepped modulation and controlled random has become a vital component of my system...Marbles, Clepsydra Diazoma by N.E., Steps by After Later Audio, Bastl's Little Nerd and Kastle (Rungler circuit) are huge for my rig. I didn't realize I was getting so heavy into the stepped thing til I looked at it and noticed. Couldn't make the music I want without stepped modulation
Lovely vid - makes me realize that my 9U 126HP monosynth isn't that crazy after all.
I trust it’s just a BIA and 118HP of modulation?
@@mylarmelodies not far off: Shapeshifter instead.
@@TomMadisonSoundsLewis This checks out
Hi I am from Goa india learning about Psy trance music beat production! your explanation is something that each and every music artist can relate! I had smile across my face while listening this entire video
a mindful tutorial? performance art? beat poetry? all the above? lol.