So awesome! For anyone looking to explore more fluidity between DAW and modular, I'd recommend looking at the Expert Sleepers ES-8. An 8-in/4-out class compliant USB eurorack audio interface with ADAT i/o (if you care about that) as well. Send audio back and forth between the DAW and modular, or use Silent Way / Reaktor Blocks / Ableton to calibrate and send/receive CV. It is a total game changer for me and others I know who use modular for composing.
Also, Your Mother-32 receives sync from your beat-clock (through the MIDI cable connector) in the DAW, which triggers the sequencer....you can patch from the tempo or gate outputs, or patch the tempo into the M-32 LFO, and out of the Square wave LFO, giving you a tempo synced clock that responds to subdivisions.....be wary of delay compensating for 100% accuracy!!!
@@TheCrowHillCo don't part ways with "Mum" ;) .....I have an M32 as well, and though I already feel the limitations of it being Semi-Modular, I wouldn't ditch it, I'll just add more modules =P.....I use it to sync the rest of my setup as described above.....My next steps are definitely getting the ES-8 and Silent Way....the new CV functionalities in Ableton are also worth a look, especially as you can slave Live to Logic, and have Live sync and control your external rig.....I know you're going for "out of the box" at times, but having the option for good sync with the DAW is also good. Cheers mate!
Christian- thank you for this phenomenal series of videos (I watched many of your others as well), but modular synthesis has fascinated me for a couple of years now. Well, thanks to your videos (Sandy’s input too), I decided to take the plunge about a month ago! I’ve got to say I feel much like a child with the greatest LEGO kit ever!!!!! Your manner of delivering tutorial information, often times seeming to experience something for the first with all of us- gave me the confidence to dive in, and share many of the experiences I’ve watched you endure. Thank you for instilling the confidence in me to dive into this fantastic world of exploration, musicality, and fun! Cheers, and please... keep these videos coming whenever you’ve the time- it’s one of my favorite ways of decompressing from life, and whiling hours away!!!!!
@@TheCrowHillCo So far I got the Make Noise Maths, Intellijel Quad VCA, the Xaoc Sewastopol II and a Korg SQ1 for small sequences (gonna get the Squarp Hermod soon). Getting a second Sewastopol next month for some stereo fun. Mixer wise, I've been checking tons and I think the Toppobrillo Stereomix is a good choice! That's the plan for the coming months, maybe not the smartest order but that's what was available at that time in the shop!
A little tip for those of you who may be using the uMIDI (or any other MIDI/CV module with a reset output) synced up through USB with Logic Pro. Logic only sends RESET messages from the top of the session (bar 1), so if you press play from anywhere else (say, bar 15, for example) Logic sends a CONTINUE message, which will not trigger the RESET output of the uMIDI. There's a free software called MidiPipe which allows you to convert any MIDI message into any other MIDI message, amongst many other things. I use it whenever I need to convert Logic's CONTINUE message into a RESET message, so that I can send a RESET message to my uMIDI every time I press play, regardless of what bar I start from. Just in case you want to use the MOD out from the uMIDI for actual CC1 modulation. Although for triggering a RESET between odd measures, Christian's MOD (or other CC) solution might be the way to go.
Great stuff as always Christian. Final comp was outstanding. Hybrid systems - certainly what I'm always working towards. Just had the Elektron Digitone (which is FM-tastic) and syncs a treat with Logic. Got the Polyend Seq coming next week. Fuck knows how that will fit in...
Why not config DAW to send sync out, then use mid clock as sync (will need clock divider to get required tempo division). Then you can use a sent midi event as a reset/start sequence event. You might not even need to do that if midi input module recieves midi start stop info. Use this as trig to start sequence.Then you are free to send midi notes (note number, note on, note off info) as seperate events from the DAW so you can therefore use a DAW midi out lane to play the modular with the DAW and because of earlier config it will always be in sync.
MOTU audio interfaces have DC coupled outputs so you can push CV out of the modular rack in Reason and feed to audio outputs that lead to your hardware modular. Sequence and modulate using Reason.
0:17 Me: Hmm, where's Oscar 0:19 Oscar: ZOOM!! Also great video as always. I'm gonna be trying to hook up my PC to loadsa synths via midi... not anywhere near as complex, but for a skint amateur its enough for me to mess around with!
I am pretty sure there is a way to take Midi Machine Control commands for the 'transport' control signals and/or taking MTC bits to reset the modular given times
Is there a reason why you didn't connect your uMIDI interface directly to the computer via USB? I'm using Ableton 10 and have configured my uMIDI to receive track and sync information. In this way, all state changes in the DAW (RUN, RESET, variable CLOCK, 16th CLOCK) will be provided to the top 4 blue jacks of the uMIDI. Another advantage of this connection is that the jacks for GATE, TRIGGER, CC and MOD are still available for the selected MIDI channel. uMIDI's Clock Division and Clock Mode can be changeg in its own configuration interface in a browser like Chrome. I have dealt extensively with uMIDI and if I have misunderstood something in your video or you have a question about this setup of uMIDI, I am very happy to help you. Cheers, Thomas
I love the idea of modular synths - of collecting different modules, assembling the perfect synth for me, endless experimentation, etc. But man, that rats nest of wires really triggers me and not in the sense described in this video.
I do love watching all the mod stuff and I am going to ask a question but before I do, I just want to say that I have never got into modular synths and it is a lot to take in and I am trying to understand it all. So, at the risk of being shot to pieces, here goes... It seems a hell of a lot to go through to get sounds to make music, so apart from the obvious fun doing modular, wouldn't it be just easier to use a synth? That is what I have been used since I started. Plug a synth in and play and record. I understand the fantastic sound you get from modular but it seems so complicated or is it cos synths can't do what modular can?
I see no one has replied yet, so I thought I would just give my own thoughts - very shortly - on the subject. I am by no means any kind of expert on the subject, but at least you'll have one persons thoughts on the matter. It's a bit of everything really. Is it more of a "hassle"? Well, I guess that depends on what you would call a hassle. It's definitely more time consuming and the learning curve can be daunting sometimes, but for me the time consumption is offset by a few factors that I will briefly touch on - one of which is the fact that modular allows me to essentially create my own instrument - which is a creative and educational endeavor in itself. One can create anything from a tiny sampler based instrument to recreating a "normal" analog synth to creating monster modular environments that resemble science fiction spaceship cockpits. There's also the haptic nature of the hardware - which isn't such a big deal for folks who have used hardware for years, but for me, who was completely "in the box" before I branched out, I feel more inspired and creative getting tangled in patch cables and fiddling with knobs and buttons. lol And yes, modular systems can definitely do things that other hardware or even software may struggle to do. Some of this comes down to being able to manipulate the signal flows in any way you desire and some of it comes from, imo, the inherent creativity of the modules being built - especially in eurorack right now. Some of functionality of these modules just blow my mind. And of course, as you pointed out, modular is just fun. If one can get past the cost (there are ways to lower this considerably) and the learning curve, and persevere through the difficulties, modular can be such a hugely rewarding experience. Anyways, there is lots of other factors but these are just a few that sprung to mind while reading your post. Hope it helps some.
Hi @@theorist5497, thanks for your info, to be honest i'm not saying why bother with mod im just saying it is a lot of work and a lot to learn. I love gadgets and the look of the racks with loads and loads of buttons and the sounds are awesome but I have never owned or used modular. I have had synths like that where you can manipulate the sounds but for me it is easies to start with the sound already then mess around with it like I can on my Access Virus b. Maybe one day I will get into modular but as we all know it ain't cheap (either are synths lol) and for me, modular would be something I got into if I owned the Bank of England as I would rather spend what little resources I have on libraries or synths first. :)
Spider of Pnyx yes I just don’t like the sequencer so putting it in the rack is ironically going give it more purpose as both an oscillator and for its functions like its LfO for example.
I can see the fun in all this for sound design. But I feel I spent years trying to get away from gearitus (the distraction of the new and flashing lights) and concentrating on the music. Don't you say yourself on some of the videos "Don't worry about spending hours getting the exact sound just get writing" Although I will grant that you are probably at a stage in your career that you can indulge yourself a little. If I want to dabble in this sort of stuff I go play with Reaktor blocks which most of us will have anyway. Not at all meant to be critical love your stuff and watch everything you do religiously.
ricdontap1 for me at my stage it is stimulating different parts of my brain to make music. I have been writing tunes at the piano for 42 years and have been using samples for 30 and computer DAWs for 28 years for me it is about trying to do something good with something I’m bad at. I may not get there but it certainly won’t sound like what I’ve been doing for 40 years.
@@TheCrowHillCo Yes I see, I have a similar problem with keyboards, my fingers have muscle memory so they always want to go to the same cord shapes and progressions, Thanks for the reply
You're definitely making it way too complicated. Send Logic's MIDI clock out (MMC) to your USB-MIDI device and then take the "CLK" and "RESET" out of your Intellijel uMIDI and run that into your Tempi and Metropolis. Or run a long USB cable directly into the uMIDI and send that the Logic MMC. No need to make any MIDI tracks. This will also allow you to send MIDI note cv and gate info to your Franken-synth while also running your clock sync for some multi voice goodness!
good stuff. I'm using the app Lemur, an ES-5 from Expert Sleepers and the expert sleepers software Silent Way. My goal is to use OSC to control the silent way software in more steps than midi can, but I haven't managed for the plug-in to receive OSC, although sending midi works just fine. Does anyone know how to do it on Cubase?? I've also decided for myself that I will stop using the modular to try and create complete music pieces. Meaning that it plays the bass, the rhythm and the top all at the same time. Now I just focus on making each element sound as good as I can, record it, and then on to the next element. Might take more time but it gives you much more control and each element will sound better.
So a trigger reacts on the positive flank while a gate reacts on the negative flank which is the reason that you want to oscillate a squarewave instead of a sawtooth, a sinewave, whatever. Correct?
not quite. A trigger is the same as a gate, just much much much shorter. Basically only 1 sample length I believe. Triggers and gates are only positive going from 0V to 10V I believe. A square wave alternates between negative and positive so you can use a square wave as a gate. The module taking the incoming square signal will only react to the positive changes though
Not quite a Hackintosh! I'm running dual boot Windows 10 and Arch Linux but I do have a Mac OS High Sierra VM that I can boot into from the Linux machine using QEMU. Might be worth making a video on once I get it all a little more settled!
Hey Christian thanks for this video! I have a similar way of syncing my modular with my daw with one other addition so that I can sync odd time signatures to my sequencers. I made a short video to show exactly how I achieve this. Here's the link to check it out: th-cam.com/video/nnITOt1WQBI/w-d-xo.html In the video I forgot to also Thank Sandy for all that he does and contributes to these videos. You guys are both awesome and have been a tremendous help with my dive into modular!
So awesome! For anyone looking to explore more fluidity between DAW and modular, I'd recommend looking at the Expert Sleepers ES-8. An 8-in/4-out class compliant USB eurorack audio interface with ADAT i/o (if you care about that) as well. Send audio back and forth between the DAW and modular, or use Silent Way / Reaktor Blocks / Ableton to calibrate and send/receive CV. It is a total game changer for me and others I know who use modular for composing.
beat me to it bro, ES-8 and Silent Way
Also, Your Mother-32 receives sync from your beat-clock (through the MIDI cable connector) in the DAW, which triggers the sequencer....you can patch from the tempo or gate outputs, or patch the tempo into the M-32 LFO, and out of the Square wave LFO, giving you a tempo synced clock that responds to subdivisions.....be wary of delay compensating for 100% accuracy!!!
Great suffering Felipe ironically putting the mother into the rack means she’s gonna warm her keep!
@@TheCrowHillCo don't part ways with "Mum" ;) .....I have an M32 as well, and though I already feel the limitations of it being Semi-Modular, I wouldn't ditch it, I'll just add more modules =P.....I use it to sync the rest of my setup as described above.....My next steps are definitely getting the ES-8 and Silent Way....the new CV functionalities in Ableton are also worth a look, especially as you can slave Live to Logic, and have Live sync and control your external rig.....I know you're going for "out of the box" at times, but having the option for good sync with the DAW is also good. Cheers mate!
One step closer to "Spitfire Audio: Trent Reznor Strings". :-)
Christian- thank you for this phenomenal series of videos (I watched many of your others as well), but modular synthesis has fascinated me for a couple of years now.
Well, thanks to your videos (Sandy’s input too), I decided to take the plunge about a month ago! I’ve got to say I feel much like a child with the greatest LEGO kit ever!!!!!
Your manner of delivering tutorial information, often times seeming to experience something for the first with all of us- gave me the confidence to dive in, and share many of the experiences I’ve watched you endure.
Thank you for instilling the confidence in me to dive into this fantastic world of exploration, musicality, and fun!
Cheers, and please... keep these videos coming whenever you’ve the time- it’s one of my favorite ways of decompressing from life, and whiling hours away!!!!!
Made this 100x more difficult and confusing than it ever needs to be lol.
This is incredible
Damn inspiring! Got my 3rd module yesterday, slowly taking shape!
Love the tones you got mate!
MichaelBogaMusic what have you got so far?
@@TheCrowHillCo So far I got the Make Noise Maths, Intellijel Quad VCA, the Xaoc Sewastopol II and a Korg SQ1 for small sequences (gonna get the Squarp Hermod soon). Getting a second Sewastopol next month for some stereo fun. Mixer wise, I've been checking tons and I think the Toppobrillo Stereomix is a good choice! That's the plan for the coming months, maybe not the smartest order but that's what was available at that time in the shop!
The Cirklon is another incredibly enjoyable way of doing this plus more, and I'd like to see your take on it Christian.
A little tip for those of you who may be using the uMIDI (or any other MIDI/CV module with a reset output) synced up through USB with Logic Pro. Logic only sends RESET messages from the top of the session (bar 1), so if you press play from anywhere else (say, bar 15, for example) Logic sends a CONTINUE message, which will not trigger the RESET output of the uMIDI. There's a free software called MidiPipe which allows you to convert any MIDI message into any other MIDI message, amongst many other things. I use it whenever I need to convert Logic's CONTINUE message into a RESET message, so that I can send a RESET message to my uMIDI every time I press play, regardless of what bar I start from.
Just in case you want to use the MOD out from the uMIDI for actual CC1 modulation.
Although for triggering a RESET between odd measures, Christian's MOD (or other CC) solution might be the way to go.
Wow randomly stumbled on this tip after fruitlessly trying to get my uMidi to sync and reset normally 🎉
Great stuff as always Christian. Final comp was outstanding. Hybrid systems - certainly what I'm always working towards. Just had the Elektron Digitone (which is FM-tastic) and syncs a treat with Logic. Got the Polyend Seq coming next week. Fuck knows how that will fit in...
Nice explanation with audio examples.
Surely you must be getting offers to do the next Bladerunner movie with all this by now!!!
barnabycross you’d think??!!
@@TheCrowHillCo Well Id have you doing it in a flash, no hesitation mate!!
Why not config DAW to send sync out, then use mid clock as sync (will need clock divider to get required tempo division). Then you can use a sent midi event as a reset/start sequence event. You might not even need to do that if midi input module recieves midi start stop info. Use this as trig to start sequence.Then you are free to send midi notes (note number, note on, note off info) as seperate events from the DAW so you can therefore use a DAW midi out lane to play the modular with the DAW and because of earlier config it will always be in sync.
So good! another great video.
MOTU audio interfaces have DC coupled outputs so you can push CV out of the modular rack in Reason and feed to audio outputs that lead to your hardware modular. Sequence and modulate using Reason.
0:17 Me: Hmm, where's Oscar
0:19 Oscar: ZOOM!!
Also great video as always. I'm gonna be trying to hook up my PC to loadsa synths via midi... not anywhere near as complex, but for a skint amateur its enough for me to mess around with!
I am pretty sure there is a way to take Midi Machine Control commands for the 'transport' control signals and/or taking MTC bits to reset the modular given times
Is there a reason why you didn't connect your uMIDI interface directly to the computer via USB? I'm using Ableton 10 and have configured my uMIDI to receive track and sync information. In this way, all state changes in the DAW (RUN, RESET, variable CLOCK, 16th CLOCK) will be provided to the top 4 blue jacks of the uMIDI. Another advantage of this connection is that the jacks for GATE, TRIGGER, CC and MOD are still available for the selected MIDI channel. uMIDI's Clock Division and Clock Mode can be changeg in its own configuration interface in a browser like Chrome.
I have dealt extensively with uMIDI and if I have misunderstood something in your video or you have a question about this setup of uMIDI, I am very happy to help you.
Cheers,
Thomas
I love the idea of modular synths - of collecting different modules, assembling the perfect synth for me, endless experimentation, etc. But man, that rats nest of wires really triggers me and not in the sense described in this video.
Will you make the jump over to Ableton with the newest update for your modular projects?
Jon Chambers yes
Huh? What? Seriously?
I do love watching all the mod stuff and I am going to ask a question but before I do, I just want to say that I have never got into modular synths and it is a lot to take in and I am trying to understand it all.
So, at the risk of being shot to pieces, here goes...
It seems a hell of a lot to go through to get sounds to make music, so apart from the obvious fun doing modular, wouldn't it be just easier to use a synth?
That is what I have been used since I started. Plug a synth in and play and record. I understand the fantastic sound you get from modular but it seems so complicated or is it cos synths can't do what modular can?
I see no one has replied yet, so I thought I would just give my own thoughts - very shortly - on the subject. I am by no means any kind of expert on the subject, but at least you'll have one persons thoughts on the matter.
It's a bit of everything really. Is it more of a "hassle"? Well, I guess that depends on what you would call a hassle. It's definitely more time consuming and the learning curve can be daunting sometimes, but for me the time consumption is offset by a few factors that I will briefly touch on - one of which is the fact that modular allows me to essentially create my own instrument - which is a creative and educational endeavor in itself. One can create anything from a tiny sampler based instrument to recreating a "normal" analog synth to creating monster modular environments that resemble science fiction spaceship cockpits.
There's also the haptic nature of the hardware - which isn't such a big deal for folks who have used hardware for years, but for me, who was completely "in the box" before I branched out, I feel more inspired and creative getting tangled in patch cables and fiddling with knobs and buttons. lol
And yes, modular systems can definitely do things that other hardware or even software may struggle to do. Some of this comes down to being able to manipulate the signal flows in any way you desire and some of it comes from, imo, the inherent creativity of the modules being built - especially in eurorack right now. Some of functionality of these modules just blow my mind.
And of course, as you pointed out, modular is just fun. If one can get past the cost (there are ways to lower this considerably) and the learning curve, and persevere through the difficulties, modular can be such a hugely rewarding experience.
Anyways, there is lots of other factors but these are just a few that sprung to mind while reading your post. Hope it helps some.
Hi @@theorist5497, thanks for your info, to be honest i'm not saying why bother with mod im just saying it is a lot of work and a lot to learn. I love gadgets and the look of the racks with loads and loads of buttons and the sounds are awesome but I have never owned or used modular.
I have had synths like that where you can manipulate the sounds but for me it is easies to start with the sound already then mess around with it like I can on my Access Virus b.
Maybe one day I will get into modular but as we all know it ain't cheap (either are synths lol) and for me, modular would be something I got into if I owned the Bank of England as I would rather spend what little resources I have on libraries or synths first. :)
I should do this tbh, since mother-32 is the center of my setup and it has midi. I know you dont like it much but yeah xD
Spider of Pnyx yes I just don’t like the sequencer so putting it in the rack is ironically going give it more purpose as both an oscillator and for its functions like its LfO for example.
@@TheCrowHillCo im kinda addicted to its LFO so i feel ya
I can see the fun in all this for sound design. But I feel I spent years trying to get away from gearitus (the distraction of the new and flashing lights) and concentrating on the music. Don't you say yourself on some of the videos "Don't worry about spending hours getting the exact sound just get writing" Although I will grant that you are probably at a stage in your career that you can indulge yourself a little. If I want to dabble in this sort of stuff I go play with Reaktor blocks which most of us will have anyway. Not at all meant to be critical love your stuff and watch everything you do religiously.
ricdontap1 for me at my stage it is stimulating different parts of my brain to make music. I have been writing tunes at the piano for 42 years and have been using samples for 30 and computer DAWs for 28 years for me it is about trying to do something good with something I’m bad at. I may not get there but it certainly won’t sound like what I’ve been doing for 40 years.
@@TheCrowHillCo Yes I see, I have a similar problem with keyboards, my fingers have muscle memory so they always want to go to the same cord shapes and progressions, Thanks for the reply
You're definitely making it way too complicated. Send Logic's MIDI clock out (MMC) to your USB-MIDI device and then take the "CLK" and "RESET" out of your Intellijel uMIDI and run that into your Tempi and Metropolis. Or run a long USB cable directly into the uMIDI and send that the Logic MMC. No need to make any MIDI tracks. This will also allow you to send MIDI note cv and gate info to your Franken-synth while also running your clock sync for some multi voice goodness!
Sorry. Its just the Midi Clock out on Logic. The uMIDI doesn't read MMC or MTC as per the manual.
The thumbnail looks like the wreck of the Mary Rose.
good stuff. I'm using the app Lemur, an ES-5 from Expert Sleepers and the expert sleepers software Silent Way. My goal is to use OSC to control the silent way software in more steps than midi can, but I haven't managed for the plug-in to receive OSC, although sending midi works just fine. Does anyone know how to do it on Cubase??
I've also decided for myself that I will stop using the modular to try and create complete music pieces. Meaning that it plays the bass, the rhythm and the top all at the same time. Now I just focus on making each element sound as good as I can, record it, and then on to the next element. Might take more time but it gives you much more control and each element will sound better.
So a trigger reacts on the positive flank while a gate reacts on the negative flank which is the reason that you want to oscillate a squarewave instead of a sawtooth, a sinewave, whatever. Correct?
not quite. A trigger is the same as a gate, just much much much shorter. Basically only 1 sample length I believe. Triggers and gates are only positive going from 0V to 10V I believe. A square wave alternates between negative and positive so you can use a square wave as a gate. The module taking the incoming square signal will only react to the positive changes though
Oh ok... I think I get it. Trigger active = signal high and gate active = signal low. Thanks for the clarification.
Sandy Sandy...using an Hackintosh :P (me too, eheh)
looks like it was running win10 (but me too!)
Not quite a Hackintosh! I'm running dual boot Windows 10 and Arch Linux but I do have a Mac OS High Sierra VM that I can boot into from the Linux machine using QEMU. Might be worth making a video on once I get it all a little more settled!
Hey Christian thanks for this video! I have a similar way of syncing my modular with my daw with one other addition so that I can sync odd time signatures to my sequencers. I made a short video to show exactly how I achieve this. Here's the link to check it out: th-cam.com/video/nnITOt1WQBI/w-d-xo.html
In the video I forgot to also Thank Sandy for all that he does and contributes to these videos. You guys are both awesome and have been a tremendous help with my dive into modular!
What's your total expenditure so far?
La Frog don’t ask that please!!!
www.e-rm.de/multiclock/ thank me later