Is This The Pedal Rig Of The Future? (Modular Synth)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- In this week's episode, frenemy of the show Rhett Shull gives his take on modular synthesis. It's a pretty wild ride that takes us from the first Moog synths in the '60s and '70s, to the iconic Eurorack in the '90s, all the way to the insane gear being built today. Stay tuned!
www.thejhsshow.com/
www.jhspedals.info/
/ thejhsshow
Rhett's Channels:
@Rhett Shull
@Rhett Shull Studio
0:00 Intro
1:30 Modular Synthesis
2:52 What is Modular Synthesis?
6:48 The Setup
7:33 Control Voltage
8:44 Modulating Spring Reverb
9:10 Modulating Speed of Delay
9:32 Modulating the Amount of Delay Repeats
10:31 Modulating the Infinite Control
11:20 Can You Turn a Delay into a Tremolo?
13:00 How Has the Modular World Changed?
15:57 Modular Sounds
17:18 Getting Started with Modular
22:01 Rhett's Modular Journey
22:56 Record Time
23:57 Thanks for Watching!
Gear In This Episode:
Strymon Magneto Four-Head dTape Echo & Looper Eurorack Unit
reverb.com/p/strymon-magneto-...
Make Noise MATHS Complex Function Generator Module
reverb.com/p/make-noise-maths...
Intellijel Quad VCA
reverb.com/p/intellijel-quad-...
Moog Subharmonicon Semi-Modular Polyrhythmic Analog Synthesizer
reverb.com/p/moog-subharmonic...
Resources:
vcvrack.com/
www.modulargrid.net/
Andrew Huang - @andrewhuang
• HOW TO GET STARTED WIT...
• Modular synthesis EXPL...
• The instrument I've se...
Lisa Bella Donna - @LisaBellaDonnaMusic
Record Time:
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
amzn.to/3e2ypeL
#jhs #thejhsshow #modularsynthesizers - เพลง
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Seeing a guitarist give Richard Wright so much recognition really warms my heart. RIP Rick.
I say this as a huge Gilmour fan; since it was Gilmour who inspired me to play over 20 years ago. I spent a decade copying his every move.
But Rick Wright was Pink Floyd. Period.
th-cam.com/video/fV3cL3hP2aQ/w-d-xo.html
We might be giving Richard Wright some of Roger Water’s credit.
@@xpressway2yrskull374 it’s true, I just commented the same about Waters synth work. But I love Rick.
Floyd didn't use modulars, afaik. Just the VCS3 and minimoog.
As much as I love Gilmore and his binson and custom setups - it was guys such as Adrian Belew, Pete Townshend, Steve Hillage and Robert Fripp who were much more focused towards how guitar playing can integrate better with synthesis.
@@shaft9000 He said synthesis, not modulars. ...and *just* the VCS3? You can operate the VCS3 & Synthi without knowing anything about synthesis, but you won't get what Wright and Waters did with it on AHM, OBC, DSoTM, and beyond. That synth work is in the mix all over those albums, not just in the obvious feature piece On The Run. You don't even notice it til you start listening for it and you find it in sounds that start out as one instrument but as they trail on become a synth lead, first faded & later vocoded to another instrument or voice. If you're going to try to say one artist was more focused than that on integrating synthesis you are splitting hairs to argue for arguments sake, like me pointing out that, "as much as I love Gilmore", you don't even know it's spelled? pfft.
"I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real."
James Murphy
It’s not losing your edge. It’s increasing your decay. If someone must attack this post I hope you sustain a good release.
only thing that's real after that is gonna be a debt on your bank account
I WAS THERE!
You want to make a Yaz record?
@@christopheralexander5196 Gil! Scott! Heron!
My worlds are colliding. My Modular Synth TH-cam videos are combining with my Guitar TH-cam videos.
Then check out the pedals and modules by Hungry Robot Pedals. You'll love it!
Same. I’ve watched Moritz Klein’s DIY modular videos countless times, and I’m grinding my way through all of Look Mum No Computer videos.
Synergy.
A George divided against itself, cannot stand.
Sammmeeee
I don’t think anything could have helped Josh sell more pedals than 20 minutes of listening to a guitar trying to control modular synths.
not sure what you're referring to
Lol. Controling modular synth :)
_But I"ve only been 'perfecting' ;-) the world's 1st aletoric guitar piece
for the last 15+ years, cut me some slack already !_
"High level friend" sounds like layers of friendships there Josh!
Kindly petitioning for JHS to take their pedal circuits to Eurorack. 😁 I'll certainly pay for that.
They had a few modules!
All over that
I find modules can be overpriced and underwhelming. I know there’s already an Afterneath but it feels like an obvious crossover.
Currently on Reverb: JHS 500 series - Colourbox pre, Kodiak Trem, & a Pulp'n'peel Comp. IMHO, the pedal counterparts cost waaaaay less & might get you the same result, sooooo...
Ditto
"So let's say you wanna get into modular..."
Translation: You will now cry into your empty bank account.
Wait, we’re not best friends?
humm
lol
do u know the plus pedal guys ? I know America seems more and more mars attack from Europe..but..
There's a hierarchy. Trust the process, Rhett.
Rip
Maybe if you had some more sovtek amps
Pink Floyd's Live At Pompeii has clips of Roger Waters messing around with a synth in EMI when they were recording Darkside. Live At Pompeii is one of my all time favorite music films. So good.
For all you younger guys out there it's awesome to me that Rhett chose dark side of the moon. I was lucky enough to see the original tour 2 nights in a row at Olympia stadium in Detroit. All the visuals at that time were all analog and only others that saw those shows can relate to how dramatic and a one of kind experiences that was. And they managed to somehow do this live with audio comparable listening to the album with headphones. I'm not a huge floyd fanboy but that was the best concerts in my life.
Alex Lifeson is glad something like this wasn't considered during the Rush days. Geddy would be like, yeah man!!
I'm just picturing a sad Alex going "But shred...?" over in the corner of the studio.
I bet when he said he was watching a guy with a bunch of wires everywhere it was Look Mum No Computer. Seriously, if you’ve never watched that channel, GO... the dude is a literally a mad genius
So good..and he makes so many of his own modules!
Gotta shout out Colin Benders too!
Unreal improvisation streams (techno to ambient, all sorts of music)
Hard to beat the modular genius of the furby organ
Yes!!! Love his stuff!
Oh, one of my favourite artists!
The furby organ is a milestone !!
I'm supposed to be practicing, and Josh and Rhett are coming at me with wibbly wobbly noises!
I've been looking for a way to spend even more money on guitar effects so thanks for this.
We need to get Andrew Huang on here
I'm surprised that nobody seemed to have heard from Hungry Robot Pedals. Not only do they make amazingly cool pedals, they also make modules. These modules look like guitar pedals so you don't have to use a rack system.
I'm only saying this because I think the man behind this company deserves it.
Maybe you mean, "... nobody's heard of Hungry...", which changes the whole meaning.
@@Ndlanding : Sorry, English is not my native language, but if you like we can continue this conversation in Dutch, so I can express myself a little better. But for some strange reason I think you know exactly what I meant.
@@mariodriessen9740 True, so I'm sorry. What's more, I even mistyped "heard" as "hear", but I've edited it now. As for Dutch, no comment.
@@Ndlanding : Thanks. I noticed the ‘hear’ mistake, but I didn’t want to pick on it. 🍻
I think Earthquaker also makes a few popular pedals in eurorack format. I think they give you a bit more parameters to control on those & of course with cv as well if I recall.
Super-serious business people: "You need to be cutthroat to survive as a business."
Josh: "Here's two cool people who aren't me telling you about really cool stuff you can buy, none of which my company is connected to. Also I love you all."
and then we're buying JHS pedals...
Yes, but that said, he and RS are cross-pollinating their viewership, hosting each other's shows to grow their audiences and get more $ from TH-cam. All these guys are doing it... they should just have one show.
If you aren’t ready to spend several thousand dollars on a modular setup, ZOIA by Empress Effects is a phenomenal way to dip your tiny lil toes in to see if it’s right for you. (It is. You’re gonna love it.)
Yep I own one and it's amazing. You can do so much tweaking in a much easier format than those modular devices. The interface is a matrix of buttons with leds where you insert modules and make connexions... really awesome.
I actually blame Empress for my modular addiction. NAMM 2018 changed my music forever!
I might also add Poly Effects Beebo (and Digit) too…
@@faisletoismeme I agree - it's amazing. I wish I could turn more than one knob at a time, but I think they way they designed it to be essentially a guitar pedal is genius.
@@XiXora I've heard nothing but great things about Beebo/Digit. I'm fighting the urge to buy more pedals, but it's inevitable, isn't it?
@@NatePerdomo You can use a midi controller that has knobs on it to send MIDI CC messages to the Zoia in real time and map those knobs to different parameters in tha Zoia's current patch and have plenty of knobs to tweak in real-time as well. I build a simple controller like this myself with an arduino microcontroler but many such devices exists on the market.
So happy to see this. Just in 5 months, I’ve swapped many less used guitars and pedals and such to build a modular synth. It’s incredible. Glad Rhett did it - I heard him mention it in the past and glad he’s already getting deep into it! When pedal enthusiasts learn about what Make Noise does... it’s gonna be amazing.
"Oh crap it's Rhett Shull"
"Oh wow it's Lisa Bella Donna"
😭😭
oh god, not rhett "look away while I pretend to turn off the camera every time I make a transition" shull
Gotta say: as a guitarist who is also taking his first steps into modular synthesis (DIY polivoks FTW!) this is a great video, and a SUPER topic. I agree with all the recommendations here and will add: don't be afraid to build your own case, and even modules. If you've every built a pedal, it's totally within your wheelhouse. Thanks also for name-checking Andrew Huang as well- his foundational eurorack videos are must-watches on this topic. Keep being awesome- I'm super glad you're signalling some interest in this space, and look forward to future guitar-centric eurorack modules from JHS. If you're probing the market- let me just say- YES I'm interested.
If you DIY anything with modules and cases GET A MULTIMETER to help minimize accidents/tragedies.
I overloaded at least three modules (fried an AnalogSystems-390 DDL twice!) before I learned my lesson.
Another good channel for modular synth stuff is LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER, very chaotic, very fun
Also for a great understanding of how the sounds are made, Moritz Klein TH-cam videos and excellent.
There’s also a guy who hooks his synth up to living mushrooms, definitely worth the watch
Hainbach is also fun - he specializes in using old test equipment and found/modified gear to make music. His self-destructive tape loop was amazing...
@@Panicagq2 Yes hainbach is amazing!!! I'll go ahead and reccomend Red Means Recording for content about modular.
Kinda off-topic today I dreamt that I made friends with Hainbach and he let me hang out with him at some gigs. I was so disappointed when I started waking up.
In the early 80's I was a product specialist for Ibanez and Ibanez were seriously thinking of bailing out because young guys were buying synths instead of guitars. I also was friends with Luc Zoccolillo who was involved with Roland and Sequential Circuits in designing all the MIDI protocol before these companies and Yamaha especially would agree to support it. Luc got my foot in the door in so far as I got all the inside dope. I soon hung up my guitar as seeing early prototypes of Synth run by computers had me convinced that they could and would totally take over commercial music. In short who will pay for session players to make TV commercials and soundtracks when this could replace them for pennies. It did happen ...and very quickly. Fortunately a guy with a guitar still appealed to the public if for nothing else a celebrity and entertainer so when the novelty dissipated Rock lived on. Anyhow it all fascinated me and I did not want to become a victim of the Synth when as little as I did know I new more than others. I taught myself basic analog synth programming and taught it to keyboard players. I alo in '83 had one of the first MIDI sequencing programs up and happening and taught that too. I do not think Synths will actually make big inroads into the guitar world. A keyboard is much better controller as it only sends the exact information to the synths you want. To play the electric guitar conventionally requires endless muting and control over unwanted sounds. You could of course treat the guitar as a monophonic instrument but how many will want to. You can make what is really a new instrument where the sound from the strings are not part of sound but that has so far to be proven to be inadequate and to be honest more time consuming than to teach yourself to play keys. In short Synth guitar will remain a niche art form. I think it could take off a bit if they made a box that simply transferred the notes you struck as just a simple fixed pitch. In short making it act like the human fingers striking the plastic keys on a piano style keyboard. Yes you could add velocity but not much else.
You could then wail away on a riff while a phantom keyboard player double the riff on a Keith Emerson Mini Moog patch. :-) It would be killer fun but not a brave new world.
"For our second number tonight --"
"Hang on, hang on... Just wire the LFO to the ... Hang on, I wrote it down..."
love is a four letter word
I NEED a preset!!!
Eurorack into guitar pedals is one of my favorite things
Thanks for suggesting VCV Rack. I just read about it and seems to be both open source and linux compatible, both things are very important for me.
Yeah, it's insanely cross-platform and open source; some few of the modules are closed and/or cost money, but the vast majority are also open source, so if a module doesn't work exactly how you want you can just modify it.
The Korg Ms-20 mini is one of my favorite "guitar pedals" that I own.
Hats off to Rhett. I’ve watched and adored LMNC and Heinbach and have struggled to grasp what they’re even talking about. Rhett said it plain and it, somehow, made sense.
Hey, I'm a big fan of Hainbach and LMNC!! One is very abstract and the other is just too energetic, and both are eccentric in their ways. Maybe give anything about modular by Andrew Huang a watch! He's more down to earth and his modular videos often aim at beginners. He's reccomended VCV rack a couple times, and said he uses it himself sometimes. I also reccomend VCV rack and say I use it sometimes myself.
For anybody interested there is some great footage of Pete Townsend playing guitar through ARP 2500 & 2600 synthesizers in the Reverb documentary on the ARP 2600 and also in the Classic Albums Who's Next documentary (That man was way ahead of the curve here.)
Pete Townsend was a major innovator, he tried so hard to advance the state of the art that it led to him having a nervous breakdown in the early 70s when it became clear that the technology of the time wasn't capable of actualizing his vision
Tangerine Dream from the mid 70's and through the 80's were the synth band for me
I've had some extraordinary results running my guitar through my eurorack rig - I built a DIY converter box to switch from 1/4 to 1/8 cables and adjust the signal levels a bit - the digital modules from companies like Mutable Instruments gave me sound shaping possibilities that would've been impossible w my pedal board. It certainly won't replace my pedal board, but the hybrid setup has been loads of fun - I'd recommend it anyone who likes to dig deep into sound design. The big benefit is CV (control voltage) - for example, imagine having a roadie constantly turning knobs on your modulation pedals for you, freeing your hands for guitar playing. Pedals w exp and/or CV inputs benefit greatly from this. I'm hoping more pedals will be built with CV inputs.
3:50 Bob couldn't have done it without Wendy Carlos, the one who actually started electronic music. Bob is merely a technician.
So was leo Fender... 😉
Bruce won the decathlon. Caitlyn is the soon to be Governor of Calif.
There's a long history of electronic and machine music that predates Walter/Wendy Carlos. Was Leo Fender just a technician? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Theremin
PRECISELY
Mojo Bone actually is the opossite
I can honestly say that modular synths are the most rewarding and fun money pits I've ever been involved with.
FINALLY! Something I don't want! :-)
Haaaaaah! 😆
YES I wanna be a musician not an engineer
Incredible discussion, thank you very much! I do - especially - love your begrudging, layered approach to friends/nemeses...exceptionally well-done, as ever by Rhett.
"Extend your matrix polarity with these instruments"
Sounds like history sorta repeating itself with getting back to having racks of “stuff” synthesizing the tones we’ve come to love.
Pete Townshend was doing a bunch of stuff like this back in the 70s with his semi-modular ARP. That's how the intro to Who Are You? was done for instance.
I've been at this for 15 years, many of my favorite modules are in the cwejman and modcan ranges, and don't underestimate good old humble Doepfer! Ergonomics can be a challenge in eurorack format - I find that the more jacks and features they cram into a smaller area just keeps the module from being used as often.
I know a little about this stuff and the way I heard it, it was slightly different. Robert Moog at first was making pro audio equipment not a musical instrument. It was supposed to help the people who did the sound for films and things like that. But when musicians saw it and said they wanted one, they said "It's got a keyboard on it. It's an instrument.". And at that point, Moog started thinking about it in terms of a musical instrument and that's when he started working on the envelope. Which was originally supposed to be able to produce the attack and tail of an instrument sound. Like how your lips on a trumpet make a certain attack or how a singing violin enveloped the sound or how it had attack and decay and all that.
So you can take an analogue synth and create the analogue of whatever instrument you hear. It's not going to sound just like a trumpet or a drum or an organ or whatever but you can create the analogue of all those things. And, it can sound like no other instrument before. And an expert with some very creative patch work can do things like bird song, waterfalls and just about any sound you can imagine but that takes some expertise and the right kind of equipment. It's really not easy.
We thought you were buying us ice cream and then you left us with the babysitter
You're already doing it! Tremolo is basically a VCA; a VCF is a tone knob with some extra controls, auto wah uses an amplitude envelope to control a filter; it's one of the simplest "patches", been around forever.
Good observation!
Just watched an old friend stream eurorack synth plugging for 1,5 hours on youtube the other day. Originally knew him from playing guitar, he ordered a 7 or 8-string custom, was very creative and explorative guy. Eventually worked with video game foley and soundtracks like Nuclear Throne. Now does crazy stuff on Moog and other stuff.
My uni also had a lot of hobbyists in synth stuff, eurorack or other kinds, as well as electronic music and so on. They held a show in the annual wappuradio (or "2 weeks before 1st of may" radio) talking about the hobby, synths as gear and as tools for making music for the last 10 years.
The modulating reverb and similar stuff is like what the old Lexicon stuff was doing in the 80's. Recently got Lexicon MPX1 (from 1996, almost couldn't believe it was so old) and played around with stuff like this for guitar. Really fun stuff. Every day you find a new combination or get a new idea with all the modulations and LFO, envelope, panners and whatnot. Out of all the ridiculous stuff it even has overdrive in the modulation block. The only unfortunate shortcoming of being in the consumer level gear is that the DSP isn't strong enough to have all the effects enabled at the same time, especially if you choose to use dual or stereo effects. And that you're a bit limited with the categorizing of effects, for example the modulation block has panner, volume, overdrive and tremolo. Although you can find volume on pitch shift also. On the other hand you can always have reverb and you can fully control the order of the effects, you can set any effects parallel to each other and choose what happens on the left and right line, or if you just suddenly want to feed mono signal from one side to an effect or sum parallel stereo effects together. Even add effects inside delay feedback line. They were genius back then. Unfortunately Harman and Samsung happened.
Mind blown! Have been thinking about getting into analogue synths for a while, but have never quite made the jump… I feel like I’m teetering on the edge of a very long and deep rabbit hole…
Do it!
It looks like moog and buchla wanted to launch rockets into space with those consoles. Instead they launched listeners into space with them rad sounds.
Two channels I love are combining to offer a whole new world and perspective in my guitarist journey! Great job guys!
Damn who’s got time for all this.
there are more combinations of synths,guitars/pickups/pedals/amps/effects loop gadgets/speaker emulations/daws than the number of elementary particles in the known universe. Scientific projections indicate it will take approximately forever (+ 1 day) to actually try them all out to see which tone(s) you actually like.
That’s what scares me away from these because I’m the type that feels like I’m wasting my money (or cheap if you wanna be an ass lol) if I don’t know and use every function of anything.
This makes me want to go and get myself a Moog Subsequent 37 Analog Synthesizer!
I’ve not watched this episode yet but I have been to the future and the answer to your question is no, absolutely not.
thanks for clarifying that! personally, I'm relieved...
Could have mentioned Chase Bliss pedals and other companies that are building CV inputs into their pedals? Pedals + modular is such a great way to get into it... I got into it when I noticed the letters 'CV' written on my CBA Tonal Recall. That lead me straight to the wonderful beings that are Lisa Bella Donna and Andrew Huang... That was almost three years ago. I thank companies like CBA, Empress and Strymon etc. for subtly and sometimes not so subtly (Poly Effects) introducing these things to us mere mortals
crazy to see both of my musical hobbies coalesce into one
Modular sythesis with guitar is so early 2019's. It is actully good to see you guys getting into this, since Beato left the whole world of synthesis out of the 20 most important inventions in music ever video. I would really love to see Josh designing pedals with CV inputs. Envelop or lfo enabled fuzz or somthing, idk.
For what it's worth, there are ways to take a CV from modulars into any expression pedal input on a pedal - the basic equipment is just a "floating ring" cable, but there are modules to assure you're not sending too much voltage into your pedal and possibly damaging it.
One of the key apps w/ a modular is to use sequencing and time-synced clock divisions for effects, for processing _anything_
also just automating sampling and delays for granular/Haas/Karplus-Strong processes is extremely powerful.
Or you can go 'all analog' with a 2600 or MS-20 and basically use them to envelope-follow whatever can be triggered and shaped. The 2600 has several points in the architecture that induces useful distortion, and can (attempt to) gain up a signal at the 1/4" input by a factor of 1000.
Amazing episode
I see this as three overlapping topics. Topic 1: synthesis. Topic 2: modular signal chains. Topic 3: Euro-rack form factor.
I've been WAITING for one of my favorite youtube people to cover this topic! JHS and Rhett is perfect!
Yes! This is great!
What a great episode, thank you Rhett and Josh! This already has me fascinated in learning more about modular synth. I bet this is what the Jetson's listened to....
The guitar player in Our Lady Peace pretty much does all these sounds live by dancing on pedals. Really impressive and interesting sounds.
I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS! I run my modular synth with pedals all the time! 😊 I also process guitar through modular!
Yeah my stereo pedals end up in the modular/synth setup. DD7 and Zoom CDR70 just now.
Welcome,been doing it since the 70s
I love this video. Thank you!
I'm a modular addict lost in a pedal channel, so this was a nice pull back to reality
Thanks for inviting Rhett on the ship today. As a guitarist, I've always been searching for new sounds. Synths are creative sound systems. That's why I bought my first synth back in 1978. It was a Korg MS20, fully analog machine with infinite possibilities with its patch panel. But why did I choose this synth ? It was the first to enable a guitar to play with, and it was affordable. Frankly speaking, learning to use it properly was a pain in the a**, but it was soooooooo great ! After that, I had a Roland GR500 guitar synth. Honestly, THE thing I wanted back then was to be able to play chords with the synth, and it was possible with the guitar, mounted wit a hexaphonic pickup. There was something equivalent to Fernandes Sustainer on the guitar too. But a lot of thing were bad : first, the guitar was so heavy (imagine the weight of 3 Gibson Les Paul), Second : the cable and its connectors (24 pins) were very fragile and very expensive, and last but not least, the synth module was really poor and the was NO midi interface. So, after trying to play it live a few times (difficult for tuning problems), i decided to keep it at home and stopped using it. I sold it back in 1993. I played a bit with a GR300, witch was FAR better (both for the sounds and the guitar). Later I played a bit with the Roland GK1 and 2. The result was OK but the cable with the GK1 was the same as the GR500 and 300. The GK2 had a simpler 13 pins cable and was pretty easy to use. Now, I play with the Fishman Triple Play, and I can access ANYTHING. On a side my pedalboard fully effective for the "normal" guitar, and my keyboard effects rack for the synth side. The interessant thing about it is that I can use all the things available with my keyboards (including CV gates) with my guitar, and it's powerful.
Thanks for your channel
See you
tres interessant vraiment!
Yes! Yes! Yes! I totally agree this IS the future of guitar tone. Ten years ago I constructed a pedalboard for the job that would carry my pedals on the ground level like a regular pb with the addition of shelves on the back that go upward to accommodate Eurorack units that would communicate with cv controlable guitar pedals on the ground.... at this time I have managed to acquire for this purpose the WMD PROTOSTAR, PIGTRONIX PHILOSPHER KING, DREADBOX EPSILON AND KOMOREBI.....My first Eurorack unit I got just a couple of months ago, is the DREADBOX LIL EREBUS a small but magical synth, that like Rhett I'm slowly learning to use by itself AND as a CV controller for my pedals below, (you can even process guitar sound through it)! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!. Everything is midi synched by an ARTURIA BEATSTEP PRO on the top. So I had it play a bass riff a few days ago in a loop .....I have 3 observations to share 1) I found that as I learned the synth I COULD repatch it to get the same texture I had previously stumbled upon like a mindless monkey circuit bending with patch cables....2) The looped bass riff's texture EVOLVED organicaly and was never the same! ..I really felt there was a ghost in the machine...and 3) I realized that music is not only PITCH it's also a texture or timbre you can call NOISE. And usually we are stuck with the one timbre or NOISE our instrument can produce.....guitar pedals opened more possibilities, but Eurorack can go to a whole other level... I think that of all the reasons for Eurorack, the ability to go beyond PITCH and express the NOISE dimension of Music is the most decisive pointing towards the future.
I love playing guitar through my modular, absolutely one of my favourite thing to do, can create some super unique tones!
And just like that, all my interests/obsessions merge into one single TH-cam video.
This was a great episode. I would have never thought you could run a guitar through those. So many fun sound possibilities!
Modular synthesis explored and explained by a guitarist. This is the video I have been searching for. I’m primarily a guitarist but am also into synths and am looking to set out on a modular voyage. There are great videos out there but if they’re from synth folk they can come across more as electronics engineers - which is fair because it is applied electronics after all. But here Rhett has explained it through a guitarist’s lens. Thank you Rhett, Lisa and Josh!
Video: *posted 17 seconds ago*
Me : awww yeah
The reason why you can never have enough VCA's is because VCA's work on both audio signals and control voltage signals. They allow you to apply the LFOs and envelopes to signals. Eurorack is one way to go. The recent (re)introduction of the ARP2600 synth and other semi-modular synths is another path (Pete Townshend used the ARP2600 for his synth-guitar work)
Even though I'm only just reaching the point of getting together my first budget pedalboard (i.e. a lot of Arion, Boss, MXR, Behringer, etc. parts),
I've already segued into researching Eurorack modular synth.
It was something I'd come across and looked into several years ago, while on a DAW/Midi keyboard kick, but had to put on the back burner on account of budgetary (and other) limitations.
Now I've returned, full circle.
Great episode, and I hope you guys do more on modular in the future.
Thanks again Josh and Co.
This was very interesting, and I think it is very Brage of you to take a step into this futuresly road😊🎸Great work man........Stay on the road to future👏
Modular is also frame of mind even outside of the Eurorack format. With traditional effects pedals, sound processors, sequencers and analog synths with filters and LFO's all synced and sending/receiving cv, you've essentially created a modular setup. For instance sending cv from an analog sequencer to the expression pedal input of an effects pedal providing sequenced modulation of your modulation.
I studied modular synthesis back in college in 86. It's a super interesting area, but it's pretty nerdy. The cool thing is that there are free synth plugins out there that allow you to do most of this without spending hundreds/thousands of dollars.
DANG! I was typing this while watching the video, and then Rhett brought up VCV Rack, which is exactly what I was thinking about! Nicely done, Rhett!
Fantastic episode. Really enjoyed it.
Ahhhh, Eurocrack. If anything more of a rabbithole then pedals.... Which reminds me that I need to break mine out again.
Josh Do you and Rick share custody of Rhett?
That means Rhett gets 2 Christmases!!
Leave it to Rhett to make a $4000 DIY Hologram Electronics pedal.
I am headin this way. Thanks for the vid.
Even though I feel too old to start into the whole understanding of the modular world (except for a volca) I enjoyed once again this episode of your fantastic videos. Thank you guys. Hey and I am in love with my morning glory which I recently bought!
Come Back Josh,
All's Forgiven 🙇
Synths and pedals are made of the same types of circuits, filters, LFOs, envelopes and VCAs. The cool thing about using modular for guitar is getting full control over your effects. Pedals are typically a combination of those things. Like a tremolo is a VCA and an LFO. If you want a faster speed or different shape you have to get a new pedal or mod it. With modular you can just swap your LFO module.
It’s funny that you are coming at this fro the opposite tack that I am. I’ve been noodling around with synths since the late ‘70’s, but in the last few years I’ve really been attracted to the structure of playing the bass.
I got really excited when I saw the thumbnail of the Hotcake pedal, I’ve never seen you talk about it before, in my opinion the best distortion pedal ever, Very dynamic
Lisa Bella Donna! The synth master 🎹
If I wanted to sleep through boring playing, I'd subscribe directly to Rhett's channel.
🤠
I often got Rhett Shull and Darrell Braun mixed up.....
.....I can't explain this😵💫
🖤State Azure... THE best synth channel on the net.
No talking, just amazing generative-synth work. 🖤
Definitely check out Look Mum No Computer lots of modular content and a ton of D. I. Y modules as well. 😁 Great episode!
Love seeing this - I feel like there is something in the air right now because I'm a guitar player who has also been dipping my toes into modular synths. One thing I might add to Rhett's recommendations - if you have a VR headset, there's a $25 program called SynthVR that is a virtual modular synth and works phenomenally and feels very tactile. I use it on Oculus Quest and it's provided hours of entertainment and experimenting with making cool beeps and bloops
One advantage of going modular is that a Schumann PLL pedal costs $3,787.53 but a Doepfer PLL which (basically) does the same thing costs $100 (plus the case and cables ofc).
"a sound that moves the room". Indeed.
ooof that patch cable on the power rails at 7:08 got me sweatin'
I love guitar and I love synths. Problem with modular is that it’s difficult to repeat the patch live. I’ve found mixing synths with an external input that has a patch memory. EG Dreadbox Typhon together with a Zoia or Poly Beebo means I can create pretty much anything that can be done with a pure analog modular set up.
Brilliant episode! 🤩
I kept waiting for the reveal of Josh's comprehensive Moog collection. Also, Dieter Döpfer absolutely sounds like the name that
Herr Smidt objects!
or the name of the warm-up band for Spinal Tap...
Cool. Very interesting video.👍🏾
Great episode! I have 2 moog M32’s that keeps me very busy! And yep! Getting a sound back after creating it is almost impossible! Lol
Poor Josh! In the next Episode you could explain, that most pedalboard users have that stuff already onboard only without CV ins and outs! My pedalboard has as many lfo‘s as my friends Doepfer-Rack and my drones are as big as his!
I recall back in the 90's, buying the latest in tech for my rig... the Peavey Tubefex. I actually have 2 of them... they are BOAT-ANCHORS now. The facts are, eventually these things break, and then you can't find replacement parts, and then you cannibalize one from the other... and eventually you have boat-anchors. I learnt my lesson, never again .
FAO guitar players (or anyone else new to modular), it’s best to blank off the empty parts of the case so that your cables can’t fall in and short something or contact the power bus.