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Post by jcoutu1 on Jun 17, 2015 8:05:05 GMT -6
A bunch of this stuff just came up on Reverb. Is it just that there is really nothing going on inside these things? I don't know anything about it, but it looks like you could fill up a couple Euroracks for super low bucks compared to what a 500 series rack will run. reverb.com/item/813424-blue-lantern-simple-adsr-2015-black |
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Post by jazznoise on Jun 17, 2015 8:46:45 GMT -6
Well, for a start a modular is no fun until you own a dozen odd modules. Secondly I think there's less snake oil and more economics - no one in modular stuff cares what type of caps or resistors go in. As long as the noise floor and headroom are acceptable, it's all just about processing options.
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Post by swurveman on Jun 17, 2015 9:51:01 GMT -6
Well, for a start a modular is no fun until you own a dozen odd modules. Secondly I think there's less snake oil and more economics - no one in modular stuff cares what type of caps or resistors go in. As long as the noise floor and headroom are acceptable, it's all just about processing options. I have often wondered why the synth industry doesn't do what the guitar industry did: Build a synth that could trigger a bunch of pedal like devices to give you different synth sounds- Pads, Bass Leads, Arpeggios etc.- and be able to chain them. |
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Post by ionian on Jun 17, 2015 16:49:43 GMT -6
I don't know - I think it's hit or miss. I tried it but I found issues with all the modules I had so I lost interest very quickly.
I bought an Intellijel Dixie II because I wanted a nice sine since Intellijel brags about the sine on the Dixie II and I have no idea how the guy who makes that could even think that's what a sine sounds like. It has a little grindiness to it and is definitely nowhere near a pure sine.
I bought a TipTop audio Z3000 and it had issues...I bought it to be checked out by an electronics shop and they said that the triangle was leaking into the pulse and causing the weird sounds and distortion I was hearing.
I got a Manhattan Audio CVP and within a week the knobs got very fiddly. If you blew on them, everything would change. It became impossible to dial in any CV Slew. The moment you touched it, the setting would jump.
I got a Happy Nerding Super Sawtor and it had grounding issues right out of the box. I had to have a tech fix it.
After those 4 I lost all interest in Euro Rack. It makes sense to me why it's cheap. The tech I kept bringing the stuff to wasn't impressed by the builds or design. He told me more or less that all this stuff looks like it's done by kids who graduate with engineering degrees but have no practical experience and they're just building stuff in their basement and the designs have all kinds of issues and problems. This was a while ago - I haven't used the stuff in like 2 years. It's just sitting on my desk all dusty now. I don't use it and I can't bring myself to sell it because it has problems so I can't do that to people. So it just sits there collecting dust. I blew like a few hundred and learned a lesson.
People seem to love them but I couldn't make them work for me. At least not on a professional level - they didn't really perform for me. Between the sound and the issues I was left very unimpressed and quickly abandoned the format.
I mean, when you look on youtube, most people with modular stuff aren't using it to make regular music - it's all science experiments, crazy noises, sound design and all kinds of wacky sequencers running. I tried to use it like a modular synth - to play melodies and basslines on recordings and it couldn't perform for me. But if you're doing crazy stuff, maybe the issues don't jump out as badly or whatever noise or grindiness just adds to the chaos that modular people seem to like.
Maybe now the modules are being made better, I don't know.
Out of the 5 modules I initially bought (the fifth being a doepfer CV mixer) only the Doepfer CV mixer worked as advertised. The rest I had problems with.
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Post by mobeach on Jun 17, 2015 16:55:21 GMT -6
Well, for a start a modular is no fun until you own a dozen odd modules. Secondly I think there's less snake oil and more economics - no one in modular stuff cares what type of caps or resistors go in. As long as the noise floor and headroom are acceptable, it's all just about processing options. I have often wondered why the synth industry doesn't do what the guitar industry did: Build a synth that could trigger a bunch of pedal like devices to give you different synth sounds- Pads, Bass Leads, Arpeggios etc.- and be able to chain them. I can do that with any software DAW, as long as your PC is stable enough there's no reason you can't do it live. |
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Post by jazznoise on Jun 17, 2015 17:47:05 GMT -6
+1 for Mobeach - the sequencing stuff is much more efficiently done with MIDI or an I/O setup to mute tracks, a laptop is the easiest for both (though some Eurorack has MIDI). Of course most of the modular dudes don't go this way because the defacto performance mode is referred to as Modular Jams. People set up a long complex patch and keep changing it to make a long performance. Fun to do, very boring to watch - usually.
Sad to hear about the build quality of some! My brother has a small but growing modular setup as he's a Muffwiggler frequenter, and he has a few interesting modules like the Russian Polyvox Filter and he recently ordered a new ADSR unit which is actually 2 AR envelopes that can be chained together. Running a few simple things like these even with a CV mixer and a few CV drivable synths (his MS20, and probably soon a Sub 37) makes for some interesting playtime. But of course you do have to watch the guys who are building "My first PCB", in many instances these are community projects where debugging designs is part of the joy. Not exactly for direct consumer consumption - there's a reason they're not all in Thomann or Guitar Centre.
Not many people seem to be aware but most of the EHX stuff with an Expression Input option can take CV inputs (volts per octave, 5V PP) as of course can the Moog pedal stuff. I think having a few interesting peices like the Moog LPF Filter pedal or the EHX Ring Thing ring modulator can be great to bulk out early setupts. If you have a drum machine or some guitar loops to run through it, all the better.
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