Back to the Future: On misunderstanding modular synthesizers (2016)

Playing with modular synthesizers scratches both the programming and music parts of my brain in a really unique way. A big part of the fun of this type of electronic music is getting to craft the sound itself, unlike sitting down at a piano where your modification options are more limited (but prepared pianos are an interesting subject too!) or a keyboard where you're restricted to presets without a lot of modification possibilities (if you have any at all).

Dividing up sound synthesis into its different modules (VCOs, VCFs, VCAs, LFOs, etc) makes perfect sense coming at the problem from a programming point of view. It turns sound synthesis in a Lego toolkit and there's no end to what you can create by combining all these in novel ways.

There's a lot of aesthetic enjoyment to it too. Putting together an octopus jumble of patch cords, seemingly random and impossible to keep track of to an outsider, just looks really badass :) Even better that it's actually a deliberately constructed mess, all in service of generating a sound you've never heard before, and when the cables are all disconnected, will never hear again.

The overlap between the tech and music worlds in the modular scene is great as well and it's very cool being able to talk to people who can get both technical about music and artistic about technology. For us, the modular synthesizer just makes sense.

As a user of modular synthesizers (and before that, long time users of all kind of software synthesizers) this article fails to find the apeal in modular synthesizers.

Yeah. Digital sounds are more perfect. Yeah digital can produce analog dirt as well. Yeah. Digital can safe and recall presets, does not drift with temperature, all true. Digital is superiour.

But it is not physical. There is something about having a synthesizer with a ton of knobs that makes you want to interact with it directly. Modular synthesizers are that to the max. There are no assumed connections. You can think about your synthesizers fresh everytime you connect it new.

I use digital synths when I want to quickly get a certain sound. I use a modular synth, ahen I want to get lost in exploring the possibilities, when I want the machine to influence me as much as I am influencing the machine. Patching a modular synthesizer is a dialogue and if you listen it will guide you to musical ideas that you would have a hard time even to put into words if it wasn't for that apartus.

And if you want it tobe a sophisticated drum machine, it can be just that. It is modular, after all.

> All analogue circuitry is characterized by non-linearity to a greater or lesser extent

The author seems to view this as a negative trait, which is bizarre to me. All acoustic instruments including the human voice are highly nonlinear. Perfectly linear synthesis is mostly dull and "too perfect", as was discovered quickly once computers came into the picture.

Buying modular synths is good way to get rid of the money that are burning a hole in your pocket

This sounds like it was written by a technician who doesn't understand the artistic process or mindset at all.

if you're interested for this kind of stuff I interview[1] people that make music with modular synthesizers and other gear

[1] [G.A.S. Newsletter](https://gasnewsletter.beehiiv.com/)