If you’re new to modular synthesizers, they can be a bit daunting initially: How the heck do you even get a sound out of them? And what’s the starting point to recreate what you’re used to from your other synths? If you’re a beginner, this under 10 minute video is your first step on the ladder to learning how to use your modular synth.
Ratcheting is a Berlin School sequencing technique where an individual note in a sequence has its envelopes retriggered multiple times, usually at a musical subdivision of the sequence’s tempo – such as playing 1/32 notes in the middle of an 1/8 note sequence – to create a roll. Although used since the 70s, not everyone knows how to create a ratcheting patch on their modular. In this article I demonstrate creating and performing several typical ratcheting patches.
One way to create more complex waveforms (and therefore, harmonics) than traditionally supplied by oscillators is to use one oscillator to modulate the frequency of another. In this article I’ll describe how to set up an “FM” (frequency modulation) patch, and include a movie from my Learn Modular Synthesis course that demonstrates the “exponential” flavor of FM.
