Learning Modular November/December 2022 Newsletter: Mono, Stereo, or Surround?
I had two gigs in October, and then two medical procedures – including long-planned hand surgery – in early November. Combined with the upcoming holidays, this all means I’ve decided to roll the November and December newsletters into one, and will then resume my...
Learning Modular August 2022 Newsletter: Performing in Quad
The end of June/early July was a busy time, as I performed in quad at the Currents New Media Festival, and then played at SynthaCider in the Denver area. The main article this month will be some of what I learned about quad sound; I also edited together and posted a...
Learning Modular February 2022 Newsletter: Learning to Mix in Quad
I’m writing this newsletter while out in California, where I lived for over two decades before moving to my current home in New Mexico. While out here, I’ve played the Southern California Synth Society’s NAMMless JAMuary on January 22nd, spent two days at Richard...
Modular NAMM 2018.2: Doepfer, Malekko, Vermona, and the “Quad” Trend
A few of those themes that emerged during this year’s NAMM show included CEM 3340-based VCOs (as there are now two sources for this classic, previously-unavailable chip), granular synthesis, semi-modulars, and multiple voices. I touched on that last one in the first installment, with 4ms’ Spherical Waveform Navigator being capable of 6-voice polyphony; in general, more companies are looking at configuring a modular to produce more than one sound at the same time – and we’ll look at a few of them here.