I got a chance to get on the river yesterday, but the conditions were far too dangerous for fishing. I used a little of my latest patch in the video: "The Barge." This was recorded using an AE Modular Starter 2.
They do have a format grid to help you plan your setup. It's on the Tangible Waves Web site: http://grid.aemodular.com/
Yup! Lugia is spot on. Not only that when you consider the layout: wires up top, knob down bottom: input on the left, outputs on the right, you simply have far less chance of dropping leads. and like Lugia said the pin sockets and the new wires make it even better. It's a well thought out design.
They come out easily when I need them to. I've never had a wire come out while I was recording for even noodling around. Being a saxophone player in a former life, I'm used the needed dexterity. It simply isn't a problems for me. Honestly, Moogs have the only truly secure cables. Everyone else's connections are, well . . .
The latest version of the AE Modular wires are designed and made specifically for the AE Modular system, so they are much more secure than the original.
I bought the Starter 2 synth from Noisebug. Pretty sure I bought the very last one they had in stock! Then I ordered the following from Robert: 2 sequencers, two extra VCOs, an extra LFO, strings(Solina), slew limiter, MS20 filter, an extra 2x16U case & flying buses, and few other utility modules like headphone amps, stereo out and etc. The good thing is every module has a multiple, so no need for dedicated multiples. (NOTE: To clarify the AE Modular system uses Us instead of HP. Each module is 1U wide, and that serves as the standard measurement instead of HP.)
So this little rig will have 5 oscillators, three LFOs, three filters. noise, 2 samples & holds, 2 EG, 2 VCAs lots of utilities with plenty of room to grow. I'm really waiting on the quantizer. That's the one module this system sorely needs. The quantizer being geared fro production as we speak, so I'll just wait until the next round to get them. I was going to wait, but I figure go ahead and get my main order in to flesh out the lion's share of the system, then come back later with another order once the quantizers have been released.
It's a pretty good deal, and the sound is amazing. I'm happy with it. I will probably build a road case for it so I can take it with me and have it survive, lol!
Any one using AE modular. This looks like the best deal I've seen. An actually affordable synth.
Thank, guys!
Hey, @Lugia, I checked out the AE double start synth. I love the look of it. I actually want my synth to look like it came straight out of the Manhattan Project or something. The simpler the graphics the better for me. I just need to know what the da**** thing does. I look at a lot of modules and I can't tell what it is or what it does because the graphics are all jacked up. I remember back in my saxophone years, I hated have engraving on the bell of my horn. They literally cut away metal! Don't care for lacquer. Bare brass is plenty good enough.
Let me ask is the AE system it's own format? $500 for a 2x synth that's something else! I have $1,300 budgeted toward this for now. So I could go 3 or 4x for solid start.
My objective are this:
1. Learn synthesis
2. Write music for my own YouTube channel.
3. Write simple music to tell simple stories.
Trying to plan my little system. What was your first VCO? How many did you get? Is there a such thing as too many VCOs?
Thx, Lugia. I had decided to go with a 3 x104 since I already have the rails for a 3U 104.
I quit playing because I hated music. Music school has a way of doing that to you. It has taken 15 years of healing to get back to a point where I would want to even think about playing again. He we didn't have electronics in our music school either. In the interim I picked up a camera and learned filmmaking.
The process of composing a shot, writing a story, learning about color. In other words I picked up a different art form. the process of making a film, video or storytelling through motion picture got me thinking about music again. First out of necessity. The audio libraries out there are full of commercial music which doesn't help tell the stories I want to tell.
So for the first time I'm hearing my own music and not other people's music. That's something I can't ignore. Because I design, make and sell custom fishing tackle, That's another art form I've picked up. That process of making something new plays into this as well. So I'm producing art in all form. The kids these days call it being a creator: writing a blog, filmmaking on YouTube, photos for Pinterest, designing custom fishing tackle. Well, why not use the training I have and stay on the trajectory I'm on?
Again working with wood for my custom fishing tackle business, I can build my own case.
From what I hear you saying comparators, discriminators, Boolean logic, clock divider/multipliers, Euclidean sequencers and other timing modules is the way to go in order to do it right. That's sage advice.
I've thought of that already. At the moment I don't own a saxophone, and I don't fancy practising 8 hours a day. Like I said, my body can't handle the horn. I have back problems, and I don't fancy having to work up chops. The reality is I will never sound like is did in my 20s. My face will never have the stamina. It's like being an athlete past your prime. Every day my body is deteriorating, and it would take longer and longer to heal from difficult long days of practise.
It's time to switch instruments. I'm interested in composing music for my YouTube videos, not practising saxophone all day. Again I've come to this decision after 15 years of thinking about out it.
Also for the cost of a new saxophone $5,000+, I could build a monster synth. Or build a modest synth, and buy more camera gear for my YouTube channel.
Yes, I know who he is. In fact he's one of the founding members of the Glass ensemble as I remember. My point is much of that music and much of the music I played as a classical saxophonist would fit well on a Eurorack. It's just that I haven't played in 15 years and my body simply can't handle the rigors of heavy daily practice, and I'm looking to modular synths to "replace" it.
As adaptive and flexible an instrument as saxophone is, I'd bestill stuck with the base harmonic make up of that instrument. No matter what mouthpiece, reed, embouchure or voicing I'd use to "filter/shape" the sound, I'd always be stick with the basic waveform that a saxophone produces.
Synths open a whole new world of possibilities. We all grow as musicians, and sometimes we out grow the instruments themselves and need something else. Modular may be that for me. The saxophone can't grow with me. The a modular can grow and change as I grow and change.
Thx, man! In the long run probably something like 12U. Will start with 6U by building a 2x case, throw some power in, then get a couple modules, and start from there. I think the ER-101 will be the biggest outset in terms of cash. So I'll probably start with a VCO or two, envelop, maybe a filter or waveshaper, VCA: just basic meat and potatoes to learn how a synth voice works. Then just flesh it out from there.
What's so great is that you hear composers like Caterina Barbieri using some of the same process music method developed during. Process music is a form of minimalism that arises from a process, usually a very strict process. If you listen to interviews of Ms. Barbieri, she talks about an approach very similar to methods first pioneered back in the 1960s.
Yeah, minimalist music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimal_music
Here's a good example from Steve Reich's Six Pianos:
To me this sounds it would be best done a programmable synth like the ER101/102. I nfact I found a fellow who recorded his Phase Piano on an ER-101:
Again here's another guy on saxophone, minimal:
Also basically everything I hear in what synthesists call "ambient" or atmospherics is what minimalists were doing back in the 1960s. They just didn't have access to modular synths. They had to use traditional instruments. That why guys like Hans Zimmer and all his film scores he uses a 5U synth. All that music from Batman Begins and Interstellar, a good portion of that is 5U blended with the studio orchestra, but the heart of it is modular.
EDIT: added another example.
A sequencer will be a big part of what I want, but after looking at other sequencers, the ER-101 seems the one to fit the build/bill. Are you still using the 101? Have you had time to incorporate the 102?
I just received a pair of rails, rack ends from Synthrotek: 104 hp. This was smaller than I imagined it would be. I've decide to go 9U instead of 3U. What size case did you start with, and what did you regret about going with whatever size you chose at first?
Thanks!
Solid advice! Thank you so much. Take away points: (1) consider building a 6U or 9U case from the start; (2) ax the second A-111-6 for a second or third VCO for variety; (3) Consider a couple EGs instead of Maths; verify the mixer's capability for input and output.
Yeah, I can see how that would be a good bit better, just the kind of direction I was hoping for. Thanks!
I'm a classically trained musician, but I haven't played saxophone in 15 years. I'd like to get into modular to compose my own music for my YouTube videos. I'm mostly inspired by the minimalists like Steve Reich, John Adams and even Hans Zimer.
Here's my proposed current rack. I would appreciate any critiques or opinions to improve, make better, or let me know what I'm missing.
I want everything to fit in a 104 hp skiff with a budget of $2,000, slightly less than the cost of buying a used professional saxophone. Since I have wood working skills, I can build my own case.
Here's my latest YouTube video to give you and idea of the kinds of videos I make.
(NOTE: I did not compose the music in the above follow video, but after 700+ videos on YouTube, I've begun to exhaust the audio library of the kinds of music I want to use:)
Let me know Thanks!
