It Was Inevitable...
Hardware modular synthesis has arrived in The Disaster Room. You knew it was coming. It was just a matter of when. I know that on a number of occasions, I've written that I didn't think I wan…
modular
9 posts
REPLAY: MONDAY MUSIC - October 6, 2025 - Playing my face in Dawesome Kontrast? And maybe some modular madness
Dawesome's new Kontrast wavetable VST is out (yes, yet another wavetable synth!), and I've used it to create a patch that plays my face! So, we'll fool with that a little, and mix it up wi…
Recurring Thoughts About Modular Synthesizers
There was a recent discussion on one of my favorite Discord servers about the allure of modular synthesizers. You may remember that I have toyed with putting together a modular rig several times over…
Unstable Structure: Histories of the Modular Synth
Histories of the Modular Synthesizer
An interesting lecture on synth history from the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. The Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio is a not for profit organization based in Australia. They oversee a collectio…
Modular ... Thoughts Revisited
Several months ago, I wrote a piece outlining four reasons that I no longer wanted to build a modular rig. But, as I write this post today, on the sixth anniversary of the death of Keith Emerson, I’ve had a bit of a change of heart.…
Suzanne Ciani -- Electronic Musician, Composer, Sound Designer
I find it interesting that, while her instruments are newer and she has embraced a workflow that incorporates both Buchla modular synths and computer and iPad apps, her core approach to creation remains as it was nearly 50 years ago.…
![Some [Over]simplified Science of Sound Synthesis - Ring Modulation](/content/images/size/w1000/format/webp/wp-content/uploads/Screenshot-2021-08-15-120300.png)
Some [Over]simplified Science of Sound Synthesis - Ring Modulation
Following a recent Discord discussion of Ring Modulation in sound synthesis, I put together a little video demonstration of the something called "ring modulation." In synthesizers, this is a…
Four Reasons Why I No Longer Want a Modular Synth
[Here,] in a bag of mixed nuts, are four reasons that I've let go of a nearly fifty-year-old dream to own a modular synthesizer.…