{"id":51,"date":"2006-04-30T15:55:40","date_gmt":"2006-04-30T22:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/?p=51"},"modified":"2006-05-01T09:14:50","modified_gmt":"2006-05-01T16:14:50","slug":"modular-synth-blog-catch-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/2006\/04\/30\/modular-synth-blog-catch-up","title":{"rendered":"Modular Synth Blog Catch-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think that the last module I built was a CGS<\/a> Wave Multiplier. This module creates interesting timbres by folding triangle waves over on themselves. It’s hard to describe what it actually does (particularly since I’m not sure that I really understand what it actually does) but the net effect is that it creates timbral changes that can sound like filter sweeps, pulse-width modulation, or ring modulation. It adds a lot of character to a simple triangle or pulse wave, so you can get fairly interesting signals from just a single oscillator. If you feed several audio-frequency signals into its various inputs, you can get some really wild noises.<\/p>\n

The PC board also includes two smaller modules, a simpler wave folder and something called a Grinder. I expected the grinder to make distorted, fuzzy sounds, but it seems to be much tamer than that. It sort of sounds like a resonant filter. I’m not as taken with these two portions of the PC board as with the wave multiplier; in retrospect I’m not sure it was worth giving them the panel space. The folder is useful at times but I have yet to find a use for the grinder.<\/p>\n

I also added a MOTM 480 filter<\/a> and two more MOTM 800 envelope generators<\/a> (for a total of six EGs). The 480 is really nice; it may be my new favorite filter, although it’s hard to not call the wondrous 440 my favorite. I do wish the 480 had an additional FM input, though.<\/p>\n

Since then I’ve spent more time using the synthesizer than building it. My first commercial recording that I’ve used it on has now been released (“Terminal”, my track on komposi003<\/em>; click the Music link at the top of this page for more info), although in the final mix I ended up using only a mid-range drone sort of sound from the modular.<\/p>\n

In the past I’ve been somewhat dissatisfied with the 490 low-pass filter<\/a> but lately my opinion has changed. I would find that its sound was somewhat harsh and maybe a little nasal. Recently I figured out that if I reduce the signal level going into the filter a bit, I get a much more pleasing tone from it. The manual does mention that it’s easy to clip the input stage but of course it’s been awhile since I opened the manual. Now that I understand this aspect of its behavior I’m quite happy with it. It does make me wish that it had the input attenuators that the non-“micro” MOTM filters offer. I think my system could use another simple mixer and some passive attenuators anyway, so those may be my next module projects. Scott Juskiw’s DIY projects <\/a>(as well as modules from the smaller-format system vendors like Blacet) have pointed out to me that using smaller knobs would save a considerable amount of panel space for simpler modules like these.<\/p>\n

As mentioned previously, I’ve finally restored my old synth-blog postings to this site. You can find them by clicking the DIY Synths link<\/a> at the top of this page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think that the last module I built was a CGS Wave Multiplier. This module creates interesting timbres by folding triangle waves over on themselves. It’s hard to describe what it actually does (particularly since I’m not sure that I really understand what it actually does) but the net effect is that it creates timbral… Continue reading Modular Synth Blog Catch-Up<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-studio-nebula","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studionebula.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}