Planning Your First Eurorack Synthesizer with Sarah Belle Reid

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] hey everyone my name is sarah bell reed i am a performer and a composer and i make music with modular synthesizers trumpets and laptop computers and today i'm going to be sharing some thoughts with you about how to put together your first eurorack specifically i'm going to be focusing on some ideas for how to put together a system for live performance and some of the ways that i like to think about designing an instrument that can access a really wide variety of different sonic worlds while still being relatively compact and portable [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so so the first thing that i would advise when planning your first modular system is to start small i know it can be super tempting to design a big sprawling system and we all dream of that wall of modules that can make any sound in the world but starting small will really help to cut through some of the initial overwhelm it's going to really help you focus your workflow learn the tools that you have on hand and it's going to be much friendlier for your budget i personally love a small synth for live performance simply because it's so much more portable and just easier to manage the good news is that a small synth can still be super dynamic and musically flexible and if you're smart about how you plan things out you really can get a lot even out of just a few modules so one of the first steps in planning out a eurorack system is choosing a case there are a lot of really great options out there that make it easy to assemble a small portable system for example here i'm using two 42 hp frap tools plus cases that are connected together and a tip top uzus for power but i also really like the intelligent pallet cases or 4ms pods for small modular cases that you can really easily throw into a backpack one thing to keep in mind with some of these small cases is that they can also be really shallow which is awesome for portability but it's always a good idea to double check the depth of any of the modules that you're interested in to make sure that they're actually going to fit into your case so if you're used to working with more traditional synthesizers you are probably used to thinking about sound design in terms of oscillators filters vcas and so on well you can definitely build a eurorack system around these synthesis concepts one of the nice things about modular is that there are so many other options out there and there's a lot of other ways to think about sound generation eurorack modules can run the gamut from being traditional analog synthesis functions to essentially being entire digital synthesizers behind a single panel so you really can get to whatever kind of sound you want based on your musical preferences so when i'm thinking about designing a small system i try to look for two or three distinct sound generators so that i have a lot of sonic contrast and i can blend between different types of sounds the first sound generator that i have in this system is a benjalin the benjalin is a modern classic synth design that was originally made by rob hordike i really like the benjalin in particular because it's a lot more than just a simple oscillator you can treat it like a normal synth voice because it has a couple of oscillators and a filter or you can utilize all of the internal chaotic behavior to get it into a lot of different territories from pulsing rhythms to more noisy abrasive sounds it's also a little bit unpredictable which in my opinion is a plus because it gives you an element of surprise and something to really react to during live performance the second main sound generator that i have here is the make noise morphogene which is a granular sampler [Music] [Music] you can get a huge range of sounds out of this module too because it's sample based so you can load any kind of external sound onto the sd card like field recordings or voices or acoustic instruments or you can also use it to re-contextualize and process sounds from elsewhere within your synth like for example from the benjalin [Music] [Music] uh the other part of my audio path is the bastille filter icaria this is a fun stereo filter that can seamlessly transition between high pass and low pass behavior it's also super resonant and has a lot of gain on the input so it can range from being really smooth to being really aggressive and acidic [Music] one of the things that i really like about this filter is that it works great both as a processor the way that you would typically use a filter and as a sound generator itself so you can get it to produce two distinct tones from each of its filter outputs or alternatively you can ping it using gates or clock signals at high resonance settings in order to get a more percussive sound these modules are just things that i chose based on my own personal musical preferences but really the point here is that each one of these is pretty distinct from one another and together they cover a lot of ground giving you the ability to change gears and transition to new sounds during a live performance without having to re-patch the next thing that i would consider when planning a eurorack system is having a balance between sound generation and control sources it can be tempting to build an entire system out of really cool sound sources but modulation is where your modular synth is really going to come to life in this system i have two make noise functions and an intelligent shifty i chose these modules because of their flexibility as well the functions can act as envelopes lfos or even a crude sample and hold and the shifty gives me the ability to generate a lot of separate stepped modulation signals from a single set of inputs so i can use it to send for example four different random voltages to four different destinations in the system all at once i've also got a mutable instruments veils in this system so this is a quad vca which can be used to manage the levels of either audio or control voltage signals and it can function as a mixer so that i can combine different signals together to go to a single destination and in that way i can use it as a signal router to route multiple sounds to a single effects processor for example or to route multiple control voltages into a single modulation destination and of course the venulin itself can also make a really good modulation source either by using the oscillators to create lfos or using the internal chaotic generation to generate pseudo-random voltages the next thing i would consider is how i want to play the instrument or how i want to physically interact with it so in this system there's a lot that you can do to let it more or less play itself the control voltage sources are complex enough that you could set up different ways for them to influence one another and to create generative structures that keep the sound evolving all on its own and in some situations this is enough to get really cool musical results but i find that it's also nice to have the option of interacting with the instrument in a slightly more active and hands-on way so you can do this in a lot of different ways there are of course some great modules for providing physical control over the rest of your system like joysticks or touch plates you also have the option to use external controllers to interact with your modular synth so you could use a midi controller for example if you have a way of converting midi into control voltages this would typically be done by using a specialized midi to cv module like the expert sleepers fh2 or the endorphins shuttle control to name just a couple these days there are also a lot of dedicated standalone control voltage controllers as well for instance i'm using the make noise zero control the zero control is a combination touch plate based keyboard and analog sequencer despite the fact that it's fairly simple on the surface you have a lot of options for how to manipulate a sequence as it plays out either by pressing touch plates or turning knobs while it's already in motion or of course you can simply use it as a keyboard without using the sequencing capability at all so [Music] all right so all of these ideas are important things to consider when planning out your first modular system to recap it's important to start small so that you don't get too overwhelmed and so that you can really spend time getting to know your modules deeply it's important to look for flexible sound generators so that you can access a wide variety of musical sounds and depth without needing to invest in a ton of gear it's good to consider a balance between sound generation and control because you'll find that having the right mix of control and modulation sources can really bring your audio modules to life in exciting ways i personally also like to balance internal automatic modulation with external hands-on control using some kind of touch controller my last piece of advice for you now is to take your time with this process and to let your modular synth grow as you develop as a musician with every new module that you dig into you're going to discover so much not only about the module but also about your own personal musical interests your ideal workflow and so on so taking it one piece at a time is really going to help you build out a system that works for you and for your musical needs moreover each new module that you add is going to have a kind of ripple effect expanding the potential of all the other modules that you already have adding even one new thing can totally transform your system and your workflow so taking time to really unpack everything it can be super valuable so if you're interested in diving deeper into modular synthesis and learning the ins and outs of creating dynamic patches so that you can expand your current musical practice or get started with this whole world if it's brand new to you then i want to let you know that my online program learning sound and synthesis is currently open for enrollment this program covers everything from the most important and fundamental building blocks of synthesis to more advanced strategies for building patches composing and performing with modulars all the way to connecting your modular gear to other electronic and acoustic instruments and to the rest of your studio so that you can create a super personalized and unique musical setup this course only runs a couple of times each year and enrollment closes in a few days so if you are interested check out the link in the description below or go to soundandsynthesis.com to enroll special thank you to perfect circuit for inviting me to do this video and thanks to all of you i wish you many happy patching adventures ahead you

Channel: Perfect Circuit

Views: 127,259

Keywords: Perfect Circuit, synth, synthesizer, analog, hardware, drum machine, native instruments, arturia, eurorack, eurorack synthesizer, modular, modular synthesizer, roland, korg, moog, elektron

Id: Kizs6zQ4U14

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 07 2020