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Anyone remember PulseCode’s Modular app? I’m going too translate it to DRAMBO
I’m going reconstruct their patches from the app. I’m doing this in part to learn modular synth’s what’s and why’s and for another part to get some old school patches from the IAA into my AU workflow.
I’ll be sharing these! So, I need to find what everyone’s preference for modular synth is.
I’m only doing one format so choose wisely
CHOSEN
DRAMBO
Comments
Not one single vote?
I voted for Model 15.
I still have PulseCode’s Modular Synth on both my phone and iPad.
Yay (I forgot to press show poll results - duh)
I’ll leave it up for another day and then get to it.
Tricky decision.
I voted Drambo because it is (slightly) less difficult for me as a beginner in modular to understand, but mirack actually models real modules I might want to put in my real world rack.
And I don’t have Model 15 (waiting for the sale that never happened) but if it sounds as cool as it looks, and as the Model D undoubtedly is, that would be the one to go for on sound alone... choices, choices... definition of a first world problem!
Drambo models real modules too. I find Drambo much quicker to work with while miRack also has more complex modules in its library. The specs alone would make miRack the winner I guess but working in Drambo is so much fun and somehow I've always found a way to achieve what I want with it.
Plus you'll have a rising number of Drambo users here who can help.
@rs2000: yes, I know Drambo can model the sounds and functions of real word devices, but what I meant was that mirack packages these things visually as ‘photorealistic’ versions of the actual modules.
From a learning point of view, then, Drambo is perhaps easier for actual understanding of the underlying functions and principles, but mirack lets me get the actual (virtual) hardware and screw around with the knobs and sockets and whatnot I would find on the hardware, without having a scooby as to what is actually going on. It is a better source of happy accidents for the ignorant, in that regard.
When I do this in Drambo I just get frustrated, because I’m not even sure if I have plugged into the right doohickey in the right way, and there is no one to one correspondence with a real world gadget, that I might actually buy and be reasonably sure would function as per its simulation.
That is, to use a modelled device in Drambo - eg the morphagene-alike discussed elsewhere on the forum currently - presupposes a fairly deep understanding of Drambo, and Morphagene to do the ‘translation’ from the real world hardware to the Drambo GUI, which I don’t have.
As I say, definition of First World Problem!
(P.S: using your own marvellous creations in Drambo give me some hope that I might one day get my head round all this modular craziness.)
Same. I have no idea about Drambo and I cannot get a peep out of MiRack unless it's one of the prebuilt patches.
It should come as no surprise that I voted Drambo.
One thing to keep in mind is that in Drambo modulation goes Left->Right, Up->Down.
You can for example patch any object on Track 2 to any object in Track 1 but not the other way around.
There's plenty of users over at the Drambo forum to help out in case you decide to go that route
@Svetlovska & @ashh
No matter how many people claim otherwise, I fully agree that learning to build something on a modular synth takes time and patience which best comes with enough excitement by DIY electronic sound design that naturally not everyone shares.
Just in case anyone has missed our community help project:
https://wiki.audiob.us/doku.php?id=beepstreet_drambo&s[]=drambo
Yes, it takes time, I agree. I think my problem is that to know modular is to know signal paths and audio processing, at the very least. That knowledge is not imparted anywhere, that I can see, in engaging and manageable chunks.
There’s a lot you can’t do with Model 15. The app is not a modular synth, like the others mentioned.
That's why I chose it.
Model 15 would reach new heights if we could freely populate the rack with our choice of modules...
...simple things like remove the multi-bank filter and add a few more envelopes or extra oscillators as LFOs.
(Ie. start with an empty rack and fill it with a choice of existing modules).
I know Moog can do it, but will they?
Of course it’s a modular synth. The signal path isn’t fixed, therefore modular. The fact that you can’t switch out modules doesn’t change the fact. Back in the day the vast majority of Moog Models 15 / 35 / 55 were shipped in their standard configurations and rarely changed.
@ashh said: “I think my problem is that to know modular is to know signal paths and audio processing, at the very least. That knowledge is not imparted anywhere, that I can see, in engaging and manageable chunks.”
Yup, can totally relate. Twenty minutes with a manual and my eyes have glazed over. There are a few good video tutors out there, of course - Loopop’s explanation of the Maths module was exemplary, for example:
but too many make the same assumptions of expert knowledge, or patch in a blizzard of bewildering motion and unhelpful crash zooms onto the artfully placed potted cactus or cuddly toy...
I have recently embarked on real world modular myself as an extension of my enjoyment of all things random and emergent in iPad apps (except each of these hardware ‘apps’ are orders of magnitude more expensive!...), coupled with the fun of actual knob twiddling.
I knew what I was letting myself in for, of course, having had Drambo and Mirack since release, and still getting essentially nowhere with them, because it seems to me that to make headway in modular, you first have to know everything, especially if your audio interests lies outside the old subtractive synthesis route...
Since I’m specifically interested in adding things I can’t already easily do as performatively either on iPad/Ableton or with my small collection of cheap hardware synths, especially in the granular synthesis and sample manipulation areas - Morphagene is high on my want list - I guess I better get used to head scratching a while yet.
It’s an app that uses effectively a photograph of a real modular synth on top of which to implement a very good patchable synth, using the paradigm of patch cords. The original was modular, the app simply isn’t.
Well that's just semantics. The workflow, signal flow (ie lack thereof), and design are inarguably modular. If it must be called 'virtual' modular, so be it. After all, 'modular' is included in the first sentence of the App Store description. I wouldn't really care to argue with Moog about synthesis or terminology.
My experience is similar, in that most people who impart any knowledge are doing so because they have got to the top of a mountain and want to help. The problem I have with learning from these well-meaning individuals is that they have forgotten what a beginner needs to know. The very basic and boring information which probably won't make you look sexy.
Couple this with the fact that teaching is a huge skill that is most certainly not simply about saying "this is what I do" and most video tutorials are not for beginners.
Tell me what you are trying to impart. Tell me how we will know that we have learned something. Tell me why you are trying to impart this information.
Of course, everyone is different. YMMV etc. I'm just surprised that these kinds of people are so very rare on Youtube. I found one who was amazing with Novation Circuit's synth engine and another with the Tracker and that's it.
I would be very interested in learning with you, @Svetlovska, in some form. Sharing what we learn etc. I am about to take delivery of a Westlicht Per Former as the start of a Eurorack build, so if you are looking at Modular then I'd love to share the journey. Or anything else. No worries if you would rather not. 😊
@ashh : I’ve PM’ed you.
Okay, well next time I use it, what I’ll do is add four VCOs, four envelope generators, four VCAs, take out the filter, and patch it together to make a very simple 4-op FM synth, that’s not asking much is it, nothing complicated, just a simple 4-op FM patch. Any modular should be able to do that.
As @aleyas said, semantics. Modular means configurable signal flow. In your example, an ARP 2500 or a Synthi wouldn’t qualify as a modular synthesizer.
What you are describing is perhaps a smorgasbordular 😎
I started to vote miRack because it seemed like visually the routing would be simpler to translate and to understand. But I ended up voting Drambo because of polyphony.
It does seem to me like it would be easier to translate Modular's patches to miRack than to Drambo, at least conceptually.
I used to have the Pulsecode Modular app but I always ran out of 'rack slots' in the app...
...when patches started to get semi-complex.
If we could have an example what kind of patches need to be translated it might be a bit easier to recommend an app?
In some cases the semi-modular synth apps will do the job (Magellan 2, Zeeon etc.) if it's not patches with 20+ oscillators, 10 envelopes and lfo's and loads of different filters and other 'logic'.
As an example Continua from AudioDamage has very good matrix routing with just about anything being the source or destination and not limited to one source per destination.
A good start is to describe the signal flow of the original patch with sources that affect the flow.
(As example, I have an oscillator that has its pitch modulated ny an lfo and the modulation depth is controller by an envelope, the oscillator is amplitude modulated by another oscillator and passed thru a sample & hold module which in turn is clocked by another oscillator. The output from the sample & hold module is then passed thru an envelope before being connected to the output).
That example would be a single oscillator that has delayed vibrato and tremolo that is passed thru an analog 'decimator' and a volume envelope...
Just because something has a modular origin doesn't mean it needs to be done in a modular app.
True, but part of this is an exercise for me to figure out modular mentalities. Which I’m sure can be translated into “patchcordless” synths after a fashion.
Is iVCS3 a modular?
Is Ripplemaker a modular?
I think the term is un-normalized(?) These types of synths don’t have separate modules. They do have patching that doesn’t automatically have a default routing.
Yes
Yes
VCS3 doesn't have a normalled interface, so I'd say yes, it is modular.
Ripplemaker has a normalled signal path that can be bypassed, so it's semi-modular.
Synthesizers don't need to be able to interface externally to be considered modular. Just look at the Arp 2500 - it has an immense matrix like the VCS3, and can't be patched outside of itself - but that doesn't stop it from being modular. Modular just means the the signal flow doesn't have an inherent order and is freely patchable. Generally speaking the user must make a decision about the order and connection of the internal parameters so that the instrument can produce sound - that's true for the VCS3, a Buchla or Serge system, Model 15, System 55, Drambo, miRack, etc. (but not for Ripplemaker, 2600, 0-Coast, Mother 32, Neutron, MS20)
I'm not arguing that the Model 15 app isn't limited, but I just don't see how it isn't modular. After all, control voltage can be patched between instances through the audio bridge 'trunks'. And CV lfos from Drambo or miRack (or from a real eurorack system with an ES-8) can be routed through those inputs as well. Yesterday I had a Drambo LFO modulating Model 15's filter cutoff, with internal patching, not with exposed parameters or midi. So getting instances of Model 15 to talk to the outside world through CV is definitely possible, just currently limited. (iVCS3 can also receive external control voltage though it's inputs.)
Is Kaspar a modular?
Is Kauldron a modular?
On the other hand,
Is Sunvox a modular?