ModExplore




hardware:   Apple MacBook M4 Air, Eurorack modular system/hardware, Steinway piano
software:   Apple Logic Pro X RTcmix, max/msp

I wasn't convinced of this piece when I first completed it. In fact, I wrote some notes shortly after finishing it saying "I'm not sure if I like this one". But it has grown on me, and I'm enjoying the range of sounds I 'explored' with the new modules I had acquired. Others who have listened to it also commented on the sonic qualities, several saying they really enjoyed the complexity of the sounds produced. Oh those modules!

One thing that this exercise did was to get me off the ground in updating my [rtcmix~] object. With my new laptop, I adopted Max 9 instead of the older Max 8 I had been using. I needed some of the functionality of [rtcmix~] to do what I wanted to do in several of the ModExplore pieces. My older [rtcmix~] code didn't run with Max 9, so I had to spend some time recoding (I hate "upgrades"!). Much to my surprise, the code alterations were relatively sinple. Instead of taking several weeks of programming, I was able to finish it in one afternoon!

Again I like the working methodology of creating a set of smaller 'etudes' and then putting them together into a larger piece. I artbitrarily made each smaller piece exactly 5 minutes long. I'm not sure why.

Piece website: