modmod

modmod-fast (mp3 format; 5:20 -- 7.7 Mbytes)
vochords (mp3 format; 5:52 -- 8.5 Mbytes)
modmod-NW (mp3 format; 7:17 -- 10.5 Mbytes)
modmod-beat (mp3 format; 4:46 -- 6.9 Mbytes)
chromadelay (mp3 format; 11:06 -- 16.0 Mbytes)

Of course, with new modules I had to try them out! The first thing I did was the Ambient Bach set of pieces using the new Behringer/Moog System 35 clone. I planned to do some more equipment experiments, but was slightly interrupted by the Real World horribleness, resulting in They Shot Her In The Face. That was done quickly, and I got back to messing about with modular synthesis. I've been busy, even despite the happy toe incident. Retirement is good!

I completed fIve pieces, each one aimed at using the new modules in various ways. I have employed this approach to create music in the past, check out the ModExplore or patchsetup pieces. For some reason, the five pieces I did this time were much more disparate from each other than the past explorations. Here are some notes about each one::

modmod-fast -- I originally called this project "modulating moodules", but I didn't like typing such a long name all the time (ha!), and I also misspelled 'modules' in the original project title, arg. So I renamed the whole thing "modmod". This one explored several new oscillator and timbre-modification modules, concentrating on the timbre and keeping the basic music rather minimal. The '-fast' was because the original version I created seemed to drag more than I wanted, so I did some minor DSP and changed the duration.
vochords -- One of the devices that I picked up was the Roland VT-4 vocal effects processor. I'd read an article about it, auditioned some demos, and it seemed like an interesting unit to have. Roland has a long history of involvement with vocal processing. I used it to create a 'synthetic Brad choir' singing some expanding chords. I also used this a fair amount in the They Shot Her In The Face piece done while I was working on this one.
modmod-NW -- This one takes advantage of a small 'slide-controller' module that can produce fluid pitch-bends (and other data-bending) based on a touch-strip built on the surface of the module. I thought it would be fun to make a fake duduk, which of course required a non-western tuning system. I was able to program a Max/MSP-rtcmix~ patch to produce precise voltages for specific frequencies, going beyond the quantization of MIDI. The rhythmic parts were built from some of the new oscillator modules with very short (obviously) attack and decay times. Oh, and the '-NW' is for 'Non-Western' tuning.
modmod-beat Again, working with my new oscillator modules. This time I'm adding some LFO control to them to provide a dynamic output. Yikes Brad, so nerdy! LFO dynamics! Touch-strip data bending! Well, these 'explore-the-modules' excursions are almost by definition sort of nerdy. Heck, my life is sort of nerdy.
chromadelay -- One of the difficulties I've had with my setup is how to route audio through external processing software and hardware. With the vochords piece above, I used a multi-i/o interface to accomplish sending my voice recordings through the VT-4. That approach doesn't work for internal software, like setting up a long-delay system using Max/MSP. I've been dealing with this before, see the additional commentary for my delchords pieces for some discussion. I think I have now solved the problem by using my modular system to do the audio routing. chromadelay uses this setup, and it seems to work well. More fun with oscillators, but this time with a long delay. I love the way these delay pieces slowly evolve. The 'chroma-' name is from the chromatic nature of the pitches, of course.

There you have it!

Brad Garton
January/February, 2026