[sdiy] Modular - sound or song

[Richard Wentk]

On 8 Apr 2009, at 23:21, Scott Nordlund wrote:

>
> In my experience, DSP certainly has its value: no analog anything  
> will approach the sorts of things that are possible with frequency  
> domain processing.  And similarly I think it would be  
> extraordinarily difficult to digitally emulate the many varieties  
> of analog feedback.  My personal goal is to (attempt to) make the  
> best of what various methods and technologies have to offer,  
> without fetishizing any particular way of working.  Noise,  
> "composed" tonal music, electroacoustic improvisation, algorithmic  
> microtonality, etc. are all equally worth exploring, as far as I'm  
> concerned.

Yep.

> Both analog "chaos" and "traditional musicality" have been touched  
> upon by others, but I think digital processing has its own  
> advantages for algorithmic and aleatoric music.  Certain things  
> that I've tried (sequencing intervals rather than notes, randomly  
> sequencing harmonic ratios rather than standard scales, etc.) seem  
> much more viable in a computer-based environment, at least because  
> it's much quicker to design and redesign to find a suitable  
> algorithm.  Of course the distinction here is more hardware vs.  
> software than analog vs. digital.
>
> In the end, I don't think there are really clear lines to be drawn  
> between one sort of use and another (between "play a key and hear a  
> note" and "woah, far out!").  There's no real set "theory" or  
> framework to deal with this sort of thing, so unless a description  
> is very thorough, it sort of falls short.

Or more controversially, modulars are for people who aren't clever  
enough to understand software. :)

Modulars are basically nostalgia - they're nice pieces of furniture,  
and they have a certain kind of limited playability which produces a  
nice but very limited range of sounds. They're a lot like  
harpsichords, in fact.

But I want something which isn't just not limited by the same old  
modules which have been around for forty odd years now, but not  
limited by the same old *ideas* about modules.

DSP, even with a construction kit like Max/MSP, totally destroys  
anything you can patch together on a modular algorithmically.

Sonically it's not the same instrument. It doesn't do That Analogue  
Sound but it does so much else that this isn't any kind of issue. The  
list of synthesis and processing techniques which are practical in  
software but impossible in hardware is very, very long.

A lot of people seem to have an odd idea that software means some  
dinky little three oscillator VST that goes 'parp' in a very modest  
and understated kind of a way.

But it really, really doesn't.

Richard