MOTM

Great comments Paul.

I second the suggestion that if you are into Synthesis with a capital "S"
(and if you're using a modular, I think you qualify!), you MUST have a copy
of Carlos' "Secrets of Synthesis." Also, her new SOB boxed set is worth the
price for the abandoned tracks and the booklets it comes with alone.

In SOS, she follows the technology she used over the years, eventually all
but abandoning her modular out of frustration. But you have to keep in mind
the particulars of working in that medium at that time! It WAS pretty
frustrating! You had an 8-channel recorder and VCOs that drifted between
takes, primitive (by comparison) noise reduction, and so on.

As you stated, manufacturers hit a fork in the road and started going for
limited poly monsters and abandoned the modular idea, for us a really bad
decision. With the advent of inexpensive, even "home" multitrack digital
recording and the repeatability and editing capabilities of MIDI control, as
well as quieter, more stable electronics, I think the modular is poised to
come into its own again, at least for the people who are willing to learn
how to use it.

I'm continually amazed at people who look at a monophonic synthesizer and
say, "What, you can only play one note at a time?" That's true of the vast
majority of instruments in human history! Really, if you're doing big
orchestral recordings, do you just want to hold down a triad on a sampling
poly-synth, or do you want to articulate each individual note independently,
like a real orchestra? Sure, the latter is more work, but the results pay
off big time. For me, a big flexible modular and a hard-disk recorder with
unlimited overdubbing capabilities wins out over a wavetable poly-synth and
a four track every time.

[Flame suit on:] Personally, as much as I love the sounds of analog and am
very happy to get them back into my arsenal again via my modular, I'm not
philosophically against modules with digital back-ends at all, if they add
new capabilities. As long as they are patchable and can be voltage
controlled. That's the side that I'm a purist about, not which chips are on
the other side of the front panel. I think there's room for all kinds of
stuff back there!