Can we take a moment to appreciate that here we've got 2 people, I assume they're both Belgian, and they're conducting the whole piece in English, I assume to allow this to reach a wider audience.
Seems very nice for sound design, less so for straight forward music writing. And more expensive than even poly synths, so it's the final boss of building a production studio.
thank you for this! i've been addicted to VCV Rack for about a year now. it's a great and affordable way to try out modular + you get unlimited cables and modules, and even experiment with hardware cloned modules. you guys demonstrated some great sounds & ideas. thank you again, also, i love the intelligent studio design.
It’s so dang fun to see your excitement about the rhythmic happening of music that is modular. Knights gallop is one of the next on my list because of the simple joys of that use. Have you since jumped into modular? And if so, what did you start with?
I dove into it a bit a few years ago, now im resisting restarting it too much 😁 its kinda hard to find a way to justify it as its hard to make good YT content with it as well, and im so committed to digital workflows. I’ll probably go deeper again when i have more time to artistically explore where it can take me…
Such a good video. I like his way of recording ideas - just hit record and start to get things down, record as long as you need to. Whenever you try and recreate something it's never the same. I still only have just TWO rack units (Clouds and Plaits) but ehere's still so much I'm learning just from thee two units. And oh yes, must explore the resonator in the Clouds firmware upgrade too. :) Going to listen to some of @pattrn_music music now.
Belgium represent! What a beautiful modular synth. I want to get into eurorack but my budget is so limited :( A video on how to start with affordable modules would be interesting. Thank you as always for the great content. ❤
I've built close to 60 modules up from PCBs, saved a fortune in the process. If money is a factor, DIY is an option… assuming you have the interest and time.
I LOVE mod Techno, I really do. The creativity, the tactility, the physicality, all that. AND I make techno on the regular. That said, I could and would NEVER build a modular rig. I’ve been in IT for too long and all those patch cables give me mad PTSD. If I built a modular rig I’d EASILY waste more time on organizing spaghetti than making music. 😅
I just bought a keystep pro to use with VCV rack, it’s a pretty steep learning curve but once I managed to get modules controlled with the sequencer I hypnotised myself for a few hours… fun stuff ✌️
Two years ago I went into eurorack, started recording into ableton, and I have used many of the techniques you teach on your channel. Start small, learn on VCV Rack, and resist GAS. But know that everything that works for production in ableton will apply to eurorack also.
Before buying all these modules and declaring bankrupt, try out virtual modular synths like VCV Rack or Voltage Modular. I use the (very cheap) VCV Rack Pro as a plugin in Ableton (there is a free standalone version too). The biggest advantage of a virtual modular synth ist that you can save all your patches and use and develop it in further projects. Or you decide not to save the patch and only record it live in your DAW (like in the video). A perfect combination of "both worlds." Maybe the biggest problem is that you can't touch the knobs and faders on your screen. Using only the mouse is annoying. A good compromise is that you can MIDI-map (for example the cutoff frequency of a filter) it to an external MIDI-controller.
And I thought I was the only one who has found a solution in putting speakers on a pile of concrete blocks in the studio 🙂 Perfect demping, perfect height. Concrete towers!
Damnit. After falling in love with VAZ Modular back in the day and realising that I missed it and have to explore modular synthesis again, I installed Cardinal last night. I spent a few hours noodling and now am ever so slightly obsessed with the potential for craziness.
Awesome, something i would never br able to grasp and master, but i will always enjoy to watch masters of the art using modular hardware!! French accent from the guest? From wallonia Belgium i guess?
Considering a basic modular system in the 1970s could cost the same as a 3 bedroom terraced house, I'd say modular gear these days is extremely affordable.
@@marcellkovacs5452I was trying to do a bit of digging on this just now. I think the most expensive systems in the early days of Moog were about $10000. Median house price in the US in 1970 was $23,400. So a bit less than half the price of a house for a big system. Compared to today, where a Moog System 55 is $35000 and median home price is like $436000, a bit less than 10% of the price of a home.
❤ LOVED watching this one - Seeing your joy in the discovery was awesome! I've got some eurorack techno sets on my channel if you want to hear more... ;) Keep up the great work, Mate!
If you are a musician and your goal is to make music - avoid hardware modular synths 😄 Stay away from them. They will eat up your time and money like nothing else, and give you almost no usable results in return. If you are a hobbyist, just playing around, have no other goals than having fun, and have substantial amounts of spare change - go for it, it's addictive. Just be prepared, if you ever show somebody what you have achieved in a certain amount of time and how much the hardware did cost to do it, they will call you insane. And they won't be wrong.
i've somehow slightly to disagree here.. but up to everyone to have their own opinons. When i need a simple sub bass or a clean kick i'd deffo grab ableton operator and get things done within seconds. when i'm looking for more experimental or "unique" sounds the modular deffo gets me there. There are many "musicians whose goal is to make music" that are using eurorack and in fact over the 49+ tracks i released over the last 2 years modular has been used on approx 85% of those. There is also something that plays with how you listen. In a world of fast communication , immediate access to everything,... preset scrolling on a vst and playing three notes before hitting record wasn't working for me anymore and i found a real joy diving (unproductively) for hours on a synth voice, tweaking a know by an inch and enjoying the slight difference it brought to the sound. Somehow it's helped me enjoy sound on another level and i think it made my sound design more deep. But who knows and at the end, does it really matter if it makes someione happy to make mysic that way and works as a modd trigger to set onself in better conditions to create isn't that good enough? These are all very personal matters and very subjective and maybe it's insane to spend so much on something that is so little efficient... but maybe it's what drives me every day to make music in the studio and makes me happy... what are the value of those things?.. it's a tricky question and again a very personal answder for each of us. I wish you all the best with your music and thank you for watching!
I agree. Modular is fun and cool but it's not very productive sometimes. It takes a long time to get a decent patch going and you can get much more done in less time using other gear or especially a daw. I only use my daw for recording and some days I wish I could go fully 'in the box' but that's too boring for me.
@@pattrn_music Hey friend, of course we are all individuals and we are all on our individual journeys, so whenever somebody says "This is blabla" he actually means "This is blabla for me" :-D And for me, if I would earn my money by creating and selling music, going modular would have been the worst decision ever^^ I enjoy it immensely, doing it all for fun. But if I were somewhat goal-oriented, I wouldn't touch it. I actually spend more time informing myself, buying, selling, installing, and thinking about modules than I actually use them^^
Short answer: No! Long answer: Worth is a relative concept. For something to be "worth it", generally one would expect a value output, equal to or greater than the cost incured to acquire and use it. Now cost incured would be things like the acquisition price of modules, cases, cables etc. power consumption, physical space occupied, and time spent learning to use it. In the world of electronic music, modular has pretty much the highest cost in all areas. Cheap modules are commonplace by now, but even so, there's not many scenarios where modular isn't the most expensive solution by far. Meaning modular must provide a much higher value output to be worth it, compared to just about any other music making solution. Value output is where things get tricky, because there's as many ways to measure this, as there are people. What matters to one, may not matter to the other. If the goal is simply to make music by any means, then the most expensive, big and time consuming solution will never be worth it. If the goal is to make money on it, recuperating the cost and eventually turn a profit, which in the grand scheme of things are unlikely for most of us, then again the most expensive solution will basically never be worth it. However! If the journey towards these goals are as, or more, important than the actual goals themselves, and your personal perspective is that modular does this best for you, adding enjoyment in the process, then this enjoyment is also a value output, which may sway the equation in modulars favour. Going one further and saying, the person in question doesn't actually care about the music or the money, and just wanna play with modular specifically. Then it becomes a subjective grey area, where in it's worth it for the individual, in the same sense that spending a lot of money on Lego, can be worth it to people who value the experience itself above the cost. But at this point the line, between making music and playing with toys, becomes a bit blurred.
So the new Arcus S-Series violin bow is on sale for $3500 right now. Of course, that's only a bow. No strings or a violin come included in the $3500 purchase price. Organic musicians, talk about elitists. 🎻
It depends how your brain works. For me a visual artist modular is perfect. When I build a good patch that is a track I equate it to making a sculpture.
That feeding the filter into the filter or reverb into the reverb to create its own sound, is there a way or doing that with serial plug ins, in Ableton? Or is it the sound of the actual wires and electrical components that generated the sound? Mind blowing🤯
Yes 100 % worth it because I have many synths but when I start with modular I sell it. Now I have only Moog sub 37, Prophet 6, Analog Four and more then 100 module for modular. I never get interest again in synth after modular.
This was good fun, thanks. I don't understand how outputs from one feed into anything else without significant risk of blasting the speakers or eardrums.
I buy my first a two years back, Behringer crave,last year a Moog Subharmonicon and i continue to dive more to this....because i had perfect results ONLY with this small machines 😎🙏
Ok, so basically you plug some wires, turn some nobs and see where you're at!! If it's bad, start over, if it's good, thank the universe and start over!! Missing something?!?
I just love the thumbnail. Imprisoned By Your Own Knowledge == instant meme. There's people like Deadmau5 and Sébastien Léger - and Pattrn - who actually make music with this stuff. Usually they still use Ableton for 99% of everything. But the average eurorack nerd never does anything. The closest they come to making music is filling their basement with a few hundred miles of patch cables to string together a generative ambient setup, and it's usually cheating by using some granular faux-creativity modules to make it tolerable. Then it only makes pleasant noises when they don't touch anything and preferably aren't anywhere in the vicinity.
I personally would rather listen to an ambient patch made by random, normal people. Deadmau5 is the most bitter and condescending artist I know of, only thing that comes close are some specific guitarists from technical death metal bands. Deadmau5 and others made people like you think that music is this soulless, joyless process of making commercially viable tracks. The vast majority of people who make music just want to have fun and use their shiny toys. Me included. Eurorack is one of these shiny toys. Very few people think -or pretend- it's a viable way of creating music. Let alone commercial music...
Also, laughed a bit at "granular faux-creativity modules" oh you mean REVERB ? Yeah famously known cheat code, and famously something that only exists in eurorack lmao
@@tristan7218 I feel you, except… If you ever listen to Steve Duda talk about Deadmau5… I get the impression he’s one of those nerds like Richy Hawtin who kinda comes off as super obnoxious when he gets put on the spot, but … maybe I’m wrong … but I think maybe he’a a cool guy who maybe doesn’t have the best social skills and has a shitty public persona but he actually is probably pretty cool.
The only thing that stops me from going modular road is that I am sure I won't stop buying new modules. VCV rack/cardinal or any other virtual modular system help me to cure my urge to play with modular synths time to time, thanks god they exist 😅
sure VCV is amazing. I used to patch in reaktor and max msp before diving into eurorack. There are two things i took from that 1st is that i love being able to make music without watching a screen (same screen used to send emails, watch series and tutorials, used for socials, for google sheets,....) and being able to close my eyes and twists knobs while diving into sound. , 2nd is that the price of modules is also a limiting factor that helps you both to get more creative and understand better each module but also that you can't buy a case like mine at once and so you have plenty of time to try every new module in many configurations and get a deeper understanding and exeprimentations than that i had when being on computer based synthesis. This being said, there are tracks that i made from scratch to end only on my DAW... that's the magic of today's world we don't need to choose and both worlds can coexist to allow you to make the music you'd like :)
IMO modular is not worth it for most people. It's very expensive to build up a system and you also kinda need to know exactly what you plan to accomplish with the system, otherwise youre just going to spend a ton of money while wasting your time. Modular is for people who already have everything else and also have money to burn. Its fun and its addictive but its not very productive much of the time and while you can gig with modular it is kinda impractical unless you do a TON of prep work. Modular is best for people who are more into exploring sound rather than cranking out finished tracks.
More of that Bries stuff! Would be nice if you can explain the patch at 7.56min. its great man! Please more of that modular bries stuff! He explains his thoughts very nice and clear!
it's basically one instance of elements from mutable creating a kind of "pluck" sounds feeding "atom" a clone of elements but put in the special "chords" mode pretty dampened and going into mimeophon delay from make noise adding a bit of depth and reverb. Cheers ;)
@@pattrn_musicy if i gonna bother you but the eloquencer is sendig a 4 step pattern random CV as pitch and modulation source? You're duplicating it with a buff mult? Is that right?
while i like modular synths playful and experimental approach..its funny how guys always Aaawww when accidentally you created some simple basic synth patch
I have just noticed for most regular producers euro rack is a hindrance, I see guys spending days making basic sounds that are complicated to make on your a rack but you could make on diva in 10 minutes, and I feel like a lot of people get stuck in how hard it is to make things sound good for the most part that they think sounds are better on your rack when their brain is almost tripped by how complex it was to make that sound if that makes sense
the "magic" with eurorack is when you start to build a "system" not a single synth voice. when for example one envelope open the filter of a synth voice and at the same time makes the reverb time of another voice longer. When you create those systems you don't think about music only in terms of layers piled on top of each other but rather like instrument players that would really play together and interact. For sure creating a silly monophonic lead sound with a saw fed into a filter has no peculiar added value in the eurorack world. But for example using 2 separate sequencers with different lengths and having one playing the notes and the other opening your filter will already create more complex results that could only be achieved with heavy automation drawing in a DAW. Nothing impossible but much less fun, intuitive and playable. The purpose here is not to say one is better than another, it's just another tool , another instrument with its own specificities allowing you to do other things. I think it's always surprising how people try to "defend" one point of view, one way to do over another while both can very well coexist. It's all about feeling, sonic palette, pleasure, getting you in the flow that works for you.
@@pattrn_music I understand that it’s just so complicated to achieve it and make it sound good, I have the for the CV rack with all the modules, but I find myself struggling so much, even after watching hours and hours and hours and hours of videos, that I don’t notice it doing anything but hindering me, and I see it doing that to so many other people, and I get that once you can master it, it makes sounds you could never make with anything else other than modular but sometimes I don’t know I’m like is it worth it, it cost so much money it’s so hard to learn it feels like to make those super complex good sounds that will actually help your music production and not just feel like a pat on the back
@@evanwilster do you know the story of the guy making music with sample loops? he thought it was cheating then got one shot samples and made his own beat patterns, then he thought that was cheating so he bought himself a real drum and sampled the drum, then he thought.. damn this is still cheating.. he hasn't been doing much music lately as too busy raising sheeps for the drum head skins.... i think it's all a persoanl decision to what is worth, what makes sense and what drives you to make music. I think today i enjoy jamming on my eurorack for hours, recording bits and arranging them later. might not be the most efficient, might be more expensive but after starting with a DAW 20 years ago i still enjoy walking in the studio every day. Some days not using the modular at all, some others only geeking around to find new techniques, soundsysthesis methods.. What matters if finding the way that suits oneself. I wish you many hours of joy making your own music man!
@@pattrn_music did I say anything about cheating. That’s great if that gets you in the studio and you don’t mind the money but the title of the video is modular worth it, and my answer to it is I don’t know it doesn’t seem like it for most people
@@evanwilster oh no you never said that , sorry if i made you think... it's a real joke going around and it was to follow your path of thoughts... at some point indeed you can loose yourself and not make music at all anymore so i totally agree with that part and the story/joke was a way to express that.Cheers mate
never considered modular rigs practical or convenient. but yeah, they look fancy, and i suspect that's the main point. PS. and i don't even start discussing bringing them to gigs.
Having owned a big vintage modular and also weirdo mixed eurorack my answer is no. It's the idiot test whether you let it ruin your entire "musical" identity.
Hey just wanted to give another perspective. I've had 30k worth of eurorack at some point that i builded for 8 years or so and i can say its highly highly overrated. The physical aspect of it is nice but i can do the same and more with the knowledge of my vst and my daw and i'm just missing some physicality that can be added with nice controllers. I can also come back to stuff ive made in the daw while in eurorack it wasnt possible. Yeah i was recording tons and its cool material but its not cutting it for me. I realised i could sell it all after switching to Bitwig studio. Bitwig is the modular daw. With the modulator you get such a workhorse of a modular environment that i've found what i was missing all along with gear. I'm saying all this just to counter the people shilling eurorack to death. It's hyper consumerism and capitalism for most i've met.. Please ppl try something like VCVrack first it can do plenty and you'll get a sense of whats doable. Going eurorack you always miss a module. I thought first i would only do 104hp of fx. Ended up with a doepfer monster base 12u 168hp + 2 other cases.. Yeah eurorack look cool but its a sinkhole money wise and time wise.. You spend tons of time just looking at your next buy because a new module dropped because you need another seq because this fx would be cool.. I've basically stopped making finished track when i got into gear and had a close to 10 year period where i basically spend really nice time making noise but i have nothing to look back too except snippets. Switching back to almost 100% DAW and plugins i've made 3 tracks in a few months switching fully to bitwig because i can keep working on them and dont get stuck in my rack.. YEAH YYMV but beware the vast majority of people i've buyed eurorack from or sold to are stuck in an insanely bad GAS (Gear acquisition syndrome). And it's really hard to get out of it :)
Glad you didn't hold back there. I had a ton of regular synths years ago and as I got older they became a millstone for production, and that was just regular stuff before eurorack. I'm too old for that fiddling around. Now I have a small number of hardware synths and a couple of semi-modulars, but after I came back I also luckily landed in bitwig. Perfect timing as it happens. I mean I am not knocking anyone who is into eurorack, but it certainly requires a lot of patience. I just want to write music and mess about as well, so Bitwig's modular system for me too. Cool video though. Seeya round.
Not worth it. Expensive luxury hobby. Other guys buy a Harley or two or a boat. I kind of regret starting with it. Yes its fun but making weird noise with equipment worth a small car ?
Bliep, bliep, pling, pling... Boom, boom, klatsch, klatsch... Housemusic was big in the 90s... those days are long gone... and so the hits and the culture... same as rock en roll, reggae etc... It is time for new... if possible.. cause we only have 12 notes... and thats it.
Pattrn on instagram ► instagram.com/pattrn_music
Pattrn on bandcamp ► pattrnmusic.bandcamp.com
My techno project Torc ► soundcloud.com/torcaudio
My educational courses ► courses.underdog.brussels
Oscar, it was a pleasure to have you in the studio and share some thoughts !
I Pattrn, can you describe your Modulation setup ?
When you ‘get into’ modular techno there’s no going back. 👁️🕉️
There's some going back lol
THIS.
@@heavyhead2k139 what is normal techno?
Can we take a moment to appreciate that here we've got 2 people, I assume they're both Belgian, and they're conducting the whole piece in English, I assume to allow this to reach a wider audience.
very true said !!
Although I think Oscar is german
and their English is better than many native English speakers too!@@rodrigocapra
Seems very nice for sound design, less so for straight forward music writing. And more expensive than even poly synths, so it's the final boss of building a production studio.
thank you for this! i've been addicted to VCV Rack for about a year now. it's a great and affordable way to try out modular + you get unlimited cables and modules, and even experiment with hardware cloned modules. you guys demonstrated some great sounds & ideas. thank you again, also, i love the intelligent studio design.
always nice to be able to share ideas and inspire people. I wish you all the best with your music
this video was so much fun. I feel like not enough people show the fun of "messing around" to find new sounds
It’s so dang fun to see your excitement about the rhythmic happening of music that is modular. Knights gallop is one of the next on my list because of the simple joys of that use. Have you since jumped into modular? And if so, what did you start with?
I dove into it a bit a few years ago, now im resisting restarting it too much 😁 its kinda hard to find a way to justify it as its hard to make good YT content with it as well, and im so committed to digital workflows.
I’ll probably go deeper again when i have more time to artistically explore where it can take me…
Such a good video. I like his way of recording ideas - just hit record and start to get things down, record as long as you need to. Whenever you try and recreate something it's never the same. I still only have just TWO rack units (Clouds and Plaits) but ehere's still so much I'm learning just from thee two units. And oh yes, must explore the resonator in the Clouds firmware upgrade too. :) Going to listen to some of @pattrn_music music now.
Such a good video! Oscar you should do a series visiting artists’s studios
Such a good idea.
What an experience! Sad that just fe people can get access to one of this beautiful group of machines. So inspired too!! Ahhhhh 🥰
You can use VCV rack for free. Software and not physical modules, but still..
Belgium represent! What a beautiful modular synth. I want to get into eurorack but my budget is so limited :( A video on how to start with affordable modules would be interesting. Thank you as always for the great content. ❤
What have we learned from this video?
We need a modular synthesizer! 😅
Get VCV rack and experiment first and plan your modules to buy in real life.
@@gagaxueguzheng
It certainly is. That's the reason why haven't mentioned hardware. 😉
@@gagaxueguzheng And if You start buying it, then sorry - You have a GAS. There is no way back. :(
I've built close to 60 modules up from PCBs, saved a fortune in the process. If money is a factor, DIY is an option… assuming you have the interest and time.
@@ziuygilug345t89phgrz How much approximately is the cost of one module? For example - HPF filter?
Mmmmm Cable management! Great video, great to see all the modules.
I LOVE mod Techno, I really do. The creativity, the tactility, the physicality, all that. AND I make techno on the regular. That said, I could and would NEVER build a modular rig. I’ve been in IT for too long and all those patch cables give me mad PTSD. If I built a modular rig I’d EASILY waste more time on organizing spaghetti than making music. 😅
I just bought a keystep pro to use with VCV rack, it’s a pretty steep learning curve but once I managed to get modules controlled with the sequencer I hypnotised myself for a few hours… fun stuff ✌️
Ive been using your techno videos and trying to translate them to my modular rig for months lol You would be amazed at how much overlap there is.
Great insight! Really enjoy PATTRN's music so to see his process was very interesting.
This is awesome, Oscar. Im usually applying what I learn from you to my eurorack systems
Oh Yesss , the two Guys has very lot of fun 🤘 grrreeaaattt stuff
Two years ago I went into eurorack, started recording into ableton, and I have used many of the techniques you teach on your channel.
Start small, learn on VCV Rack, and resist GAS. But know that everything that works for production in ableton will apply to eurorack also.
Before buying all these modules and declaring bankrupt, try out virtual modular synths like VCV Rack or Voltage Modular. I use the (very cheap) VCV Rack Pro as a plugin in Ableton (there is a free standalone version too). The biggest advantage of a virtual modular synth ist that you can save all your patches and use and develop it in further projects. Or you decide not to save the patch and only record it live in your DAW (like in the video). A perfect combination of "both worlds." Maybe the biggest problem is that you can't touch the knobs and faders on your screen. Using only the mouse is annoying. A good compromise is that you can MIDI-map (for example the cutoff frequency of a filter) it to an external MIDI-controller.
Fuk yeah they are! I'm filled with modular and have not a drop of regret or buyer's remorse!!!!
Great to see Brice interviewed, such a nice artist
And I thought I was the only one who has found a solution in putting speakers on a pile of concrete blocks in the studio 🙂
Perfect demping, perfect height. Concrete towers!
Damnit. After falling in love with VAZ Modular back in the day and realising that I missed it and have to explore modular synthesis again, I installed Cardinal last night. I spent a few hours noodling and now am ever so slightly obsessed with the potential for craziness.
This video is Awesome! I learnt so much in the first 5 minutes. AWESOME 😮
rewatching one month later : )
yes, this is the fun of just playing around.
I knew that you won't skip your post day even after the rough Sonar week haha! Was nice to meet you man!
Hahahaha indeed 😁 Was so nice to meet you too!
Awesome, something i would never br able to grasp and master, but i will always enjoy to watch masters of the art using modular hardware!! French accent from the guest? From wallonia Belgium i guess?
Exactly, Brussels! :D
VCV Rack and midi knob boxes.
I own abunch of eurorack, but I absolutely love VCV and trimmers it to everyone.
if you have the money, space and passion definitely as modular is super fun!
Very cool and inspiring episode. Thanks.
Considering a basic modular system in the 1970s could cost the same as a 3 bedroom terraced house, I'd say modular gear these days is extremely affordable.
A house at 1970s prices or 2023 prices?
There was an ad: when you can afford a truck, you can afford a moog
@@marcellkovacs5452I was trying to do a bit of digging on this just now. I think the most expensive systems in the early days of Moog were about $10000. Median house price in the US in 1970 was $23,400. So a bit less than half the price of a house for a big system. Compared to today, where a Moog System 55 is $35000 and median home price is like $436000, a bit less than 10% of the price of a home.
❤ LOVED watching this one - Seeing your joy in the discovery was awesome! I've got some eurorack techno sets on my channel if you want to hear more... ;)
Keep up the great work, Mate!
More videos, visiting studios! 👍
Control Voltage is the heart of modular!
Yep, that's me alright!
I see an Elektron Analog Rhythm there too! Hoping for a Dub breakdown video. Artist like Techno Animal, The Bug, JK Flesh
And Scorn as well :)
If you are a musician and your goal is to make music - avoid hardware modular synths 😄 Stay away from them. They will eat up your time and money like nothing else, and give you almost no usable results in return.
If you are a hobbyist, just playing around, have no other goals than having fun, and have substantial amounts of spare change - go for it, it's addictive. Just be prepared, if you ever show somebody what you have achieved in a certain amount of time and how much the hardware did cost to do it, they will call you insane. And they won't be wrong.
i've somehow slightly to disagree here.. but up to everyone to have their own opinons. When i need a simple sub bass or a clean kick i'd deffo grab ableton operator and get things done within seconds. when i'm looking for more experimental or "unique" sounds the modular deffo gets me there.
There are many "musicians whose goal is to make music" that are using eurorack and in fact over the 49+ tracks i released over the last 2 years modular has been used on approx 85% of those. There is also something that plays with how you listen. In a world of fast communication , immediate access to everything,... preset scrolling on a vst and playing three notes before hitting record wasn't working for me anymore and i found a real joy diving (unproductively) for hours on a synth voice, tweaking a know by an inch and enjoying the slight difference it brought to the sound. Somehow it's helped me enjoy sound on another level and i think it made my sound design more deep. But who knows and at the end, does it really matter if it makes someione happy to make mysic that way and works as a modd trigger to set onself in better conditions to create isn't that good enough?
These are all very personal matters and very subjective and maybe it's insane to spend so much on something that is so little efficient... but maybe it's what drives me every day to make music in the studio and makes me happy... what are the value of those things?.. it's a tricky question and again a very personal answder for each of us.
I wish you all the best with your music and thank you for watching!
I agree. Modular is fun and cool but it's not very productive sometimes. It takes a long time to get a decent patch going and you can get much more done in less time using other gear or especially a daw. I only use my daw for recording and some days I wish I could go fully 'in the box' but that's too boring for me.
@@pattrn_music Hey friend, of course we are all individuals and we are all on our individual journeys, so whenever somebody says "This is blabla" he actually means "This is blabla for me" :-D
And for me, if I would earn my money by creating and selling music, going modular would have been the worst decision ever^^
I enjoy it immensely, doing it all for fun. But if I were somewhat goal-oriented, I wouldn't touch it. I actually spend more time informing myself, buying, selling, installing, and thinking about modules than I actually use them^^
Nah mate, this is pure horse shit.
This is why I love Reason! #reasongang 🤟
Welcome to the rabbit hole...
isn't it 😉👽
Short answer: No!
Long answer: Worth is a relative concept. For something to be "worth it", generally one would expect a value output, equal to or greater than the cost incured to acquire and use it.
Now cost incured would be things like the acquisition price of modules, cases, cables etc. power consumption, physical space occupied, and time spent learning to use it. In the world of electronic music, modular has pretty much the highest cost in all areas. Cheap modules are commonplace by now, but even so, there's not many scenarios where modular isn't the most expensive solution by far.
Meaning modular must provide a much higher value output to be worth it, compared to just about any other music making solution.
Value output is where things get tricky, because there's as many ways to measure this, as there are people. What matters to one, may not matter to the other. If the goal is simply to make music by any means, then the most expensive, big and time consuming solution will never be worth it. If the goal is to make money on it, recuperating the cost and eventually turn a profit, which in the grand scheme of things are unlikely for most of us, then again the most expensive solution will basically never be worth it.
However! If the journey towards these goals are as, or more, important than the actual goals themselves, and your personal perspective is that modular does this best for you, adding enjoyment in the process, then this enjoyment is also a value output, which may sway the equation in modulars favour. Going one further and saying, the person in question doesn't actually care about the music or the money, and just wanna play with modular specifically. Then it becomes a subjective grey area, where in it's worth it for the individual, in the same sense that spending a lot of money on Lego, can be worth it to people who value the experience itself above the cost. But at this point the line, between making music and playing with toys, becomes a bit blurred.
P.S. that groove at 7:55 - very nice! Generally several cool sounds and stuff going on.
So the new Arcus S-Series violin bow is on sale for $3500 right now. Of course, that's only a bow. No strings or a violin come included in the $3500 purchase price. Organic musicians, talk about elitists. 🎻
It depends how your brain works. For me a visual artist modular is perfect. When I build a good patch that is a track I equate it to making a sculpture.
That feeding the filter into the filter or reverb into the reverb to create its own sound, is there a way or doing that with serial plug ins, in Ableton?
Or is it the sound of the actual wires and electrical components that generated the sound? Mind blowing🤯
Yes 100 % worth it because I have many synths but when I start with modular I sell it. Now I have only Moog sub 37, Prophet 6, Analog Four and more then 100 module for modular. I never get interest again in synth after modular.
Is there anyone who would have found a way out once they stepped into the world of modulars? Nice video, thanks.
This was good fun, thanks. I don't understand how outputs from one feed into anything else without significant risk of blasting the speakers or eardrums.
It's s similar question to "Are nipplez worth it?" I would say yes, but I don't really use mine so......
Turn those two knobs for great vocal sounds!
Of course! totally worth it, this is the real thing.
100% worth getting out of the box 🙌
I buy my first a two years back, Behringer crave,last year a Moog Subharmonicon and i continue to dive more to this....because i had perfect results ONLY with this small machines 😎🙏
My only problem with it is that composition is difficult. Oftentimes it sounds too chaotic musically, even if the mix is perfect
Though I can't afford the gear, I can appreciate what goes into it.
Amazing stuff
Ableton live, is a bit modular in some ways. I used some of your techniques on Live but reproduced on modular.
Ableton is very modular tbh
Ok, so basically you plug some wires, turn some nobs and see where you're at!! If it's bad, start over, if it's good, thank the universe and start over!! Missing something?!?
Yeah, Oscar and modular! More videos like this! Okay I'm biased. 😅
9:36 gonna sample Oscar saying that for a gay club banger
You have my blessing 🌈
that evil laugh in the end)
Was it a coincidence I got a Mr. Clean ad before this video?
Whattttt 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂👌 no way
@@OscarUnderdog haha I'm not kidding! I thought it was hilarious
I just love the thumbnail. Imprisoned By Your Own Knowledge == instant meme.
There's people like Deadmau5 and Sébastien Léger - and Pattrn - who actually make music with this stuff. Usually they still use Ableton for 99% of everything. But the average eurorack nerd never does anything. The closest they come to making music is filling their basement with a few hundred miles of patch cables to string together a generative ambient setup, and it's usually cheating by using some granular faux-creativity modules to make it tolerable. Then it only makes pleasant noises when they don't touch anything and preferably aren't anywhere in the vicinity.
I personally would rather listen to an ambient patch made by random, normal people. Deadmau5 is the most bitter and condescending artist I know of, only thing that comes close are some specific guitarists from technical death metal bands. Deadmau5 and others made people like you think that music is this soulless, joyless process of making commercially viable tracks. The vast majority of people who make music just want to have fun and use their shiny toys. Me included. Eurorack is one of these shiny toys. Very few people think -or pretend- it's a viable way of creating music. Let alone commercial music...
Also, laughed a bit at "granular faux-creativity modules" oh you mean REVERB ? Yeah famously known cheat code, and famously something that only exists in eurorack lmao
@@tristan7218 I feel you, except… If you ever listen to Steve Duda talk about Deadmau5… I get the impression he’s one of those nerds like Richy Hawtin who kinda comes off as super obnoxious when he gets put on the spot, but … maybe I’m wrong … but I think maybe he’a a cool guy who maybe doesn’t have the best social skills and has a shitty public persona but he actually is probably pretty cool.
Modular synthesis requires a lot of time, patience, money, and time.
my modular synths is the grandmother moog and the mavis. i'm getting arp2600m or the ms20 korg
The only thing that stops me from going modular road is that I am sure I won't stop buying new modules. VCV rack/cardinal or any other virtual modular system help me to cure my urge to play with modular synths time to time, thanks god they exist 😅
sure VCV is amazing. I used to patch in reaktor and max msp before diving into eurorack. There are two things i took from that 1st is that i love being able to make music without watching a screen (same screen used to send emails, watch series and tutorials, used for socials, for google sheets,....) and being able to close my eyes and twists knobs while diving into sound. , 2nd is that the price of modules is also a limiting factor that helps you both to get more creative and understand better each module but also that you can't buy a case like mine at once and so you have plenty of time to try every new module in many configurations and get a deeper understanding and exeprimentations than that i had when being on computer based synthesis.
This being said, there are tracks that i made from scratch to end only on my DAW... that's the magic of today's world we don't need to choose and both worlds can coexist to allow you to make the music you'd like :)
Very interested in resonators :)
The wires and buttons are nice, but where are the fuel rods? 😄
Submerged in water to control the temperature.
IMO modular is not worth it for most people. It's very expensive to build up a system and you also kinda need to know exactly what you plan to accomplish with the system, otherwise youre just going to spend a ton of money while wasting your time.
Modular is for people who already have everything else and also have money to burn. Its fun and its addictive but its not very productive much of the time and while you can gig with modular it is kinda impractical unless you do a TON of prep work.
Modular is best for people who are more into exploring sound rather than cranking out finished tracks.
Analog: a lost art form!
Sounds too fun
More of that Bries stuff! Would be nice if you can explain the patch at 7.56min. its great man! Please more of that modular bries stuff! He explains his thoughts very nice and clear!
it's basically one instance of elements from mutable creating a kind of "pluck" sounds feeding "atom" a clone of elements but put in the special "chords" mode pretty dampened and going into mimeophon delay from make noise adding a bit of depth and reverb.
Cheers ;)
@@pattrn_music is this patch also possible with a rings instead of the atom? If yes, i'm gonna buy s rings imidetly!
@@jamalyannicguzmansierra7996 yes it is just have to switch it to alternate chords mode ;)
@@pattrn_musicy if i gonna bother you but the eloquencer is sendig a 4 step pattern random CV as pitch and modulation source? You're duplicating it with a buff mult? Is that right?
**sorry if i'm gonna bother you...
The most expensive fart noises in the world
Are they worth it though? I'm scared to know how much that setup costs
while i like modular synths playful and experimental approach..its funny how guys always Aaawww when accidentally you created some simple basic synth patch
How much did his rig cost?
I have just noticed for most regular producers euro rack is a hindrance, I see guys spending days making basic sounds that are complicated to make on your a rack but you could make on diva in 10 minutes, and I feel like a lot of people get stuck in how hard it is to make things sound good for the most part that they think sounds are better on your rack when their brain is almost tripped by how complex it was to make that sound if that makes sense
the "magic" with eurorack is when you start to build a "system" not a single synth voice. when for example one envelope open the filter of a synth voice and at the same time makes the reverb time of another voice longer. When you create those systems you don't think about music only in terms of layers piled on top of each other but rather like instrument players that would really play together and interact. For sure creating a silly monophonic lead sound with a saw fed into a filter has no peculiar added value in the eurorack world. But for example using 2 separate sequencers with different lengths and having one playing the notes and the other opening your filter will already create more complex results that could only be achieved with heavy automation drawing in a DAW. Nothing impossible but much less fun, intuitive and playable.
The purpose here is not to say one is better than another, it's just another tool , another instrument with its own specificities allowing you to do other things.
I think it's always surprising how people try to "defend" one point of view, one way to do over another while both can very well coexist.
It's all about feeling, sonic palette, pleasure, getting you in the flow that works for you.
@@pattrn_music I understand that it’s just so complicated to achieve it and make it sound good, I have the for the CV rack with all the modules, but I find myself struggling so much, even after watching hours and hours and hours and hours of videos, that I don’t notice it doing anything but hindering me, and I see it doing that to so many other people, and I get that once you can master it, it makes sounds you could never make with anything else other than modular but sometimes I don’t know I’m like is it worth it, it cost so much money it’s so hard to learn it feels like to make those super complex good sounds that will actually help your music production and not just feel like a pat on the back
@@evanwilster do you know the story of the guy making music with sample loops? he thought it was cheating then got one shot samples and made his own beat patterns, then he thought that was cheating so he bought himself a real drum and sampled the drum, then he thought.. damn this is still cheating.. he hasn't been doing much music lately as too busy raising sheeps for the drum head skins.... i think it's all a persoanl decision to what is worth, what makes sense and what drives you to make music.
I think today i enjoy jamming on my eurorack for hours, recording bits and arranging them later. might not be the most efficient, might be more expensive but after starting with a DAW 20 years ago i still enjoy walking in the studio every day. Some days not using the modular at all, some others only geeking around to find new techniques, soundsysthesis methods.. What matters if finding the way that suits oneself.
I wish you many hours of joy making your own music man!
@@pattrn_music did I say anything about cheating. That’s great if that gets you in the studio and you don’t mind the money but the title of the video is modular worth it, and my answer to it is I don’t know it doesn’t seem like it for most people
@@evanwilster oh no you never said that , sorry if i made you think... it's a real joke going around and it was to follow your path of thoughts... at some point indeed you can loose yourself and not make music at all anymore so i totally agree with that part and the story/joke was a way to express that.Cheers mate
Altijd welkom om hier ook eens te komen jammen en misschien eens iets meer boenke boenke te maken
😂🫶🏻
Frankentechno.
I always found ignorance to be one of my strengths in modular music. I make and use modules in non traditional ways as a result.
9:36 lol
The answer is yes 😅
00:13 song name?
Beta waves, released on The Gods Planet , radio universe IX EP
i take that as a yes?
Sold. I'll have 3
I like flobular printisizerz
never considered modular rigs practical or convenient.
but yeah, they look fancy, and i suspect that's the main point.
PS. and i don't even start discussing bringing them to gigs.
nice but really really xpensive , anyway , keep modulating
Having owned a big vintage modular and also weirdo mixed eurorack my answer is no. It's the idiot test whether you let it ruin your entire "musical" identity.
But is it worth it? Usually such questions end up with a big money spending ;-)
Hey just wanted to give another perspective.
I've had 30k worth of eurorack at some point that i builded for 8 years or so and i can say its highly highly overrated.
The physical aspect of it is nice but i can do the same and more with the knowledge of my vst and my daw and i'm just missing some physicality that can be added with nice controllers.
I can also come back to stuff ive made in the daw while in eurorack it wasnt possible. Yeah i was recording tons and its cool material but its not cutting it for me.
I realised i could sell it all after switching to Bitwig studio.
Bitwig is the modular daw. With the modulator you get such a workhorse of a modular environment that i've found what i was missing all along with gear.
I'm saying all this just to counter the people shilling eurorack to death. It's hyper consumerism and capitalism for most i've met..
Please ppl try something like VCVrack first it can do plenty and you'll get a sense of whats doable.
Going eurorack you always miss a module. I thought first i would only do 104hp of fx. Ended up with a doepfer monster base 12u 168hp + 2 other cases..
Yeah eurorack look cool but its a sinkhole money wise and time wise.. You spend tons of time just looking at your next buy because a new module dropped because you need another seq because this fx would be cool..
I've basically stopped making finished track when i got into gear and had a close to 10 year period where i basically spend really nice time making noise but i have nothing to look back too except snippets.
Switching back to almost 100% DAW and plugins i've made 3 tracks in a few months switching fully to bitwig because i can keep working on them and dont get stuck in my rack..
YEAH YYMV but beware the vast majority of people i've buyed eurorack from or sold to are stuck in an insanely bad GAS (Gear acquisition syndrome).
And it's really hard to get out of it :)
Glad you didn't hold back there. I had a ton of regular synths years ago and as I got older they became a millstone for production, and that was just regular stuff before eurorack. I'm too old for that fiddling around. Now I have a small number of hardware synths and a couple of semi-modulars, but after I came back I also luckily landed in bitwig. Perfect timing as it happens. I mean I am not knocking anyone who is into eurorack, but it certainly requires a lot of patience. I just want to write music and mess about as well, so Bitwig's modular system for me too. Cool video though. Seeya round.
For those new to modular, here is a quick overview lol czcams.com/video/CfC0V0ivNCM/video.html
modular synthe seems fun but cost soooooo much money.... a single modular can cost over $500. now.... so, no thanks.
Not worth it. Expensive luxury hobby. Other guys buy a Harley or two or a boat. I kind of regret starting with it. Yes its fun but making weird noise with equipment worth a small car ?
Definitely not worth it
Most of the prices are a joke but
They are definitely great tool for sound design
ABLETON RULES EVERYTHING !!! "KEEP YOUR MONEY"
if you have money to throw out the window and too much free time... why not
If you're into making actual music tho, keep your money
No.
Bliep, bliep, pling, pling... Boom, boom, klatsch, klatsch...
Housemusic was big in the 90s... those days are long gone...
and so the hits and the culture... same as rock en roll, reggae etc...
It is time for new... if possible.. cause we only have 12 notes... and thats it.
Most people who can afford these modules are well in their forties
wtf am i looking at.. i can do this i can do that...?
Sorry.
My deep fondness for women and my innate desire to pass on DNA means I will never have a eurorack.
Just say you're poor lol
It’s the only thing eurorack is cheaper than…Women
@@VincentsVideoVisions Shhh! Don't tell everyone 😭.