Realising I was going to need more VCAs to do what I wanted to do (apparently you can never have enough VCAs!), and that the Żłob VCAs were pretty limited in function, I added Veils to the rack, a lovely quad VCA with adjustable response curves. I used a beautiful panel from Oscillosaurus to fit … Read moreMutable Instruments Veils
Having realised that I’d like to be able to run some midi sequences from Ableton Live out to the rack, I looked into options for converting midi data to CV/gate and decided on the Sound Study Modular Midi2CV, a cheap clone of the Mutable Instruments CVPal module. This would allow me to run two channels … Read moreSound Study Modular Midi2CV
I knew I needed some sort of sequencing in the rack and was very drawn to the idea of “random”. For years, I’ve been using random sequence generators in software to create interesting patterns and really wanted that capability in my modular. Having watched one of Robin Vincent’s videos from his excellent “Molten Modular” vlog, … Read moreTuring Machine MkII
The second broken module that I’d managed to blag via my radio appearance was a Doepfer A-124 SE VCF – the “Wasp” filter, based on the VCF from the famous EDP Wasp synth. This was a filter that I’d wanted for years, so this was a real result. It was also the filter which had … Read moreDoepfer A-124 SE
While waiting for my power supply to be fixed, I was looking for some more cheap kits to hone my soldering skills. I discovered the Synthrotek Chaos NAND synth and thought it looked interesting, so I built one. It’s basically 3 square wave oscillators, derived from a quad NAND gate IC, which modulate each other … Read moreChaos NAND
I realised that I’d need some way to get the audio out of the rack and into my mixer/audio interface/computer/etc. Having learned that modular levels are much higher than standard line level audio, I decided I should build a dedicated output stage. Still not feeling 100% confident with sourcing my own components, I went for … Read moreBefaco Output II
Feeling ready to try building something myself, I ordered a kit for the Żłob Modular Dual VCA. I knew I need at least one VCA for my first voice and suspected I would need more in future. I was also suddenly aware of how much space I had available in the rack, so opted for … Read moreŻłob Modular Dual VCA
Last week I did a guest appearance on a radio show, where I mentioned my modular project and the fact that I was looking for old or broken modules to help get me off the ground. My oscillator was feeling lonely and I needed more modules, quickly, to actually be able to make any sounds. … Read moreMake Noise Maths
Although I want to build as much of my system as possible, it made sense to start with a factory built oscillator. I wanted something that I knew worked properly and was relatively stable as a point of reference and a source of truth in terms of pitch/frequency. So, the first thing to go into … Read moreDoepfer A-110-1V
Since the mid to late 1990s, I wanted to build a modular synthesiser system. Around that time I was living with my friend “Analogue” Stu. Stu had a bunch of old Roland analogue gear; 909, 808, 727, 303, 202, 101, SH-09, etc, while I was just starting out in production and only had an MPC2000 … Read moreThe Beginning