learning to use Vaz modular

[Buldubuk]

Does anyone have any recommendations of books or websites that would help me learn about modular synthesis? Something that will help me get to grips with Vaz modular and it's possibilities.
The help and tutorial that comes with Vaz are useful - and I've been learning by working backwards from some of the patches that come with Vaz - but it's only taking me so far.
I'm pretty new to using virtual modular synthesisers - but I see that the possibilities of Vaz are clearly astounding. What's the best way of approaching learning to use it?

Thanks!

[clif321]

See the book below. Uses VAZ M (among others) to teach synth programming.

http://noisesculpture.com/becoming-a-synthesizer-wizard

[Buldubuk]

Thanks for the help - I've read some mixed reviews about this book. Do you know it? Is it worth getting?

See the book below. Uses VAZ M (among others) to teach synth programming.

http://noisesculpture.com/becoming-a-synthesizer-wizard

[projectdan]

Sound on Sound synth secrets articles are well wort a read and will get you up to speed on the various types of modules and synthesis types you can use in Vaz Modular.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

Once you have taken all that in you can put it to use, after that you just experiment and keep learning.

[Gone soft]

Thanks for the help - I've read some mixed reviews about this book. Do you know it? Is it worth getting?

See the book below. Uses VAZ M (among others) to teach synth programming.

http://noisesculpture.com/becoming-a-synthesizer-wizard

I got it among other reasons since it used Vaz Modular, found it highly dissapointing and containing little new information for me - most of the time just barely going the least bit (if at all) beyond the usermanuals of the respective softsynths.. I haven't finished it though (I just feel like I'm going to fall asleep trying to make my way through it), it could containg something that would just blow me away towards the end - though I really doubt it does...

If you're up for looking a bit for relevant information there's a few tutorials geared towards modular synthesis in general that can be useful in the Modular Synthesis, but they're spread out all over the place..

[Buldubuk]

This looks great - thanks!

Sound on Sound synth secrets articles are well wort a read and will get you up to speed on the various types of modules and synthesis types you can use in Vaz Modular.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/allsynthsecrets.htm

Once you have taken all that in you can put it to use, after that you just experiment and keep learning.

[Juggert]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmod ... k_toc.html (http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~clark/nordmodularbook/nm_book_toc.html)

http://rhordijk.home.xs4all.nl/G2Pages/ (http://rhordijk.home.xs4all.nl/G2Pages/)

I never had a Nord Modular, but these pages pages introduced me into Vaz

[Winstontaneous]

I find the Nord Modular info very helpful, too.

Try reverse-engineering some of your favorite patches to see what makes them tick. The (late, great) Tim Conrardy made some great ones.

"Strange Random.vzm" (in \Patches\New Features in 3.20\) is a good example of how modulators can cross-modulate each other, with wonderful results.

Also manuals from semi/modular analog synths like the following give a lot of insight into the varied approaches to synthesis:
http://guitarfool.com/ARP2600/Arp%20260 ... Manual.pdf
http://www.synthfool.com/docs/Buchla/PaMtEO.pdf
http://www.carbon111.com/serge/creature_manual.pdf

Curtis Roads' Computer Music Tutorial really helped me get a solid understanding of the fundamentals of electronic music.

Rare/expensive but worth hunting down:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Music- ... 0697036022

[Buldubuk]

Thanks for all the tips - very helpful!

[secretkillerofnames]

Those Nord modular texts look great. Anyone splashed out on the Laboratory of Patching. Looks comprehensive but expensive.
These Roland Patchbooks look useful also but I haven't had time to check them out properly: pt1 / pt2
I'm a new Vaz user and have been working through Welsh's Synth Cookbook and these Doepfer patches
I'm also working with AAS Tassman 4, Ultra Analog and an M-Audio Venom - trying to build the same presets in each. Working out how to do this for each and evaluating the differences is a great learning experience. I find it much more useful than trying to reverse engineer someone else's patch.
In some ways i think the relative lack of documentation for Vaz helps encourage experimentation but I also think Vaz Modular deserves a wiki to help with understanding the modules and interesting ways they go together.
Lloyd