One Synth Challenge #117: ModulAir by Full Bucket (Rellik Wins!)

[Saffran]

Ok. New contribution.
A soundscape of course.
Except for the drum, that i tweaked, all sounds and composition is made by me.
https://soundcloud.com/user-912159791/s ... op-nagging

Modulair - 8 pieces.
Arpeggiator - 1 piece.
Quantize - 1 piece.

[Full Bucket]

Hahahaha....man, this crowd is brutal!

Everybody knows that I have no home nor job nor family and live in a Visual Studio.

No, seriously: Thanks for the suggestions!
I understand that drag & drop is a top issue. Unfortunately IPlug is weak in supporting drag & drop; else I would already have implemented it. But let's see what I can do... maybe we have to wait for IPlug2...

Cheers, Björn

[ontrackp]

My entry this month. I can't say enough how much I enjoyed ModulAir. After a month I feel like I've just scratched the surface, so thanks and congrats to Full Bucket!

https://soundcloud.com/ontrackp/dark-circles-final

22 instances of ModulAir - all original patches
Logic Pro X EQs, Reverbs, Compressors
OTT (only on kick)
TDK Nova and Limiter No6 on Master Buss

Thanks for listening, I hope you enjoy!

[functionform]

Time running out. I have to admit I find myself bewildered by all the sound options.

[Taron]

Haha, pfff, same here. I've made a dozen snippets, but not a single thing I'd want to turn into a song. I'm more excited about designing some more drums, especially hoping to get a decently real sounding cymbal (rides, bells, crashes), but those elude me somehow thus far. I think, my expectations are a wee bit high right now, because ModulAir clearly has the power to do most amazingly!
It's quite likely that I won't have a submission, but I'll have a whole bunch of exciting patches, I believe.

[Full Bucket]

It's quite likely that I won't have a submission

That would be a pity!

[Taron]

I vow to make at least one song, and likely even more than one, because this thing is so outstanding, not to make some would be wrong.

[zarf]

I've also been going down lots of different pathways and possibilities (which I always do, to be fair, but even more than usual) - I've got about 6 potential tracks that I'm seeing if I can combine into a crazy modulair journey. Who knows if I will achieve anything... no time until Friday night to find out...

[ontrackp]

It's interesting that with this synth so many people are having trouble focusing on making a song. It's too much fun to play with making sounds! It was a challenge to stop tweaking sounds and start thinking about a song - and I still want to go back and keep tweaking because it so much fun! - unfortunately, no more time....

[davetbass]

Hi, here's entry this month

https://soundcloud.com/davetbass/gennybodmanosc117

5 instances, no effects.

Thanks for listening!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[schiing]

It's interesting that with this synth so many people are having trouble focusing on making a song. It's too much fun to play with making sounds! It was a challenge to stop tweaking sounds and start thinking about a song - and I still want to go back and keep tweaking because it so much fun! - unfortunately, no more time....

It is! Makes me feel a lot better about submitting three of the four songs I made with ModulAir at various points this month. The rest of you have been doing the same - only in private!

Some other thoughts:

I was (curiously?) okay with the lack of drag and drop. I enjoy working at a leisurely pace - it gives you some time to ponder, I think I need that. And there was something retro about the whole feel of that workflow that appealed to me.

Using only the standard osc modules and no wavetables, I went down a real '80s rabbit hole with this one at one point - felt like it could probably emulate most '80s leads and pads. Probably e-pianos too, but I didn't look into that much. Exploring that terrain, I thought it could do with a nice, little chorus module - but then again that's not a big deal outside of OSC - plenty of chorus options in all price ranges there.

Also great for reeds and brass sounds - a little bit more tricky within the current workflow to get the exact envelopes I wanted (but that might as well be because I haven't found the right way to do it yet - which was so often the case this month!)

The one thing that kept bugging me, and that I mentioned before, is that you can't really get a uniform signal for hard attacks. Every attack has a different starting curve, which was especially painful with kicks until I solved it/camouflaged it with some extreme pitch distortion. Again, of course, not a big deal outside of OSC, at least not as far as percussion goes.

100% stable for me this month, there are lots of fun to be had with ModulAir, so props and salutes to Full Bucket and Björn! Again!

[Full Bucket]

It's interesting that with this synth so many people are having trouble focusing on making a song. It's too much fun to play with making sounds! It was a challenge to stop tweaking sounds and start thinking about a song - and I still want to go back and keep tweaking because it so much fun! - unfortunately, no more time....

This is the way it is with modular synthesizers - hardware and software. And I am pretty sure that's the reason why I have not come up with a demo song yet...

The one thing that kept bugging me, and that I mentioned before, is that you can't really get a uniform signal for hard attacks. Every attack has a different starting curve, which was especially painful with kicks until I solved it/camouflaged it with some extreme pitch distortion. Again, of course, not a big deal outside of OSC, at least not as far as percussion goes.

As of now, ModulAir's oscillators have no "Reset" mode. Like analog oscillators they are "running all the time" which results in a pseudo-random phase at the moment you press a key or trigger an envelope. The blooo has a "FREE RUN" switch to turn this feature on or off... maybe something for the next version of ModulAir, too...

100% stable for me this month, there are lots of fun to be had with ModulAir, so props and salutes to Full Bucket and Björn! Again!

Thanks a lot!

Cheers, Björn

[z.prime]

@Taron, melodically interesting as often your works are. As for the sax sound, I'd proffer it's still very synthetic to my ears. I played in band as a kid and a good alto or tenor sax just has a richness that's hard to explain. I only wish I had your ability to play the keys and, as you might say: "move outside your comfort zone".

[Taron]

Oh, yes, yes, yes, Z, you're absolutely right! I just wished I could get to making a song and push the Sax to the next level while I'm at it. There are ways to involve comb filters to get some more metal into the sound, but as for the growl, the trouble is that much more is going on in the real world to get the right effect, because you can "sing" into the sax with different notes and due to the challenge this means, different behaviors would need to get simulated, like getting the tone out of your "throat" while regulating air pressure and, of course, being able to play independent melodies with voice and sax itself. All these things lead to the complexity one would want.
Nevertheless, it's possible to get very expressive even in this early, synthetic state. But you are, of course, totally right!

[TheNeverScene]

Unless I have some sort of magical epiphany, here's my submission. Kinda short and drew a bit of a blank (nothing to do with ModulAir though) even though I had multiple test tracks.

Thanks to Bjorn for the great synths and keeping up with the forum!

Reaper.
31 instances of ModulAir.
ReaEq, Reacomp, Dragonfly Reverb, Tal Reverb 4, Orilriver, NastyDLA, GClip, Kotelnikov, Density mk3, S-LA-X, Transpire, PTEq-X, Unlimited

https://soundcloud.com/the-never-scene/ ... ne-osc-117