Favorite Modular Synth

> Well if you've been reading my posts here you already know....I love the
> EML/Electrocomp line. They were a little independent operating out of
> Vernon Connecticut thru the 70's to about '84. What I especially like is
> how intuitive their gear is.

Yes we know Mike likes EML, I like theirs stuff too and have a 101 but I
feel qualified to say I very much disagree with the nature of calling
their gear intuative.

Don't get me wrong, you can just turn knobs or sliders on all their
synths except I guess the 200 which you have to patch and hear all sorts
of strange unique sounds. I have to say though that their line is
definitely not one with the slightest advantage for doing the orchestral
synthesis that Tomita does. I'd say you have to put in an amount of
struggle to get synth orchestral type sounds. Its forte is strange
industrial type sounds that conversely something like an 100M would need
a lot of effort to acheive

> This is probably because they began by making
> synths to be used as educational tools. The stuff was built practically
> military issue too, very rugged, very tolerant.

But not all that easily musical in the traditional sense!

Their point of view was one very much of features and good engineering
skills, they made the effort to call in musicians for opinions and
revised their line accordingly but some things can be reflected by that
attitude of not having composer/performers in on it from the get go--
both some thinking "out of the box" and not fully understanding what
some people find intuitive.

Still these things affect all synths. Moog had Herb Deutch in on it from
day one and synthesis was never the same after Carlos debuted. Buchla
was building for an experimental collective, etc.

And being designed for
> learning, the layouts and controls practically explain themselves.

not so fast, while things are laid out very orderly you have the 200
with filters without voltage control so thats an aspect of learning just
not there, on the 101, the most popular synth in their line you have the
modulation mixing knobs that are both a blessing that you don't need to
patch cord everything, but a curse of where the hell is that modulation
coming from? The KB1 KB2 CM stuff all has to be explained or
experimented with before you have any idea whats going on. All the
limitations on the top jacks need to be explained... well when you patch
into the envalope trig jack, one envalope gets triggered while the other
remains under keyboard control instead of both... I'm sorry but the
thing can be learned but sure isn't intuative because often one setting
often does something not shown on the panel from the viewpoint of
someone with general synth knowlege let alone a beginner.

Case in point is the most renown EML use is often cited to be Pere Ubu's
electronic abstract backing, not say something along the lines of synth
leads a la Emmerson or Tomita's orchestral synthesis.

What you
> can't figure out by looking at the dials, you can pretty much deduce by
> twiddling them and listening.

no there are too many knobs that change things down the signal path for
other knobs. Case in point is how often I don't get what I expect or get
something new. Not bad at all for creativity but bad for reliable
construction of something already conceiveed

The manuals are written the way they ought to
> be with "lessons" that step you thru typical patches and explain what is
> going on as you hear it.

the manuals seem good, no shortcoming there

> My favorite piece in the line is the model 400/401 analog sequencer. This
> thing opens so many possibilities, it still surprizes me every now and
> then.

don't have it, but "surprizes" is both the fault and the charm.

The EML line has almost too much built in modulation capability and not
enough modulation patchability! You simply can't just patch together
anything in it.

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> Favourite Modular Synth has to be Roland System 100M. Why?

Actually I've had a good question that I thought was too trivial when I
talked with Tomita.

I notice his system 700 seems to have vanished when he got his System
100M. Like he traded it in for the new one?


> Has very flexible design, lots of inputs and outputs. Each module (VCO, VCF,
> VCA, ENV) is completely self contained (by definition I guess...) and has
> two of each component in each module (ie the VCO module has two separate
> VCo's). (VCO=Voltage Controlled Oscillator, VCF=Filter, VCA=Amplifier),
> ENV=Envelope Generator).
>
> The synth modules all have very clean sound (ie excellent Signal/Noise
> ratio) and oscillators have very good tuning once warmed up. Extra moduels
> included Sequencer and Good quality Mixer, plus 4CV keyboard controller.
>
> Most of the modules have three CV (Control Voltage) inputs and the audio
> modules (VCF, VCA) have three channels for audio input, so control and audio
> can come from several places at the same time. The mixer module has two
> separate mixers, with each mixer is capable of mixing audio or control
> voltages.
>
> Its compact size, at least relative to its big brother the System 700, is
> nice as well, 3.5 jacks are a bit handier than 6.5 mm jacks.
> 10 modules fit in a space around 1/2 a metre square.
>
> And I love the sound.

Mind you, I won't want to call it "bad" and it did do a lot to bring a
real modular into the small studio.

I am dissapointed in them that they in my mind partly fail in exploiting
the potential of a modular system. They certainly sound okay and as I
said they are compact but they just leave off stuff left and right that
maybe Moog left off 10+ years earlier because it wasn't invented but
there is no excuse not to have most everything voltage controlled if you
deal with a modular synth. You get many basics and if you have a lot of
modules you have more capabilities than a non-modular but there just
isn't enough through VC capability to make that leap of Voltage Control
that I feel a modular should have to capitalize on working with a
modular rather than a not better than average monosynth. (can't CV the
highpass filter, that means CV notch and BP filters aren't available,
theres little CV processing-- like rectifying and offseting, no linear
FM, wave shaping, etc.)

Again, mind you, its not crap sounding at all, its just not really
delivering that much more than a very basic modular feature set and
doesn't have the recognaizble character of a 700 (which because not that
many people have them tends to sound fresh and different, despite Nord
claiming to have modeled theirs on it).

nick

 

Hi All, Nick wrote:

>> Favourite Modular Synth has to be Roland System 100M. Why?
>
>I am dissapointed in them that they in my mind partly fail in exploiting
>the potential of a modular system. They certainly sound okay and as I
>said they are compact but they just leave off stuff left and right that
>maybe Moog left off 10+ years earlier because it wasn't invented but
>there is no excuse not to have most everything voltage controlled if you
>deal with a modular synth. You get many basics and if you have a lot of
>modules you have more capabilities than a non-modular but there just
>isn't enough through VC capability to make that leap of Voltage Control
>that I feel a modular should have to capitalize on working with a
>modular rather than a not better than average monosynth. (can't CV the
>highpass filter, that means CV notch and BP filters aren't available,
>theres little CV processing-- like rectifying and offseting, no linear
>FM, wave shaping, etc.)
>
>Again, mind you, its not crap sounding at all, its just not really
>delivering that much more than a very basic modular feature set and
>doesn't have the recognaizble character of a 700 (which because not that
>many people have them tends to sound fresh and different, despite Nord
>claiming to have modeled theirs on it).

Thanks for the comments Nick, there were many points you brought up there I
had never considered.
For me, the flexibility was way beyond any of the other mono synths I had,
so it felt like I *could* control everything .
I guess a grander and more expensive synth would give you more of these
features.
It would be a very interseting interview to have with the developers and
engineers that worked on these systems to see why they did things a certain
way and what influenced their decisions about what went in and what didn't.

Also, back on topic, a ping to anyone that might provide some scans for
'Sound Creature'

Regards,
Lance
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lance at s...
http://www.soundscapemusic.com
http://www.mp3.com/lance