My most beautiful inner journey, my curiosity and openness to explore and learn, it leads me to some strange and wondrous places sometimes.
Lately in my spare time I have been making this little toy, my own little Modular Synthesizer.
It was quite a challenge technically, but man! i have learned so much while doing it : )
About Javascript of course, the programming language of the web, about the WebAudio API (Application Programming Interface) that makes it possible to do such things in a modern web-browser (actually only in Google Chrome).
But most of all i have been learning about music.
About musical scales and modes, about sound and and how sounds are shaped to sound as they distinctly sound as specific instruments do to our ear. About sound design, about timbre and attack and sustain and tempo and rhythm and beats and keys and melody and so on.
And how to re-create all that in bits and bytes on the computer.
Pfffft! its so much, it makes the brain smoke!
There is just soooooo much I don’t know yet!
Anyway, i would like to share my toy with you (really just a Kindergarten level thing ; ).
And also my lifelong fascination with sounds and experimental music.
If you are an old musical hat like me you might remember the 1970s. My interest in modular synthesizers was sparked when i met this very fat musician in Salzburg, he had the first and only Moog Modular in Austria at this time. And he did nothing else than sit in his room and do this:
Only seldom did he go somewhere to do a concert. He needed a truck and a whole crew to bring his instrument with him.
Anyway, at this time in the very early 70s only a few musicians had such a thing and knew how to really use it on stage.
Keith Emerson most famously and classically trained (from the groups The Nice and ELP)
And some in the German Space-music scene, like Tangerine Dream and Florian Fricke from Popul Vuh.
And, of course some far out Californian weirdos crossing over the genres ; D
Anyway, it did not last so long. Those were analog electronic instruments, very hard to move and to tune and breaking down all the time. And no memory, so every sound needed to be re-created (with batch cables) anew every time.
They sounded great though and organic and … strange!
But then came Digital Synthesizers and in the 1980s all changed fast.
Things became very fixed architectured and repeatable and predictable and … 1980-sh
Moog and the Modular Synth companies almost did not survive.
But they kept on with their vision and kept producing and innovating.
Mostly the Moog and the Buchla tribe, distinct different East and West coast versions of sound design.
And surprisingly, there has been a re-birth of Modular Sound lately and a resurgence of open systems.
Eurorack is the new way to go now and other innovative companies are combining the best of Analog and Digital in ever advancing ways. And Moog and Buchla systems are famous again and sought after by electronic music makers.
And now computer technology has reached the point where we can emulate (fake ; ) analog modular synthesizers in digital ways in the computer.
Far out!
See VCV Rack
So, thats the background of my little toy.
My Application is still very much a work-in-progress, heavily under construction. But you will get the idea if you play around with it a while. No user-manual for now ; D
To hear anything and for it to work at all, you will need to use the Google Chrome browser, the only browser at the moment that supports all those advanced Audio features.
Play with Modular Sound Toy. Enjoy!
Ps: And when all is said and done, after all this complexity and sophistication, it is always nice to come back to the roots and play a little simple music with a hollow bamboo tube and your breath alone ; D
