navs.modular.lab is three today!

To celebrate the blog's third birthday, I've finally re-uploaded my old content and released a new EP, 'Keep the Smash'.




The seven tracks were recorded over the summer and feature the sounds of my modular and the unruly Sunsyn. Some of the pieces involved MIDI, others relied on audio edits and digital processing. Part of the fun was setting live patches in a new context, as in iirc or Smudge. The Sunsyn continues to surprise, refusing to do what you want, but nevertheless giving you something interesting. As you can hear in the title track and The Kick, I've learnt to give in to its whims.

'Keep the Smash' can be bought from my Bandcamp page for €2.99 or more.



Once I'd found a suitable solution, re-uploading three years' worth of content was straight-forward, if time-consuming. I settled on Sugarsync as it offers 5GB of free storage and doesn't have a monthly bandwidth cap.

Going through my old posts, I found some forgotten gems. If you missed them first time 'round, here are a few of my favourites: Buchla Bore, The Organ Grinder, Hands-On Experience, Releasequence.

If you do find any dead links, let me know in the comments section.

Enjoy the restored content, the new EP and your modular - here's to another year!

Cheers, Navs.

navs.modular.lab is one today!

Breaking with tradition, there's no new gear in this first anniversary post. Instead of modules, I've got some literary inspiration for you and the environmental sounds that most of us try to eliminate or ignore.



Pictured above are some of the books I got for my birthday recently (life begins now, apparently) - interestingly, these gifts were all from women, bless 'em!

Allen Strange's 'Electronic Music' needs no introduction and Horowitz/ Hill's 'Art of Electronics' is considered by many to be a standard. Showing my ignorance, I hadn't heard of Daniel Levitin's 'This Is Your Brain On Music', but it has been a real eye and ear opener. All three are highly recommended.

In homage to B(if)tek's "sound of the b(if)tek studios" from their '2020' album, I've also recorded the sound of my own studio:

navsmodularlab_studiosound  by  navs

OK, so my studio isn't that loud. I cranked levels on the desk, turned the monitors up and limited the recording. The loudest pieces of equipment are the Space Echo (unsurprisingly) and the Sunsyn's cooling fan, which you can hear panting away at the end of the take. Time for that 2.0 update.

It's been a great year for modular synthesis with loads of exciting new kit and technology. I've tried to get my hands on as much gear as I could (thanks!) and feature it on the blog. I hope you've enjoyed the posts so far and that you'll continue to visit the site and leave your comments in the coming year.

Cheers,

Navs