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.

SunSyn 2.0

I took my SunSyn to Jomox in Kreuzberg today for the 2.0 update. Like many users, I'm looking forward to the improvements but also concerned that some of the SunSyn's 'characteristic' (or should that be 'idiosyncratic'?) sound might be lost.

Jürgen reassured me that the sound will remain the same and was kind enough to show me some of the new features. Besides improvements to the arpeggiator and portamento functions, the RCOs have been completely overhauled and even allow FM. This sounded fantastic and greatly enhances the SunSyn's sonic palette.

This is the sound of my pre-update SunSyn, recorded for posterity:

Sunscape  by  navs

I hope to have my SunSyn back in two to three weeks - I'll let you how the upgraded synth sounds then.

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

New Series - Navs' Music Minute

First track in a new series of 60 second compositions. These are tracks featuring multiple takes, a little editing and some effects. In short, anything I can't file under 'Patch of the Day'.

Cat's Cradle by navs

Edit: the SC Player didn't seem to be working at time of posting. If it's still not showing the waveform, just click on the 'Cat's Cradle' link above.

The main parts (random melody & resonant sweep) were generated by a Jomox SunSyn, the occasional bloops, klonks & spurts were generated by a live patch featuring a Livewire AFG, modulated by a Plan B Model 15 VCO. A Wogglebug generated pitch CVs, triggered a Model 10 EG and controlled its Time Base.

For the main part, I cross-modulated the SunSyn's VCOs and set LFO1 to generate a random pitch for one oscillator and played the 'melody' by hand. Proof, maybe, that the best source of randomness is the human touch.

Electro Harmonix Stereo Poly Chorus Demo

Here's a demo of the Electro Harmonix Stereo Poly Chorus processing various analogue sources (Jomox SunSyn, Cwejman, Livewire and Plan B mods). See the inline comments for details on what you're hearing.

Electro Harmonix Stereo Poly Chorus Demo by navs

I've been looking for an analogue and more hands-on counterpart to Logic's Modulation Delay for some time. Having tried various Doepfer BBDs and the Analogue Systems Chorus/ Reverb and found them either too dirty, uninspiring or mono, I have to say I'm over the moon with this stomp box.

The chorus sound is warm and wobbly, the flanger, while not as extreme as some I've used, is nicely resonant and the echo is an added bonus. It might be completely devoid of CV inputs but that's nothing that a twist of those big knobs can't make up for.

Patch of the Day - And The Bells Rang Out

A festive Patch of the Day -

AFG FM'd, MMF-1 pinged, Super Jupiter XModded & Sunsyn plain old filtered, all sequenced by a P3.

and the bells rang out by navs

Peace & prosperity to you all, Navs.