Remember COVID? Remember how it was a joke, and then it wasn't a joke, and then it faded away, and then it came back worse? And then it ground on and continued and is still with us, but we've learned to accept that the world has changed, so it no longer has power over our minds. It can kill us, but it can't break us any more. Remember that?
During the early part of 2021 I built a modular synthesiser, and I still haven't grown tired of it. It was one of those if-not-now-then-when projects, but I hate waste, and some of the modules - Plaits in particular - are endlessly fascinating. My love is still strong.
After a lot of tinkering here's what it looks like now:
What's the point of a modular synthesiser? Partially the wealth of modulation options, and partially the fact that all of the controls are right there, in front of me. I don't have to assign controllers or remember that unlabelled knob X controls pulse width, I have the controls right there in front of me.
The tune at the top of this post is built entirely on a bassline made with Mutable Instruments's Plaits. It uses the two-operator FM model, and for twelve minutes I twiddled Plaits' knobs while an LFO also did some twiddling, as my little robot helper. The rest of the instruments are a mixture of simple synthesiser tones and an organ performed by my Korg Volca FM, plus Logic's Alchemy, and a bit of squelchy Behringer TD-3. The singing robot voice is also Plaits, but with one of the other models.
The main rhythmic idea was an accident. In the original demo, below, I set up the Volca FM's sequencer incorrectly, so that it cycled every seven notes instead of every eight notes:
The end result reminded me of Steve Reich's phasing experiments, so I replaced the original marimba sound with a buzzy electric organ, fed into the exciter section of the Joe Meek VC3 mentioned in the previous post. Because Steve Reich used electric organs. When I think of the New York minimalist avant-garde of the 1970s I think of electric organs. Buzzy electric organs, The result is a hypnotic groove that sounds as if it's rushing.
One day I will learn to program a second drumbeat. Not this day. And I think of Philip Glass driving a taxi, and Taxi Driver, and New York at night in the rain, and people living in warehouses, and you can never go back.
