A Beginner’s Guide to Modular Synthesizers TUTORIAL

A modular synth is one of the most interesting instruments out there. People who have never worked with one of these in depth, might easily get confused by all the cables and blinking lights.

However, it’s also one of the most versatile and useful instruments out there! There is the right module for everything. You can create sirens, atmospheric clouds of sound, entire electronic beats or you can even use the whole box as a really sophisticated effects ‘pedal’ for your guitar.

Really, this thing offers truly endless possibilities.

Most of the times, playing a modular synth turns into learning how to tame it into your musical context.

What You’ll Learn
This course will provide a very practical introduction to create some basic understanding and most importantly interest into modular synthesis. My aim is to lower the activation energy necessary to dive into this topic.

We’ll cover:

The basic idea of modular synthesizers

The stream of information running from module to module

Creation of bass line, drum beat and an arpeggiated lead synth voice

Basic module categories including oscillators, VCAs, sequencers, envelope generators and more

Arranging everything into a cool electronic beat to impress your audience

What You’ll Do
In the projects section, I would ask you to create a piece of music on your own! Ideally, you take your own modular synth or borrow one. Or instead, you can also take a software based modular synth for that.

Upload a sample of your bass line, lead line, drum beat or entire song in the projects section and I will be happy to comment and discuss your individual steps towards that

Creating a piece of music with your own hardware or software based modular synthesizer.

Assignment
Activate your modular synthesizer system. You can either take your own if you’ve already got one, step inside your well-assorted music store of trust with a small recorder or you can even use a software based modular synth for that.

Then, start applying what you’ve just learnt to create for example:

A bass line with some nice modulation

A lead voice

A drum beat

A whole song