Future Music Magazine November 2018 Edición anterior

SEMI-MODULAR MASTERCLASS
This time ten years ago, semi-modular synths were something of a rarity – a relic of the bygone pre-digital age, resigned to the realm of vintage collectables. Flash forward and patchable synths are suddenly everywhere, and more affordable than ever. This resurgent popularity is probably the result of several factors – the affordability of analogue technology, a trickle down from the popularity of Eurorack, better analogue emulation in the plugin realm – but whatever the cause, their return to prominence is definitely a cause for celebration. The beauty of semi-modulars is their ability to straddle the divide between accessibility and complexity. With a pre-routed, subtractive synth engine, anybody can create and edit sounds with ease, but the addition of a patchbay opens up the road to more complex, creative and weirder sound design tricks. Why not modulate the filter cutoff with an audio rate oscillator? Randomise elements with a little sample and hold? Link up an external instrument as an additional sound source...? The world is your (semi-)oyster. In this issue’s cover feature, we’re delving into semi-modulars in both hardware and plugin form, to help you get more creative and design bigger, better sounds.