Maths by Make Noise is by far the #1 eurorack module on Modular Grid - both in terms of rating and popularity. In this video, loopop explains what Maths is and why it's so popular. Maths sounds complicated and if you've heard some of the terms used to describe it - an analog computer, a function generator and various other quadratic equations, it may seem a bit intimidating, but overall, it has three core components: attentuverters, a mixer and slew rate limiters. It is however the combination of these things, which a few bonus features, that makes Maths such a versatile module. In this clip loopop gives an example of 22 things you can use it for: 1. Audio level control (for example, to reduce eurorack audio levels to line level) 2. A simple voltage generator 3. Mod depth control for external LFOs and envelopes. 4. Signal/waveform inversion 5. An audio mixer 6. Slew for glide/portamendo effects. 7. It has multiple ways to trigger envelopes.> 8. It can gen...

Buchla formed his electronic music equipment company, Buchla and Associates, in 1962 in Berkeley, California. He was commissioned by composers Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender , both of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, to create an electronic instrument for live performance. Buchla began designing his first modules for the Tape Music Center in 1963. His inventions were prized for the flexibility and richness of the sounds they produced and the possibilities they suggested. Mr. Buchla disliked the term “synthesizer,” which suggested to him a synthetic imitation of existing sounds. The instrument was named the "Buchla 100 series Modular Electronic Music System," and was installed at the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1965 and moved to Mills College in 1966. Subotnick completed his first major electronic work, Silver Apples Of The Moon , with another unit that Buchla had built and shipped to New York. He was best known for the many devices he designed for ...

Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system. Eno is also credited with inventing the phrase “ambient music,” first using the term to describe his 1978 release Ambient 1: Music for Airports . A generative piece sounds different every time it is played. The first indications of generative music date from the composer Johann Philipp Kirnberger  in 1757, he wrote a work entitled "Musikalisches Wrfelspiel" based on a series of templates written by him, which he modified according to the result of rolling dice. Generative Music 1 is the name of a floppy disk (composed by Brian Eno in 1996). The work, made up of twelve pieces, was not recorded in an audio format, but in '.skp' format, and therefore, to be able to listen to it you would need the Sseyo Koan player software, a real-time music generation system. As the Sseyo Koan is an algorithmic generative software, each...

FM synthesis is short for frequency modulation synthesis . Simply put, FM synthesis uses one signal called, the “modulator” to modulate the pitch of another signal, the “carrier”, that’s in the same or a similar audio range. This creates brand new frequency information in the resulting sound, changing the timbre without the use of filters. FM synthesis can create both harmonic and inharmonic sounds. To synthesize harmonic sounds, the modulating signal must have a harmonic relationship to the original carrier signal. As the amount of frequency modulation increases, the sound grows progressively complex. It was discovered in the 1967 experiments of John Chowning at Stanford University. At first, Chowning was using complex waveforms to modulate the pitch of simple sine waves. This resulted in supersonic signals at frequencies over a million Hertz. [FISEA 1988] Workshop: John Chowning, Zack Settel & Ernst Bonis – FM-Synthesis/Psycho-acoustics. Yamaha...