VIKTOR'SMODULAR_SYNTHDIARY

Ben Vida is a New York composer and sound artist who came up through Chicago’s experimental scene with the group Town & Country. Around 2010 he moved from acoustic instruments and bands into synthesis and systems-based composition. The 2014 Quietus interview Aestheticising The Everyday is a good way in.

This line stuck with me:

Rather, the catharsis, disorientation, and straightforward playfulness of his music evokes a childhood scene—picking up the objects immediately at hand and testing them, banging them together, and finding inventive ways to bring joy out of them.

That’s close to how I want to work.

I made a few sine-wave sketches while chewing on this — the players at the end of this post run in three groups: just intonation vs. equal temperament (unison, fifth, third, seventh, then a full just chord), beating at increasing rates (1–40 Hz, plus two sweeps), and difference tones from pairs of higher sines.

What I take from his approach, from a modular angle:

• He treats a patch as a system that makes some of its own decisions, instead of an instrument he “plays.” You set up relationships between control signals and let it run.
• The setup was a hybrid of Max/MSP and Eurorack. Digital material gets analyzed and turned into CV, which drives triggers, gates, envelope rates and pitches on the analog side.
• Lots of sine waves, just intonation, beating and difference tones. The room and the ear become part of the synthesis.
• Space is compositional, not a mixing afterthought.
• Rhythm comes from phasing and clouds of small events more than from a clock and sequencer.

His 2011 piece hy.morf.eld is a concrete example: material generated in Max/MSP, vocoder analysis turned into CV, that CV driving pitch, envelopes, gates and triggers across the Eurorack, then several takes edited into the finished piece. His notes for MACBA’s Composing with Process document it.

Records I’d start with: Esstends–Esstends–Esstends (PAN, 2012), then Slipping Control (Shelter Press, 2014) and Damaged Particulates (Shelter Press, 2016). Reducing the Tempo to Zero is the slower, durational side. His Bandcamp has these and later work.

What I keep coming back to is the topology, not the module list — I’d distrust any attempt to reverse-engineer the records into a shopping list of modules anyway. The chain is: Max/MSP analysis and generation → CV → Eurorack → the room → the ear. The questions under it:

• What happens when you translate one representation — speech, a waveform, analysis data — into another?
• How much of the composing can you hand to the patch?
• Can CV organize form, not just animate timbre?
• Can two close oscillators make the room and your ear produce something that isn’t literally in the signal?

If I wanted to get near this on my own rig: a handful of very pure oscillators with precise tuning, function generators, VCAs, a computer-to-CV interface, and a lot of panning. Generate slow just-intonation relationships and correlated envelopes in Max, SuperCollider or Pure Data, let analyzed audio move several parameters at once, record a few autonomous runs, and edit afterward. That gets closer than any single module.

Dennis DeSantis’s Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers isn’t about modular synths, but several chapters fit the way I patch.

I’d start with “Goal-less Exploration” (p. 62). Pick one module or routing idea and follow it without trying to make a track. Record while you work. A patch is temporary, and its best moment may happen before you know what it is.

Next is “Arbitrary Constraints” (p. 33). Limit the patch to one voice, a handful of modules, or a fixed number of cables. A smaller system is easier to learn and often produces more focused results.

“Scraps and Sketches” (p. 74) is a reminder to save incomplete ideas. A short recording or rough patch can be useful without becoming a finished piece.

The later chapters get more technical:

• “Asynchronous or Polyrhythmic Loops” (p. 124) applies directly to independent clocks and sequencers.
• “Sound-Color Melody” (p. 195) treats changes in timbre as musical movement.
• “The Rhythm of Automation” (p. 238) translates easily to envelopes, LFOs, and other control voltages.

“Randomness and Responsibility” (p. 250) matters for generative patching. Randomness creates options; it doesn’t decide which ones are good. That part remains the musician’s job.

Finally, “Arranging as a Subtractive Process” (p. 259) and “Rendering as Commitment” (p. 283) offer a practical way to finish: record a long take, choose the strongest passages, and stop trying to preserve every possibility.

For modular work, the book’s most useful lesson is straightforward: patch freely, record early, and edit later.

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What it means for modular

The book’s central idea is that creative blocks are usually practical problems, not evidence that you lack talent. Each one can be answered with a procedure. For modular synthesis, that leads to a few strong conclusions:

• Constraints create identity. Modular offers almost unlimited choices, which can weaken decisions. Limit the modules, cables, voices, clock divisions, or session length.
• Separate exploration from composition. A patching session doesn’t need to produce a track. Explore first, capture interesting results, then decide what deserves development.
• Record before the patch feels finished. Modular patches are temporary and often sound best during transitions or accidents. The recorder is effectively the system’s memory.
• Generate broadly before refining. Make several variations, sequences, routings, or takes before polishing one. Don’t spend an hour perfecting the first loop.
• Treat timbre as musical material. Melody doesn’t have to mean pitch. Changes in filtering, harmonics, envelope shape, density, and spatial position can carry a piece.
• Modulation needs phrasing. An LFO or random voltage isn’t automatically musical. Think about when change happens, how quickly it develops, and how different modulation cycles interact.
• Randomness proposes; you decide. Probability and generative systems create possibilities, but selection remains the composer’s responsibility. Curate the output rather than accepting everything the system produces.
• Repetition needs meaningful change. Variation can come from phase relationships, probability, timbre, register, density, or the gradual introduction and removal of layers — not necessarily new notes.
• Form can emerge through subtraction. Record a substantial performance, then remove weaker passages. With modular, arrangement is often easier after recording than while patching.
• Commitment is part of composition. Printing a take closes off possibilities, but that is precisely how a patch becomes a piece of music. Endless tweakability is not the same as improvement.
• Finishing matters more than preserving the patch. Patch notes and photographs are useful, but recreating every setting perfectly is rarely the point. Keep the recording and carry the lesson into the next patch.

Mastered excerpt from Untitled 14, 0:00–2:40.

Mastered excerpt from Untitled 19, 0:00–0:35.

Mastered excerpt from Untitled, 8:00–11:30.

Live set prep with the travel rack.

Two excerpts from a practice session. 0-Ctrl sequencing XPO into Multigrain. Untitled 51, 2:00–4:00. Untitled 51, 7:00–end.

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Patch Notes

0-Ctrl ─▶ XPO ─▶ Multigrain ─▶ [out]

0-Ctrl driving XPO — pitch and pressure from the 0-Ctrl sequencing the oscillator. XPO output into Multigrain for granular processing.

Three takes from a practice session. Maths in bouncing ball mode driving XPO, filtered through QPAS, recorded live into Morphagene, Erbe-Verb for reverb. Ultra-Kick as kick. Untitled 44, 0:00–3:10. Untitled 43, 0:00–2:40. Untitled 45, 0:00–3:30.

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Patch Notes

Maths (bounce) ─▶ XPO MODULATE-L
               └─▶ XPO MODULATE-R

XPO (var sine) ─▶ QPAS RADIATE-L
               └─▶ QPAS RADIATE-R

XPO (saw) ─▶ QPAS IN ─▶ Morphagene (live rec) ─▶ Erbe-Verb ─▶ [out]

Maths Ch1 (unity out) ─▶ XPO FM
Maths Ch1 (unity out) ─▶ QPAS FREQ CV

Ultra-Kick ─▶ [kick drum]

Maths running in bouncing ball mode — driving XPO’s modulate inputs. XPO’s variable sine then feeds the QPAS radiate inputs, modulating the filter’s spatial spread. The saw wave is the main audio signal going into QPAS. Maths Ch1 unity out modulates both XPO FM and QPAS filter frequency. Out of QPAS into Morphagene for live recording, then Erbe-Verb for a touch of reverb. Ultra-Kick underneath as kick drum.

Two excerpts exploring DPO sine wave crossfading through ModDemix into QPAS and Mimeophon. Untitled 40, 0:00–1:05. Untitled 39, 1:40–2:40.

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Patch Notes

DPO VCO A (Sine) ─┐
                   ├─▶ ModDemix ─▶ QPAS ─▶ Mimeophon
DPO VCO B (Sine) ─┘

Both oscillators running sine waves from the DPO — VCO A and VCO B fed into ModDemix, which blends and combines them before the signal moves on. Out of ModDemix into QPAS for filtering, then into Mimeophon for space and texture.

V/oct on the DPO is driven by Bard Quartet Arps, giving the pitch sequence its melodic character.

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Patch Notes

Modules: Multimod, Polimaths, Tiny Rise and Fall, DPO, QPAS, QXG, XPO, Spectraphon, Morphagene, Bruxa, Ableton Live + Meld

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Clock & Modulation

Multimod runs as master clock in Red shape mode. It triggers Polimaths in Yellow (activate) mode. Tiny Rise and Fall handles envelope shaping with no rate and no oscillator engaged — acting as a pure slew/transient shaper on the modulation signals coming out of Polimaths.

Polimaths Routing (8 outputs)

Output	Destination
1	DPO — Fold input
2	QPAS — Volume + Freq 1
3–6	QXG — inputs
7–8	XPO — Left & Right Modulate

Audio Signal Flow

• DPO Square wave → QPAS (audio input)
• Spectraphon (all 4 outputs) → QXG (all 4 inputs)
• XPO Variable output → DXG (mix)
• QPAS Low Pass output → DXG
• QXG output → DXG

Drone Layer

The drone comes from Morphagene, loaded with a chord recorded in Ableton Live using Meld — voicing G2 / D3 / F3 with minimal LFO modulation applied before recording. From Morphagene the signal goes into Bruxa, with Multimod modulating Bruxa’s filter for subtle movement.

Listen before acting

In modular synthesis, it’s easy to develop the habit of constantly turning knobs.

A sound appears.

Adjust something.

Another modulation.

Another voice.

Another effect.

But after a while the patch never has a chance to become what it wants to become.

Onkyō musicians often do the opposite. They make an almost imperceptible change, then wait. Sometimes for thirty seconds. Sometimes for minutes.

The performance isn’t built from dramatic gestures. It’s built from listening.

Contact improvisation

In contact improvisation, beginners often think they need to keep creating movement.

I certainly did.

But many of the most useful things I’ve learned have been about doing less:

• Stay with the point of contact.
• Follow momentum instead of creating it.
• Don’t rush to the next idea.
• Trust your partner.
• Let the dance unfold before trying to steer it.

The dance already contains information.

If I’m constantly initiating, I’m no longer listening.

Don’t interrupt the system

The phrase that keeps coming back to me is:

Don’t interrupt the system.

A modular patch is already evolving.

Two bodies in contact are already evolving.

The room is already evolving.

The interesting question isn’t, “What should I do next?”

It’s:

“What is already happening?”

Instead of generating material, the job becomes noticing where the energy already wants to go.

Small gestures matter

A one-millimeter movement on an FM index can slowly transform the entire texture over the next minute.

A slight shift of weight in contact improvisation can redirect two people’s movement without either person consciously deciding to “lead.”

The action is small.

The consequence is large.

Space is part of the performance

One of the hardest things to trust is silence.

Or stillness.

In music, there’s a temptation to fill every moment with sound.

In dance, there’s a temptation to fill every pause with movement.

But those empty spaces aren’t empty.

They’re where attention grows.

They’re where the audience leans in.

They’re where your partner has room to respond.

Patch Notes

• Multimod provides the clock for Polimaths.

Untitled 28

Matthew’s feedback: play with panning, and think about how to transition it into the Bouncing Ball theme.

Transitioning

• Micro-improv (Japanese)
• Onkyō

Untitled 24

• Manual vs. sequenced trigger
• Right feel for the sample

Patch Notes

• We sequenced XPO via Rene 2

Patch Notes

• Bouncing ball patch on Maths
• Goes into Ultrakick
• Its duck goes into Bruxa to filter the audio of DPO
• Ultrakick also goes into Multimod

Analysis

• This reads as a layered percussion experiment rather than a single drum voice.
• Ultra-Kick suggests a dedicated kick path with envelope, pitch, and decay shaping.
• Ultra-Perc suggests a second percussion voice for accents, toms, or metallic/transient percussion.
• Pachinko likely adds probabilistic or generative triggering/modulation, which fits the overall rhythmic feel.
• The setup looks like it is trying to balance a stable kick backbone with a more variable percussive texture.