@@alb_reuel Being compared to Bob Ross, widely respected artist who proved you don't need decades of formal painting to be a very accomplished painter, while giving a lesson on how to make music without requiring decades of theoretical musical knowledge, is a pretty clear cut compliment.
modular is one of my favorite ways to make sounds. there's a lot of things you can't do, but there are way more things that you can't do any other way. there's something very calming about exploring sound in this system. it makes me slow down and feel less anxious.
VCV rack is so intimidating to get started with. I love the idea of it, and I love listening to music made with modular, but it's a bit overwhelming to jump into
By all means move at your own pace, but the core VCV package of modules will get you started with just what you need to get going. Just don’t download extra modules until you need
It is a lot. As someone who was once entirely new to it, and now has years of experience, take it one thing at a time. Start with the basic modules, learn how they can go together, and what that does to interact. Every individual part is a simple piece of the puzzle. Each easy to understand on its own terms. It's only once they are put together that complexity comes out. and one tip: Everything is voltage. If you're a visual thinker, this can be especially helpful in seeing what you expect to happen, before you make it happen. and whether you can do that or not, an oscilloscope is always handy. There's a decent one in the basic modules. It can show you exactly what the voltage is doing from any output.
Red Means Recording has a great mini series that gives you the basics of modular and walks you through making some demo patches: ruclips.net/video/BTcP3DofZLY/видео.htmlsi=JJ66khl8RnN1ZR0b
Ben and vcv rack!! This is the crossover I didn't know I needed. I've been into modular and using vcv for years and it's really exciting to see Ben's approach to it!
A friend recommended VCV rack to me, so it was on my radar, but now after seeing this I have some idea how to get a usable sound out of it, definitely doing that... thank you!
It's fairly easy to make stuff like this once you've learnt the basics of VCV. I find it more interesting to use as an audio processor, and create unique effects. I think the real benefit of modular is you can just patch together whatever you want.
That's really cool. It's probably nice to have an actual physical modular synth and play with it, but this requires a lot less cables. I might give it a try.
agreed, the tactile aspect is missing in vcv, but you can alleviate that with any midi controller, which are relatively inexpensive. hell, you can even hook up an xbox controller to vcv which is just wild to me.
VCV can do chords, but it can get complicated pretty fast when trying to figure out polyphonic cables. The only thing that is tricky is any chord that extends beyond 4 notes, since that's a DIY patch. The majority of modules that handle chords max out at four notes. (That's mostly on the sequencer side of things, oscillators and stuff like that can max out.) Yet there are other good modules that do more, and the max for a polyphonic hookup is 16 channels handled by a single cable. My only beef in that regard is that the polyphonic category in the module list filter shows any module that can do polyphonic stuff, so there's practically no way of narrowing it down to utilities specific to polyphonic functions. (I think I need to make a notebook to remember specific module names for those tasks? Also it could be that user-defined module lists is a pro feature?) The only issue left with poly is some effects and the way audio outputs are handled. However VCV and BogAudio have modules that do a poly-to-mono function you can use before certain steps in a patch to make things golden.
I love chords too, but that track didn't really need them. I've seen more than a few different modular chord generators in modular, too. You could modulate the chord qualities (major, minor, dimished, m6 etc).
Woah Ben how did you make that shader effect fir the blender animation? I've been trying to do that sort of thing for ages and can't figure out how! Music is awesome as usual btw.
I've been using VCV Rack to do certain kinds of effects, and also kinda like a DAW. I've recently had the idea to patch together a filter that would produce a uniform phase shift with uniform 0 gain. The only difficulty is getting a reasonably computable sigmoid on the right way to approximate quadrature. This, however, has been entirely on paper, so far. I've also toyed around with trying to replicate acoustic sounds, though this is also difficult.
it depends on the modules you use, but synthesizing acoustic instruments is entirely possible in vcv. I recently did a patch where i used the surge string vco's combined with a sine wave as a bass and it came out sounding like a pretty convincing standup double bass. you can also do a lot with the Rings clone to synthesize brass and woodwinds, and if you're any good with fm, you could potentially used the Dexed module like a DX7.
Nice to see you getting into modular! Heads up for other folks interested in it, there's a fork of VCV called Cardinal which can be used as a plugin inside a DAW for free, a feature that costs $150 in the main version. Cardinal is an excellent project worth checking out, I recommend it to friends over VCV.
Just stick with vcv or cardinal. you can replicate the tactile aspect of modulatr with a cheap midi controller and you don't have to worry about cables, power supplies, cases, running out of vca's, turning that one knob and ruining a whole patch, or any of the other modular headaches.
Kind of... interesting? To see VCV Rack framed as "the system that makes music without chords" is kinda funny because you don't need VCV to make chordless music and you can still make chords in VCV even if the process is kinda cumbersome. I've never used the real, actual VCV Rack but Cardinal is my favorite VST period, and it's heavily derived from that (hooray for open source), it's downright criminal how often it's overlooked in those "BEST FREE PLUGINS 2024" youtube videos. I suggest everyone to try Eurorack-style modular as a plugin rather than just sending the output to your DAW; be it Cardinal, the official commercial VCV Rack VST, or even Voltage Modular as well as any other with enough modules to go crazy with, you wouldn't believe how much your mind can open when you see a modular system built as a single plugin in your projects.
Ben makes great pasta AND stir fry. And he’s good at pretty much anything he’s interested in! He’s a very inspiring partner. Please report back to girlfriend
One of us! One of us!
VCV Rack is great, use it to teach modular to students!
i love how normally he talks about this as if it isn’t super unhinged
that's what happens when you become modular-pilled. It can happen to YOU!
how is it unhinged?
you may have a point
"Unhinged" does somehow seem like a good word for this very cool controlled randomness of sound.
You're the Bob Ross of this music shit, Ben.
i don't think this is exactly a compliment
@@alb_reuel Watch more Bob Ross.
@@chandlertipton4088 not trying to learn how to paint
@@alb_reuel Being compared to Bob Ross, widely respected artist who proved you don't need decades of formal painting to be a very accomplished painter, while giving a lesson on how to make music without requiring decades of theoretical musical knowledge, is a pretty clear cut compliment.
modular is one of my favorite ways to make sounds. there's a lot of things you can't do, but there are way more things that you can't do any other way. there's something very calming about exploring sound in this system. it makes me slow down and feel less anxious.
VCV rack is so intimidating to get started with. I love the idea of it, and I love listening to music made with modular, but it's a bit overwhelming to jump into
By all means move at your own pace, but the core VCV package of modules will get you started with just what you need to get going. Just don’t download extra modules until you need
It is a lot. As someone who was once entirely new to it, and now has years of experience, take it one thing at a time. Start with the basic modules, learn how they can go together, and what that does to interact.
Every individual part is a simple piece of the puzzle. Each easy to understand on its own terms. It's only once they are put together that complexity comes out.
and one tip: Everything is voltage. If you're a visual thinker, this can be especially helpful in seeing what you expect to happen, before you make it happen. and whether you can do that or not, an oscilloscope is always handy. There's a decent one in the basic modules. It can show you exactly what the voltage is doing from any output.
Red Means Recording has a great mini series that gives you the basics of modular and walks you through making some demo patches: ruclips.net/video/BTcP3DofZLY/видео.htmlsi=JJ66khl8RnN1ZR0b
First thing try just the VCO connected to the Audio module.. and then slowly keep adding stuff to it as you learn..
I can’t recommend Omri Cohen enough. Great teacher for modular synthesis, and does LOTS of vcv rack tutorials
You can also get this as a plugin, it's called cardinal and what's cool is you can use the whole rack just for it's fx that way.
Okay, but for real, these surreal rendered music videos and the abstract lyrics of your example songs make me want a whole album of them
Ben and vcv rack!! This is the crossover I didn't know I needed. I've been into modular and using vcv for years and it's really exciting to see Ben's approach to it!
you're such a good teacher!
Nice to see you playing with vcv! Hope this gets more people into it, its so much fun
Welcome in the modular rabbit hole, Ben!
Favorite music channel!
such a normal tone to the video around such an insane music video, I love it
OH WOW. This was very cool, thanks. VCV has so many possibilities it can be overwhelming. Great demo!!
I love the little message at the end.
Definitely plan to play around with this. Thanks!
A friend recommended VCV rack to me, so it was on my radar, but now after seeing this I have some idea how to get a usable sound out of it, definitely doing that... thank you!
2:05 "It's just noise" - perfect
A fuul breakdown of the song would be nice :) - (or a full release, its a banger)
Damn I really like the song you made outta this
The tutorial I didn’t know I needed.
He'll yeah love it been addicted to vcv rack for a few years now by far my favorite way to much music on my computer
It's fairly easy to make stuff like this once you've learnt the basics of VCV. I find it more interesting to use as an audio processor, and create unique effects. I think the real benefit of modular is you can just patch together whatever you want.
finally you arrived at the modular side of music
Ben Aphex Letwin
Alevinec Benpire
i love vcv rack
Sounds awesome + now I will have nightmares
Jokes on you I spent all my money on an IRL VCV RACK! (I'm so fucking broke oh my god) great video!
Worth mentioning that there's Cardinal which is compatible with most vcv modules and allows you to use them as a vst in your daw
c-rackin !
its officially over now that ben has gotten into modular, hes too powerful
That's really cool.
It's probably nice to have an actual physical modular synth and play with it, but this requires a lot less cables. I might give it a try.
agreed, the tactile aspect is missing in vcv, but you can alleviate that with any midi controller, which are relatively inexpensive. hell, you can even hook up an xbox controller to vcv which is just wild to me.
VCV rocks!
Omg Ben started doing VCV
vcv rack 🗣️🔥🔥
I think (especially in vcv rack) that Pamela's Pro Workout is a really great module to invest in for this kind of patching
Ahah! So bizzarre, yet so fun to watch :)
VCV can do chords, but it can get complicated pretty fast when trying to figure out polyphonic cables. The only thing that is tricky is any chord that extends beyond 4 notes, since that's a DIY patch. The majority of modules that handle chords max out at four notes. (That's mostly on the sequencer side of things, oscillators and stuff like that can max out.) Yet there are other good modules that do more, and the max for a polyphonic hookup is 16 channels handled by a single cable.
My only beef in that regard is that the polyphonic category in the module list filter shows any module that can do polyphonic stuff, so there's practically no way of narrowing it down to utilities specific to polyphonic functions. (I think I need to make a notebook to remember specific module names for those tasks? Also it could be that user-defined module lists is a pro feature?)
The only issue left with poly is some effects and the way audio outputs are handled. However VCV and BogAudio have modules that do a poly-to-mono function you can use before certain steps in a patch to make things golden.
Ben Levin's Reaper DAW advocacy confirmed...
This sounds like Sufjan Stevens to me. I remember Ben suggested Sufjan on this channel, and I was hooked until now.
Very very interesting. I hope I get some free time so I can play with this.
I love chords too, but that track didn't really need them. I've seen more than a few different modular chord generators in modular, too. You could modulate the chord qualities (major, minor, dimished, m6 etc).
I think I wrote the word "modular" one too many times. Twice, including this post. Eh.
@@GizzyDillespee thrice including that second comment ;)
Woah Ben how did you make that shader effect fir the blender animation? I've been trying to do that sort of thing for ages and can't figure out how!
Music is awesome as usual btw.
I've been using VCV Rack to do certain kinds of effects, and also kinda like a DAW.
I've recently had the idea to patch together a filter that would produce a uniform phase shift with uniform 0 gain. The only difficulty is getting a reasonably computable sigmoid on the right way to approximate quadrature. This, however, has been entirely on paper, so far.
I've also toyed around with trying to replicate acoustic sounds, though this is also difficult.
it depends on the modules you use, but synthesizing acoustic instruments is entirely possible in vcv. I recently did a patch where i used the surge string vco's combined with a sine wave as a bass and it came out sounding like a pretty convincing standup double bass. you can also do a lot with the Rings clone to synthesize brass and woodwinds, and if you're any good with fm, you could potentially used the Dexed module like a DX7.
The last thing is resonators and/or wavetables with the right envelopes, short of just using samples. That'll get you in the ballpark to start with.
Nice to see you getting into modular! Heads up for other folks interested in it, there's a fork of VCV called Cardinal which can be used as a plugin inside a DAW for free, a feature that costs $150 in the main version. Cardinal is an excellent project worth checking out, I recommend it to friends over VCV.
Never been this early! I gotta leave an actual comment once I finish watching haha
This method isn't quite my cup of tea, but it's always fun seeing you find a new way to create unique music. Thanks man 🤘🏿
I always wondered how they composed music for Adventure Time
This is going to be devastating to my wallet if it gets me hooked on modular synthesis 😂
Just stick with vcv or cardinal. you can replicate the tactile aspect of modulatr with a cheap midi controller and you don't have to worry about cables, power supplies, cases, running out of vca's, turning that one knob and ruining a whole patch, or any of the other modular headaches.
Kind of... interesting? To see VCV Rack framed as "the system that makes music without chords" is kinda funny because you don't need VCV to make chordless music and you can still make chords in VCV even if the process is kinda cumbersome.
I've never used the real, actual VCV Rack but Cardinal is my favorite VST period, and it's heavily derived from that (hooray for open source), it's downright criminal how often it's overlooked in those "BEST FREE PLUGINS 2024" youtube videos. I suggest everyone to try Eurorack-style modular as a plugin rather than just sending the output to your DAW; be it Cardinal, the official commercial VCV Rack VST, or even Voltage Modular as well as any other with enough modules to go crazy with, you wouldn't believe how much your mind can open when you see a modular system built as a single plugin in your projects.
Are you into max at all?
Sooooooo…basically death grips😂
If you value your life, don't get bitten by the hardware bug! My kids will curse me for venturing into hardware eurorack :P
what if we wanted to write like actual music though
Yeah, stick to piano lessons bro.
How on earth do you figure this out??? 😂😂😂
That sounds so cool but I have no clue what’s going on here.
No chords? @rickbeato is gonna be so pissed off.
i'm more of a midinous guy
you can midinous with vcv
@@kyleh1127 What do you mean? Midinous is its own program. Do you mean you can connect the two somehow?
You can do chords in VCV rack, though.
chords? BORING
my girlfriend says you look like you only make one type of food really well, and aren't very good at anything else
Ben makes great pasta AND stir fry. And he’s good at pretty much anything he’s interested in! He’s a very inspiring partner. Please report back to girlfriend
@@JusticeCow message has been communicated. our archives have been updated accordingly. thank you for your helpful contribution!
Meh.
Okay then.