I could watch an entire series of this, no joke. Just you two jamming and messing around with no goal other than just experimenting and having fun with your curiosity
I love the moment at 4:47. They're both staring at the module, momentary silenced by the sonic beauty, mouth agape. "So.....so dreamy" Rob manages to utter as he tries to gauge Andrew's own state of mind. Two good friends and excellent musicians who have explored all kinds of musical and technical terrain together, still brought to awe by the unexpected possibilities of what they create. Beautiful.
7:13 They essentially discovered Amplitude Modulation. If they increased the synth frequency way beyond the audible range (baseband), they'd have a basic AM radio modulator. Cool experiment!
@@rippah669 I'm pretty sure they know what AM is, since it is already a common technique in electronic music. At 9:27 Andrew even says that it sounds like ring modulation - which is essentially AM.
@@theCyberJokey yeah they know am from a musicians standpoint but probably not from a more technical( like signal transfer etc. ) standpoint. But this is cool that they related it to that.
BRO what you have here is a custom pedal development test-bed. General workflow: 1) jam out on the modular and find a sound you like 2) trace back the signal path and do a little boolean algebra to simplify out any redundancies 3) draw a circuit diagram that describes the simplified signal path and hardwire all key modulation settings with whatever appropriate surface-mount components will replace the dial. 4) get your circuit fabbed up on a PCB that fits inside a pedal. there's a whole neighborhood of challenges to overcome in acomplishing each step, for sure, but it is *possible*
When I got my first synth, my friends and I hung out playing with parameters for hours and hours. Time literally meant nothing to us. Suddenly it was 2AM and we were still into it. I imagine this session had those vibes.
That underwater part sounds like an interlude in the middle of either an album or song. Feel like it’d be followed by Andrew’s vocal into more instruments.
Crazy. Ya'll are speaking a totally different language. How educated you guys are is so impressive. Looks like a couple of nerds having a great time. Loved it..
It's just sound design, if you watch a couple tutorials on popular Synths like Vital Surge in making your own sound it's understandable. There is also modular software synths as well which goes through the same thing. I figured they learnt it through just playing around with their daw when they first started digital music production. And how they immediately knew that the pitch cancels each other was also due to their mixing experience with phase cancellations on tracks they had to deal with.
hes basically listening to how bad it sounds (really how dissonant or consonant it sounds) then guessing what interval it is from the B. to put it simply, when the sound was super wonky he guessed A# because A# is a half step away from B which is a very dissonant interval. when it sounded okay he guessed an F# which is a perfect fifth from the B, which is a very consonant interval.
actually a lot of this soungs quite beautiful. Even odd harmonies and rythms can be nice if you don't think about music theory all the time :) Edit: if you made this comment at the part when the guitar modulates the sine wave, i can't blame you :)))
Agreed! My PCM80 has a similar preset with a bandpass filter on a delay. Now that I think about it, I even make heavy use of it in "Borealis" on my channel (no shame in plugging, right? ;) )
16:20 is just magical to my ears! I adore this dreamy, glitchy retro kinda sound so much! 17:00 sounds amazing as well! I'd love love love to hear more!
i study theoretical physics at uni and i'm fascinated by the way the waveforms create sound, it's so inspiring to see you guys generate new imaginative sounds, love it!
If anyone wants to mess around with this concept without fully investing in a physical modular setup, VCV Rack is the way to go. I've been messing around with doing exactly this for months and it's wild.
$50 KORG MONOTRON analog synths that fit in the PALM OF YOUR HAND. (AAA batteries!) (Speaker built into it.) THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE WITH YOUR PANTS.....OFF.
@@blurrypixels6054 Solid suggestion, just didn't think of it immediately because I'm not super familiar besides using Max for Live, which I've been meaning to actually learn.
@andrewhuang 7:25 I don't think you guys realized it but you just invented AM and FM radio. @robscallon was talking about amplitude modulation when he wanted to control the volume of the oscillator with his guiator and you were talking about frequency modulation when you said control the pitch of the oscillator with the guitar. You were half way to making a radio already since it's an electrical signal. Just send the signal to an antenna instead of a speaker and turn up the oscillator pitch to a 10 Khz (or 10MHz for FM) and you got yourself a literal radio station.
There are many electro-acoustic musicians who are doing things way beyond this video already.... from trumpet players to electric guitar players....heck, even composers. Not to mention all those who make their own instruments specifically to run through mod synths. I'm amazed how, so many here are acting as though these are new sounds/ideas... surely this can't be the only channel you folks are aware of?!?!? I'd post links for ya, but that's not too cool to promote other channels/sites. Just search electro-acoustic.
4:30 is INFINITE ear candy! Andrew, you should talk to all your modular synth contacts and see if a guitar pedal that has some of the qualities of modular synth (like having parameters affect each other) would be possible, I'd love to harness even just a tiny bit of this modular setup.
anybody know how I could go about making something similar to this effect inside a daw like Ableton? Obviously would need to modulate some parameters of a delay but which ones would give it that "underwater" vibe
@@yungbroc I suggest trying out VCVRack instead, it is free, it is exactly what they have here (a giant modular system) sometimes down to even identical modules.
The guitar to control volume experiment as other have said is just AM, I wanted to drop the relatively simple math though for those interested. A typical VCA is a 2 quadrant multiplier (won't go negative, as Andrew briefly mentioned, which would be ring modulation), and from the video you can see that's what they're using, an Intellijel Quad VCA module. If the oscillator they use was at 500Hz say and they played a pure 200 Hz tone to control the volume, that would create to "sideband" signals at 300Hz and 700Hz (500 +/- 200) so you'd hear all 3 tones - it would look exactly like my current RUclips account icon on a spectrum analyzer. ;) In this case the guitar note has multiple harmonics all generating the same math at once, so what you're hearing is the original oscillator frequency +/- additions at all frequencies in the guitar note spectrum. That's why playing a harmonically related note to the oscillator sounded good, the new added sidebands become good sounding integer multiples of the original oscillator. Anyone that wants to try this out could set it up in VCV Rack for free to play around. Very cool video!
The effects they keep making are analog effects that are limited by the fact they're analog. Red Panda, Hologram Electronics, and Empress have really cool innovative digital pedals. Just look at the zoia, basically a modular board in a pedal format. You could also checkout the Norns or the Organelle which aren't strictly guitar pedals but certainly can function as them and can be setup to play sounds that imitate a modular system. I mean due to the open source modules you can literally use some exact copies on the organelle.
i think it needs to happen,metal is dead cause comapnies are out here selling copies of the same tube screamer pedal from the 80s we need new sounds,evolve or die
@@fairweatherfriends. the avant guarde types buy the expensive stuff,people get hooked,then mid tier price range ones get made for the masses,then the poors eventually get the budget models and eventually high end becomes affordable cause there is a huge demand its why you can pick up a decent electric guitar from anywhere for 200 bux but if you want IE a lute it costs well over a grand,its niche
That's why i love electronic music. So much more exploring and creating amazing sounds. After 20 years of metal and rock i really got tired somehow of classic instruments. Needed something more. Classic trance from 90s is amazing example and love it most
This is a freaking niche on RUclips that I would spend my life enjoying…. You guys should consider a collaborative channel of modular play… also… first of October needs this instead. Full album… each track is a full reset and run from there! ;) Also some VERY flaming lips vibes in the last five minutes. Sooooo sick.
This entire episode was incredible as a music producer it was great to see a traditional guitar transformed into so many different sounds by using synth modulators ultimately this will be the future of guitar performances
For your consideration: it’d be interesting to do this with a guitar that had a hex (or octal) pickup so that you could give each string its own position/path on the stereo field. And/or run each string (or group of strings) through an independent signal path.
That stuff around 14:50 reminds me of the breakdown in NIN's "The Warning." Now I'm kind of inspired to see how much of this I could replicate in Reaktor...
The Empress Zoia would probably have everything you could want, already in pedal form. It's a multieffects pedal that doubles as a modular synthesizer, giving you complete control over the connections/routing/modulation/etc.
Honestly you could probably plug your guitar into your computer and use the modular VCV Rack (which is free and just as powerful as Andrew's, if not more), but of course, it all depends on what you want.
Andrew blind guessing which note was being played while running through that volume modulation was absolutely insane. The ammount of knowledge and ear required for that is incredible.
broooooo that whole ambient water kinda sound at around 5 minutes like my mind has been fucking CLEANSED. especially when you upped the speed of the delay and it went away, it was like a complete mind sweep. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, i need that to be a full album!!!!
@@minyaminilla im not gonna make a video lol, not a youtuber (assuming you meant me in the first place) but what i was talking about here andrew basically explained best in his video on the harmonic series (ruclips.net/video/Wx_kugSemfY/видео.html ). It just was fun to actually get to hear the notion of interfering waves the way they found it in the music. I think it was where they plugged the guitar into the volume knob or something, dont remember (and cant be arsed to look lol, sorry haha) but they were talking about how they can only hear a certain note because all other frequencies were "blocked out" (aka interfered with the harmonics of the note rob was playing) there you go, hope thats what you wanted :D thing is, I don't even know a whole lot about fourier transform, havent used it too much, so i cant really give you all the insights to this. I recommend 3blue1brown's channel, i think he did some cool stuff about it.
John 3:16 King James Version 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 🙏!
For anyone a bit confused about the amplitude modulation section - the guitar’s vibration frequency (aka pitch) is essentially acting as a secondary oscillator, AM-ing the sine wave. That’s why all the phase relationships and overtones matter - it’s not just a 1:1 volume to cv relationship, it’s utilising the raw oscillations of the guitar as an AM source.
turns out you can also do this with your voice! I just used a recording of me speaking as "super fast cv" on the vca and yeh, the speech was actually still intelligible. fascinating stuff!
I always told people that the electric guitar sound is stuck in time. The modular world offers an almost infinite soundscape for electric instruments. This video is a perfect example of how we can be surprised with new expressions and voices for our instruments.
I don't think it's the electric guitar sound more than it is people's ability to be stuck with one type of sound. How do you define "the electric guitar sound", you can't because it's different across the board. Effects pedals do this, just to a lesser degree. I mean even The Beatles were experimenting with how to modify sounds like this in the 60's. It's just that some people have this idea that Guitar=Rock Music but then say that doesn't sound like Rock Music. Just stop putting things in borders and you'll be more creative yknow. The Edge from U2 has an insane effects rig and would probably delve into sounds like this and no one would dispute U2 is rock music.
So psychedelic. I'd love to see a live concert where the guitars are played entirely through a modular synth instead of pedal boards. (Imagine if the Grateful Dead had access to this tech back in the day!)
This is the most Hans Zimmer-like video you've ever made. There's like, scifi movie scores in here. Just gotta carve something out of the infinite, yknow?
1) This is actually a thing in the pedal world (albeit still a novelty). Check out the Empress Zoia and the Poly Beebo. 2) The "B Filter" is the reinvention of the vocoder, more or less :) Edit: (2) is not correct (thanks eyeball226). Look up vocoders - the history alone is fascinating. They're both cases of some function that combines 2 signals in some kind of filtering/multiplicative way, but that's about as far as the similarity goes.
2) Not even close I'm afraid. The "B-filter" was just plain half-wave amplitude modulation. Vocoders are way more complex and work in a completely different way.
This is actually how U2 records the guitar parts for their albums. Edge simply struck one chord one time at the beginning of their career and the rest of the albums have been recorded from the modular synth, which is still going right now and they will simply hit record whenever they record the next album.
@@dennispickard7743 Yeah I bet a lot of guitar players wish they were as unsuccessful as the Edge. The fact is he created a unique sound and feel that fit with U2's songs and helped give them an identity.
WHY DID I ONLY GET RECOMMENDED THIS TODAY, RUclips?!?!?!?! I DO THIS!!! :D I use a ton of wacky modulation effects to make inharmonic timbres, microtones, "guitorgan"-style synths, etc. I've never even owned real pedals or a pedalboard; I didn't understand why I would do that if Eurorack had so many more wacky options available.
The part at 15:28 totally sounds like the breakdown part of a song called "The Great Destroyer" by Nine Inch Nails (around 1:46 into the song). Really, really neat stuff here.
You kinda touched on some sounds that Robin Guthrie from "Cocteau Twins" was able to record using physical tape delays and MANY pedals and electronics that combined to get pretty "dreamy" stuff back in the 80s and 90s.
8:19 Sounds like he's describing amplitude modulation (AM synthesis). I think that's what's used to make metallic percussion sounds like bells and gongs. I predict that when he changes pitch on guitar it will be difficult to hear a change of pitch in the final sound, but the formant will be slightly changed, giving it some perception that it's higher pitched even when the fundamental is the same.
This was really cool! The amount of possibilities with modular as an "effects pedal" is just limitless, and I never even knew it was even possible! As someone who's a sucker for granular synthesis that part of the video was nice to listen to. Granular always sounds good with reverb ;)
great job! so interesting to see how you both just had fun messing with different sounds and ideas. I especially liked the panning bit, which is something you can't do with a guitar pedal at all. 6:54 felt like my spine was being ripped out, in the best way possible lol. great vid.
12:40 Multiplying two tones of frequencies f1 and f2 will produce a signal made of two tones: f1+f2 and f1-f2. So modulating the amplitude of a 200Hz signal with a 300Hz will give you a 500Hz signal and a 100Hz signal. Here's the what the 12 tones above C4 give you when combined with C4 (to the nearest half accidental): ♯ ♭ 𝄳 𝄲 C4 → C4 & Nothing/DC-offset C♯4 → C𝄲4 & B(-1) D4 → C♯4 & B𝄲0 D♯4 → D𝄳4 & G1 E4 → D4 & C𝄲2 F4 → D𝄲4 & F2 F♯4 → D♯4 & A2 G4 → E4 & C3 (wow a 5th makes it sound like an octave major 3rd interval) G♯4 → E𝄲4 & D♯3 A4 → F4 & F𝄲3 A♯4 → F𝄲4 & G𝄲3 B4 → G𝄳4 & A♯3 C5 → G4 & C4 (octave makes a perfect 5th)
You two are such a great power-duo, you both answer "all" to "what genre do you play", and I love seeing Rob's unbridled flow of concepts getting funnelled through Andrew's own respective discipline, knowledge and talent. It reminds me of the creative duo-ship of my fiance and I x
Very cool. This is what I imagine the conversations look like in most studios, just playing and trying stuff and hopefully learning something new fairly often.
I just bought an envelope follower from NLC so I can get my guitar into my modular, and this video was such a blessing, joy, fun, interesting, and inspiring one to watch. When you said there's more on Rob's channel I was even more excited. I really didn't want this one to end. You should definitely do more of these! Can't wait for my envelope follower to arrive so I can build it!
Reminds me of the band HEALTH and what Trent Reznor does with Reaktor/what John Frusciante does with his Doepfer stuff. Also, the more ambient stuff before the osc test reminded me of Post Rock and minus the bear. 17:00 reminds me of Meshuggah.
8:15 I had to think about it for a bit to get my head around what you are proposing with the CV control on a fixed note. What I suspect will happen is that it creates a harmonic chord effect, for example generating a 440Hz frequency then playing an E note into the CV will basically generate an A5 chord. Now to find what actually happens...
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
I could watch an entire series of this, no joke. Just you two jamming and messing around with no goal other than just experimenting and having fun with your curiosity
Can't second this enough.
Best suggestion I have seen in a very long time
Yes please
Should be a tour, just them making songs and messing around.
Yup that would be dope.
We should put that one effect into a pedal and call it "Mega Farts"
I'd buy it
The Taco Bell
uh oh
U shud make a song out of this
Listening to just first five minutes you two need an QOTSA post punk band together!
These two geeking out about the physics of music, and how things relate compared to each other is one of my favorite things.
5:07 they vibe out so hard here
lol I love these talks
Most agreed.
I love science, especially when its art
Umm, although they weren't actually talking physics. It's talking music / sound wave theory.
5:20 please make an ambient album together with the guitar and mod synth that would be amazing
that would be so sick
YES
right and 3:07 sounds like something brian eno would make they’re already on the right track haha
that part had me teary eyed
First of October ambient guitar + mod-synth album?
I love the moment at 4:47. They're both staring at the module, momentary silenced by the sonic beauty, mouth agape. "So.....so dreamy" Rob manages to utter as he tries to gauge Andrew's own state of mind. Two good friends and excellent musicians who have explored all kinds of musical and technical terrain together, still brought to awe by the unexpected possibilities of what they create. Beautiful.
Almost cried here
this isn’t school dog no need to write an essay😂😂
@@judah2267 lmao
At minute 4.00, can I know which road the signal is going? What brand and models of effects were used?
@@judah2267 haha yes I know... But I like it! Quiet and reserved in person, verbose and introspective in writing!
The "underwater" thing I want it to be a song that goes on for like an hour
The underwater thing kinda reminded me of Boris' song Icelina. Really cool
Should be in a movie soundtrack
I musta missed that part
A woman???? Impossible. I thought all of you died in the invasion!!!
Like in a nature doc
7:13 They essentially discovered Amplitude Modulation. If they increased the synth frequency way beyond the audible range (baseband), they'd have a basic AM radio modulator. Cool experiment!
I work with/fix radios for my job and this was my first thought! They were heterodyning without actually knowing the word for it
@@rippah669 I'm pretty sure they know what AM is, since it is already a common technique in electronic music. At 9:27 Andrew even says that it sounds like ring modulation - which is essentially AM.
@@theCyberJokey yeah they know am from a musicians standpoint but probably not from a more technical( like signal transfer etc. ) standpoint. But this is cool that they related it to that.
I'm kind of disappointed that they didn't already know this
They could've plugged it back into the envelope follower and gotten (a somewhat distorted) signal back from that too
BRO
what you have here is a custom pedal development test-bed. General workflow:
1) jam out on the modular and find a sound you like
2) trace back the signal path and do a little boolean algebra to simplify out any redundancies
3) draw a circuit diagram that describes the simplified signal path and hardwire all key modulation settings with whatever appropriate surface-mount components will replace the dial.
4) get your circuit fabbed up on a PCB that fits inside a pedal.
there's a whole neighborhood of challenges to overcome in acomplishing each step, for sure, but it is *possible*
I think the fact that you deal with analog signals and not digital ones lets you skip or rather avoid the simplification process.
Giant extremely expensive Zoia lol.
When I got my first synth, my friends and I hung out playing with parameters for hours and hours. Time literally meant nothing to us. Suddenly it was 2AM and we were still into it. I imagine this session had those vibes.
You got him. He's hooked. Now he's gonna start his own modular synth.
It will be the modulariest of synths
I love everything about this.
Indeed.
Same
Could be used to improve your slide tone, Rhett!
@@mo-draws oof, harsh.
@@Marta1Buck I hope you know that this is a joke, Josh from JHS always makes about Rhett? :)
2 sound enthusiasts playing around in a sound lab. You guys just stumbled upon a breakthrough RUclips series.
This is the comment that sparked sonic boom
That underwater part sounds like an interlude in the middle of either an album or song. Feel like it’d be followed by Andrew’s vocal into more instruments.
Listen to underwater boi by turnstile
It feels like the intro to some sci Fi type show
@@hansguckindieair everyone should do this anyway
Crazy. Ya'll are speaking a totally different language. How educated you guys are is so impressive. Looks like a couple of nerds having a great time. Loved it..
It's just sound design, if you watch a couple tutorials on popular Synths like Vital Surge in making your own sound it's understandable. There is also modular software synths as well which goes through the same thing.
I figured they learnt it through just playing around with their daw when they first started digital music production. And how they immediately knew that the pitch cancels each other was also due to their mixing experience with phase cancellations on tracks they had to deal with.
15:23 I love how Rob is just gyrating to the plucking on the guitar. Truly a sight to behold.
Andrew guessing correct notes based on wave overlap relations is wicked impressive
yeah, it was insane
hes basically listening to how bad it sounds (really how dissonant or consonant it sounds) then guessing what interval it is from the B. to put it simply, when the sound was super wonky he guessed A# because A# is a half step away from B which is a very dissonant interval. when it sounded okay he guessed an F# which is a perfect fifth from the B, which is a very consonant interval.
reALLY!?! I ThOUghT ThaT pARt wAs obViOuS aF!!
@@LeFrogCage 😂
@@ThatRipOff OH nO!!! yOU TypED iN AltERnaTiNG CaPS!?!!? HoW WilL i sO efFoRtleSsLY guESS thE NoTes oF YouR CoMmEnt?!??!?
This is exactly what modular was designed for: Making interesting, horrible sounds.
Poor word choice
@@Spluna99 Bro, who cares?
@@camjones9213 ur mum cares
actually a lot of this soungs quite beautiful. Even odd harmonies and rythms can be nice if you don't think about music theory all the time :)
Edit: if you made this comment at the part when the guitar modulates the sine wave, i can't blame you :)))
At 4:10 that sound is glorious😀
Around 4:30 is the most beautiful thing I've heard, I swear. Part of me wants to cry and the other part of me also wants to cry
Agreed! My PCM80 has a similar preset with a bandpass filter on a delay. Now that I think about it, I even make heavy use of it in "Borealis" on my channel (no shame in plugging, right? ;) )
listen to some Brian Eno if you like dreamy sounds :)
100%
16:20 is just magical to my ears! I adore this dreamy, glitchy retro kinda sound so much! 17:00 sounds amazing as well! I'd love love love to hear more!
sounds like tipper
Check out METAROOM’s stuff for more of that sound!
The second sound, sounds like some intense backdrop for tenet or a game.
kinda reminds me some of buckethead music
@@victorsoares9095 16:20 does, yeah
i study theoretical physics at uni and i'm fascinated by the way the waveforms create sound, it's so inspiring to see you guys generate new imaginative sounds, love it!
The "B Filter" is genuinely such a cool concept
Bilter
Look up rift
It's just a ring modulator
The 🅱️ filter
I feel like we see a progression of Rob wanting a modular synth more and more
I swear, 6 months and hes gonna post something about it
His new music instrument company should *build* a modular synth. He could consult LMNC/Sam :)
Modular synth metal coming soon.
The Djent Rack.
If anyone wants to mess around with this concept without fully investing in a physical modular setup, VCV Rack is the way to go. I've been messing around with doing exactly this for months and it's wild.
Beat me to it! I've been doing a series of videos on modular guitar effects with VCV, I absolutely love it.
$50 KORG MONOTRON analog synths that fit in the PALM OF YOUR HAND. (AAA batteries!) (Speaker built into it.)
THE MOST FUN YOU CAN HAVE WITH YOUR PANTS.....OFF.
$700 Roland Guitar Synth:
ruclips.net/video/pKaxu9ugfXE/видео.html
Max/msp is also very fun to play around with as well as surprisingly powerful
@@blurrypixels6054 Solid suggestion, just didn't think of it immediately because I'm not super familiar besides using Max for Live, which I've been meaning to actually learn.
@andrewhuang 7:25 I don't think you guys realized it but you just invented AM and FM radio. @robscallon was talking about amplitude modulation when he wanted to control the volume of the oscillator with his guiator and you were talking about frequency modulation when you said control the pitch of the oscillator with the guitar.
You were half way to making a radio already since it's an electrical signal. Just send the signal to an antenna instead of a speaker and turn up the oscillator pitch to a 10 Khz (or 10MHz for FM) and you got yourself a literal radio station.
These two together are going to invent a new sound. Genius.
Impossible
There are many electro-acoustic musicians who are doing things way beyond this video already.... from trumpet players to electric guitar players....heck, even composers. Not to mention all those who make their own instruments specifically to run through mod synths. I'm amazed how, so many here are acting as though these are new sounds/ideas... surely this can't be the only channel you folks are aware of?!?!?
I'd post links for ya, but that's not too cool to promote other channels/sites. Just search electro-acoustic.
@@vvcv__00 you may be correct on that I am just a passer by
4:30 is INFINITE ear candy! Andrew, you should talk to all your modular synth contacts and see if a guitar pedal that has some of the qualities of modular synth (like having parameters affect each other) would be possible, I'd love to harness even just a tiny bit of this modular setup.
It's definitely possible. It might not be all analog, but it's possible.
Empress ZOIA
Reminds me of a Space designer preset
anybody know how I could go about making something similar to this effect inside a daw like Ableton? Obviously would need to modulate some parameters of a delay but which ones would give it that "underwater" vibe
@@yungbroc I suggest trying out VCVRack instead, it is free, it is exactly what they have here (a giant modular system) sometimes down to even identical modules.
The guitar to control volume experiment as other have said is just AM, I wanted to drop the relatively simple math though for those interested. A typical VCA is a 2 quadrant multiplier (won't go negative, as Andrew briefly mentioned, which would be ring modulation), and from the video you can see that's what they're using, an Intellijel Quad VCA module. If the oscillator they use was at 500Hz say and they played a pure 200 Hz tone to control the volume, that would create to "sideband" signals at 300Hz and 700Hz (500 +/- 200) so you'd hear all 3 tones - it would look exactly like my current RUclips account icon on a spectrum analyzer. ;) In this case the guitar note has multiple harmonics all generating the same math at once, so what you're hearing is the original oscillator frequency +/- additions at all frequencies in the guitar note spectrum. That's why playing a harmonically related note to the oscillator sounded good, the new added sidebands become good sounding integer multiples of the original oscillator. Anyone that wants to try this out could set it up in VCV Rack for free to play around. Very cool video!
@SOUL SEEKER I'm so glad people like him exist because I understood the answer fairly well and will use it to continue learning about modulation =)
I fully expected your channel to be about radio. Interesting the ways in which they are similar 👍
Wouldn't it be cool if pedal companies used modular gear to inspire new effects instead of just recreating the same pedals over and over again...
The effects they keep making are analog effects that are limited by the fact they're analog. Red Panda, Hologram Electronics, and Empress have really cool innovative digital pedals. Just look at the zoia, basically a modular board in a pedal format. You could also checkout the Norns or the Organelle which aren't strictly guitar pedals but certainly can function as them and can be setup to play sounds that imitate a modular system. I mean due to the open source modules you can literally use some exact copies on the organelle.
Too expensive probably
i think it needs to happen,metal is dead cause comapnies are out here selling copies of the same tube screamer pedal from the 80s we need new sounds,evolve or die
@@fairweatherfriends. the avant guarde types buy the expensive stuff,people get hooked,then mid tier price range ones get made for the masses,then the poors eventually get the budget models and eventually high end becomes affordable cause there is a huge demand
its why you can pick up a decent electric guitar from anywhere for 200 bux but if you want IE a lute it costs well over a grand,its niche
"It's so dreamy... I'm just gonna go 100% wet" perfect timing around 5:00 lmao, awesome video! Really cool to see this idea come to life :D
making a lofi-beat out of that sound would be a killer! 🔥🔥
i went to the comments and saw this instantly right when I heard IT
Along with 8:38 “Rob is going to play a g string”
Sounds like a sound effect from an old Disney Movie like Alice in Wonderland.
it is insane
That's why i love electronic music. So much more exploring and creating amazing sounds. After 20 years of metal and rock i really got tired somehow of classic instruments. Needed something more. Classic trance from 90s is amazing example and love it most
Ooo! I wanna hear 17:00 with the drums from the djent djenerator
Yeah haha
This is a freaking niche on RUclips that I would spend my life enjoying…. You guys should consider a collaborative channel of modular play… also… first of October needs this instead. Full album… each track is a full reset and run from there! ;)
Also some VERY flaming lips vibes in the last five minutes. Sooooo sick.
Andrew and Rob are among the only creators to continuously inspire me
Who is Rob and what’s his RUclips? Thanks
@@lockyp204 rob scallon, the guitarist in this video!
@@poopyjoe7883 Thanks 👍
There's not too many guitar - modular synthesizer videos that are mainstream, I love the concept behind this, appreciate the effort.
This entire episode was incredible as a music producer it was great to see a traditional guitar transformed into so many different sounds by using synth modulators ultimately this will be the future of guitar performances
For your consideration: it’d be interesting to do this with a guitar that had a hex (or octal) pickup so that you could give each string its own position/path on the stereo field. And/or run each string (or group of strings) through an independent signal path.
here's 3 tones from the $700 Roland Guitar Synth, in a trio:
ruclips.net/video/pKaxu9ugfXE/видео.html
here's 3 tones from the $700 Roland Guitar Synth, in a trio:
ruclips.net/video/pKaxu9ugfXE/видео.html
Spencer Seim from Hella does this
That stuff around 14:50 reminds me of the breakdown in NIN's "The Warning."
Now I'm kind of inspired to see how much of this I could replicate in Reaktor...
(of course, now two weeks later I realized I was thinking of "The Great Destroyer")
This has legit got me looking at going for a tiny modular setup solely for guitar fx
The Empress Zoia would probably have everything you could want, already in pedal form. It's a multieffects pedal that doubles as a modular synthesizer, giving you complete control over the connections/routing/modulation/etc.
Every time i watch these two mess around i get closer and closer to splurging on a zoia
@@Kopekemaster but how many knobs and faders does it have?
try a korg modular
Honestly you could probably plug your guitar into your computer and use the modular VCV Rack (which is free and just as powerful as Andrew's, if not more), but of course, it all depends on what you want.
Andrew blind guessing which note was being played while running through that volume modulation was absolutely insane. The ammount of knowledge and ear required for that is incredible.
broooooo that whole ambient water kinda sound at around 5 minutes like my mind has been fucking CLEANSED. especially when you upped the speed of the delay and it went away, it was like a complete mind sweep. ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, i need that to be a full album!!!!
this is one of the coolest videos i’ve seen in a long time
as a maths student, seeing two musicians discovering the beauty of mathematics in music is just amazing haha
It's the way a lot of fundamental math innovations were made in the ancient world!
id love to hear your thoughts on this
im serious
if youd make a video on this im sure people would love it, otherwise i wouldnt mind reading what you mean or making a song together
@@minyaminilla im not gonna make a video lol, not a youtuber (assuming you meant me in the first place) but what i was talking about here andrew basically explained best in his video on the harmonic series (ruclips.net/video/Wx_kugSemfY/видео.html ). It just was fun to actually get to hear the notion of interfering waves the way they found it in the music. I think it was where they plugged the guitar into the volume knob or something, dont remember (and cant be arsed to look lol, sorry haha) but they were talking about how they can only hear a certain note because all other frequencies were "blocked out" (aka interfered with the harmonics of the note rob was playing)
there you go, hope thats what you wanted :D thing is, I don't even know a whole lot about fourier transform, havent used it too much, so i cant really give you all the insights to this. I recommend 3blue1brown's channel, i think he did some cool stuff about it.
I thought this would just be a bunch of endless beeps and boops, but you guys really made some awesome sounds.
These sounds WOULD be bizarre and interesting for anyone who has never played Earthbound before.
John 3:16
King James Version
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 🙏!
Moray Spoken like a true person of culture.
@@reclusiarchgrimaldus1269roll it up and stick it up somewhere.
I was thinking they might play some Hawkwind or Ozric Tentacles but no, they just made fun noises.
@@daisiesofdoom tear out the page and roll it and light it.
Wow, that delay gave me goosebumps! Sounds so nice!
For anyone a bit confused about the amplitude modulation section - the guitar’s vibration frequency (aka pitch) is essentially acting as a secondary oscillator, AM-ing the sine wave. That’s why all the phase relationships and overtones matter - it’s not just a 1:1 volume to cv relationship, it’s utilising the raw oscillations of the guitar as an AM source.
Pete Townsend was the trailblazer of this. He started playing guitar through synths in the early 70's.
It's just so joyous to see these two playing around and having immense amounts of fun! 😃
ridiculous sounds man. never stop experimenting.
5:09 When they both shake their heads and smile...pure discovery ❤
turns out you can also do this with your voice! I just used a recording of me speaking as "super fast cv" on the vca and yeh, the speech was actually still intelligible. fascinating stuff!
I always told people that the electric guitar sound is stuck in time. The modular world offers an almost infinite soundscape for electric instruments. This video is a perfect example of how we can be surprised with new expressions and voices for our instruments.
Word
I don't think it's the electric guitar sound more than it is people's ability to be stuck with one type of sound. How do you define "the electric guitar sound", you can't because it's different across the board.
Effects pedals do this, just to a lesser degree. I mean even The Beatles were experimenting with how to modify sounds like this in the 60's.
It's just that some people have this idea that Guitar=Rock Music but then say that doesn't sound like Rock Music.
Just stop putting things in borders and you'll be more creative yknow.
The Edge from U2 has an insane effects rig and would probably delve into sounds like this and no one would dispute U2 is rock music.
it's the language, the information, not the sound.
Rob always gives off the most chill super talented nice guy vibes.
This is amazing. I really want an album full of this stuff 0.0
Listening to this in really good headphones was such an experience for me. I love the guitar. These sounds are insane.
So psychedelic. I'd love to see a live concert where the guitars are played entirely through a modular synth instead of pedal boards. (Imagine if the Grateful Dead had access to this tech back in the day!)
Holy cow!
The tech was called LSD in those days.
This is the most Hans Zimmer-like video you've ever made.
There's like, scifi movie scores in here. Just gotta carve something out of the infinite, yknow?
1) This is actually a thing in the pedal world (albeit still a novelty). Check out the Empress Zoia and the Poly Beebo.
2) The "B Filter" is the reinvention of the vocoder, more or less :)
Edit: (2) is not correct (thanks eyeball226). Look up vocoders - the history alone is fascinating. They're both cases of some function that combines 2 signals in some kind of filtering/multiplicative way, but that's about as far as the similarity goes.
They should have tried the same effects with a mic input
Source Audio C4 is also something like Eurorack in a guitar pedal.
Ah neat! I hadn't seen that one yet.
2) Not even close I'm afraid. The "B-filter" was just plain half-wave amplitude modulation. Vocoders are way more complex and work in a completely different way.
Ah, I need to do some reading then. I had understood that a vocoder was essentially just a multiplication or convolution of 2 inputs. My bad.
This is actually how U2 records the guitar parts for their albums. Edge simply struck one chord one time at the beginning of their career and the rest of the albums have been recorded from the modular synth, which is still going right now and they will simply hit record whenever they record the next album.
I’m not surprised- as edge can’t play the guitar for toffee 😂
@@dennispickard7743 Yeah I bet a lot of guitar players wish they were as unsuccessful as the Edge. The fact is he created a unique sound and feel that fit with U2's songs and helped give them an identity.
The Edge did The Batman 2004 cartoon intro
WHY DID I ONLY GET RECOMMENDED THIS TODAY, RUclips?!?!?!?! I DO THIS!!! :D
I use a ton of wacky modulation effects to make inharmonic timbres, microtones, "guitorgan"-style synths, etc. I've never even owned real pedals or a pedalboard; I didn't understand why I would do that if Eurorack had so many more wacky options available.
The part at 15:28 totally sounds like the breakdown part of a song called "The Great Destroyer" by Nine Inch Nails (around 1:46 into the song). Really, really neat stuff here.
that delay was absolutely amazing
I NEED that gorgeous delay effect as a plugin. Genuinely some of the most beautiful effects based music i've ever heard
Love the thumbnail! So good
Man that would be awesome to hear a full band play with
I love how Rob rediscovered FM synthesis from scratch
You kinda touched on some sounds that Robin Guthrie from "Cocteau Twins" was able to record using physical tape delays and MANY pedals and electronics that combined to get pretty "dreamy" stuff back in the 80s and 90s.
Yall are literally doing things no one has done and discovering new audio territory and its so amazing to watch
That sound at 17:00 was amazing! Could have made a great song
8:19 Sounds like he's describing amplitude modulation (AM synthesis). I think that's what's used to make metallic percussion sounds like bells and gongs. I predict that when he changes pitch on guitar it will be difficult to hear a change of pitch in the final sound, but the formant will be slightly changed, giving it some perception that it's higher pitched even when the fundamental is the same.
This was really cool! The amount of possibilities with modular as an "effects pedal" is just limitless, and I never even knew it was even possible! As someone who's a sucker for granular synthesis that part of the video was nice to listen to. Granular always sounds good with reverb ;)
I LOVE this video! Hearing you theorize about what's going on is great!
great job! so interesting to see how you both just had fun messing with different sounds and ideas. I especially liked the panning bit, which is something you can't do with a guitar pedal at all. 6:54 felt like my spine was being ripped out, in the best way possible lol. great vid.
You two should come together once a year and make an album
6:25 This tone feels super reminiscent of Antidote by Travis Scott, really cool timbre!
travis fire
13:33 alive grips
death grips At home
This is brilliant, Sounds so different and unique.
12:40 Multiplying two tones of frequencies f1 and f2 will produce a signal made of two tones: f1+f2 and f1-f2. So modulating the amplitude of a 200Hz signal with a 300Hz will give you a 500Hz signal and a 100Hz signal. Here's the what the 12 tones above C4 give you when combined with C4 (to the nearest half accidental):
♯ ♭ 𝄳 𝄲
C4 → C4 & Nothing/DC-offset
C♯4 → C𝄲4 & B(-1)
D4 → C♯4 & B𝄲0
D♯4 → D𝄳4 & G1
E4 → D4 & C𝄲2
F4 → D𝄲4 & F2
F♯4 → D♯4 & A2
G4 → E4 & C3 (wow a 5th makes it sound like an octave major 3rd interval)
G♯4 → E𝄲4 & D♯3
A4 → F4 & F𝄲3
A♯4 → F𝄲4 & G𝄲3
B4 → G𝄳4 & A♯3
C5 → G4 & C4 (octave makes a perfect 5th)
Ah.
Neat
I’m late but an entire first of October could come from this
This is so epic actually. You are like exploring new areas of sound.
You two are such a great power-duo, you both answer "all" to "what genre do you play", and I love seeing Rob's unbridled flow of concepts getting funnelled through Andrew's own respective discipline, knowledge and talent. It reminds me of the creative duo-ship of my fiance and I x
10:09 "More complimentary intervals will have better phase relationships"... I think Andrew Huang may've just created a paradigm for world peace.
Ive never heard anything make more sense in my entire life
Am I not high enough to get this?
A bromance for the ages. I vibe off the joy you both get out of just creating these crazy sounds
Very cool. This is what I imagine the conversations look like in most studios, just playing and trying stuff and hopefully learning something new fairly often.
So glad I wore headphones to watch this. The stereo effect is no joke!
Andrew and Rob is an unrivaled pairing
This is like if Bill and Ted were smart.
Should be top comment
I just bought an envelope follower from NLC so I can get my guitar into my modular, and this video was such a blessing, joy, fun, interesting, and inspiring one to watch. When you said there's more on Rob's channel I was even more excited. I really didn't want this one to end. You should definitely do more of these!
Can't wait for my envelope follower to arrive so I can build it!
Some of the sounds really remind me of the sounds a band called "Tera Melos" create; amazing stuff!
I understood about 2% of this, but I could watch you guys goofing around for hours. Such cool sounds!
i feel like everyone became smarter with this session
Reminds me of the band HEALTH and what Trent Reznor does with Reaktor/what John Frusciante does with his Doepfer stuff.
Also, the more ambient stuff before the osc test reminded me of Post Rock and minus the bear.
17:00 reminds me of Meshuggah.
I immediately thought of HEALTH when they started messing with the granular synth.
@@Rogue_Steve totally,
Especially the octave up and octave down thing, reminds me of the crazy glitchy thing on most of their guitar tracks.
Andrew, I love how you know so very much about audio! It really is very impressive.
Experimenting with FM and phase have recently been one of my favorite things in sound design. Seeing you guys geek out about it too is amazing!
8:15 I had to think about it for a bit to get my head around what you are proposing with the CV control on a fixed note. What I suspect will happen is that it creates a harmonic chord effect, for example generating a 440Hz frequency then playing an E note into the CV will basically generate an A5 chord. Now to find what actually happens...
Those panning effects were tripping me out... just with decent stereo monitors! That whole thing is insane.
To fully understand and be able to join in thier conversation is musician goals.
Nah
the acid starts to kick in around minute 10. you're welcome.
"maybe... in the C major, these ARE the B's"
love it
Imagine showing this video to Hendrix in 1967.
1:13 straight up the polyphia's rich kids effect
so dope