I remember watching this for the first time when I was like 13 years old. I'm 23 and currently building my eurorack system. It was fun coming back to this video as a grown up and not a bewildered child who had no clue what he was talking about.
Hell yeah I watched Joel from 2011 too. I pretty much learnt the basics from him, because I felt like I had to learn it to understand what he was talking about. I'm currently thinking of building a eurorack system and I wish you all the best!
I didn’t even knew WTH he was saying 10 years ago…. but knew this “machine”or “system” had to be special…. Now i make my entire track w my own system 🥲
i do love this guy. hes a successful genius and makes me not feel so mad when my gear just randomly doesnt work.. admitedly i find its some thing i did one late night and didnt put back but still. sanity restored
So do all these modular systems work in conjunction with each other like how pedals in a guitar rig do? Would it be Synth controller > mod systems > another mod > another mod (and so on) > speaker?
just wow, all the gear and no idea! I had to keep watching to see if this got worse and it didn't disappoint :) not knocking anyone for learning but probably not a great idea to post a video of your 12u x 168HP modular system and not be able to identify a VCO. Look, here's my new Porsche. Shit which bit is the steering wheel :/
well he kind of has 10 Porsche's and 8 steering wheels in each one that can be used interchangeably so I mean its a complex system to be using when you had a couple of beers even if you live with it. Everyone can slip up. Chill.
I got ripped when I made made a video describing my own modular synth. I forgot to put my smoke out and smoked through the whole thing. I saw this last night for the first time.Fuggin' cracked up! You da mau5, Mau5! Thanks, Joel, for promoting modular and helping keep Shawn, Buchla, and the like in business. Where do I get a Mau5 Butt?
I'm not a fan of his work, but come on guys. He admits he doesn't know what he's doing, and he obviously got all this stuff at once, and is just getting into the world of modular. You can't blame someone for wanting to get into it :D He's just able to afford everything at once, instead of upgrading over the course of years to know it inside out. Heck, these videos alone are a huge fan service. That's pretty respectable for an artist to share their world. My 2cents
All of those parts recieve regular cleaning, repair, or are easily replaceable. Artist comfort is always number one. If you're a serious studio owner or musician, all thatall that matters is making records.
kind of different from having all that equipment dont you think though? Ill check out sonigen, i use absynth atm for any modular goodness and i have to admit its cool, but id like something more raw
@Pawshter it does give surprisingly good sound for something that looks like it comes with a happy meal, so it would make sense if it was expensive (plus it would be a niche market for sure).
@liquidcast Strobe is named after a vst the main riff was created in :P its also a vst hes admitted to using in every song. Care to show me an example where modular synthesis was necessary? I didnt say he didnt use modular synths, I said i havent heard one example where he couldnt recreate the sound on a non modular subtractive synth.
@ke7z If you couldn't tell, I was defending him. I don't follow him enough to know that he's been building this over years as he's not an artist I keep tabs on. I just saw this vid on a forum with people bashing him, and giving my take on it.
man this is really cool to see... its not often a huge artist takes the time to explain or show how they get their work done. Whats the point of hating on him for it? this shit is intriguing how you can take such a cluster fuck of equipment and get it to make such great sounding tracks.
@ryushenshi Yes, but it can get much more complex than that. Mods can be patched into other mods and then back to the osc (sound source). So, imagine you've got a wah pedal (filter) and you can plug an osc (LFO) into it (hell, you can even do audio rate modulation for extra craziness) to modulate the sweep of the filter. I recommend trying Karma FX Modular. There's a demo. It's a cheap way to get into this.
I listen to the most creative EDM ever "sumiosaundi" and honestly deadmau5 (not his latest albumn) gives me the same feel. Its not all about complexity, progression is often overlooked.
Not really, I'm studying Music Tech at Uni so I need to know technicalities to do well in my degree. I take pride in the fact that I can play a synthesiser like any other instrument and change parameters such as cutoff rate, and combine oscillators on the spot and produce good music. Its finding that balance between being a musician, and thinking scientifically about my music. The more I can do without thinking about the scientific implications, the more freedom I have in terms of composition.
I met a guy at Cargo East London about 2 years ago who is his friend, he was talking to my friend about his Micky Mouse head saying each one cost around £26000 but i didn't have a clue who he was back then : ( : ) If only i had known.
Yeah, it's quite easy to get blown away how good a device sounds and just play around with it all day, without necessarily making anything musical. But still being a purist doesn't automatically mean that one can't make music, I guess. I'd choose a hardware analog modular myself, tweaking the knobs and patching without the mouse is IMHO more fun! But yeah, having very nice gear and actually making music with it at the same time can require some self-disciple.
@sacredgeometry Yes you can do alot with software. You could make the majority of tracks with vst's and routing with software for instance reason. But you definitely don't know what you are talking about when you suggest that he does'nt use modulars ins his songs and for using strobe as an example.The purpose of it is to create and recreate specific samples and sounds that you can use within your song. he uses analog and modulation for alot of his music.
its the establishemnt of progressive electronic music that people love, because were FUCKING SICK OF THE SHIT THATS GOING ON RIGHT NOW. i love hearing kicks where theyre not supost to go. i love hearing countermelody work. and thats only part of what he does
@Vespyro It's true, I don't know ever piece of gear ever made. However, I spend that learning curve time all by myself with no camera pointed at me because I'm not a twit who things their ever brain fart needs to be broadcast.
i would still love him just as much if he didnt have the mau5 head. its just his music. ive been listening to electronic music for years, everything from justice, daft punk, starslinger and many more but no music has given me a more amazing feeling than deadmau5's. also hes a fuckng technological genious, i mean the way this guy works ableton live is just breathtaking
@Danzig1aaron Heh, I compose and play music. I'm not sure I'd call it "produce music." All done live. One take. No overdubs. All by myself (except the female vocal in one track) On my myspace page /robomark29
Obviously there's people much better with this equipment, and I can understand the frustration if people hate that he's so popular when they believe there's other artist more deserving but Joel has even said himself that he doesn't really regard himself as musician but someone who likes to make music. I for one enjoy the music he makes, judging by the comments it seems people don't believe he's deserving of his "popularity" but it's all a matter of taste.
@ke7z However, I do find it odd that he's having trouble finding his oscillators/filters etc if he's had this over the course of a few years. You think that'd be second nature by now.
I want to get into analog modular synthesis, would anyone know where I can buy a single oscillator VCO? something to generate a sine wave/ square wave/ triangle wave
I'm not a fan of Deadmau5 at all, but production-wise he's a great producer and musician. The fact that he even uses analog on EDM instead of just plugins and software synths is amazing. I doubt anyone on here bashing him could explain any better. I'll admit he's not the best at explaining stuff, but not everyone is. I'm really good at recording and even things like building computers and visual art...if I had to explain ANY of those completely different things to the average joe, I'd be fucked
Let's be honest, it's the mouse head. I mean he makes music that's his style and it's good, i mean no one can say any ones stuff is shit because freedom of speech doesn't mean you can be a asshole. But any ways, ill miss quote him on the fact that the "mau5" head is just those golden arches that make it something the mainstream will just eat up.
I don't like his music much, but I'm not gonna rip on him for seeming a bit unfamiliar with his own stuff. That's how I am pretty much all the time; most of my favorite presets I've made, I accidentally made while going for something else entirely and just being so bad at using my synthesizers that I get a totally different sound that's actually kind of cool. Besides, he's streaming. We all know everything goes wrong as soon as you try to show it to someone.
I know how to operate my synth, but I don't really know whats technically happening, so in a way I can relate to him. He's a musician, not a scientist. Besides, geeks who make music tend to produce boring songs.
Just sayin', I've logged easily over 2000 hours in the studio between the bands I've been in and bands I've engineered for, and I have never had to stop what I was doing to CLEAN. In fact, I'm pretty sure that has happened... NEVER. Well, maybe a milkshake might change the scenario.
@LaminaDieWills i wish that's how it worked! but i think the whole "stoned inspiration" rarely works, which really sucks. it certainly never seems to work for me. i find it helps to conjure up a feel/mood/mental image that you want to make a "soundtrack" to. take some ritalin, sit down at the synth/daw of choice and keep honing in to that goal "soundtrack" for the feel/mental image you want to convey.
he hadn't used them because those weren't his modules at the time dude. he was livestreaming this from tommy lee's house iirc. he was picking up a bunch of that stuff and taking it back home with him. he hadn't seen it before. i don't know why people like to get all uppity and thrash him about his synths. it's a huge hobby of his that he enjoys and on top of that it has made him a millionaire. i'd say he is using "enough" of his hardware.
Not trying to wave information around to make myself look good. I'm admittedly just jealous that the people that have all of this awesome equipment are people who could just make absolutely EVERYTHING that they do in Ableton. Which is fine--it'd be a pain in the ass to produce the music he makes in Ableton ON a modular synthesizer.
I'd like to clarify that this isn't a fail because he doesn't know his gear. Of course we all have to take time to get to know new gear. This is a fail because he thinks it's worth broadcasting.
Clearly no. He was trying to use a VCF as an oscillator and admittedly had never even used that waveshaper (or several other modules on there, I take it). It's frustrating that the guy has walls of Eurorack, over $50,000 in Buchla, and probably doesn't really use most of it.
@sacredgeometry He uses analog most of the time for his music. I garuntee you he uses modulation and analog for the majority of his music. Ive seen him use modulars and analog synths from watching him produce for hours on livestream etc and I bet you havn't even seen his live gear he's been using. He carries around a few modulation racks and has them in his booth. Your response is just as retort for not researching before replying.
I think that mouse head thing of his might make him a bit more popular. Also I'd say that someone like Frankie Knuckles is more of a pioneer of house music than this mouse guy, as Knuckles and many other guys did it way back in the 80's.
I remember watching this for the first time when I was like 13 years old. I'm 23 and currently building my eurorack system. It was fun coming back to this video as a grown up and not a bewildered child who had no clue what he was talking about.
Hell yeah I watched Joel from 2011 too. I pretty much learnt the basics from him, because I felt like I had to learn it to understand what he was talking about. I'm currently thinking of building a eurorack system and I wish you all the best!
@@Devalu3d Cheers mate!
Big hi 5 right there
I didn’t even knew WTH he was saying 10 years ago…. but knew this “machine”or “system” had to be special…. Now i make my entire track w my own system 🥲
@LinearAggression crying on the internet is fun.
Yes
i LOL'd
You never realize how much fruity loops fits in a laptop bag until you watch a video like this
I think 'mouse butt' is probably the most entertaining speaker name.
wife: babe going out to the store need anything? Me: patch cables please, mean while ill look for a descent vco. Bye babe
@LinearAggression That's 2 Backend Filters and not the OSC.
This is the greatest modular synthesis video ever.. Thank you
i do love this guy. hes a successful genius and makes me not feel so mad when my gear just randomly doesnt work.. admitedly i find its some thing i did one late night and didnt put back but still. sanity restored
It’s relieving to see a genius encountering mystery problems. Patience is a virtue for us all
1:32 so Canadian "Sorey" lol
So do all these modular systems work in conjunction with each other like how pedals in a guitar rig do? Would it be Synth controller > mod systems > another mod > another mod (and so on) > speaker?
Aliens are trying to speak with him.
just wow, all the gear and no idea! I had to keep watching to see if this got worse and it didn't disappoint :)
not knocking anyone for learning but probably not a great idea to post a video of your 12u x 168HP modular system and not be able to identify a VCO.
Look, here's my new Porsche. Shit which bit is the steering wheel :/
but he still drives his porsche well :( shame about the steering wheel bit but it seems the man never has to turn
Hater gonna hate
well he kind of has 10 Porsche's and 8 steering wheels in each one that can be used interchangeably so I mean its a complex system to be using when you had a couple of beers even if you live with it. Everyone can slip up. Chill.
Look how big it is...you think he can memorize all of that perfectly? When you're making $11,000,000 a year, we'd love to hear your input.
Faders, knobs, cooling fans, heat syncs, connections. Smoke resin is sticky, increases dust attraction and adhesion.
I got ripped when I made made a video describing my own modular synth. I forgot to put my smoke out and smoked through the whole thing. I saw this last night for the first time.Fuggin' cracked up! You da mau5, Mau5! Thanks, Joel, for promoting modular and helping keep Shawn, Buchla, and the like in business. Where do I get a Mau5 Butt?
Mau5 makes some noi5.
I'm not a fan of his work, but come on guys. He admits he doesn't know what he's doing, and he obviously got all this stuff at once, and is just getting into the world of modular. You can't blame someone for wanting to get into it :D
He's just able to afford everything at once, instead of upgrading over the course of years to know it inside out.
Heck, these videos alone are a huge fan service. That's pretty respectable for an artist to share their world.
My 2cents
This guy's a genius. This was really rewarding.
All of those parts recieve regular cleaning, repair, or are easily replaceable. Artist comfort is always number one. If you're a serious studio owner or musician, all thatall that matters is making records.
kind of different from having all that equipment dont you think though? Ill check out sonigen, i use absynth atm for any modular goodness and i have to admit its cool, but id like something more raw
@danieldjr412 Are you talking about the "where's my cat" video? The one that sounds just like old Boards Of Canada?
@Pawshter it does give surprisingly good sound for something that looks like it comes with a happy meal, so it would make sense if it was expensive (plus it would be a niche market for sure).
@liquidcast Strobe is named after a vst the main riff was created in :P its also a vst hes admitted to using in every song. Care to show me an example where modular synthesis was necessary? I didnt say he didnt use modular synths, I said i havent heard one example where he couldnt recreate the sound on a non modular subtractive synth.
Cant find his vco while meanwhile im sitting here with my monotron
Don't bash the monotron man!
he can't find his VCO (even though he has two AFGs, which are fucking gigantic) while he smokes a cigarette right on it. someone with too much money.
Well uh, he made the money making music on the stuff like this so that's kind of a backwards argument isn't it?
Scott Baron he made his money with soft synth
joshua novak Uhh can you prove that?
Ive heard it from himself that he had an old synth back in the day of his debut stuff.
sometimes he fails
jayjaybirdsnest
Doubt he had something as expensive as the one he's smoking right next to..
@ke7z If you couldn't tell, I was defending him. I don't follow him enough to know that he's been building this over years as he's not an artist I keep tabs on. I just saw this vid on a forum with people bashing him, and giving my take on it.
@omerjacobus yes it is a speaker =D. you can buy one on his website for a rediculous amount of money
haha i fuckin love this. 2:52 had me dying x)
man this is really cool to see... its not often a huge artist takes the time to explain or show how they get their work done. Whats the point of hating on him for it? this shit is intriguing how you can take such a cluster fuck of equipment and get it to make such great sounding tracks.
Whats the white filter at the top he plugs into after the mouse butt? Thing looks sick.
@ryushenshi Yes, but it can get much more complex than that. Mods can be patched into other mods and then back to the osc (sound source). So, imagine you've got a wah pedal (filter) and you can plug an osc (LFO) into it (hell, you can even do audio rate modulation for extra craziness) to modulate the sweep of the filter. I recommend trying Karma FX Modular. There's a demo. It's a cheap way to get into this.
you give him almost 5 minutes with the best equipment on earth and a mouse and what he do?? NOTHING! 0-0 HES AWESOME!
I listen to the most creative EDM ever "sumiosaundi" and honestly deadmau5 (not his latest albumn) gives me the same feel. Its not all about complexity, progression is often overlooked.
Not really, I'm studying Music Tech at Uni so I need to know technicalities to do well in my degree. I take pride in the fact that I can play a synthesiser like any other instrument and change parameters such as cutoff rate, and combine oscillators on the spot and produce good music. Its finding that balance between being a musician, and thinking scientifically about my music. The more I can do without thinking about the scientific implications, the more freedom I have in terms of composition.
I met a guy at Cargo East London about 2 years ago who is his friend, he was talking to my friend about his Micky Mouse head saying each one cost around £26000 but i didn't have a clue who he was back then : ( : ) If only i had known.
It's rules like that that are one of the reasons he has a professional home studio in the first place.
That's just impossible. If you're a smoker, you've GOT to smoke while you're makin music.
Yeah he's destroying gear but he's creating work! Some people are happy to get paid to repair and rebuild modules like these. Keep it coming.
Yeah, it's quite easy to get blown away how good a device sounds and just play around with it all day, without necessarily making anything musical. But still being a purist doesn't automatically mean that one can't make music, I guess. I'd choose a hardware analog modular myself, tweaking the knobs and patching without the mouse is IMHO more fun! But yeah, having very nice gear and actually making music with it at the same time can require some self-disciple.
deadmau5 is actually very smart with his equipment
I love to mess around with Sonigen (it's a free vst that works the same. great sound, too.)
@liquidcast do YOU tried fl studio?
what do you think a good modular would be for a cheap price
@sacredgeometry Yes you can do alot with software. You could make the majority of tracks with vst's and routing with software for instance reason. But you definitely don't know what you are talking about when you suggest that he does'nt use modulars ins his songs and for using strobe as an example.The purpose of it is to create and recreate specific samples and sounds that you can use within your song. he uses analog and modulation for alot of his music.
you can program your own patches with the software versions also.
All of this looked really confusing at first, but I understand it now a little.
its the establishemnt of progressive electronic music that people love, because were FUCKING SICK OF THE SHIT THATS GOING ON RIGHT NOW. i love hearing kicks where theyre not supost to go. i love hearing countermelody work. and thats only part of what he does
@Vespyro It's true, I don't know ever piece of gear ever made. However, I spend that learning curve time all by myself with no camera pointed at me because I'm not a twit who things their ever brain fart needs to be broadcast.
Your neighbors must love you.
my brain is fried.ill stick with the virtual ones lol
Modulars are almost always a hobby. And modern electronic music doesn't require modular synthesis at all. :)
i would still love him just as much if he didnt have the mau5 head. its just his music. ive been listening to electronic music for years, everything from justice, daft punk, starslinger and many more but no music has given me a more amazing feeling than deadmau5's. also hes a fuckng technological genious, i mean the way this guy works ableton live is just breathtaking
@Danzig1aaron Heh, I compose and play music. I'm not sure I'd call it "produce music." All done live. One take. No overdubs. All by myself (except the female vocal in one track) On my myspace page /robomark29
Obviously there's people much better with this equipment, and I can understand the frustration if people hate that he's so popular when they believe there's other artist more deserving but Joel has even said himself that he doesn't really regard himself as musician but someone who likes to make music. I for one enjoy the music he makes, judging by the comments it seems people don't believe he's deserving of his "popularity" but it's all a matter of taste.
because he is talented and he worked a lot
I can barely use Massive...
@ke7z However, I do find it odd that he's having trouble finding his oscillators/filters etc if he's had this over the course of a few years. You think that'd be second nature by now.
QUIT FUCKING SMOKING JOEL, you can't die, your to damn good at what you do. You have to live as long as damn possible man! You are the fuckin best!
I want to get into analog modular synthesis, would anyone know where I can buy a single oscillator VCO? something to generate a sine wave/ square wave/ triangle wave
@mssammieLovely were can you get those lol wtf? how much are those things?
what is the red mou5 hes holding in his hand ? mini speaker ?
any guesses on how much that whole rack setup right there costs?
i am actually tempted to buy that speaker now. it can pump out quite a bit of sound.
I'm not a fan of Deadmau5 at all, but production-wise he's a great producer and musician. The fact that he even uses analog on EDM instead of just plugins and software synths is amazing. I doubt anyone on here bashing him could explain any better. I'll admit he's not the best at explaining stuff, but not everyone is. I'm really good at recording and even things like building computers and visual art...if I had to explain ANY of those completely different things to the average joe, I'd be fucked
What is that little red mouse for? Is it the speaker? Nooo... or is it? Pardon me, I dont get it.
I dont really care if he cant find his VCO, i like watching him fucking with sounds and just generally messing around with effects :)
@liquidcast could you give me some "exactly" examples? (sorry for my english)
Let's be honest, it's the mouse head. I mean he makes music that's his style and it's good, i mean no one can say any ones stuff is shit because freedom of speech doesn't mean you can be a asshole. But any ways, ill miss quote him on the fact that the "mau5" head is just those golden arches that make it something the mainstream will just eat up.
It's probably closer to half a day. Sometimes you can even tune in to him making and finishing a song.
Regardless of what you think of the end product, at least he can prove he knows what he's doing.
Is there somewhere i can get one of those mouse noise maker things?
There's a title up there for you to check. ^ It has the name of the artist in the video.
I kinda understand what’s happening but this is too funny.
And I’ve used a synth before.
what kind of modular setup do you have?
Link to the full ustream session plz
I don't like his music much, but I'm not gonna rip on him for seeming a bit unfamiliar with his own stuff. That's how I am pretty much all the time; most of my favorite presets I've made, I accidentally made while going for something else entirely and just being so bad at using my synthesizers that I get a totally different sound that's actually kind of cool. Besides, he's streaming. We all know everything goes wrong as soon as you try to show it to someone.
I know how to operate my synth, but I don't really know whats technically happening, so in a way I can relate to him. He's a musician, not a scientist. Besides, geeks who make music tend to produce boring songs.
The guy is a 20th century genuis.
@OmniVisionElite It's "you're". Thanks though.
Just sayin', I've logged easily over 2000 hours in the studio between the bands I've been in and bands I've engineered for, and I have never had to stop what I was doing to CLEAN. In fact, I'm pretty sure that has happened... NEVER. Well, maybe a milkshake might change the scenario.
That is literally 50k worth of equipment. Rule #1 in the studio: No one smokes. Not even the owner.
@Pawshter Thank you :)
Well, after watching it again I recognized he said it some times... seems my mind was too far away, imaginating waveforms ;))
If I had a professional studio full of analogue gear, I wouldn't let him touch a thing.
He can play in FL all he wants though.
@LaminaDieWills
i wish that's how it worked! but i think the whole "stoned inspiration" rarely works, which really sucks. it certainly never seems to work for me. i find it helps to conjure up a feel/mood/mental image that you want to make a "soundtrack" to. take some ritalin, sit down at the synth/daw of choice and keep honing in to that goal "soundtrack" for the feel/mental image you want to convey.
because he makes good music.
he hadn't used them because those weren't his modules at the time dude. he was livestreaming this from tommy lee's house iirc. he was picking up a bunch of that stuff and taking it back home with him. he hadn't seen it before.
i don't know why people like to get all uppity and thrash him about his synths. it's a huge hobby of his that he enjoys and on top of that it has made him a millionaire. i'd say he is using "enough" of his hardware.
Fruity Patcher, hardware version.
Not trying to wave information around to make myself look good. I'm admittedly just jealous that the people that have all of this awesome equipment are people who could just make absolutely EVERYTHING that they do in Ableton. Which is fine--it'd be a pain in the ass to produce the music he makes in Ableton ON a modular synthesizer.
I'd like to clarify that this isn't a fail because he doesn't know his gear. Of course we all have to take time to get to know new gear. This is a fail because he thinks it's worth broadcasting.
Clearly no. He was trying to use a VCF as an oscillator and admittedly had never even used that waveshaper (or several other modules on there, I take it). It's frustrating that the guy has walls of Eurorack, over $50,000 in Buchla, and probably doesn't really use most of it.
Welcome to the music industry
when you have 12 million dollars, rule #2 is do whatever the hell you want.
@sacredgeometry He uses analog most of the time for his music. I garuntee you he uses modulation and analog for the majority of his music. Ive seen him use modulars and analog synths from watching him produce for hours on livestream etc and I bet you havn't even seen his live gear he's been using. He carries around a few modulation racks and has them in his booth. Your response is just as retort for not researching before replying.
does dude build ? or just buy expensive mods ? honest question
he needs an original moog. that's the shit right there.
Rule #2, if you burn down house, buy new one.
I think that mouse head thing of his might make him a bit more popular. Also I'd say that someone like Frankie Knuckles is more of a pioneer of house music than this mouse guy, as Knuckles and many other guys did it way back in the 80's.
Something tells me its the head if he went up on stage and didnt wear the head once people would be really disapointed
@ The equipment:
Dealwithit.gif
today on ustream: deadmau5 playing with his lawnmower.