Modular Synthesis: Widely misunderstood but very cool

Amidst the vast methods of sound creation there lies a very underutilized but ultimately extremely powerful method of synthesis known as modular synthesis. Modular Synthesis is one of the most primitive forms of electronic synthesis. It take everything you would find in a software synthesizer and essentially makes it more complex by making it physical. Thats right, the oscillators, the effects and the macros are all physical devices. However, fear not! For the king of modular synthesis, Deadmau5 has arrived. There's no one better to explain the intricacies of this system than the modern mod god himself...

Dual Granular Synthesizer... CRAZY sound

As I'm sure you all know by this point, I am a sound guy. Designing sounds, arranging them, making an instrument with them, all of it. Sound is, to me, a technically limitless medium; if you can capture it you can play with it. Thats where the Collidoscope comes in. This machine is easily one of the coolest tools for manipulating audio that I have ever laid eyes on.

The Collidoscope is a prototype synthesiser designed by researchers Ben Bengler & Fiore Martin.
Based on a granular synthesiszer engine the instrument can be played by two performers at the same time (as they stand opposite one another on the sides of the unit) using the 2 built-in sets of keyboard, gooseneck microphone, color display and controllers.

The Collidoscope samples from the microphones (or line inputs) and displays in real time a waveform of the sample and allows it to be played back instantly. The main sliding knob positioned below the waveform allows for the visual selection of a portion of the sample to be played by moving it horizontally, and for the modification of the size of the portion being looped by rotating the knob. There are also two backlit octave selection buttons and a sturdy metal button next to the microphone base to start sampling.

This is easily one of the largest steps toward closing the gap between the performer and the sampling process, something almost every audio engineer encounters.

Harmonic Fluids

This is related to the post before the previous, and I find it fascinating. The sounds are generated using an algorithm which is made available for your use if you can understand it! I believe the ray-traced animation was done with 3D Max.

You can download the source code HERE and learn more about this project.

The closest I have gotten to do something like this was by using SuperCollider with which I was able to create very realistic water sounds from scratch but to be honest it was by the time-honored TR method (you guessed it: Trial and Error). Of course I could have put a microphone under water and let nature do the math...but it would not be half as fun for the microphone!

I strongly recommend downloading and using SuperCollider even if you have never attempted to write a line of code. Just by playing with the parameters, as you can do in Processing or PD you can learn an awful lot. (And if Pat is around ask him to give you a push)