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Dear AE modular Community, The year 2018 comes to an end, and I want to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to all of you! It was an exciting year with really a lot of work. Over the last few months there was even so much going on that those of you who had ordered in this time had (and still have) to wait several weeks for shipment... Although I’m not happy about this fact, it nevertheless made it clear to me what an awesome community you are. No one was really complaining, instead I have heard so many understanding and encouraging words from you, it’s totally amazing! In the meantime I got support for the production, and a big bunch of development tasks (see below) have been done, so I am looking forward to a wonderful and exciting year 2019 for AE modular! Together with your support and inspiration it will grow with a lot of new modules and mature further - and all this would not be possible without YOU! A special thanks goes to Carsten and Felix for their incredible and enthusiastic support; you guys really rock! The heaven has sent you! So again, a BIG, BIG THANK YOU! You are such a wonderful community! New Standard Rack and Modules Just in time for Christmas I have finished work on optimising and redesigning some modules that are part of the standard Rack 1 and Rack 2. In addition there are now also new variations of the cases which can now also be connected to each other. Rack 2 now contains the trigger sequencer TRIQ164 as standard (which is the successor of the STEP10)  As before the complete systems are available in the shop now in their new configurations.
These are the new modules:
As you can imagine this was quite a lot of work, but in my opinion it was necessary to overhaul some of these fundamental modules before they are released to a much greater market in 2019 (more about this in a later post). News from the Forum There wasn’t a huge amount of discussion on the forum, but I was really happy to see more original performances and I am impressed on how well those artists managed to fit the AE system into their compositions!
Meanwhile The Tuesday Night Machines was tinkering again and is now controlling his AE modular with an IR remote: http://forum.aemodular.com/thread/114/receiver-module-easy-building-attenuator Superbooth 2019 Just a reminder for everyone, that tangible waves will again be at the Superbooth next year and that we will make this an event that you don’t want to miss! Early Bird tickets are still available until 31st December at https://www.superbooth.com/en/tickets_en.html Growing the community I’m really happy with the way the community has been growing in the Forum and on Facebook. The forum has developed into a great resource for people new to AE Modular and those that are experimenting and finding new and exciting ways to play with it. I believe that the forum is the best medium for the community to discuss ideas and store tips and tricks. But If you would rather receive news via email, please sign up to my new mailing list which will send you news like in this blog post straight into your inbox: https://www.tangiblewaves.com/email-newsletter.html And if you have any ideas, feedback or questions, please never hesitate to contact me, via the forum, the contact form on the website, or via facebook! One thing that I would love to see and hear more is how you make music with the AE Modular! There are already some great examples out there from Felix, Mark, Zbigniew and Olivier, but I think there are many more talented musicians in our community and I would like to encourage you to record and post what you do. New Module Released This month I’m happy to again release a new module - The Wavefolder! It is based on a design by the great Ken Stone who in turn based his design on a circuit created by R. Lockhart. Felix of The Tuesday Night Machines has again provided two fantastic videos on his channel which showcase this module wonderfully. Here is a Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2nVM6SzMEQ Jam with Patch Notes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BOl5g6HDqg You can buy the module in the online shop: https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p45/WAVEFOLDER.html Major Improvements Over the last 3 months I have worked very hard on improving the whole range of modules. Starting with the introduction of the new patch sockets I have looked at each module included in the Standard Racks and worked on improving them. Last month I released the TRIQ164 which has now replaced the STEP10 module in the Standard Rack 2. In December I will release many other new and improved versions of the standard modules, eg. a new 2OSC which is still analog, but the frequency is digitally controlled so that it now tracks perfectly across the whole range. I’ve also developed a new dual envelope module to replace the 2 single envelopes in the standard rack. And finally there will be a new rack design which will be better extensible and come in 3 widths. More on this to come in the next few weeks! Visit me at Superbooth 2019 Tangible waves will again be at Superbooth next year and I’m already planning how to make this an event that you don’t want to miss! I hope to see you there! More information about Superbooth 19 at the website: http://superbooth.com/ News and Updates from the Forum
New AE Modular Performances It’s so great to hear (and see) the AE Modular in action and I am amazed at the creativity at display by the members of our community. I’m just listing the last few performances that were posted in the forum over the last few weeks:
Also Leon asks for artists who may be interested in participating in a Compilation Tape! Please read more here: http://forum.aemodular.com/thread/103/looking-artists-compilation-tape Other News The newly released book Patch & Tweak has a half page feature of tangible waves and the AE Modular system!  It is a great book with fantastic photos, interviews and too many ideas to count. If you haven’t been part of the kickstarter you can buy the book online at https://www.pushturnmove.com/products/patch-tweak-exploring-modular-synthesis
The only flaw regarding AE is that the book says, the frontpanels are made of cardboard, which is not true - it’s MDF board :-) September has come and gone without a blog post partly because I was still busy with orders and re-arranging the production process. I also took some time off to go on a short holiday and take a breather from the work that has come piling in for the last 3 months now! Overall I am really happy about how the AE Modular is going, with a steady influx of new orders for systems and modules and the forming of a very interesting and welcoming community of AE Modular users over at the forum.
In order to cope with the amount of orders I have made some changes to the production process and now have some help with the assembly and packaging. Also I now get more components pre-soldered by the factory which also saves a lot of time. New Module The TRIQ164 will eventually replace the STEP10 module and offers 4 independent channels of 16 steps each! Perfect for sequencing drums (now we just need a drum module - but wait, it’s already in the making!) It is now available in the shop at https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p52/TRIQ164.html Upcoming Releases Of course I also take some time out to design and develop new modules and there are a few new ones which I hope to release early in November:
Please check the Sunrise Page for the release plans. News from the Forum The forum was very active last month. It’s really great to see how the community grows and how creative some members are. Here are some of the highlights:
All in all the Forum was a great place to hang out and if you haven’t joined it yet, please do so at http://forum.aemodular.com . My thanks to everyone who is giving their support to this growing community and those who are being very patient with me while they wait for their orders to process! August was again a busy month here at tangible waves! I’m still working very hard on getting all the orders out of the door while improving the production process and also designing and testing new modules. I’m very grateful for the patience and kind words of those who are now waiting some time to get their AE Modular system.
NEW Module available - MULTIFX It is with great pleasure that I announce the availability of the MultiFX module. It is based on the Spin FV-1 chip, which is also being used in many very successful Eurorack effects modules. The module comes with 7 factory effects and 8 that are custom programmed. In total there are 15 effects, each of which can be modulated with 3 parameters and these can in turn be changed via the knobs or CV. In addition you can change the resolution to high or low (for some dirty, glitchy sounds) and add in an analog feedback. The Tuesday Night Machines has prepared a very thorough demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW_Qw_0zdlM And this video shows the MultiFX module being used in a Shimmer Jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx3ViAZ29iU You can order it from the tangible waves shop at https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p51/MULTIFX.html Updates from the Forum Our new forum opened at the end of July and while only 6 weeks old it is already buzzing with activity. We have over 42 members who have written and contributed to 180 posts. As usual there are a few members who are more active than others, but over time I hope that more and more people will post their ideas, creations and tips so that the community as a whole can learn and grow. Here are some highlights from the forum so far: We posted our first Content Spotlight in late July and it was well received. It featured Felix aka The Tuesday Night Machines. Check it out at the link below: http://forum.aemodular.com/thread/15/content-spotlight-july-felix-nightmachines
Also, if you have questions about any of the tangible wave products, please post them to the tangible waves sub forum: http://forum.aemodular.com/board/4/tangible-waves New and Improved Modules coming soon Even with a busy month with so many orders to fulfil, I’m also spending time designing, testing and perfecting existing and redesigned modules.
I know that most of you want more features in the AE system as this forum thread shows: http://forum.aemodular.com/thread/8/future-module-list Designing and building all of these modules would take quite a long time, so I’m thinking about how to enable others to design and sell modules for the AE Modular format. Please stay tuned for updates on this. You can always check the Sunrise Page on this website for updates on new modules as they progress through the stages from design to production ready. What’s going on behind the scenes Besides the “big” news like new modules, there are several improvements to other parts of the AE Modular system that are in progress or already done:
I am happy to announce the official opening of the AE Modular Forum at http://forum.aemodular.com. This forum is intended to serve as the online hub for the small but growing community of enthusiasts of the AE Modular synthesizer system. I hope that you will join me to discuss how the system can be extended and used in your creative work. The forum will also serve as a support channel where you can post any questions you have about the tangible waves modules. I will also post regular updates about upcoming modules and invite people to showcase their designs, performances, etc. It is my hope that many of you will sign up and join me in the forum to make it grow into a valuable online resource for all things AE Modular! New Module - The Nyle Filter The NYLE FILTER is an adaption of the Steiner Filter for the AE modular palette. It contains the classic filter curves lowpass/highpass/bandpass with adjustable filter frequency and resonance. The unique feature of this filter type is, that there are separate inputs for lowpass/highpass/bandpass (not separate outputs as with other filters). This allows quite unusual sounds if different signals are fed into the different inputs. Each input has its own attenuator. For frequency CV control there are two inputs with individual attenuators. The resonance can also be CV controlled! The sound goes from quite soft filtering with low resonance setting to a quite intense resonance peak to full self-resonance. The Nyle Filter module is now available at https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/p47/NYLE_FILTER_%28Steiner_type%29.html For questions and discussion, please visit the thread on the new forum http://forum.aemodular.com/thread/5/modules-nyle-filter A video with sound bites and patch examples is in the works and I will post this soon to the new forum. So please join! New Accessory - The Eurorack Frame The AE modular Eurorack adapter frame allows to integrate AE modular modules into Eurorack systems. It is basically an empty eurorack-sized frame that can take up to 16 units of AE modules where two units are occupied by the mandatory MASTER module. Via the MASTER module the frame is powered from the eurorack bus. There are 3 variations of 8U, 12U and 16U now available at https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/c6/AE_modular%3A_Cases%2C_Accessories....html For questions and discussion, please visit the thread on the new forum http://forum.aemodular.com/thread/6/accessories-eurorack-adapter-frame |
AuthorRobert Langer, founder of tangible waves. Here, I will share some thoughts, background infos and news about AE modular and tangible waves. Archives
December 2018
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