March 2025

March is always a "normal" month. There is an absence of excitement which I welcome very much as it gives me the time to focus on the important things: building and shipping orders and designing new modules ;-) Most of our customers will have hopefully noticed our reduced wait times and we in turn have noticed that sales have gone up a bit, which is always very welcome.

As previously stated, we are on a mission to improve existing modules and to provide new versions which will sound better, work better and probably also work with MIDI using the IMDI system. This has led to the point where we now have considerable stock of older versions of these modules and we are making those available for purchase at a much reduced price. You can find those modules in a new category in our online store:

https://www.tangiblewaves.com/store/c22/Sale_items.html

Soon To Be Released

4IMDICTRL

Soon to be released is another new member for the line of IMDI capable modules of AE modular: the 4IMDICTRL. Its purpose is to generate MIDI controller signals to control other IMDI modules, like the 2OSC R2, FMOS R2, uOSC, uFM, uPOLY and others. These modules have a number of parameters which can be changed by MIDI controllers for more in-depth control. A good example is the uPOLY on which you can adjust the attack and decay times of the inbuilt envelope via MIDI controller messages and set LFO depth and rate. Another example is the suboctave output of the both uOSC and uFM: Via a MIDI controller, the suboctave output can be configured to act as a gate output which is useful when the module is controlled by IMDI notes.​

Another possibility of the 4IMDICTRL is the conversion of CV and gate signals to MIDI/IMDI controllers. Together with the IMDI HEART module, this enables the possibility to  send MIDI controllers back to a DAW and control synth plugins in realtime by CV!

As a bonus, 4IMDICTRL also offers a simple gate to note converter, e.g. for triggering drums via MIDI notes.

As you can see, the integration of MIDI into AE modular goes on; you can expect more exciting stuff to come! Our philosophy is, to make MIDI as easily patchable and usable as we are used with CV and gate; simply see it as a third type of signal that allows complex control whenever this is helpful in a patch.

Third Party Modules

MMO from Wonkystuff

This micro module is a clone of the MiniMO device. It is a programmable multi purpose module and can be configured to be an oscillator, a filter, an envelope, a MIDI sequencer and many other things. You can find a discussion about this on the forum:
https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3442/continuing-experiment-exciting-mmo-news 

You can purchase this module from the Wonkystuff Website:
https://wonkystuff.net/product/mmo/ 

Elliptic Switched Capacitor Filter from Symbolic Circuits

The name of this filter is quite a mouthful, but the sound samples suggest that it will give the GRUNGE Filter a run for its money! While filters are usually not counted as FX, maybe we need to make an exception for this one as it adds quite a bit of distortion to the sound - in a very good way! It's still in development and hopefully ready for oohs and aahs at Superbooth, but you can follow its progress on the forum:
https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3447/elliptic-switched-capacitor-filter ​

Music from the Community

We started the month with "Music for Kalimba, Dulcimer and Modular Synthesizer" by @funbun which is a track that combines acoustic with electronic instruments quite nicely. It is reminiscent of Steve Reich's "Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices and Organ". Check it out on the forum:
https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3438/music-kalimba-dulcimer-modular-synthesizer 

Crèmecore Deluxe - by Prize Dink Camp (a collaboration with our well known @keurslagerkurt) 
This album is a cool rock album with some AE Modular sprinkles thrown in the mix (excuse the pun). You can listen to the album on Bandcamp: 
​https://prizedinkcamp.bandcamp.com/album/cr-mecore-deluxe ​

Harbinger - by running in is the exact opposite of the album above. A moody, dreamy soundscape which will draw you into its magical realm where time slows and if you made the mistake of listening to this at work, then tough luck. You won't get any work done, just call it a day, go home and rejoice that your alive and the world is wonderful.

AE Modular is a Sonic Powerhouse  by RSKT is a one hour long smorgasbord of beautiful soundbites and a bucket load of really useful tips! This little system is so versatile and sounds so good, I might build this myself to play with. RSKT puts a huge amount of effort into these videos to make them as useful as possible for the viewers who want to understand their modular synth better. But he also manages to create absolutely amazing musical pieces which really should be on an album.

La Nebulosa Anello con due step sequencer a 131 Hz in DO3 maggiore by @saltatempo is an homage to the Ring Nebula which you can find in the northern constellation of Lyra. And the video also has complete patch notes so you could try this at home!

More noodly modular stuff by @solipsistnation is a nice shoe gazing song made with Le Module 01, Rains, RBSS, Euclid Grid and also a guest solo from the 3rd Wave Synthesizer.
https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3453/more-noodly-modular-stuff 

Coils Coils Coils by pt3r is a moody track made with … you guessed it … the Coils module. 

DIY

MIDI Router with Arduino Nano Every and BRAEDBOARD

In this post @feijal describes a very simple setup on how to utilise the Arduino Nano Every on the BREADBOARD module for routing MIDI signals. This is possible due to the additional 3 UARTS it has over the stock Nano board. Check out the discussion on the forum:
https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3460/braedboard-arduino-nano-midi-router 

Blast From the Past

​In this new section of the blog we will show some "forgotten" stories which were important enough at the time to push the AE Modular story forward. Look at this video recorded in 2019 by Felix aka The Tuesday Night Machines where we can hear how Robert started, and how the forum started. It's just incredible that all of this is still going so strong after 6 years!

Felix has been very busy with his day job these last few years, but in the early years of AE Modular, he was an incredible supporter of the format through his videos and his help in setting up the forum in the early days of the community. Check out his many other videos on his channel!

Meetings and Events

The March meeting was really cosy with few enough people that we were able to talk more freely than normally when we go around the room and everyone talks about their current projects or ideas with not too much time for discussion. Every meeting is a welcome opportunity to get to know the people better, who we usually only see as disembodied chat bots or pen pals on the forum.

The next meetup is on April 27th (28th for Australians). Check the forum for more details: 
​https://forum.aemodular.com/board/29/online-meetups

Only 5 more weeks to go until we're back in Berlin at Superbooth. Just like last year there will be a shared stand with tangiblewaves, Wonkystuff, BF Synths and, for the first time, Symbolic Circuits. Kyaa won't be able to make it this year, but hopefully we get to see him back next year.

Ticket sales are open, and if you buy a ticket online after April 1st you will enter a Raffle to win all kind of awesomes prizes. What are you waiting for? It's the world's biggest synth meetup, get your tickets already!

https://www.superbooth.com/en/tickets.html