I seem to be apologizing in almost every post about the wait times, and again I can only say that I’m sorry that it takes so long for some of your orders to get assembled and delivered. Especially now that the shipping is often delayed as well due to the global restrictions. Antonia, Benedikt and I have certainly been very busy going through the hundreds of orders and sending out dozens every day, but there is only so much we can do, so I really appreciate your patience. New Modules I have also been busy developing a row of new modules, some of which of you have been eagerly anticipating for quite some time. All of these new modules are in the shop, in stock and ready to ship! The number of available modules for the AE system has now grown to 52! 2CVTOOL The 2CVTOOL offers two units for offset and -/+ attenuation for CV signals, also known as “attenuverter”. This can be useful for all kinds of modulation purposes. More information can be found in the shop. POLAMIX The POLAMIX is similar to the 2CVTOOL in that you can offset and -/+ attenuate CV signals, but it also acts as a 3 channel mixer. Try to use this with 3 LFOs for modulation mayhem! More information can be found in the shop. FMOS The FMOS is a new digital oscillator that brings FM synthesis to the AE modular! It offers the basic FM synthesis with one oscillator and one modulator, running both with sine waves or triangle waves. The modulation depth and frequency ratio of the modulator can be set with a knob and additionally by CV control. If you want pure sine waves, this is for you too - simply set the modulation level to 0. More information can be found in the shop. SAWVOX The SAWVOX module is a “complete” synth voice with two sawtooth oscillators, a filter and a VCA, all realised digitally with a tiny 8-bit microcontroller. The oscillators are detuned by a fixed rate to get a fatter sound, and can be switched to a single oscillator. Of course, due to the limited resources of the processor, the sound has the typical 8-bit lofi charm… But the CV tracking is quite fine, and it can find its place in a lot of patches. All parameters can be CV controlled, like filter frequency and resonance. More information can be found in the shop. ADSR The long anticipated ADSR module offers a 4 stage envelope that is not only loopable (patch the end output into gate input) but also accepts CV control over each of the stages! More information can be found in the shop. QUANTIZER The QUANTIZER has also been long in the making and finally it’s available! There are 4 independent channels that are quantized to the same scale that is selected by an encoder and shown in a text display. As an additional feature, the module provides a trigger signal for each channel on every change on the output CV. More information can be found in the shop. SEQ8 The SEQ8 is very similar to the SEQ16, but instead of 16 steps it only has 8 steps, is half the size and doesn’t have the note repeat function. Otherwise it functions the same way and is a great companion to the new QUANTIZER module. More information can be found in the shop. 4BUFFER The 4BUFFER module is a buffered multiple of 1 in to 2 out, with the option to chain the 4 channels together to create a total of 8 outputs for one input. Buffered multiples have the advantage over the normal passive mults in that there are no voltage drops across the signal path. As the AE system matures into more precision regarding oscillator tracking etc. this is a helpful utility for various situations. More information can be found in the shop. News from the Forum The forum has become a very busy place and it’s really great to see new people joining almost every other day and being welcomed and assisted with their queries by the accommodating “old-timers” of the forum. There is a big focus on the DIY section with some very interesting projects:
Stands and Cases There seemed to be a drive to either improve on the existing AE cases or to build stands that would hold bigger systems. Here are the most prominent examples. Rodney's mobile carry case https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/576/case-hax-longer-ae-joiners Krakenkraft’s Funky Acrylic Stand https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/622/self-stand-bigger-modular-system New GRAINS Firmware The GRAINS module is a clone of the Eurorack module of the same name by Jan Willem from Ginkosynthese and as such can use the firmwares that are available from that website. However Mathias (aka VisuelleMusik) is a gifted software developer and dove straight in to develop his own firmwares specifically for the AE GRAINS module. These are now available from a dedicated Github repository: https://github.com/aemodular/GRAINS If you have the GRAINS module, you should definitely check them out, they are really fun and interesting to play with. And looking at the code, who knows. You might want to develop your own firmwares soon? If you do, please let Carsten (@admin) know! AE Modular Discord Chat Server Thanks to Slowscape there is now a chat server where you can chat with other AE Modular fans in real time (if you are in the right timezone). The discussions there are not replacing the forum at all, but are of more ephemeral in nature and therefore a great complement and service to the AE Modular community. You can find out all about it here: https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/752/discord-chat-aem-community AE Modular Performances The most amazing part of the AE Modular community is its artists. Almost every day there is a new video or Soundcloud link to another fabulous track made mostly with the AE Modular system and this is what inspires me most in my daily work to get those systems delivered to you. Carsten has started a dedicated page on the Wiki to promote all of you who are making music with the AE Modular. Please get in contact with him for details on how you can be listed on that page: https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/772/page-on-wiki-meet-artists There are also some “newcomers” that are contributing now regularly to this list of performances. Here is only a short selection, but please do go to the forum and savour all the posts, they are all delicious! Black Warrior Lures User @funbun has only recently acquired his AE system and is now using it to score his incredible and successful videos about his fishing adventures on his YouTube channel. Even if you’re not into fishing, these videos are beautifully made and give you some time to breathe and reflect.
Collaborative works from Four57 & Slowscape Users @slowscape and @four57 have started an online collaboration in which one sent the other a track and the other had to finish it and vice versa. This might be the beginning of more such collaborations and also now has its own channel on the new Discord Chat server. Martynaudio Also new to the forum and the AE system, user @martynaudio has debuted his first tracks which are very musical and demonstrate how the AE can be sequenced from the Reaper DAW. The second track features the Solina module which is modulated by the SEQ16, a very neat trick! Break Beats Both user @101 and @four57 are experts at making breakbeats and breakcore with the AE system, albeit with different twists:
DBSC User @bradaddle aka DBSCM who has also been a part of the AEtherwaves album last year, has delivered a really nice track again after a longer hiatus. A great comeback! Microscopic Polar Bears User @gaetan, who is also the developer of the wonderful AE Modular Grid has taken samples from Hainbach’s “Isolation Loops” and processed them through the AE Modular in this track: |
AuthorRobert Langer, founder of tangible waves. Here, I will share some thoughts, background infos and news about AE modular and tangible waves. Archives
May 2024
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