|
Same as many other modular manufacturers, we are facing challenging times at tangible waves. Things have been tough for a while (especially since the beginning of the Ukraine war), with a significant drop in selling modules, systems, accessories. Not that nice news, I know, but I want to be totally honest here, as always. You can be sure that I'm still doing my work with the same passion and love I had in the beginning, nevertheless, AE modular barely covers the very basics of my life - keep in mind that I'm dedicating my time fully to AE, otherwise, we wouldn't see a palette of far over 100 modules after 8 years, all this with an also challenging health situation since some years (a chronic fatigue syndrome, as it has turned out). However what still makes me happy is the wonderful community that has been established around the AE modular ecosystem (special thanks to Carsten for his incredible work!). For me, this is more important and satisfying than "selling more" and "earning more money". Nevertheless, I have to pay my bills, so I really hope that this wonderful community helps to keep AE modular alive and growing for the next few years. Sometimes, I hear the advice "you should increase your prices, you can sell your stuff more expensive" - ok, maybe I could do this, maybe it would bring me a higher income, but it would exclude more people who are eager to use modular synthesis, and this is something I want to avoid. I always considered AE modular as something for everybody, and I want to keep this up as much as possible. I also want to improve the customer experience and over the last few weeks I took the time to reflect on our internal processes of production and shipping. This has led to some optimizations that we have implemented at the beginning of the year. And it works well! Our annoyingly long backorders list and awfully long waiting times have shortened already and the majority of open orders is from after the middle of December, meaning the frequent three month waiting time has reduced to around 6 weeks. And it will get better! I'm hoping for your support in 2025 with the mentioned points in mind - let's make AE modular great and greater TOGETHER! New ProductsLast year the big theme was the new IMDI protocol which is a way to send MIDI signals to the AE modular and even between modules. This protocol is already in use by at least a dozen modules between Wonkystuff and tangible waves. This year we will continue this new direction and most if not all new modules, where it makes sense, will have IMDI incorporated in some way. SEQ8 r2  Not yet available, but this will be an updated version of our 8 step sequencer module. It now includes the following IMDI functionality:
This new version will replace the original one very soon and will be sold at the same price! More bang for your buck! FMOS R2  The FMOS module has been absent for a long time because I was not fully happy about some aspects and I had an updated version in mind for a while. So now there is a new version with a new processor chip and a complete new design. This version has some more features than the old one, with general improvements of the circuitry and of course is also fully integrated with IMDI! The features of the FMOS R2 are:
All this with some 8-bit grit ;-) You see, a really powerful module; I’m really happy about it! Available in the shop and in stock. White Faceplates In the photo above you can see that I've been experimenting with a new colour for our faceplates. The reason is that I decided to phase out the old grey faceplates, but some people don't want their rack to be all in black. So the white faceplate might be a good alternative and will be available upon request. VCO R2  A new version of one of the earliest modules in the AE Modular system. This new VCO will have much better V/octave tracking and proper temperature stability; otherwise, it’s a classic, fully-analog VCO - basically the core of basically any synth! The previous version comes from the early Kickstarter days of AE modular; back then, real 1V/octave oscillators weren’t intended, at least not in this very first phase. But the backers had urged me to add one, so the original VCO was developed a bit in a hurry and, honestly, with less experience than I have now, therefore it doesn't really match with the overall level of AE anymore. So I’m happy to have an adequate successor for this legacy module! POWER R2  Another module that has been revised “silently” a short while ago is the POWER module, which is shipped now in its R2 incarnation. Compared to its predecessor, it now offers four in/out lines, with two of them as stereo headphone output (the previous one was mono). This was requested a few times, and here it is! You can find it in the shop here. Third Party ProductsNew Modules from Wonkystuff These new modules are already available in the Wonkystuff shop, however John advises that delivery may be a bit slower this month as he's undergoing hand surgery. We wish him all the best and a speedy recovery!
mmo This is a version of the open source hardware MiniMO as found on https://minimosynth.com/. This is basically a freely programmable module and if you have a bunch of them you can turn them into oscillators, filters, envelopes … all from the same hardware, but just load different firmware onto them. Especially in the micro format this is really neat as you can now easily make one mmo a filter! You can find the various programs here: https://minimosynth.com/programs/. If you wonder how to get the firmware onto this little module then John has provided you with a very helpful guide on how to use an ICSP programmer: https://wonkystuff.net/icsp-modules/. The really cool thing about this is, that this module is completely open source and if you wanted to, you could build it yourself with the information given on the Wonkystuff website. However, why would you? John does a great job doing this work for you ;-) This module is now available on the Wonkystuff shop: https://wonkystuff.net/product/mmo/ uBaseLite This is a base module for hosting 3 micro modules and does about the same job as the one from tangible waves except that it doesn't have the DIP switches which can be used to turn on or off certain signals coming from the bus. This module is now available on the Wonkystuff shop: https://wonkystuff.net/product/ubaselite/. Faux Cyrillic - Resistance is Futile  A stereo panning mixer for AE Modular. Heavily based on the eurorack projects Nearness and Mixor Image. This module provides an easy way to generate a wide stereo image from your modular sounds. Audio is patched into the horizonal connector in the middle of the module, and is panned in the stereo field according to its position from left to right. There are three positions of increasing bias in each direction, and two centre inputs, one of which has a high-pass filter applied. The mixed audio is available as left and right outputs in both AE cable format and through 3.5mm Thonkiconn jacks if you wish to use the module as an end of chain output. The left 3.5mm jack can be used as a stereo output if a TRS cable is inserted with nothing connected to the right output. You can purchase one of limited stock at the faux cyrillic Tindie shop. Music from the CommunityNews and Music from the CommunityThe year has started with some awesome new music from the community. Please note that this blog only features posts from the forum, however there is a very lively discussion over on the Discord server and there may be some tracks which have only been posted there. Also some posts on the Facebook group are awesome, but are hard to link to from outside of Facebook, so please also check them out instead of doom scrolling. @running was on a roll this month! First track "loops" is a great track to start the year and the visuals are really cool, too: Then "a kind of stillness" takes us on a dreamy journey through synth ambient goodness. And finally Noise is an experimental track with some really cool sounds from physical modeling synths. @alesczx is showing off his ambient chops with the Rains module. Put your headphones on and play this on endless repeat to leave the world behind. @pol has now mastered the art of triggering the AE from his MPC One. It's a neat track with a lot going on and definitely worth the very reasonable asking price! Check it out on Bandcamp: https://patternsoflife.bandcamp.com/track/the-power-of-a-muse In this astronomically inspired piece by professore @saltatempo we are hearing the pure sound of AE in two layers, beautifully sequenced and proficiently randomised by Sloths. And @RSKT is back with these glitchy patches on Youtube Shorts (unfortunately this website platform can't embed and display shorts): https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kbW0KaqzUMc https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nbFCzKgZkwM DIYIn this section members of the forum are exchanging ideas about circuits and how to make your own modules, cases or anything to do with synths. This thread is about how to go about turning a breadboard circuit into an AE Module on the example of Morit Klein's analog kick drum circuit. You can read about it here: https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3211/porting-moritz-analog-kickdrum-modular Need an idea to start your DIY journey, here's a discussion about a few easy projects: https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3396/simplest-vca And this older thread about the simplest envelope generator has got new life when some people want to make it more complicated! https://forum.aemodular.com/thread/3334/simplest-envelope-easy-breadboard While there is a wealth of DIY info on the Forum as well as on the Wiki, please also check out the Discord server where there is also a dedicated channel to this topic. Especially if you're stuck you can get help quickly in the chat. Programming GRAINSThis sub forum has been taken over by the indefatigable @feijal who has by now made more firmwares for GRAINS than any other human on our planet! This month's releases are:
Check out all the other firmwares as well: https://forum.aemodular.com/board/24/programming-grains Meetings and EventsThere are so many digital channels where our community can come together and share information, inspire and help each other or just hang out with friends. However meeting face to face, even when on Zoom is special and helps to get a bit closer, just as you would when meeting in a pub or cafe to hang out.
Our monthly Zoom meetings will start again with the first meeting of the year on Saturday 22nd February at 8pm UTC. Please join the forum if you haven't already and check for details about upcoming meetings here: https://forum.aemodular.com/board/29/online-meetups Comments are closed.
|
AuthorRobert Langer, founder of tangible waves. Here, I will share some thoughts, background infos and news about AE modular and tangible waves. Archives
April 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed