It’s Modular Day at FACT! We’re marking the first birthday of our Make Music section with a celebration of modular synths, the artists that use them and the music they make.
A year ago, we launched Make Music, a section on FACT dedicated to the music creation process. From the cult of the TR-808 drum machine to the growing community of artists making music on their iPad, the culture around the ways we make music has become just as important as the music itself, and we wanted to help demystify the process behind your favorite tracks.
Since we launched, the response has been huge. You love music, but you also love making music. As hardware gets cheaper and software gets simpler, there’s only going to be more of you creating it, whether that’s in your bedroom or on the plane on the way to your next gig. However, as you master the basics or want a new challenge, it’s natural that you’ll want to investigate more unique ways of making music.
Over the past year, we’ve noticed there’s one instrument everyone is curious about: the modular synthesizer. A synthesizer broken into individual modules that are then patched together (usually with cables) to make sounds, modular systems have changed a lot since their invention in the late ‘50s. Once huge, room-sized devices, they’ve undergone a renaissance in the past few years. Judging by how often they appear in our Against The Clock videos, they’re no longer the preserve of hardcore YouTube nerds – they’re a phenomenon.
To mark one year of Make Music, we’re celebrating modular synths, the artists that use them and the music they make. We’ve got a history of the most important modular systems ever made, interviews with some of our favorite modular artists and an Against The Clock with one of the scene’s best live acts. We’ve got a playlist of our favorite modular artists too, as well as all you need to know about building your own modular synth at home.
Check out all of the features below, and keep your eyes open for more modular goodness across FACT today as well as on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
• 8 of the most important modular synths in music history
• How to build a modular synth: The ultimate Eurorack buyer’s guide
• 21 awesome tracks made with modular synths
• Are modular synths worth the hype? Four artists share their Eurorack secrets
