I do most of my patching in exactly two locations. My primary synth is located in my home studio along with a host of other instruments from guitars to kalimbas, and tuning forks to computers. My secondary synth is primarily a Make Noise-only affair, though there is a small Pod48x that has other branded modules used for effects pedal routing, a noisy reverb, an output VCA to control input levels, and an Expert Sleepers ES-10 to go to my audio interface.
But every once in a while I have the occasion to get a case out of the house and play, which is always a nice treat. I don’t gig, although perhaps one day I will, but trips provide a nice change of scenery and a fresh perspective that can oftentimes lead to wonderful patches. While my primary synth has a huge array of modules and functionalities, a travel synth forces me to make hard choices. What to include? What can I leave behind? What modules can I omit and allow plugins to carry their water? These are always hard choices that require a lot of thought, and made even more difficult when you consider that many of these travel synths will be played by two people, and not just me. My brother has been playing Eurorack for several years longer than I have, and we have very different tastes and approaches to using the modular. In addition to bringing modules I know well, I also use travel cases as an opportunity to try gear that I haven’t really learned well, or that I’d like to further explore. There’s nothing quite like necessity to force you to learn a piece of gear you have, and all of your normal, go-to gear can’t be a crutch.
For travel synths I like to have at least four dedicated voices (with other modules like filters also capable of being a sound source), ample modulation, at least four VCAs, a sequencer, some form of touch control, some gate producers, a multifunction module, and at least a delay for effects (even if a plugin could handle that task). I use plugins for reverb, EQ, and granular synthesis. I don’t want the case to be too specific in its task because it’s a case about exploration, but it also has to make sense as an instrument.
For this year’s Xmas Synth, I chose to deploy the legendary Synthesis Technology E370 quad wavetable oscillator and Frap Tools CUNSA quad multimode filter extraordinaire as the core of the case around which the remainder was built. This takes care of the four voices, filtering, VCAs for those signals, as well as various levels of mixing those signals. CUNSA can also handle drum duty via pinging, or be fully fledged oscillators themselves. Both are incredibly advanced and bring a lot of functionality to the case.
I chose a clock, a quad function generator, a wave machine, and an all around powerhouse for modulation of various sorts, along with three channels of sequencing, a touch controller, one of my favorite delays, a switch, a couple of gate-makers, some VCAs, and two multifunction modules, one of which could likely perform several of the above functions on its own, as support.
It’s with this synth that my brother and I will be exploring over the next several days as we celebrate Christmas with our parents. Last year’s synth produced some interesting sounds. I’m sure this year will be even better.
Top Row (from left to right):
Calsynth uO_C (with Phazerville)
Synthesis Technology E370
Expert Sleepers Disting NT
Middle Row (from left to right):
Addac506 Stochastic Function Generator
Addac508 Swell Physics
Industrial Music Electronics Kermit Mk3
Frap Tools CUNSA
Bottom Row (from left to right):
Sitka Instruments Gravity
Doboz Prizma Mk2
Doboz T12
Xodes SS14
Nonlinearcircuits Stochaos
Jonah Senzel Pet Rock
Intellijel Amps (x2)
Venus Instruments Veno-Echo
Expert Sleepers ES-10