Adventures in Synthesis: Generative Modular Synthesis (Pure Data + DIY Hardware Modular)

Published on Jul 5, 2017 Chris Beckstrom

"TL;DR?
This is a patch that plays itself. I make a few adjustments but for the most part this is bleepy bloopy self-playing modular synthesizer music.

Download my PD modular here (free and open source!):
https://github.com/chrisbeckstrom/pd_...

Download this specific patch:
https://github.com/chrisbeckstrom/pd_...

I've been building a modular synth inside the free and open source software Pure Data, and lately I've been experimenting with ways to integrate my physical modular with it. Using a combination of audio, MIDI, arduino, linux tricks, and some other stuff, I got them humming together nicely.

The PD gui lags wildly with everything going on - I'll have to figure out how to prevent that sort of issue. But it sure is fun to hear it in action!

This patch is so complicated I couldn't accurately describe each part of it. Basically there is a master clock (a software VCO) which is routed all over the place, including into my real life modular via an arduino. All the other rhythms divided from that pulse using dividers, random gates, probability modules, etc. Also I plugged a radio into the modular, which gets in the mix and ends up back in Pure Data before everything is mixed and recorded right to the video."