Voltage Starved Compression Goodness with Hungry Thumb

video upload by Robots Are Red and Hive Mind Synthesis

"Hungry Thumb, by Modular 4 the Masses.

This is an 8-10hp Voltage Starved Compressor module with additional side chain and EQ.

Thank you to Modular 4 the Masses for providing the module for this video."

00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Demo with Kick only
06:58 - Full Drums
09:14 - Plucky Voice
12:00 - Full Mix

HungryThumb is a Eurorack adaptation of a compressor named Engineer's Thumb, typically built as a guitar effect pedal. Juanito built an Engineer's Thumb early in the tin can synth journey, naively replicating the 9V core of the circuit, and then didn't really know what to do with it.

Until they put an 808 kick drum through it. As a kick drum processor, this compressor shines brightly, especially when the Starve settings reduces the core circuitry voltage to 9V and lower. You can get even the purest 808-style kick drum signal, which will be mostly a sine wave, to crunch, clip, gate, fizz and fold. Do you need hardstyle kicks in your modular? This can get you there.

The Engineer's Thumb this circuit is based on uses an LM13700 OTA chip as the adjustable gain portion. These chips are a bit noisy, so an innovation of Engineer's Thumb was to put the gain section in an op amp inverting feedback loop, meaning while the compressor is set to its highest gain, the OTA is set to its lowest gain, and will theoretically be creating less noise. The theory checks out, but I'm not sure how much we Eurorack people care about noise floor.

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Intro to Modular Synthesis – Part 3 of 3: Everything Else

video upload by Robots Are Red

All parts here

"In this third and final video of Intro to Modular Synthesis, we'll take a look at a variety of other staples of synthesis and modular.

Here is a quick look at everything covered in the video:
00:00 - Introduction
00:51 - Mults & Splitters
03:44 - Attenuators & Attenuverters
05:36 - Quantization
07:39 - Wave Rectification
09:15 - Slew
11:25 - Sample & Hold/Track & Hold
14:45 - Subharmonic Generator
16:04 - Full Moog Style Patch
19:54 - Frequency Modulation
23:33 - Amplitude Modulation
25:57 - Ring Modulation

Again, special thanks to After Later Audio for providing a good handful of modules for this video series!"

Intro to Modular Synthesis – Part 2 of 3: Patch Building

video upload by Robots Are Red

All parts here

"In this video we will look at building patches and all the modules you will need for both a Moog and Buchla style patch.

If you have any questions about anything covered in the video, leave a comment and I will do my best to answer.

Jump to any section of the video:
00:00 - Opening
01:08 - Sequencers/Controllers
02:25 - East Coast Synthesis
03:03 - Oscillator
06:40 - Filter
10:46 - Envelope & VCA
15:45 - West Coast Synthesis
16:34 - Wavefolder
18:32 - Low Pass Gate
21:36 - Pseudo Low Pass Gate

Special Thanks to After Later Audio for providing some modules for this video series!"

Intro to Modular Synthesis – Part 1 of 3: Control Voltage

video upload by Robots Are Red

All parts here

"Looking to get into modular synthesizers, or just curious how they work? Join me in this video where we go back to the basics with an introduction to modular synthesis. In part one of this three part series we will talk about the main building block of modular synthesis, control voltage. Breaking control voltage down to it's most basic 5 types: LFOs, Stepped Voltage, Triggers, Gates, and Envelopes.

Jump to any section of the video:
00:00 - Opening
00:35 - Introduction
01:11 - What is Modular Synthesis?
02:05 - How does it work?
04:22 - Control Voltage
05:52 - CV Types
07:14 - Low Frequency Oscillators
08:01 - Stepped Voltages
08:40 - Triggers
09:04 - Gates
10:33 - Envelopes
12:06 - All you need to know
12:25 - What is so special about Modular Synthesis?
13:17 - Some Music

Part 2 will be a video rundown of all the basic module types and how they work. Part 3 will be utilizing all we learned from Parts 1 and 2 to build some synth and drum patches.

Special thanks to After Later Audio for providing some modules for this video series."