User`s manual

ARTURIA – MOOG MODULAR V 2.6 – USER’S MANUAL 109
9 A FEW ELEMENTS OF SOUND DESIGN
Here is a series of examples designed to guide you through the creation of a sound and a
sequence. They are classed in order of complexity beginning with the easiest, and are
organized into 4 parts:
The first part will teach you the basics of modular sound synthesis. For this you will go from
the most basic patch (Make a VCO oscillator “ring” in an output VCA amp) to programming a
richer sound (several VCO sources, VCF filters, VCA envelopes…)
The second will help you to use all of the different aspects of the sequencer
The third will show you tips on the creative use of the key follows, triggers and the creation of
a stereophonic sound without using extra chorus and delay effects.
The fourth and last part will guide you through the use of three of the new modules in the
Moog Modular V 2.0: the Bode Shifter, the envelope follower and the Formant Filter.
9.1 M ODULAR SOUND SYNTHESIS
9.1.1 Simple patch #1
To begin, we will learn how to program an elementary monophonic sound. It will be composed
of 4 modules:
 an oscillator
 a low pass filter
 an output VCA
 the envelope corresponding to the output VCA.
You will thus obtain the base patch of subtractive synthesis.
If you click on one of the “Inv” buttons on the mixer VCAs, this will not change the base tone of the preset but will
invert the signal connected to this VCA. (For example, a descending “sawtooth” signal will become ascending)
In addition, if you apply soft clipping (light distortion) on one of the VCA, the operation will most likely use more CPU
load than before.
The following figure shows the connections for this sound as well as the position of the
different knobs: