As a sound designer for a video game company, I’m building my first modular synth. The main purpose would be creating textures, sampling and mangling them, mostly for UI sounds and drones.
Since I’m a beginner in modular synth, I have two questions : 1 / What’s your general thought about this setup knowing the main goal? 2 / Is there any “must have” I’ll be missing ?
I don’t know much about modular, but standalone semi-modular like 0-Coast, other Mother 32 or Pittsburgh Lifeforms SV-1 offer oscillators, envelopes, etc. + character for less than dedicated modules, you might want to look into that as well.
I think it is too difficult to approach it like this. In my experience, either you make the sounds that you discover on the modular based on what you have, or you start building up modules over time so that you are always learning one and fulfilling the needs that the current ones don’t fill. Based on what you posted, it looks like you have a basic mono synth + wavetable oscillator + Clouds for sample mangling. Have you played around with any other modular stuff before or creating patches on other synths? Or even better, do you live near any of the major modular synth places where you could try out a set of modules before buying?
I don’t want to discourage you, because modular is very cool to play with and offers a lot of exploration. But if you have something specific in your head as to what you want to create, then maybe focusing the modular on just a single aspect to begin with would be to your advantage (creatively and financially). To be specific, sample mangling seems to be one area in which you can get a lot more creativity out of modular compared to what else is on the market. Basic synth voices, on the other hand, can be done for much cheaper outside of modular.
I think with a small Modular rig like you have described will not give you much more sound design power than a laptop. To really bennifit from a modular for sound design you need to have tonnes of modulation possibilities and then Probably interface them with your “middleware” audio programming software (been a while since I studied game audio lol). I would suggest something like an Elektron Analog 4 or a Dave Smith Pro 2. These offer you endless sound design possibilities and give you everything you need to create modular level sounds, but with more integrated control.
