When music synthesis was not digital and even less virtual, all what cables were carrying was voltage. Were it audio or control, anything could be sent anywhere, and it is still the case with today’s descendants of the early modular behemoths.
It is interesting to note that both old and new can still talk to each other after half a century of technological leaps.
Over the years, digital electronics and computers have brought undeniable benefits to music creation.
Remains a puzzling question: why are there today more manufacturers of modular synths than when the genre was prevailing? Are our shiny computers and interfaces not supposed to have solved all the trouble of the past? You may argue about the intuitiveness and tactile feedback of real knobs (agreed), the sound character (it’s up to you to judge).
Whatever the reason, modular is still with us in this computer age. But you have to admit that modular and computers do not unite too well. In fact they live in two different worlds.
This is a pity, because many complex functions could be implemented in a computer more richly and cheaper than with cryptic mechanical switches (not to mention the missing benefit of a high-res screen).
The trouble is that computers and network switches usually lack CV jacks. Computers are not naturally meant to blend with patching cables.
Other limitations quickly spring to mind: why be limited to a single computer? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to give old computers a second life as if they each were additional modules to your patchable racks? What about setting up an intricate device without having to struggle with its user interface as if you were trying to break the code of the enigma machine?
This entire preamble illustrates the current situation that is far from being satisfactory, and a status quo is not desirable.
Hopefully, more fun awaits around the corner. When the foundations of CopperLan were laid out, great care was taken to safeguard the freedom of controlling the music creation as with modular synths in the system definition: not only the possibility to carry the values that represent voltages but also a messaging vocabulary as flexible as a patch cable.
This is why, with CopperLan, you can send anything anywhere; the (free and continuous) pitch can be specified independently of any gating, the gating, triggering and retriggering being distinct actions. Functional blocks can be self-modulating under the control of a third party; yes, complete modular freedom!
Merging modular synths, networking and computers with CopperLan allows going well beyond what the separate constituents permit when taken separately.
Think of separating a module in two, so that part of it exist as a piece of hardware in a rack and its other half as a set of undulating waves on a computer display. Think of mathematical processes that you insert in your patch rack as easily as a cable.
Combining CV, MIDI, hardware, software, while decoupling the control and the result, as well as the need and the place, assigning to each part the best role in its domain. That’s what one would call modular.
