Hi David again,

Thanks for your comments! Yes, it is obvious that it is written for university students. When I read the text I feel a student myself, almost seeing Strange in front of me patching away in the middle of the Arena.
Although I never went to college, I have a pretty good understanding of the english language. So the level of Strange's english is not to high for me. And he's a great tutor like Stordeur.

Oh don't worry, I won't quit. I like this book a lot. It has teached me a lot of things! I'm reading it again. Yes, FM or Cross modulation as it's also called, is one the most important wapons of a modular synth. David, you know that was totally new to me. I didn't learn that with analog synthesis! Looking into synths of old like Arp Odyssey, I find out that they had a basic form (hardwired) FM with only one VCO FM another. And that nowadays non-modular VA's, have to have it! But only with a true modular you can expand this concept by integrating more and more VCO's who are FM' ed by other VCO's. Since a child I am experimenting with all sorts of things in life and a modular synth is an ideal tool for this.

I understand that, when I have FM'ed one VCO (master) by another (slave) using a sinus (and also the FM'ed VCO2 sinus out to VCA) with both ranges at -2, I actually have 2 VCO's working as LFO's, due to the bubbling sound, which indicates a very slow frequency. When I then crank up the range of VCO1 to say +1 I get a tone. Which means I went from subsonic to audio sonic right! My A-111 (High End VCO) has maximum minus range of -3. Is it true, that when you go deeper, you end up hearing nothing
I also notice going back to my patch, that when I crank up the range of VCO2 the amplitude is getting higher, resulting in louder sound. Not only that the sound is also getting brighter, as if the cutt off frequency of a LPF is involved. Why is that I know that these sidebands you hear are called a-periodicals or a-periodic cycles. I noticed that it can change if you use different waveforms! Thus every waveform acts diferently to this.

David, back to Strange's book. When I want to try out the examples, a lot of the times I don't have enough modules (yet) which the scheme indicates! What the Strange book learned me was the fact that an EG is far more sophisticated then only a wavefrom shaper, you can actually use it to make completely new sounds!!!

When I patching away with my proud and joy, the A-100 I always listen what is happening to the sound. I notice for example when you put a wavefrom, say a sawtooth of a A-145 (LFO) directly in the audio in of a A-130, the amplitude is very low. Is this cause the output of the LFO is not an audio signal And why has the A-131 VCA (exp.) so little output when I use it I have turn up the gain to 10 to hear some noise!
And multiples are very important!!!! To create more in's and out's is soundwise very interesting. You can't have enough of these modules in your systeem.

So what's you first best pastime

cheers,

Roel.

David warned:

Roe,

Although Alan Strange's book can be a bit tough, remember it started life as a manual for students taking a degree in electronic music.

Keep at it though, it is a fine text. Try out the examples and try to take the time to explore each module on it's own or with other modules that you understand well. This way you can get a better understanding of what happens when say a VCO fm input is fed by either another VCO, an LFO, an envelope, etc. It helps when you hear that sound in your head and decide to create it.

Best of all enjoy making noise, second best pastime there is.

regards



David Salter
Reuters Consulting
Tel: +44 20 7542 2402
Mob: +44 7990562402
Fax: +44 20 7542 2699



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