At Friday’s workshop I explored how Rashad Becker produces his tracks by learning the basic functionalities of modular synthesis. The application we used was VCV rack that allows one to ‘wire up’ the different modules without the repercussions of potentially destroying some very valuable equipment, as well as being an online free platform that makes it accessible for good practice.

 As someone with very little technical knowledge with how the different modules connect, by the end of the session I was glad to have learnt the general concept of how it works, and what capabilities it offers. I will admit that I was quite lost for the first half, however once I had decided to copy what was presented on the board and work backwards by removing the wires one by one and listening to what was going on it became a lot clearer to me. Based on the basic setup with the ADSR, VCA and audio, I then went ahead and downloaded plateau reverb, a liquid filter, BLEAK analog, HORA soft bell and HORA deep boosted bass drum. With the basis of BLEAK being my starting analog, I connected this to the liquid filter that passed through the ADSR, VCA, plateau to the audio output. For some reason CLKD wouldn’t download for me so I substituted it for the regular LFO provided and selected the saw wave to connect it to the ADSR gate in order to provide audio. I then decided to add HORA bass drum kick for a more rhythmic feel just as in Becker’s work (Dances VI, 2016). The only available output was the right one in the audio, so in order for both the BLEAK analog and the kick to be heard in mono I added merge, that allows multiple instruments to connect to the audio output. The final sound I added was the soft bell chimes to contrast the deep sounds heard already. I tuned both the bell and bass drum to be played in octaves as this seems as far as Rashad Becker’s use of harmony goes in his tracks. The rest of my time was spent playing around with the decay, gain, pulse width and more. 

Through this process I have learnt that making music does not have to necessarily start from any form of melodic idea, pitch or rhythm. The use of modular synthesis provides a different, unconventional way of making what we recognise music to be culturally. My biggest challenge was resisting the urge to attempt to hear something melodic and to try not to think so seriously about trying to make it sound ‘nice’ to hear.

Rashad Becker (2016) ‘Dances VI’, Traditional Music of Notional Species Vol.II. Available at: Spotify (17th October 2024).