Tag Archives: modular synthesizer

Announcing ‘Model 15’ by Satri, the very first album of Moog Music’s ‘Model 15’ app solos

A great day for synth players! Moog Music has launched a new musical instrument for the iPad, the app named ‘Model 15’, replicating the actual Model 15 modular synthesizer from the same company. It’s my pleasure to release my ‘Model 15’ album of improvised solos played live on the ‘Model 15’ app and provided raw, without any mastering, sequencing, overdubbing or external effects — Model 15 allows us to play amazing tracks live.

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It’s the very first album entirely created with the Model 15 app simply because I’ve been lucky to be selected as a beta tester for the ‘Model 15’ app. My previous experience was with the musical instrument Animoog, for which I published two freely available albums of improvised solos, ‘Unanimoog, escape inside the music‘ and ‘Pianimoog •• discoverY‘, I had no experience with a modular synthesizer, and now I do! Over a period of a few weeks during late sessions once my girls were in bed, I’ve been able to explore the Model 15 app and discover the richness of its built-in presets.

The ‘Model 15’ app brings a classic modular synthesizer to the masses . An amateur like myself can have lots of fun playing this musical instrument live without any prior experience with modular synths — that was my case!

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The album is filled with freetronica tracks: electronic music played live without any part of the track pre-recorded. No excuses and no preparation required: pick the instrument and play! Just like for Animoog, quality headphones are required to fully enjoy the depth of those sounds.

Despite being used to the diversity of presets available for Animoog, I was surprised when I found the ‘Polynoise’ preset from sound designer Drew Neumann, a preset sounding like the wind! I found myself happily smiling “I am the wind!”. The album smoothly begins with two tracks of blowing air :-) Then at some point I started messing with the Model 15 knobs while playing and wonderful sound modulations reached my ears. Understanding what the knobs and wires do is not a requirement, but it’s certainly an asset. The track ‘Constrained nonetheless’ is such a track where I turn knobs while playing live.

Some presets offer repeating patterns thanks to Model 15’s embedded arpeggiator which provided a different inspiration to me, such as this track ‘There will be more’:

This short 30-minutes album presents 13 tracks offered in chronological order. The various presets I leveraged are listed in the table below. Sound designers are able to do magic with the Model 15 app. My freetronica albums are brought forward by the Apptronica label, a warm and welcoming home for several ‘iOS musicians’. The album is freely available on Bandcamp and soon available in many other places online. Like my previous ones, it is available under the CC-BY Creative Commons license and consequently, free to anyone to copy, use and transform.

I’m impressed with the sound quality of the presets available for this musical instrument, and this is only day one of Moog Music’s
Model 15 app which officially launched today!

It’s incredibly fun to play such tracks live: instant freetronica gratification for lots of us! I still have lots to learn and to improve, especially that there’s now many more presets available than what was available during the beta testing phase. I expect musicians to start creating surprising new music thanks to the expressiveness capabilities of apps like Animoog and this new Model 15 app.

Track list for the 'Model 15' album by Satri
#track nametimeModel 15 preset
1The wind0:41Pad / Drew Neumann
Polynoise
2Another blow1:09Pad / Drew Neumann
Polynoise
3Lumières2:01Brass / Fabio Di Mauro
Sperimenting in
4Learning to walk1:54Arpeggio / Kevin Lamb
Play one note at a time
5Constrained nonetheless2:49Brass / Trent Thompson
Wod wheelopoly
6Take off0:59FX / Trent Thompson
Ghost in the record
7Being real3:04Keys / Geert Bevin
Soft poly
8La foule1:22Brass / Trent Thompson
Wod wheelopoly
9Yourself alive6:05Tom Wies
Sequence I
10There will be more2:07Tom Wies
Sequence I
11Three trees2:25Tom Wies
Sequence III
12Through the rift2:59Modern / Geert Bevin
Between The Edges
13Steam loco1:50FX / Tony Saunders
Steam loco
14Ledom 51 test 145:54Tom Wies
Sequence I
15Légère2:04Keys / Geert Bevin
Soft poly
16Flat Earth horizon1:46Modern
Cosmic Organ Grinder
17D'autres traces0:39Modern / Geert Bevin
Sagittent Voluris

I’d like to thank Animoog.org readers for their patience since the time spent preparing this album significantly delayed other Animoog-related content I want to, and will, share with you. I hope you’ll like my new album and that it will inspire you to create in your own way! — Alex / Satri

UPDATE 2016-05-16: Here’s a followup post named Final Version of Satri’s ‘Model 15’ Album: Four New Tracks, thanks — Alex / Satri

‘I Dream of Wires’ Documentary, Animoog’s Origins

In a nutshell, if you’d like to understand where Animoog comes from, from the very beginning of sound synthesis and modular synthesizers up to now, I strongly encourage you to watch the ‘I dream of wires’ documentary.

When I discovered and fell in love with Animoog, I knew very little of electronic music — its origins and history. While I’ve been slowly learning, I watched ‘I dream of wires’ over the weekend and not only numerous pieces of the puzzle found their place, but I learned much in this information-packed documentary.

While the documentary focuses on the modular synthesizer, I consider it really helps understanding where Animoog comes from — its sound design capabilities and even its user interface. Animoog is even shown for a second or two in the documentary itself, the only app to make an appearance.

This documentary was also inspiring to me at multiple levels. I hope it will do the same to you. Here’s the trailer. Enjoy! — Alex / Satri