There’s no need to be depressed – no one was born knowing how to use a modular synth. And the good news is, you just found the solution.

Learning how to “patch” modular synths isn’t difficult – once you grasp how they work on the inside, and know what each module is doing to the signal flowing through it. Fortuantely, this knowledge can be learned in just a few hours, and will cost you less than a single module.

True story:

There was a musician in our local modular meetup who felt he could crack the code on his own by aimlessly patching away, hoping to stumble across some great sounds. To save money, he bought whatever used modules came up for sale cheap. To save time, he declared he didn’t need a formal education. But he also admitted that if he couldn’t get anything except noise out of his modular, he was going to give it all up.

Then he started watching my videos, and read my book. Now he’s re-organized his system, is playing live on a weekly basis, and has a plan of what modules to get to help him reach his goals. In short, now he’s enjoying using his modular, rather than getting frustrated fighting with it.

What I’ve created for you:

In addition to this Learning Modular website – which contains a modular synth glossary, blog posts and tutorials on modular synths, where to find me on social media, and more – I have created a series of online beginning through intermediate modular synth courses plus co-wrote a book that will help clear away the confusion that can come with learning modular synthesizers.

These cover the basic concepts of sound and voltage control, which are the key to understanding how a modular synth works. Each one leads you through how to create a typical “patch”, then demonstrates what different modules do and how you can use them creatively. By the end of each, you will know what module to reach for and which patch connections to make to create the sounds you want – whether you’re coming at it from electronic dance music (EDM) or ambient drone styles, East Coast or West Coast synthesis approaches, and more.

Why am I the one to help you ?

I too was attracted to the sounds of electronic music when I was young. I wanted to figure out how to make those sounds myself. I took synthesis lessons as a teen in the 1970s, learning on a modular Steiner-Parker Synthasystem. A kit-based PAiA modular was my dorm room companion in college. Soon after I graduated, I was working at the legendary synth manufacturer Sequential Circuits, where I contributed to several instruments and created Vector Synthesis. I went on to work for Digidesign, Marion Systems (Tom Oberheim), and was the chief engineer at Roland R&D US.

In other words, I know how these machines work from the inside out – I’ve even designed them.

And I’ve always enjoyed sharing what I’ve learned. I taught synthesis at UCLA Extension, was the technical editor for Music Technology and Recording magazines, and wrote a column for Keyboard magazine. I continue today, writing module reviews for Synth & Software.

I also have a lot of experience creating videos and books. Before I started Learning Modular, I created nearly 50 online courses on creating graphics for television and film for lynda.com (now LinkedIn Learning), and my wife Trish and I co-wrote 13 books on the subject. And in the past few years, I’ve created several courses and co-wrote a book on modular synthesis (see below).

In short, I know how to distill complex subjects down to information artists can immediately put to use.

So – which path will you choose?

You can continue to use modular synths the way you have, poking around and hoping for happy accidents to magically appear.

Or, you can save time, money, and frustration by learning how these wonderful machines actually work on the inside. Once you have mastered the fundamental concepts and techniques I will share, the barriers between you and your synth will melt away, and it will become your partner – rather than your adversary – when you want to create your own sounds and music.

I offer several different paths at different price points (starting at free!), designed for different levels and types of modular user – including you. Each one is described in brief below, with a link to the page where you can read about them in more detail. If you choose an online course, you can register and buy it on that page, getting immediate, unlimited access to the information you want. If you choose the book Patch & Tweak or my Patreon page, an additional link will take you to those sites where you can order or subscribe.