When I break my social media diet and visit a forum or reddit, I see the same two posts over and over, you’ve probably seen them too: “What Module Should I Buy Next,” and “What Module Should I Buy First.” When I see the same posts again and again, it tells me that there is an opportunity to educate, and my brain tells me: You should write a guide for this. I didn’t want to for a long time, because I don’t want to discourage those posters for seeking knowledge, and frankly, I’m not looking to be a buzzkill. But listening to a recent (excellent) interview on the great Podular Modcast with DivKid greatly helped me distill some of my own thinking, and made me realize I wasn’t alone in my opinions. Disclaimer: These are personal opinions based on my personal experience, so if it doesn’t apply to you, that is ok and it makes sense.

Tips from an Old Beginner to a New Beginner

I was super excited when I bought my first modular system. I wasn’t sure what I would do with it, exactly, but I knew I had always wanted a modular. A guy on Craigslist was selling his home-built, quasi-working, non-format MFOS system, and we negotiated a price I could afford. The system was essentially a multi-oscillator mono synth, and when I plugged it in, my first thought was… is this it? Why did I get another (harder to use) analog mono-synth. What the heck am I going to do with this thing?

I struggled with this for months! Eventually I decided to scale back on my intentions (whatever those were) for modular and focus on learning about what made modular unique. I would spend hours just listening to the oscillators, mixing their outputs together, and getting them to “beat.” I would run external audio through the filters, and, slowly, by experimenting with each module at a time, and really focusing, I gradually learned what they could do together that was different from my other gear, and more importantly, what investments would expand what I could do. It’s for this reason I advise: When starting out – DON’T START BY BUILDING A MODULAR MONOSYNTH (more on that below.) Now you know where I am coming from, now onto why I don’t think asking what module to buy next or first is the most productive question.

The above is an example of me experimenting with two oscillators beating against each other in my first modular system. There were no VCAs or envelopes patched, I was just studying the behavior of these oscillators through filters.