Modules, explained
58 building blocks, grouped the way a hardware system is: things that make sound, things that shape it, and things that move the knobs for you.
Sources
VCO
Voltage-controlled oscillator — the basic sound source. It produces a continuous, pitched tone.
Noise
Random signal — hiss, wind, surf, snare body, or a random source for Sample & Hold.
Drum Trio
Three synthesized drum voices: a kick, a snare and a hi-hat.
Plucked String
A physical model of a plucked string — guitar, harp, koto, and plenty that never existed.
Resonator
A set of tuned resonators — like the body of a bell, a marimba bar or a gong waiting to be hit.
Wavetable
An oscillator that morphs between four waveforms, with a Width control that bends the wave’s shape.
Sampling
Sampler
Plays back a recording — a drum loop, your voice, any audio file.
Granular
Shatters a sound into hundreds of tiny grains and sprays them back out as clouds, drones and shimmer.
Looper
A loop pedal: record a phrase, it repeats, and you can keep layering on top.
Mic In
Your computer’s microphone as a sound source.
Modulation
LFO
Low-frequency oscillator — a slow, repeating wave used to move other things automatically.
ADSR
Envelope generator — shapes how a note rises and falls over time.
Sample & Hold
Sample & Hold — takes a snapshot of a signal on every trigger and holds it until the next one.
Lorenz
A Lorenz attractor — the famous “butterfly” system from chaos theory. Three related signals that wander forever without repeating.
Env Follower
Measures how loud a sound is and turns that into a control signal.
Slew
Makes sudden jumps into smooth glides.
Sequencing
Clock
The tempo source. Sends regular pulses that drive sequencers, drums and anything else that needs timing.
Step Sequencer
An 8-step sequencer — plays a repeating melody with a note and an on/off for each step.
Euclid
Euclidean rhythm generator — spreads a number of hits as evenly as possible around a loop.
Quantizer
Quantizer — snaps any voltage to the nearest note of a musical scale.
Chord
Turns one note into a chord: four pitch outputs a chord’s worth apart.
Arpeggiator
An arpeggiator — plays a chord’s notes one after another, on every clock tick.
Logic
Boolean logic for gates — combine rhythms into new ones.
Clock Divider
Derives slower, faster and random clocks from one clock.
Turing Machine
The Turing Machine: a random melody that loops — and slowly changes.
Game of Life
Conway’s Game of Life — a famous cellular automaton — used as a sequencer.
Drum Seq
A drum machine’s grid: four lanes of sixteen steps, one trigger output per lane.
Burst
Turns one trigger into a quick roll of triggers — the ratchets of drill ’n’ bass hats and trap rolls.
Controllers
Keyboard
Play notes yourself — with the computer keyboard, the mouse, or a MIDI controller.
Poly Keys
A keyboard for chords: up to four notes at once, each on its own voice.
XY Pad
A touch pad that turns your mouse position into two control signals.
Bouncing Balls
Balls bouncing in a box — every bounce is a trigger.
Gamepad
Play the synth with a game controller.
Phone Tilt
Tilt and shake a phone or tablet to control the synth.
Shapers
Filter
Voltage-controlled filter — removes some frequencies to change the tone. The most expressive module in a synth.
VCA
Voltage-controlled amplifier — a volume knob that signals can turn.
Vowel
Formant filter — makes sounds say “aah”, “eeh”, “ooh”…
Drive
Distortion — adds harmonics and grit.
Low-Pass Gate
A low-pass gate: a filter and a VCA that close together. The secret behind “west coast” plucky, wooden, bongo-like notes.
Effects
Bitcrusher
Bitcrusher — lo-fi digital degradation.
Delay
Echo — repeats the sound after a delay, each repeat a little darker.
Reverb
Simulated room or hall — puts the sound in a space.
Mod FX
The classic swirling modulation effects: chorus, phaser and flanger.
Stereo Pan
Places a sound in the stereo field — and can move it about by itself.
Ducker
Sidechain ducking: one sound makes another get quieter — the pumping dance-music effect.
Glitch
Breaks audio on purpose: stutters, machine-gun rolls, reverses, octave jumps and tape stops, locked to a clock.
Vocoder
The robot-voice effect: makes a synth speak with the shape of your voice.
Pitch Shifter
Shifts a sound up or down in pitch without changing its speed — harmonies from one voice, chipmunks, demons.
Utility
Mixer
Combines up to four signals into one.
Scale / Offset
Scale / Offset — the adapter that makes any signal fit any input.
Scope
Oscilloscope — shows what signals look like.
Output
The way out to your speakers.
Spectrum
Shows which frequencies are in a sound — or acts as a tuner.
Recorder
Records audio to a WAV file you can download.
Switch
Chooses which of four signals goes through — the routing trick at the heart of modular.
Compressor
A compressor turns the loudest moments down, so a sound is more even — and then louder overall. On drums it adds punch.
EQ
A three-band equaliser: turn the bass, middle and treble up or down.
Stereo Mixer
A four-channel stereo mixer with an effects send — like a small mixing desk.