MOST modular artists it seems use it for techno, industrial, bleep bloop music, and a smaller portion do it for ambient and/or drones. It was the ambient/drone side of things that caught my attention. However, even here, the MAJORITY of ambient / drone artists all have a similar workflow and in turn, a similar sound at a very broad level. No doubt there are people doing very interesting things (field recordings mixed with modular, very few (it seems) integrating with guitar, etc). In the MAJORITY of cases it seems it is all one or the other. You're either modular or you're pedals. There are people mixing the two and bring the worlds together which is PART of what I want to do. Besides what i've said earlier in this thread, a big appeal is the ability to have sounds evolve and change WITHOUT using knobs or expression pedals and simply by setting your patch. Parallel processing is going to be very important to me because i want to retain the guitar sound first and foremost (of course this will depend on what kind of track i'm making or layer for that track but i mean this for my overall sound). I don't want to sound like a guitar turned into a synth. I don't want to use modular as some do to turn a synth into a guitar. Minimalism is key for me in a lot of this... which is funny cause it is modular afterall. Not minimalism in gear but in what is going on in a patch. It may be something as simple as taking the send/return on one of my delay pedals and having Clouds in that loop..... but within that loop having a very melodic and ryhthmic patch happening over the long repeats of my delay pedal s\to achieve something that is much more difficult to do with pedals.... not impossible by any means. I do a lot of this stuff already with pedals but i feel modular opens up a lot more possibilities. Not to say i won't create full tracks with modular and use pedals as secondary because that will happen as well. Aside from these methods I am all about layers and textures. Nothing excites me more about making music than when you come up with a sound or texture that is unlike anything you've ever heard before. Making layers under, over, parallel to the guitar is where it's at for me.
I don't think I'll ever have one standard workflow. While that makes things easier, I find myself more creative when I change workflows. As an example of mixing it all, i'll do something like create a drum track with DrumBrute, use Organelle through modular for one layer, use guitar for another layer, use a combination of two for another, use the Folktek Triad for a texture layer, process vocals through modular, create a bass line with Sub 37 through modular, run a field recording through modular for another layer and it goes on and on and on. That's just what brings me joy and ultimately, what I feel is, something a little different from the "norm" in these areas....... but this is ILF and not many people here are doing the "norm" of anything......... which is why i love this place!
I'm the pinnacle of excess when it comes to buying gear but it hasn't stifled my creativity or writing. If anything, it has helped me grow as an artist with a more unique vision and understanding of what it is I want out of this. Don't get me wrong... i'll always throw a guitar straight into my Verellen on the high gain channel and do the br00tz and i'll record things like that as well, but I think my gear purchases have ultimately helped define what kind of artist I will be. I'm SURE i would write more than i do with a 6 pedal pedalboard that never changed.... i'd probably play better because i wouldn't be fiddling with pedals and gear.... i'd probably have more songs out... but FOR ME, i wouldn't be as fulfilled as I am taking the route i've taken so far.
This whole modular thing is a test for me. I may end up hating it, which is fine, but in the meantime, i LOVE that i'm learning it. I think it'll help even if I drop it all and go back to strictly pedals. I enjoy the building blocks mentality of it. Anyways..... enough ramble. I'm gonna go buy a Triple Sloth now.
