DivKid's Month Of Modular Issue #11 August 2016 | Page 16

with them myself, how are you getting on with it?

I’ve just plugged it in for the first time tonight. That was one of my $10 Patrons Ryan asking for a video on the PLL, and I was really happy he mentioned it - because exactly as you’ve suggested...I was vaguely aware of it but have never tried one. Perfect candidate. It’s not something on many people’s shopping lists, which I think is the beauty of it, as like all Doepfer it’s very affordable, well made, and interesting. Literally the only other PLL I can find in the format is WMD’s, which is kind of nuts, don’t you think?

It’s kind of a strange hybrid ‘VCO/Hard Sync’ module, which is capable of some freakish tones as it locks on to an input signal. I’m really looking forward to trying it on things like speech, singing (using Radio Music most likely), on drums and so forth, and just getting to the bottom of it. I think it’s going to be ace to demo something that’s more affordable too - and there’s a hell of a lot more to come.

We saw a glimpse of some

live improvised modular

acid on your YouTube

channel around a year ago

(click HERE for the video)

will you be taking the

modular out live again?

Yes, massively. Being the

late bloomer I am, I'm only

just now starting to truly

appreciate how completely fucking brilliant dancing to interesting techno in good clubs is. The techno 4/4-leanings in the Stepper Acid video is not coincidental. I’ve been enormously inspired by two people - Surgeon, with his 2014 Dekmantel boiler room video (Link), and Steevio, who just blows my frigging mind (Seriously, just watch this), and despite talking to him about this very subject (Link to his description of the rig), I still struggle to comprehend the exact flow/system of Doepfer utilities by which he works his magic - the key in his approach is how truly modular it is, it's absolutely the best expression of modular - next to Richie Devine he's easily the most innovative and developed modular artist I know. What's so good about this approach to live electronic music is that it is truly that - nothing is pre-prepared beyond a tuning standard, so as an

unrepeatable performance. Isn't that the absolute best expression of what live music should be? Let a record be a record. I have no interest in seeing someone who pretends to play live by DJing their tracks, or muting some elements in and out while adding the odd hand-played element or effect send. It's just not interesting. Instead let's take risks and give an audience an experience they can only witness because they were there. So I'm trying to build a rig that operates somewhere inbetween Surgeon and Steevio’s techniques, and play some shows built for dancing. I'll do a video explanation and demo if I can manage to pull it off ...