What is a modular synthesizer?

Answer 1

Modular synthesizers are synthesizers assembled from a number of smaller, separate modules to suit the musicians' needs. A single module can provide a sound generator, sequencer, filter or just about any imaginable sound synthesis function. Short detachable cables called patchcords are used to direct signals from circuit to circuit (be it in the same or another module), and finally to an amplifier to be made sound. They are capable of a vastly wider range of sounds than any single-piece synthesizer, limited by little more than the musician's ingeniosity, but are also challenging to work with, and commonly cumbersome. They tend to also lack presets, so that any sounds must be generated from scratch or from modification of sounds from other sources. Any finished sound ("patch") must be then sampled or saved in some other fashion, if one wants to make use of it later.

Modulars were most popular in the late 60s to the 70s, probably the most famous brand being the Moog Modular. They initially replaced huge monolithic synthesizers where only a specific synthesizer sound was needed, but their full potential was soon realized. This was the time when electronic music went on to quickly evolve from simple bleeps and tinkles and drones to contain dizzyingly complex sounds, in the hands groups such as Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk. In the 80s modulars fell out of popularity, replaced by 1) relatively versatile and easy-to-use single-piece synthesizers such as the MiniMoog and the TB303, and 2) the MIDI (Music Instrument Digital Interface) standard, which allowed using synthesizers of different make, and many other electric instruments, in a "modular" fashion (with some limitations). Several old and new brands, including computer software renditions ("virtual" modulars), are still being produced for synthesizer enthusiants.