> Step by step

1. Modular basics with Bazille CM

1 The Computer Music edition of u-he’s Bazille is a powerful semimodular synthesiser with loads of flexibility. Though it offers a fixed number of modules, they can be interconnected as you see fit using virtual patch cables. Let’s take a look. Here, we’ve fired it up in our host. The default Init patch is as basic at it gets: a sawtooth waveform and a bit of echo. 2 That echo is going to be distracting, so let’s go to the lower-right, where we’ll find the FX: Delay section, and deactivate it with the power switch. Note that there’s a single patch cable in play. It runs from one of OSC 1’s outputs to an input on the OUT 1 section. Click on this last connection, drag it off to disconnect it. 3 Now when you play a note from a controller or your DAW, you won’t hear anything. That’s because Bazille requires some basic patching to work. Let’s try clicking on the same output in OSC 1 and dragging a virtual cable to one of the left-most patch points in the Filter section. Note that output jack ‘holes’ are red. 4 Looking at the Filter module, we see that there are a number of output jacks on the right, with each one labelled for the sort of filter mode it’s associated with. Let’s drag a virtual cable from the LP24 output to an input jack on the OUT 1 module. Playing a note will produce the default sound again. 5 Though we hear only the default square wave sound again, our signal is indeed now passing through the Filter module. We can hear this if we crank the filter’s Cutoff knob down to around 59 and play our sound again. Now, turn the Resonance up a bit. Not much happens. We need to introduce some modulation. 6 Look at the LFO 1 module. Find the output jack with the sawtooth/triangle/ramp waveforms. Run a cable from this jack to the input jack below one of the mod amount knobs (these branch into the Filter’s Cutoff knob). Turn the mod amount knob up a little and play the sound. You’ve now made a simple modular synth patch!