Cherry Audio Voltage Modular
An audio-visual recreation of a Eurorack system, Cherry Audio’s Voltage Modular offers an expandable experimental experience
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ll be aware that modular synthesisers are all the rage among the electronic cognoscenti, who revel in the ability to expand, interchange and interconnect a vast variety of modules. And why not? Electronic music has always been about cutting a swathe through mundanity, and modular synthesis allows musicians the power to create a unique instrument from an à la carte menu of disparate options. This second generation of modular is far more pervasive than the first, and manufacturers big and small have entered the burgeoning – even bloated – modular marketplace.
Still, this is the 21st century and many musicians simply can’t be bothered with something as archaic as wires and knobs – only virtual voltage will do. Thankfully – and perhaps inevitably – software developers have joined the fray. Case in point: Cherry Audio’s Voltage Modular, whose Eurorack-styled virtual framework allows users to mix and match a growing catalogue of compatible modules, some included with the basic package, others available from Cherry Audio themselves and third-party developers – well, three so far, PSP Audioware, Vult and Misfit Audio.
On the surface, Voltage Modular looks and behaves like a real Eurorack modular system, but there are some little known tricks that can push your patches far beyond what you can achieve with even the most outlandish hardware modular rack.
The following tutorials will give you a taste of what all the hubbub is about and, hopefully, show you a thing or two along the way.