Creamware Modular II Classes

castol · Post by **castol** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 3:36 am

John Bowen of <a href="http://www.zargmusic.com">Zarg Music</a href>, creator of such wonderfull creamware dsp plug-ins as the Sequential Circuits "Software Survival Kit", as well as many others. Has purposed to us in the recent past that he would be interested in doing an ongoing series of Modular Synthesis (Creamware ModularII in particular, but not limited to) lessons. Via the very viable medium the World Wide Web provides; email, real-time chat, video conferencing, text/html, graphics, and Creamware Modular II patches.

This project was put on the "backburner" so to speak, for probobly many reasons, the main one being that not enough people expressed interest. Now is your time to express interest and perhaps unfied we can present to him enough of an incentive to revive this idea.

A small fee would be required, say $25-40 USD.

If anyone is interested they can express interest here. I will be more than happy to relay this information to John. You are also encouraged to contact him yourself @ <a href="mailto:johnbowen@bigplanet.com">johnbowen@bigplanet.com</a href>. He's a really nice guy, willing to thoughtfully anwser any questions you may have, and obviously give you more information on these lessons than I could.

On his site he maintains a small <a href="http://www.zargmusic.com/discussionthreads/">Discussion Board</a href>. This would be another means of getting in contact and expressing interest.

I haven't contacted John yet about this...and it stands to be that he may not have the time to go through with these lessons at this point in point. Or perhaps he's even lost interest completely (highly doubtfull

).

I wish to contact him and explain, and or prove, and point to the fact that there is <i>indeed</i> a subtantial number of individuals interested in pursuing these lessons, paying a marginal fee for his time and expertise.

It may may even pan out that some of us modular users could contribute lessons, or ideas that we would like covered.

A simple yay, or nay and an email if interterested is all i'm asking at this point . Or doing one of the other few things I have mentioned here, or any others you could think of for that matter.

I can be contacted at <a href="mailto:amfreq@hotmail.com">amfreq@hotmail.com</a href>

This query will be cross-posted this to all the known Creamware Forums on the WWW.

Please followup if interested!

Thank You.

//c

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-03-25 03:55 ]</font>

musquash · Post by **musquash** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 3:58 am

why do people start now to post the same thread in different topics?
it's becoming annoying after a while..

castol · Post by **castol** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 4:17 am

?

for maximum exposure, of course. not everyone reads or visits every forum, and some forums are more specific to topics than others, others are more general.

no?

sometimes cross-posting to multiple forums has very good reasons (other times it is annoying, and redundant as you put it). if you read into how this came about you would see why it is being done, instead of casually just leaving the idea at the wayside. i intend to give it a push!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-03-25 04:23 ]</font>

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:13 am

one of the great features of modular synthesis is that you can come up with an own design, based on your own experiences with the system.
Imho some 'courseware' like that is mostly counterproductive in that sense - and intros to the theme are more than enough on the net. Not to offend you, but don't argue about creativity, just do it.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:18 am

Hi,

Your push is much appreciated, Castol. I don't find this topic a spam, cos this topic Castol made especially to attract modular builders One should have read the posts that followed on another forum about these classes, there were some excited people there, but they were'nt enough. I only wished I knew some more of Modular, but I'm just thru the basics (or about;) so I'm gonna wait for a while to bother John w my Mod2 knowledge.

This is a great opportunity foir all moduar freaks under you, the grandmaster himself is going to teach y'all!!! If you have enough participants at least. I'm sure John will try to pass on his knowledge to the next generation of modular builders. It might be among you guys that the next ModMaster is.

I hope you find enough interested people, but I think there's a fair amount of modular wise guys here, I give you a good chance!

at0mic.

castol · Post by **castol** » Mon Mar 25, 2002 5:52 am

well, no i am not implying that i (maybe taking a little personally) don't have the "creativity" to build my "own" interesting modular patches and so i want someone else to show me how to be creative with modular synthesis.

quite the contrary, i feel very comfortable with modular synthesis and the cw modular. i've picked stuff up very quickly and enthusiastically, and its turning out to be a lot of fun.

yes, i agree there are plenty of modular synthesis basics, and in depth, resources , tutorials, ideas, methodology, and patches availble to one if they should look into this and make an effort to apply them to the cw modular. which can be a little difficult at times.

but i still would like there to be some more (resources) that are specific to the cw modular availble.

i just picked up on this idea and think its a good one. so i am trying to get it going in the manner i am doing here. as i saw, it wasn't going anywhere (maybe that is where it will stay?). i could allways do my own sort of cw modular tutorials and develop a website, or whatever. but that would be a lot of work, i'm not sure i want to take something like that up right now.

if your just thinking the classes would be a "primer" on generic synthesis. *sings in the theme of that kids song about body parts*....the oscillator is connected to the, fil-ter. the filter is connected to the amplifier. the envelopes and lfo's are connected to the, modulation inputs.

you would be partially right, but john expressed the interest in working on some more esoteric and interesting type things one can apply and do in modular synthesis, with the cw modular.

i have no specific examples per se, but....

atomic has the right idea, learn from a more wisened person. examples and commentary on the specific modular you are working on. interactivity with other people.....what else?

i think people are rightly intimidated by modular synthesis, these classes could help ease people into the frame of mind and and give one some specific knowledge needed to put the modular to use more often, than, not. they could also provide some interesting forums for ideas, applications and commradery between people (sharing ideas, discussing things in depth, learning from one another). the planetz here does that, but i find that the modular doesn't get a whole lot of attention by people visiting here. there are its share of supporters though and a i thank you all for being around.

whatever floats yer boat i guess.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-03-25 05:58 ]</font>

algorhythm · Post by **algorhythm** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 6:16 am

I already told John way at the begining that I wanted to do this, but it doesn't hurt to say it again . . .

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 10:02 am

I would love it, but unfortunately I donot have the time... Not even yet the V2.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Tue Mar 26, 2002 4:12 pm

Put me down as a possible Mod payer. But I'd like a little more info on what exactly it would be about - what are the intended "learning outcomes".

Perhaps it's time to talk to JB ? Maybe he's no longer interested...

castol · Post by **castol** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 5:00 am

i think i'm fine just leaving it where its at....

if i wanted something like this to happen for sure i think i'd have to take a more frontal direct approach, or just foster it myself, recruit some help. figure out a way to make it more appealing to a broader base of modular enthusiasts.

as i have said, or not.....i just am not ready to do something like that at this point.

otoh, i would perhaps like to do maybe an article on modular synthesis with the cw modular, on (probobly something specific) creativesynth.com. and of course i'll continue posting here.

best.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-03-27 05:02 ]</font>

castol · Post by **castol** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 9:31 am

or maybe i'm just being hasty, let's give it some time to "ruminate" as i like to say.

a little discouraged by the response thus far.

thanks.

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 12:41 pm

Yeah, you can see why JB ditched the idea. It amazes me we can't find 40 or so users who'd jump at the opportunity to learn modular techniques from the great ZARG.
/dave

RedSun · Post by **RedSun** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 2:44 pm

If you can get him to do it, count me in!

RedSun .:.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Wed Mar 27, 2002 2:53 pm

Ok Micha you convinced me.

You can count me in!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: at0mic on 2002-03-28 03:26 ]</font>

Micha · Post by **Micha** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 1:22 am

Hey, hey, hold it.
Modular 2 lessons are really not given since years.

So it is our part to ask and to give the input how to start. There sure will be some introduction and then he will be able by our questions to decide what way to step forward. That's how it will work out

So, don't hesitate! Join in and let's try to work out the whole thing to a really fantastic "must be".
Who the hell could stop us if we just jump in?

So come on, the $$$ is absolutely nothing regarding THAT teacher. And, ZARG users know it, JB always has an open mind to pick up suggestions and ideas.
That is why I see no problems for anybody. I know that I will be at the "low end". But afterwards this will have changed. And that is the point.

And, from the educational point of view: If the knowledge is widespread it is easier to develop the curriculum itself. At the moment nobody can tell in how many pieces to cut the cake. At the end this will be done.

Happy modularing
Micha

castol · Post by **castol** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 7:16 am

thats the spirit!

thank you for the encouraging and very upliffting post micha.

what your suggesting is that the people who are intersted take a nurturing hand in this endeavor. i agree. a little bit helps, suggestions, help spreading the word, discussing areas to focus in on....that sort of thing, right?

just being ready to contribute monitarily is more than enough imo though, going that little bit further is like adding fresh ground peanut butter to the bagel, mmm apple jam is good too.

i think i'll post a link to this discussion, to john, let him read it for himself. perhaps he'll make a post.

at this point there are about 10 folks, give or take a few, that have expressed interest.

i am having problems posting on groups.yahoo, so my initial posts didn't get through to those lists.

i will try again in a few days.

thanks again to all the people who have replied.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-03-28 09:27 ]</font>

castol · Post by **castol** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 7:21 am

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: castol on 2002-03-28 09:31 ]</font>

astroman · Post by **astroman** » Thu Mar 28, 2002 2:58 pm

seems Busta joined...

hi castol, I wanted to emphasize the point of self confindence a little bit - but my response was shurely influenced by several 'teaching' articles about synthesis recently published in german mags. Some people are able to extend even the most obvious and boring stuff to infinity.
Of course I believe that John is far from that

and got a lot more to offer.
So a 'workshop-like' character with concentration on general items (like conversion of modulation parameters in different units) might be more appealing than just teaching style like 'set envelope to 50% attack to 20...'.
Anyway, I'm a bloody beginner to this, too and wish you good luck with the project.

castol · Post by **castol** » Sat Mar 30, 2002 5:47 am

you make good points astroman. and i appreciate your explanation of why you said what you did.

your idea of a "get to know" behind the obvious facade (maybe not the best name?) of our modular would be a great idea to cover!

i just got an email from john here this morning. i am kinda embarrased cause i hadn't even emailed him yet

.

he thanked me for the interest and mentioned that ONE person emailed recently about it (algorythm?) and that he had taken a look at the thread here.

he says that he will wait until v3.1 comes out, as there may be another update (!) to the modular when scope fusion comes about.

anyhow, i asked if he could post a short reply here about what he thinks. maybe get into a little bit of how it might go. what might be subject for disccusion, etc.

best.

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Sat Mar 30, 2002 9:12 pm

On 2002-03-30 05:47, castol wrote:
he says that he will wait until v3.1 comes out, as there may be another update (!) to the modular when scope fusion comes about.

Any info on this ?????