Arturia Modular-V Walkthrough Ep.04 - The Sequencer

The Moog Modular was an absolute monster of a synthesizer, and Arturia's emulation of it is a joy to behold. It's a great introduction to Modular synthesis - the idea of building a synth from blocks of components - since it's so easy to make amazing sounds!
In this episode I describe the Sequencer - a module that allows you to generate those awesome argeggio-based sequences that provide such an inspiring foundation for musical creativity - sometimes it feels like cheating :)
About me:
My name is Anthony Chisnall. I'm a musician and a songwriter. I've created this channel - One Man and His Songs - in order to share with you everything I learn as I strive to improve my songwriting skills. Watch my songs evolve each week - the rhythms, the melodies, the lyrics, the production... everything I need to learn in order to produce professional-sounding music of which I can be proud!
I play the electric and acoustic guitar, and the bass guitar, and record all of my own synth-based sounds myself too, but I can't sing very well (huge understatement!), and so my wife, Pauline, who has a lovely singing voice, has come to my rescue. You'll hear her on all of my songs.
All of my music is written in Steinberg's Cubase.
I want to build a community of music-lovers with whom I can share my experiences, and from whom I can gain valuable feedback as I pursue my dream of learning to write great songs. I really hope you'll join me on my journey!
For more information about me, and to download a free copy of my own self-written music assistant software called Guitar Tutor, please head over to my website - www.onemanandhissongs.com.
You can also follow me on Twitter - / 1manandhissongs .
Thanks to:
ThumbnailTemplates.com for their KZbin template files.
Outro Template made by Grabster - / grabstertv

[@gvintoo]

I came here looking for a brief overview of a few things I was too lazy to look up in the manual, and found one of the best audio tools tutorials I've seen on KZbin so far. No bullsh*t, only the very essence, great job! Thanks!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

That's very kind of you to say, thank you very much :)

[@soundboy605]

Love you Man many thanks

[@punchilux5783]

It took me 6 hours with small breaks to get up to finish up to episode 4. So many notes taken! I kept exploring the different things I learned as I went along so I also made a bunch of patches that sound really cool-- love this series so much!! Thank you for making this

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

I'm glad you're enjoying the series. It really is an incredible synth.

[@simoncrocket2040]

Wow......thank you for helping demystify this beautiful beast :)

[@Bowwylad]

amazing skills as a teacher thanks , im spending a lot of time on this amazing synth.!

[@martin.alguien]

Gracias por tu tiempo y tus concimientos! saludos desde Argentina.

[@soundmechanicssounddesign]

Thanks for the great tutorial - one synth I've never spent that much time in getting to know well...... I am now!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Thanks a lot for the kind feedback, I really appreciate it :)

[@milindaweerasinghe8064]

Thank you very much

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

You are very welcome :)

[@alligator6985]

Wooooooow!! Great tutorial!! Thank you.

[@marlandbarsby3539]

Really good thorough pace of video! Really helped me out thanks man :)

[@soloharmonicsrobj8246]

Great demo on this amazing modular synth. Reminds me of Tangerine Dream style sequencing. Moog System 55 is a very complex system, and the 960 sequencer is amazing. My Minimogue VST has a step/gate sequencer up to 16 notes, I believe.

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Thanks, I'm glad you liked the video. the original Modular is indeed one of the finest sounding instruments of all time.

[@nickbean693]

Thank you so much for these Tutorials. Very thorough, well paced and extremely easy to follow. You're a great teacher!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

You're very welcome, thanks for the feedback!

[@manuel_salazar_work]

Thanks for sharing this with us, I enjoy every video.

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

I'm really glad to hear it, thanks for your kind feedback :)

[@mr.unknown6861]

Thank you sir for your help)!

[@HomerNarr]

Big Tangerine Dream Fan here. Finally decided to get a Midi Keyboard to learn. Artuira Essential was it then. Playing around with it. Arturia has a TD tribute package. Try to modify / look up a Preset. Had to buy Modular V. One lightbulb after another comes up. It all makes sense! Still do not have a clue but i am getting closer and closer! This sequencer walkthrough was very helpful and all made sense. Even the chaining of the sequences.

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

I'm really glad you've enjoyed the series - thanks very much for the feedback :)

[@ajprasad6865]

Thank you so much!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

You're welcome, thanks for the feedback!

[@edward_grabczewski]

Great tutorials. Thanks for making them free!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

You're welcome, thanks very much for your kind feedback!

[@edwardcontreras3260]

excellent video! love this synth so much, such analog sound, real lofi sounds are achievable with this synth, sure they can be achieved with serum as well, but analog synths like this just have that warm sound that i love!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Couldn't agree more, thanks for the feedback!

[@nuttob]

Watched a number of videos explaining the sequencer and yours was the best! The most confusing part is the next. Usually when I change a value in there it kills the sequence for some reason, but now that I saw what you did by making the sequence shorter in length I will try experimenting again with it...

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Glad I was at least partially helpful! The Mood Sequencer's not the friendliest, is it!

[@guigliocesaredellanoce5669]

Thank you so very much, I had a mini moog a long time ago, it wasn't very stable and tuning was a nightmare sometimes, this digital versions are amazing and learning about this master moog has been a dream, for me the best composition in this wonder is Timesteps by Walter Carlos.

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Cool, I'm jealous. Just to have played a real machine would have been quite something!

[@guigliocesaredellanoce5669]

@@OneManAndHisSongs Well it was complicated because if you wanted to have different sounds you had to write each parameter , so I have note books full of undecipherable notes and in concert was another anguish and if they took the light out of the keyboards because of the light show in the concert it was horrible, to be able to change preset with a touch of a button was Science fiction in those days.

[@Jevgeni_Kuzmin]

Please tell me how to create a ratchet effect in the sequencer of this plugin?

[@johnodell1346]

Anthony, Thank you for your tutorial. You are a great teacher, and I greatly appreciate it. Concerning the sequencer. Is it possible to have two or three different sequences going at the same time using day a square wave triggering the first set, a triangle wave slaved from the same master oscillator triggering the next set, and a sawtooth slaved to the same master oscillator triggering the third set, such that one could sequence a triad chord? Let me know and thanks so much for your great tutorials and everything else on your page. Cheers.

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Thanks! Phew, that's a very specific question - I can't think of a single reason why that isn't completely reasonable, so I'll say yes :)

[@timppaUT]

Bit misleading that if you make that 4 note sequence and set that 4th note so it goes back to 1, it actually goes back to 3, not 1, when you have forward/backward play on.

[@jtn191]

That looks like it emulates the Moog 960. Would be interested if it can ratchet & skip steps Can the sequencer output MIDI to another vst in line?

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Hi, there's a "Next" feature that allows you to skip steps, and there's a repeat function that allows steps to be repeated, but I don't think there's a way to subdivide the time of the step if you do repeat it, such that it still occupies the same period of time, so it might not be suitable for that particular Tangerine Dream kind of effect. Sadly it doesn't have Midi Out - at least nothing that I've been able to find that would enable your inline requirements.

[@_posthuman5769]

I love the sounds I get out of this synth but I’m having an issue with the sequencer. I used the sync option but I can never get the right tempo for my projects. Any tips?

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

In what way is the tempo wrong? Start off with the Frequency knob at Tempo*1, and make sure the sequencer's triggers are set to "Keyboard Trigger On" and "Keyboard Trigger Off". (The triggers are the plain black buttons ABOVE the "On" and "Off" buttons of the sequencer.) Also note that the Modular V doesn't have any feature to "follow" the host DAW from wherever it is, so each time you press play, make sure your song cursor is at the beginning of a bar. That way the Modular V will "sync" with your project.

[@davewelch2740]

ACK! Great video but I watched it hoping to find out how to use the midi sync function and at about 13:14 you go "well that's pretty obvious" and on you go. How do I sync the midi to a DAW clock for example?

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

That's exactly what that button does. When it's on, the Mod V syncs to the tempo of its host DAW. When it's off, it counts time in Hz. If you hover over the Sequencer's frequency knob with Midi Sync On, you'll see something like "Tempo*4". That's the host's Tempo.

[@davewelch2740]

@@OneManAndHisSongs I see, so when it's used as a vst.

[@Dulce_Criatura_]

How can I synchronize the ableton clock with module v3? thank you!

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Sorry, I have no experience with Ableton

[@ObscenityState]

It would have been cool if you started a sequencer from a simple oscillator......I tried following your steps and couldn't get it working.......love your videos but think there's something missing with this one

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Thanks for the feedback, I always welcome constructive criticism! I think my rationale was that there were so many moving parts it was easier to explain via reverse engineering rather than additively, but you might well be right - perhaps I should have built my own sequence from the ground up. I'll bear it in mind for the future.

[@ObscenityState]

@@OneManAndHisSongs that would have been cool......your tutorial was great and I managed to use the sequencer as you directed when I started with a blank synth.....initially I was trying from the 1 OSC 1 VCA template and for some reason I can't get it working following exactly the same steps......anyways, got various sequencer working so it's all good

[@treelimbjim]

But you could hit the button below to stop the sequence. One of the fundamental concepts you could reinforce is Gate and Trigger. Yes, the musicians need to understand engineering. It helps when utilizing ( thinking about what I want/need, and then implementing ) how to start/stop a sequence or some other event. Do I use the trailing edge of a Gate or trigger it by something else? Please don't barrage me or Anthony with questions. Work it out with your mind. Meditate on it. Maybe meditate on it. Do you open the door by turning the knob and moving it or do you turn the knob AND THEN move the door? Most of all, enjoy the process.

[@OneManAndHisSongs]

Great feedback, thank you! The last sentence of your post is the beginning, middle and end of it all. So many people seem to miss that point, and I find it baffling.