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Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 The Purpose of this Document

This web-based hypertext document is intended to provide the advanced user of the Clavia Nord Modular synthesizer with a toolbox of techniques for creating complex and interesting patches. Although the emphasis is on the Nord Modular, the techniques described in this document can be applied to any modular synthesizer, from a modular Moog to the Native Instruments Reaktor softsynth. For more information on the Nord Modular, check out Clavia's web page at http://www.clavia.se.

This document fills a need for more advanced material beyond what can be found in the Nord Modular manual and in the Wizoo Guide to the Nord Modular (by Peter Gorges and Len Sasso, 2nd edition 2000). While both of these books are excellent introductions for the beginner, more advanced users are left thirsting for more. This document aims to quench this thirst!

In the online web-based document all of the patches shown in the figures can be downloaded by clicking on the associated image. These can be then be examined off-line with the Clavia Nord Modular editor (version 3.0 or higher) or downloaded to an actual Nord Modular. The latter is recommended as you can hear directly the sounds that are being talked about in the text.

1.2 Acknowledgements

The document incorporates many random thoughts and ideas gleaned from the Nord Modular mailing list, as well as, to a lesser extent, the Native Instruments Reaktor and Analog Heaven mailing lists. All of these mailing lists are excellent sources of information and support for people interested in modular music synthesis.

Many people have contributed ideas and material to this work. I would especially like to thank Rob Hordijk, Wout Blommers, Jan Punter, Kees van der Maarel, Roland Kuit, Ico Doornekamp, Robin Whittle, Chet Singer, Dave Peck, Sam Streeper, and K. Lex Pattyrson (or whatever his name is) for their contributions and inspiration.

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