Two New Books In 2024

I´m going to publish two new books again this year. The first one is about modular synthesis, about making generative music with modular synthesizers – with Cherry Audio´s Voltage Modular. You might think “Ohh, it´s a Voltage Modular version of your e-book trilogy about generative music!”

But you are wrong! It´s something completely new.

First of all: I´m a composer and producer myself. I´ve been working with electronic instruments for the last 50 years or so – and I continue doing so. And even after such a long time of working with electronic music I still discover new things, new ideas, new techniques, new patching strategies – and (perhaps most important): new meaning. Therefore the new book contains those of these aspects, which haven´t found their way into my existing trilogy yet.

It´s not only about new patches. Even if there are going to be legions of new patches in the book, patches which you can download like always, and which are further shown and explained in additional embedded videos – like always in my e-books. But patches and presets are not the only new thing in the book.

All of my books are trying to be as practical as possible, and the new won´t be an exception, indeed it´s going to be even more practical than ever. But it´s a bit more thoughtful at the same time. To damp it down to a few basic statements I´ll say, that the book answers the following 3 basic questions:

Question 1 (the technical aspect):

How do I achieve things, how do I reach certain musical/sonic goals with modular synths (here: with Voltage Modular)?

Question 2 (a question of art):

Why should I want to achieve these things, why should I want to reach this musical/sonic goal?

Question 3 (an aspect of motivation):

How do I have the most fun while producing my musical pieces with modular synths?

In a private lecture with local students last year I said something like this: “Electronic music has opened the gate to a universe of sonic occurrences. Modular synthesizers give us the freedom to navigate through this universe, and generative music is the fuel that makes our spaceship move.”

I´d like to call this statement the “spirit” of my new e-book.

And I´m going to prove a couple of even more fundamental things in the book by showing that

* modular generative music and quantum physics have very much in common

* modular generative music helps us understanding the “real” world a good deal better

* modular generative music and modern philosophy go hand in hand to an astonishing degree

* modular generative music can illustrate biological mechanisms our brain and body is based on

I´m going to show you the patches that prove these and other similar statements in the book.

Today is Saturday 13 January 2024, and I´ve written 63 pages, made 76 pictures, block diagram and graphics, patched and saved 44 patches/presets and shot 41 video clips. And I´m still deep in the first main chapter, which is going to be about 170 pages. There are going to be 5 or 6 of such main chapters in the book – seems it´s going to become the largest book I´ve written so far (and it´s only Volume 1 !!!).

I´ve planned to have it finished in April, and if I manage to keep up the pace that shouldn´t be a problem. But one never knows. There´s always a kind of setback lurking around the corner, may it be a family of patches which won´t work the way I thought they would when drafting them on paper. Or after reading a (sub-)chapter I may discover that the (didactic) logic of the chapter doesn´t sufficiently work out,or, or, or.....

I´ll keep you informed, here as well as on my social media.

Cheers and peace!

Enjoy your day!

Rolf