Sine
One frequency, nothing else.
A sine wave has a single harmonic and no edges. It sounds like a tuning fork, and it is where every other shape starts. Watch the scope draw it.
Eurorack builders Bristol
Build the sound you can patch.
We hand-wire Eurorack modules and walnut-cased racks in a workshop by the harbour, and teach sound design the slow way: with a cable in your hand.
Scroll to patch in
01 The oscillator
The oscillator
Triangle
Round the corners off.
Add a few odd harmonics, each a good deal fainter than the last, and the sine picks up a soft, woody edge. Flutes live here.
Saw
Every harmonic, all at once.
The sound most synths are carved out of. Bright, buzzy and rich enough to shape into almost anything, which is why the next module exists.
Square
Hollow, reedy, a bit odd.
Odd harmonics only, and the pulse width knob changes how thin it is. Slide it from half to a quarter and a clarinet turns into an oboe.
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02 The filter sweep
The filter sweep
Open
Everything gets through.
The ladder filter is a gate for brightness, not volume. With the cutoff wide open the saw passes untouched and the scope shows every sharp edge.
Closing
Pull the cutoff down.
The highest harmonics go first. The wave rounds off, the buzz settles to a hum, and the response curve on the panel slides to the left.
Resonance
Make it sing.
Resonance feeds the filter back on itself and pushes a peak up at the cutoff. A little is warmth, a lot is a whistle. Mind your speakers.
The sweep
Hand an LFO the knob.
Patch a slow oscillator into the cutoff and the filter opens and closes by itself. That wobble is half of dub and a fair part of acid.
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03 The envelope
The envelope
Gate
A gate says when.
The sequencer sends a gate: on for a moment, then off. On its own that is just a switch. The ADSR turns it into a shape, and the amplifier turns the shape into volume.
Attack and decay
Short and snappy.
Attack is how long the note takes to reach full. Decay is the slide down to the sustain level. Keep both short and every note is a pluck.
Sustain and release
Slow and soft.
Lengthen the attack and the release and the same oscillator becomes a pad. Notes swell in and fade out, overlapping like breath.
On the filter too
Send it to the cutoff.
The same envelope can open the filter on every note: bright at the start, dark by the tail. This is where most of a synth voice's character comes from.
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04 The sequencer
The sequencer
Eight steps
A tune you can see.
Each step has a pitch knob and a gate button. The clock walks a green light along the row, and wherever it lands the oscillator plays that pitch.
Move the pitches
Turn a knob, change the tune.
Pitches snap to a minor pentatonic scale, so there are no wrong notes. Even a random pattern sounds like music, which is a little unfair.
Leave gaps
Rests make the rhythm.
Switch a gate off and that step goes quiet. Silence is half of a good bass line, and the lit buttons show exactly where it falls.
Faster
Push the tempo.
The clock sets how quickly the lights run. Faster, and the notes get tight and urgent. Slower, and the filter has time to breathe.
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05 A full patch
A full patch
Everything in
Eight cables, one voice.
Saw into filter, filter into amp, amp to the output. Sequencer pitch and gate. One envelope shaping both the amp and the filter. The pulses show what each cable carries: green for audio, amber for control, ice for gates.
Add the room
A little space.
The delay on the bottom row repeats the signal back into the studio. The monitors move with every repeat, and so does the glow on the wall.
Your turn
Now put your hands on it.
Next, a rack you can play. Turn knobs, pull plugs, drop them somewhere new, and listen to what changes.
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06 Your turn
Patch it yourself.
Drag any knob up or down. Pull a plug out of its socket and drop it into another, or tap one socket and then a second on a touch screen. Press Sound to hear it.
Start from a patch
Oscillator output
Pluck: a saw through the filter, shaped by one envelope.
Drag knobs and plugs on the rack
07 On the bench
Kits to solder, racks to play.
Everything is designed and assembled in Bristol, with through-hole parts you can repair yourself and panels that are silkscreened here. Prices are invented for this concept.
Module kits
Solder it, own it. Panel, knobs and a printed guide included.
- Saw Oscillator, 14HP£149
- Ladder Filter, 12HP£179
- Envelope Pair, 10HP£99
- Step Sequencer, 26HP£229
Built racks
Walnut case, tested modules, a patch book and one year of fixes.
- Starter Walnut 84, two rows£1,650
- Studio 168, four rows£3,450
- Custom build, from£2,100
- Case only, oiled walnut£380
Repairs and tuning
Bring us the one that stopped working. We would like to see it.
- Diagnosis, any module£25
- Recalibration£45
- Re-panel and re-knob£60
- Case tidy and rail check£35
08 The classroom
Learn it with your hands.
Six people at most, one rack per pair, and a lot of tea. No software and nothing to install: just cables, knobs and a monitor you can hear properly.
Sound design in a weekend
Oscillators, filters, envelopes and the sequencer, patched from scratch. Two days, ten till five.
- Next
- Sat 21 Nov
- Places
- 2 left
Build your first module
Three evenings at the bench. You solder an envelope generator and take it home, working.
- Next
- Wed 2 Dec
- Places
- 4 left
Patch lab, one to one
Bring your own rack, or ours. An hour on whatever is stopping you from finishing the track.
- Next
- Any Thursday
- Places
- Open
Eurorack for the curious
A free Saturday morning. Listen, ask the daft questions, turn everything. No booking needed.
- Next
- Sat 5 Dec
- Places
- Drop in
09 The small print
Slow work, loud results.
- Modules built last year
- 0
- every one tested on the bench rack first
- Solder joints in a ladder filter
- 0
- counted, because someone asked
- First bench opened
- 0
- in a railway arch, with one chair
- People taught
- 0
- and a handful who have not stopped patching
10 Visit
Book a place.
Tell us what you would like to learn or build and we will write back within a day. The workshop is up one flight of stairs, next to the arch with the green door.
Thank you. We will check the diary and write back within a day. Bring headphones if you have good ones.
- Workshop
- Unit 7, Cooper's Wharf Works
Bristol BS1 6XX - Open
- Wed to Sat, 10 till 5
Courses in the evenings - Say hello
- 0117 496 0142
hello@patchwork-modular.example