What is modular techno?
Modular techno is techno made and performed on a modular synthesizer. Nothing is played back as a finished track: the patterns, the sounds and the structure of the set are generated and shaped in real time, by hand.
What is a modular synthesizer?
An instrument built from separate modules, each doing one job: generating sound, filtering it, shaping it over time, producing rhythms and sequences. The player decides how they connect, with patch cables. Most systems seen on stage today use the Eurorack format. There is no fixed signal path, so two systems are rarely alike, and the same system can be patched into a different instrument for every set.
How is a modular techno set different from a DJ set?
A DJ selects and mixes finished records. A modular live act has no records: every kick, bass line and texture heard in the room is being produced by the instrument at that moment. The set cannot be repeated exactly, and there is no track to fall back on.
What is the difference between modular techno and live techno?
Live techno is the wider term: any techno set where the music is made on stage instead of mixed from records, whatever the instruments are (drum machines, grooveboxes, hardware synthesizers, a laptop with controllers, or a mix of them). Modular techno is one kind of live techno: the one where the main instrument is a modular synthesizer. Every modular techno set is a live techno set; most live techno sets are not modular. In the listings behind this index, 3,015 techno nights in Europe had a live set on the line-up in the last 12 months, and 41 of them announced modular.
| Live techno | Modular techno | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Techno performed live instead of mixed from records | Live techno played on a modular synthesizer |
| On stage | Drum machines, grooveboxes, hardware synthesizers, a laptop with controllers, or a mix of them | A modular system, usually Eurorack, alone or next to other machines |
| Where the music comes from | Often from patterns, clips or songs prepared and stored in advance, recalled and arranged on stage | From how the modules are patched and from what the player does with them during the set |
| On the line-up | "live" written next to the name | "modular" or "eurorack" written next to the name |
| In this index | 291 acts with a live set coming up | 72 acts in the last 12 months |
How is it different from a live set with drum machines or a laptop?
Many live sets are built from patterns, clips or songs prepared and stored in advance, then recalled and arranged on stage. A modular system stores little or nothing of that: the music comes from how the modules are patched and from what the player does with them during the set. The line is not sharp. Plenty of acts are hybrid, with a modular next to drum machines or a sequencer, and they are listed here as modular live acts when modular or eurorack is announced on the line-up.
What does modular techno sound like?
It is techno first: a kick drum, repetition, a dancefloor. What the instrument adds is movement. Because patterns are generated and modulated rather than arranged ahead of time, sets tend to evolve gradually, with sequences that mutate and sounds that keep changing over long stretches. The best way to know is to listen to a full set.
Is a modular techno set improvised?
Partly, and it varies from act to act. The system is prepared before the show; what happens with it is decided in the room, and it is different every night. See what counts as live.
Where can I listen to modular techno?
28 full live sets on video, each 45 minutes or longer, recorded live and published on the artist's own channel or an official one. One set per act.
Where can I see modular techno live?
10 modular live acts have shows coming up in Europe in the coming weeks, in cities including Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid, Amsterdam, Bilbao, Dublin, Prague. Browse by city or by country.
Who plays modular techno live?
The directory lists 72 acts announced with a modular or eurorack live set in Europe in the last 12 months, based in 14 countries, in alphabetical order, each with their shows and, when there is one, a full set on video.