MOTS Philly Experience!

modular on the spot Philly


Always outdoors, always free, always modular synth ONLY - the scene Philly has been in existed for the past four years. Jerry Kaba is the master and local artist Jerry Kaba and sound musicians from Modular on the Spot for a unique sonic experience in command and runs a tight ship of modular heads enthuses. I had the pleasure and honor to be part of the event. It took place at the south Philly pier near Walmart Super shopping center near the beautiful water. The past four years I have been itching to get my own setup but I was laid up fighting cancer the last two years.

I was slowly building my setup with the help of Max Martinez, I ended up with Mutable Instruments Rings, clouds, Erica Synth Sequencer, Make Noise Rosie in a Moog 64hp case and the rest was history. The learning curve was steep so it took some time before I had some energy to study the user manual. It was frustrating at first because I ended up getting some utility modules that had more a learning curve. The Expert Sleepers Disting mk3 and later mk4 are probably one of the modules you can get in your setup. The disting is a many-in-1 multifunction module, offering a variety of CV and audio processes, including a selection of oscillators (LFOs/VCOs). All algorithms have two high-precision inputs and outputs, and a third control input, exposed on a front panel knob and a CV input. The disting is also a sample (WAV) file and MIDI file player, with a variety of options for sample triggering, playback speed, etc. The disting mk4 was introduced at the NAMM show in January 2017. The main differences compared to the disting mk3 are Dot matrix screen, capable of showing text and numeric value micro SD card slot accessible on the front panel compatibility with the Select Bus protocol internal precision clock allowing new algorithms such as a tuner, and pitch and frequency references later found myself using some of the many multi-functional parameters which initially help me better understand what I was doing.