Modulr Mini
Three oscillators, a mixer and a four-pole ladder filter, with every section boxed and titled on the panel, played from your keyboard as a VST3 and Audio Unit.
Modulr Mini is a monophonic synthesizer after the grammar of the 1970 Minimoog Model D: three oscillators into a mixer and a four-pole ladder filter, two contours, a glide and two wheels, edited from a black panel of boxed sections. It is not a copy of any instrument: no maker’s name or logo is drawn on it, and nothing is measured against the original.
Five sounds, played as they ship.
Each clip is the plug-in itself: the patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, a short phrase is played on it, and the cutoff is swept over the take. Each is after a record, and the settings are the plug-in’s own reading of that sound’s role, not the artist’s. 50 patches ship; they make five distinct sounds, and these are one of each.
A monophonic synthesizer, played from your keyboard.
- Patches that load the whole sound.Pick a patch and every control moves to it at once; the drawer closes and the instrument is ready to play.
- Hold to preview.Hold a key to hear a patch’s tone on your own MIDI, then let go and the instrument is exactly as it was.
- Three oscillators.A range from a low drone to two feet and a waveform on each, a tune, and a mixer with a level and an on switch for each oscillator and a noise source.
- A ladder filter and two contours.A resonant low-pass whose cutoff the filter contour opens, with its own attack, decay and sustain, and a loudness contour for the level.
- Glide and two wheels.A glide that carries the pitch from one key to the next, a pitch wheel, and a mod wheel that brings the third oscillator or the noise to the pitch or the filter.
- Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, and set its output level.
What it needs.
| Format | Systems | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| VST3 · Audio Unit | Apple silicon, macOS 11 or later | A licence is needed to make sound. Without one the editor opens and the output is silent. |
The editor, and the module it becomes.
The plug-in is built, and its editor is shown as it opens. The module is the same study drawn as a Eurorack module with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, and it is not built.
The editor is the plug-in’s own, as it opens. The module is drawn by the specification’s own kit, and its values are illustrative, not measured. The design is Minimoog Model D’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.
Minimoog Model D, 1970.
The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.
The three-oscillator monosynth grammar: white section boxes with their titles cut into the rule, a boxed oscillator bank with rotary range and waveform selectors, a mixer of rocker switches, a four-pole ladder filter with its contour, a loudness contour, two wheels and a short keyboard.
A black panel with white lettering and white keyline boxes between two walnut cheeks: a Mixer box of four small rocker switches, a Modifiers box of eight big black knobs with a white line and a printed scale, each with its CV jack under it, and the jacks in dark trays at the foot.
- Controllers: the pitch and mod wheels, and glide
- Oscillator bank: three oscillators, each with a rotary range switch and a waveform knob
- Mixer: a level knob and an on/off switch for each of oscillators 1 to 3, the external input and noise
- Modifiers: a 24 dB ladder filter with cutoff, emphasis and amount of contour
- Filter contour: attack, decay, sustain
- Loudness contour: attack, decay, sustain
- Output: volume, A 440 tuning and on/off
- Keyboard: 44 keys
The module, knob by knob.
The module is a design study and is not built. Its macros are the signature controls a player reaches for, not a generic set; each one has a control jack under it.
| Macro | Key | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cutoff | vcf.cut | 20 Hz – 20 kHz | 20 kHz |
| Emphasis | vcf.emph | 0–100% | 0% |
| Contour | vcf.amt | 0–100% | 0% |
| Decay | fenv.decay | 0 ms – 20 s | 200 ms |
| Glide | osc.glide | 0 ms – 20 s | 0 ms |
| Detune | osc2.freq | ±1 st | 0 ct |
| Level 2 | mix.osc2 | 0–100% | 0% |
| Level 3 | mix.osc3 | 0–100% | 0% |
| Side | Jacks |
|---|---|
| In | Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Ext (Audio) |
| Out | Out (Audio), Env (CV) |
Legendary is the catalogue of the Modulr Synths project: 43 design studies drawn with the specification’s own kit, 33 after the synthesizers of all time and 10 after the drum machines. The makers and years named here are the instrument’s; the names, the layouts and every value are Modulr’s own.