Legendary · study 34 of 43

Modulr Steps

Sixteen lit buttons, a field of sliders for level, tune and decay, and a bass drum that swaps its own tone for the conga's.

Modulr Steps is a design study after the TR-808 of 1980. It borrows the instrument’s grammar: a black case with an orange trim and wooden ends, sixteen instrument buttons under their own lamps, sliders on one grid of level, tune and decay, and a bass drum that swaps its own tone for the low conga.

Design study · not built

Legendary→Pricing→

26 HPthe width of the Eurorack module this study is drawn as

8 macrosthe signature controls the module carries, each with its own control jack

6 jacksa note, a V/Oct and a gate in, audio out

The study

The editor, and the module it becomes.

Each study is drawn twice: as a standalone plug-in editor, and as a Eurorack module with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them. Nothing here is built.

The Modulr Steps plug-in editor, drawn as a design study — The Modulr Steps editor: a black case with wooden ends, sixteen keys each under a lamp, a bass or conga switch, forty orange-capped sliders.

The Modulr Steps Eurorack module, 26 HP, in its case — The Modulr Steps module: 26 HP, a pattern window, a strip of sixteen voice lamps, eight orange-capped knobs each over its own control jack.

Mock UI — drawn by the specification’s own kit, not a screenshot of a shipped editor. Values are illustrative, not measured. The study is TR-808’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.

The instrument it studies

TR-808, 1980.

The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.

The rhythm-composer grammar: a black panel with orange trim, a row of square rubber keys under their own lamps bracketed into families, and every sound described by small sliders with orange caps hung on one global grid of three rows — level, tune and decay — with holes where a voice has fewer.

A black metal 3U panel with an orange trim line: the title, a pattern window and a miniature row of sixteen voices with their lamps, eight knobs with orange caps in two rows, each over its own control jack, and the jacks in a dark tray.

Sixteen instrument buttons in a row, each with its own lamp: bass drum, snare, low tom, hi tom, clap, closed hi hat, open hi hat, low conga
The last eight voices: hi conga, rim shot, cowbell, clave, electric piano, low bongo, hi bongo and maracas
A switch that swaps the bass drum between its own tone and the low conga
A row of slide potentiometers for the level, the tuning and the decay of each instrument
A tempo knob, a volume knob and a start and stop bar

The spec sheet

The module, knob by knob.

The macros are the signature controls a player reaches for, not a generic set; each one has a control jack under it on the module.

Macro	Key	Range	Default
Tempo	seq.tempo	40–240 BPM	120 BPM
Volume	out.vol	-inf – +6 dB	0.0 dB
Level	voice.level	0–100%	100%
Tune	voice.tune	±100 ct	0 ct
Decay	voice.decay	10 ms – 2 s	500 ms
Snap	voice.snap	5 ms – 400 ms	150 ms
Bass	bass.tone	Bass drum – Low conga	Bass drum
Hat	hat.decay	20 ms – 1 s	120 ms

Side	Jacks
In	Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Clock (CV)
Out	Out (Audio), Trig (CV)

This study is a study, and it is not built.ProposedLegendary, the catalogue this study belongs to, holds 43 design studies after the instruments of all time, each after an instrument’s grammar and never a copy of it. No maker’s name or logo is drawn on a panel, nothing is measured against the instrument, and the study itself is not for sale: Legendary is the plan that carries the catalogue.

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.