r/synthesizers • u/[deleted] • Feb 28 '14
Hi I'm Olivier from Mutable Instruments. Ask Me Anything
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u/-Borfo- Balsamic Vinegar Feb 28 '14
Hi. The fact that all your stuff (or all the stuff I've come across anyway) has been released under open licenses for both the hardware and the software is great. Thanks for that, very cool of you. Your work has sparked a lot of cool projects, and helped a lot of people learn a bunch of new stuff.
How do you think the open licensing has affected your business?
What are your favourite things that people have done with your hardware and/or code?
Have there been any significant downsides to releasing under open licenses? Other than the relatively small scale carbon resistor ebay shruthi sellers, etc., have there been any significant cases of people ignoring your license terms or using your technology in ways you don't like?
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u/mdrsharp Juno106/x0x/DX7/DW8000/X3 Feb 28 '14
Have you been approached to design a new synth for by any "mainstream" synthesizer companies?
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Feb 28 '14
What major synth company do you think would be best suited to make a modern, non-remake analog poly synth, and what features would you like to see in it?
Building an Ambika as an end of the semester present to myself in a few months. Too stoked.
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Feb 28 '14 edited May 03 '21
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Mar 01 '14 edited Mar 01 '14
What features do you think are best handled by analog? Just the filters?
Are there any features you'd like to see in a hybrid synth?
Any chance of a factory-assembled MI poly?
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u/SourShoes Feb 28 '14
Hi Oliver! What's next? Anything new you're working on you can tell us about? Why did you abandon the sidekick? Seems like a pretty cool thing. I'm a proud owner of an Anushri. Really sounds great, awesome for bass lines. I really like the drum machine. I run it through a Korg Duo and Delay and it sounds huge. I made a little layout for the iPad MidiDesigner app to easily program and get at the midi only drum stuff. Just wanted to say thanks for the kit and the amazingly easy and super detailed build instructions. Couldn't have been easier. Also awesome forum, great help there and good synth talk! Keep up the good work!
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u/roustabout Feb 28 '14
Hey SourShoes, Have you shared/can you share this template? Really awesome.
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u/SourShoes Feb 28 '14
Yup you can find it on the MidiDesigner app's forum, where he hosts community shared layouts. There's a little performance page too. Let me know if you have any questions about it.
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u/roustabout Feb 28 '14
Hi Olivier, First, thank you for your help in guiding new guys like me from essentially no knowledge of this stuff to the point where we feel more confident to delve out into the diy waters (I own one of everything MI DIY). Your commitment to open source and customer service are an example for what a modern and transparent company can be, one that engages and involves it's customers rather than only trying to get their money then disappearing.
Ok, now a question, albeit probably a very noobish one: Would it be possible to run multiple Anushri analog boards from one digital control board? Essentially just connecting multiple wires to the analog boards that connect to single points on the digital board. I'm sure there are voltage issues or something I haven't thought through, just testing the waters to see how feasible this might be.
Anyways, thanks again for all your awesome work in making this hobby accessible to so many more people!
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Feb 28 '14 edited May 03 '21
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u/roustabout Feb 28 '14
I guess I was hoping to have each pot connected to the same parameter on multiple boards, to maybe get a duophony thing going or something. I'm sure I am totally underestimating the complexity here....
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Feb 28 '14 edited May 03 '21
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u/roustabout Feb 28 '14
So what you're saying is I need to shop for some 8-gang pots, I read ya. Haha, thanks for the explanation, knew it was probably a bad idea.
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u/kerm soundcloud.com/kerm Feb 28 '14
Some (perhaps a lot) of us have money, but little time or interest in DIY. It would be nice to be able to buy fully assembled kits that are custom configured. Do you see this becoming a reality as your company grows? What if you hired a guy who just assembled kits on a per-kit basis?
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u/mypublicprofile Feb 28 '14
You can purchase fully built kits from "trusted builders"--there is a list of them on the Mutable forum.
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u/mdrsharp Juno106/x0x/DX7/DW8000/X3 Feb 28 '14
Hi Olivier, is there a rhyme or reason to how you name your synths?
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Feb 28 '14 edited May 03 '21
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u/KeytarVillain I didn't choose the keytar life, the keytar life chose me Feb 28 '14
it was a kind of funny metasonix reference :)
Great, now I will ever look at the name the same way again. Or pronounce it the same way, for that matter.
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u/mogen317 Feb 28 '14
I love the generative drum sequencer from my Anushri. It would be great to see a simple stand-alone generative drum machine from Mutable Instruments for those times when I can't decide whether I want some boom boom clack or boom clack boom.
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Feb 28 '14
Just for my own benefit: are you planning on selling the Shruthi XT kits indefinitely? The interface has been the one thing holding me back from buying a Shruthi, and then the XT kit comes along, but now's not the right time to buy an XT money-wise. If I wait some months, am I going to be sorry?
More generally interesting questions: What were your inspirations when designing each aspect of the Shruthi? Was it driven more by practicality or were you trying to design an ideal synth, or what? Personally, I think the digital oscillator plus analog filter is a stupendously efficient way to get a great sound and a lot of versatility (which is multiplied by an order of magnitude when you consider all the filter options) at a reasonable price, but I just don't see many other manufacturers doing anything similar.
Lastly, care to share some of your favorite synths, past and present? Anything that's had a big impact on you or otherwise catches your fancy? What do you think some of the most clever designs are? On a similar note, do you have a home studio? What's your set up like?
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Feb 28 '14 edited May 03 '21
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Mar 01 '14
Thanks for the detailed response :) I had a hunch that the ESQ-1 would show up on your list, but some of the others were surprises. Very interesting to hear about the genesis of the Shruthi.
Would you say you're getting any closer to your vision of an ideal synth with some of your other products or are they still driven primarily by practical concerns? Is that even a goal you have, or would you say the modular world fills that niche?
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Mar 01 '14
I love that you built this business from the ground up in your apartment and continue to be successful. Congratulations on taking your first salary! That must have felt great.
Where do you hope to be in 5-10 years? Do you have a road map for growing your company?
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Mar 01 '14 edited May 03 '21
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Mar 01 '14
I love you :) I never thought about it like this, but man... I think you're spot on. I'm caught off-guard by your desire for an ideal work/life balance, and I think now it's something I'll aspire to.
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u/zblofu Mar 01 '14
I really appreciate this attitude. I am sure that you will achieve a good work/life balance.
Right now I am a bit weighted to the life side of that balance but once I get a bit more on the work side I am going to buy one of your kits. They really sound great and look to be a good fit for a beginner like my self. Keep up the good work! You are awesome!
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Mar 01 '14
You mentioned that you get the euro rack modules assembled for you (I'm guessing cause of surface mount parts). How does that process work, especially for assembly in China?
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Mar 01 '14 edited May 03 '21
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Mar 01 '14
Thanks! This was an awesome response. I've been planning to get production runs of things done a few years down line but I've really struggled to get info on the process. Thanks for the time you took to write everything out in such detail!
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Mar 01 '14
love you Oliver. I built a shruthi with no soldering experience and it was super fun and challenging. I don't have a question because I think I missed the AMA
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Feb 28 '14
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u/roustabout Feb 28 '14
I use the microbrute and anushri patched together in various ways all the time. It is seriously overwhelming the number of amazing things that come out of this combo. Sometimes it makes it hard for me to make music because I always find sounds that are so crazy/wierd/awesome, that I end up in some trance staring at the wall for 10 minutes listening to it. You should really do it.
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Feb 28 '14
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u/roustabout Feb 28 '14
It is an awesome beginner's project if you can handle a soldering iron. If not, just practice on something else for a while first until you can make consistently decent solder joints. Be warned though, making synths is addictive and pretty soon you may end up spending as much/more time building stuff as making music. Good Luck!
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u/CalamityVic Eurocrack Addict Feb 28 '14
I can answer this one - the Microbrute is constructed to be monophonic and can not be expanded. It is however possible to control several Microbrutes via poly-chain, for example using a Vermona Quad MIDI Interface.
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u/-Borfo- Balsamic Vinegar Feb 28 '14 edited Feb 28 '14
Or polychain the Microbrute together with other MIDI monosynths using a Mutable Instruments Midipal's dispatcher app.
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u/mondren Feb 28 '14
Hey Oliver! Thanks for dropping by here today. I have a lot of respect for what you are doing with MI, and your work is much appreciated.
I just received my first two MI modules last night, a Grids and a Links. I've got the Grids triggering an Nord Drum 2, and having a great time with is so far, especially modulating from Maths. It was a very smooth process to add drums into my patches and sequences. Excellent work on Grids.
With a lot of your modules about to hit the market, Yarns, Peaks, Tides, Branches, etc...any insight on where you are headed next? Also, how soon till we get to see Yarns in the US stores?
Thanks again!
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Feb 28 '14
Oliver, once more of your eurorack projects are complete, do you see yourself offering a full MI system, similar to how Make Noise offers different eurorack setups? Also any idea as to the next filter to be added to the line of complete Shruthi kits?
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u/tlann Feb 28 '14
Are you guys working on any more diy kits? How about an Ambika-XT? I have the Shruthi-XT and would love a similar Ambika version of it. I would imagine you could stick with having controls for only 2 oscillators and related parameters at a time and the ability to switch between them.
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Feb 28 '14 edited May 03 '21
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u/tlann Feb 28 '14
Thanks. I just saw it after posting. Bummer about new DIY kits :-( But it is understandable.
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Mar 01 '14
First time I've seen these kits. They look awesome, where would I go to buy one of these in the USA?
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Mar 01 '14
I'm late, I know. Why did you decide the hardware approach apart from the software approach? With the simplicity of offering a software approach what inspired you to create hardware modules?
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u/-Borfo- Balsamic Vinegar Mar 01 '14
How many shruthis do you think are out in the world now? ...Same question for any of your other devices?
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Mar 01 '14 edited May 03 '21
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u/-Borfo- Balsamic Vinegar Mar 01 '14
Cool. That's a lot of people making music. That's a pretty great accomplishment.
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Mar 01 '14
Late to the party, I know. I think digi osc into analog filters is the way of the future. All of your Soundcloud samples sound great. If I was a little more confident with a soldering iron I'd be all over the Ambika.
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u/Hellspark08 @Juno 2, MS-20 Mini, Rocket, FB-01 Mar 01 '14
Hi Olivier, thanks for stopping by! I've watched the Shruthi project since the early stages and I really admire your work. So thanks for all that!
I just have one quick question, and I'm sorry if you've answered it a thousand times already. Is there a chance that more midipals will be available in the future? I can't seem to find any, or anything similar out there. I'd throw money at you so hard.
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Mar 01 '14 edited May 03 '21
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u/Hellspark08 @Juno 2, MS-20 Mini, Rocket, FB-01 Mar 01 '14
Sweet, thanks so much! I made a recent migration to hardware synths, and I need brains to play them while I tweak.
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u/euklid Mar 03 '14
Regarding the midipal, which is a finished, assembled product - how did you handle CE, EMV, WEEE and all the other legal stuff that comes with assembled products?
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u/JeanneDOrc Mar 04 '14
Do you have any tips for newbies to DIY electronics to get more comfortable with setting up Mouser/Digikey/etc BOM order lists?
The ability to solder is a lot easier to master than the myriad of options available, or the seeming lack of exact options when your part is horribly backordered and you need to substitute.
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u/scattrrbrain Feb 28 '14
Oliver, please have my babies and send me a demo unit. Love, Scattrrbrain.
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u/KeytarVillain I didn't choose the keytar life, the keytar life chose me Feb 28 '14
Hi Olivier, thanks for doing this.
I'm an electrical engineering student hoping to eventually work in the music industry. I realize this likely means starting my own company someday, so I'm wondering some things about starting your own instrument company.
(I also have a Shruthi I built, and I love it. I think mixing digital synthesis with analog filtering is a great idea for low-cost, DIY-friendly synths.)
So, my questions:
How did Mutable Instruments start?
Is it a full-time job for you? If so, at what point did it become a full-time job?
Is it just you, or do you have any other employees?
Your pre-assembled products, like the Eurorack modules - do you assemble them yourself? Or do you subcontract parts of the manufacturing somewhere else?
Thanks!