ModulAir: a slightly dodgy but fun polyphonic virtual modular VSTi that’s free
5,0 / 5,0 | 
ModulAir from Full Bucket Music comes with a warning – it’s unfinished, buggy, clumsy, unhandy and complicated, or so says the marketing blurb. “Expect horrible things to happen – You have been warned!” With that in mind the beta version of ModulAir is now available for everyone to have a go on – are you game?
ModulAir
The interface doesn’t seem particularly complex. In fact, the imposed restrictions of the single window approach and a maximum of 18 modules in a patch are very welcome and refreshing when compared to the endless range of VCV Rack or externally extendable racks in Softube Modular. Instead of animating the slow swing of patch cables they’ve gone for a more minimalist approach of selecting sources and destinations from drop-down menus.
To build your patch you have 31 module types covering all the usual and expected modules. There are 6 oscillators covering the basic waveforms plus a wavetable and a spectral formant oscillator. The 4 filter types include ladder, Korg, comb and resonators. Then there are envelopes and LFO’s S&H and ring modulation. Three different 8-step sequencers and a 4 channel 16-step trigger sequencer. It’s possible to pull out up to 64 notes of polyphony and all parameters are MIDI learnable.
Check out the video below, it takes you through some simple sounds and module patching. It all looks pretty capable to me and sounds good to my ears. But I haven’t encountered the frustration of a crash yet. The patching is not particularly intuitive and may have you scratching your head as to what goes where – or in my case how on earth you get the sequencer to sequence any notes? I’m sure perseverance will win out. Full Bucket Music doesn’t promise that the next version will be backwards compatible and everything is subject to change.
ModulAir is definitely worth the download and hopefully it’ll become safer and more stable over time
More information
- Full Bucket Music ModulAir page.
Video
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