Happy New Year!

Every year I toy with the idea of setting reasonable goals for the coming year, aka resolutions. For many people, that’s go to the gym every day (and end up just giving $120 to planet fitness for 5 days of use), or eat better (by getting a blue apron or hello fresh subscription then cancelling after 2 months). For me, I’ve never really set such resolutions, partially because the state of the world has been weird lately, but also because I tend to live life as it comes, rarely knowing what I’ll eat for dinner, let alone what I’m doing next week, next month, etc.

However, during the last year, and really throughout my career as a synthetic sound designer, I’ve set up a variety of new things that I feel I can safely share now that they’re close to becoming reality. So, here’s some things you can expect from me in the coming 12 months:

Taika Modular

As you know, I mostly use modular synthesizers for my work. While they’re mostly good, I have found several times where I wanted a module to do X, one didn’t exist, and I had to patch one up, and in several cases I’ve had to build something on a breadboard and use alligator clips to patch into it. No more! I’m going to be doing a staggered release of various modules throughout the year with no particular schedule because shipping times from various vendors has been wonky.

The total lineup is 11 modules:
4Mix is a 4hp attenuverting mixer/amplifier/weighted mult
3D Pan is a 3d panner in 14hp
EG6 is a 6 stage EG that makes neat shapes in 6hp
Input is basically A-119 in 4hp
Output is a balanced output module with headphones and continuous recording in 4hp
3-Way is A-138e but with CV in 14hp
LEB is a dual response modifier (logarithmic, exponential, bump) in 2hp
P is a dual phase modulator in 2hp
Syllogism is 3xmia attached to a shit ton of logic in 14hp
Depurate is a dual wasp variant state variable filter in 8hp
Palpitate is a quad USG with logic in 20hp

These will all be available via this website (which already has a few electronics blog posts on it) and the existing store page as they come, and I’ll write about them and make a demo video for each as they arrive. They’re all analog, all original designs albeit inspired by modules I’ve used in the past. I was supposed to get them released last year but due to a variety of factors haven’t been able to.

Sound Design Videos

As you can imagine with the module demo video thing, I’ve upgraded my camera setup! I’ve been a kinda-hobbyist-that-found-a-way-to-get-paid-decently videographer for a while now, and recently upgraded my Sony A7Sii to a Sony FX3, allowing for higher framerate, better colour, and all around a massive upgrade. I also upgraded my PC to be basically top of the line, using a 5900X with a 6950XT and 64GB RAM with super-fast SSDs. Along with my usual use-cases for these tools, I’ll be using this for module demos and a new YouTube channel dedicated to synthetic sound design. Funny how that goes full circle – I used to be a TV show extra and had a vlog channel on YouTube, and even was a YouTube Partner (with admittedly the lowest tier play button but hey), and now I’m getting back into it with educational content. Weee!! I’ll post when the channel is up and has content.

Sound Design Book

Part of the idea with the videos will be to help understand synthesis techniques to make various sounds, along with how to layer and more general advice and probably reviews of tools I use. In writing the scripts for those videos, I found it would be useful to compile everything into one source – an book. This will be available as a paperback, hardcover, or e-book, all through Amazon, and as a mere PDF from my store. It will focus how synthesizers actually function on a super technical level, and how to use synthesizers and other tools to create specific sounds, following UCS. A sample pack will be available on my website as well that hits every major category in UCS format, both so you have new sounds to play with, and so you can follow along with the book. Should be fun.

Possibly Other Stuff

I’ve been working with professors I know to formulate a class I hope to make available online that will quite literally teach you, from nothing, how to use synthesizers for SFX design. This is probably not a 2023 thing.

A possible upcoming video is a studio tour, as I’m having a new place built and will hopefully be able to move into it and get set up this year. Pretty much will be like 20 minutes of showcasing stuff that looks like lab equipment and makes explosion noises. Some people are into that.

More blogging! I do tend to neglect this, so I hope to have a new post at least once a month. This counts as my January post, right?

Finally, a reel! I know, a sound designer with a blog 4 pages long but zero reel showcasing work. I haven’t actually needed it, but it would be fun to throw together and will be available on the YouTube channel as well as this site’s homepage.

kthxbai

So yeah, hopefully lots of cool stuff happening this year. With any luck you’ll like what’s to come, and more importantly it’ll help would-be sound designers break into the field. Synths are free with Vital and VCV, DAWs are free with Reaper, VSTs are largely free with holiday giveaways and good free plugins, but knowledge is largely scattered and minimal for using synths for SFX design so I hope to make that free and easy to find as well.

Happy synthing!