Generative music - M1 native - modular synth ?

[Fraggle]

I have been making generative music for a long time - using Ableton and Max for live -

Basically ‘controlled randomness’ with some harmonic structure to keep the whole thing from being wholly atonal. - “installation art” - ambient relaxing random tones - that kind of thing.

I believe (and I may be wrong , and this question therefore unnecessary) that a modular synth or modular system could give me considerably more power in making this style of music than I currently have in Ableton and Max devices made by others.

I use an Apple M1 Mac , so that, I suspect, will seriously narrow down my options as I would want the synth to be M1 native NOT run via Rosetta 2

Ideally I would like it to be able to plug into Ableton live 11.1 which is M1 native , but if it is standalone I could work with that too.

Finally - a big factor is UI - my eyesight isn’t great , so a clean UI would be a big advantage for me.

Question - what is the modular system that would be most suited to this kind of music - and my kind of criterion

Many thanks for your advice

[ghettosynth]

I believe (and I may be wrong , and this question therefore unnecessary) that a modular synth or modular system could give me considerably more power in making this style of music than I currently have in Ableton and Max devices made by others.

I think that it's a rabbit hole that might not be as valuable as you think. It really depends on what you mean by "more power." Frankly, if you are using MFL devices and you really want more power, then just dig into Max. It's all there under the hood.

OTOH, if you don't want to get technical, then you're going to have to define "more power." Sure, you can have a lot of routing flexibility with modular systems, but, I'm not convinced that the end result will reflect that power. Your time might be better spent exploring more MFL devices.

Ask yourself what you're hoping to achieve that you can't do now, and that may help you determine whether using some modular environment will help you get there better than a fresh collection of MFL devices.

[bharris22]

I don't believe VCV Rack is M1 native (I'm not a Mac user, so don't think about these things), but in terms of modular systems and generative music, I highly recommend looking at Omri Cohen's excellent videos on YT. If you can find an older computer to run VCV Rack, you would have tons of options.

[Fraggle]

I believe (and I may be wrong , and this question therefore unnecessary) that a modular synth or modular system could give me considerably more power in making this style of music than I currently have in Ableton and Max devices made by others.

I think that it's a rabbit hole that might not be as valuable as you think. It really depends on what you mean by "more power." Frankly, if you are using MFL devices and you really want more power, then just dig into Max. It's all there under the hood.

OTOH, if you don't want to get technical, then you're going to have to define "more power." Sure, you can have a lot of routing flexibility with modular systems, but, I'm not convinced that the end result will reflect that power. Your time might be better spent exploring more MFL devices.

Ask yourself what you're hoping to achieve that you can't do now, and that may help you determine whether using some modular environment will help you get there better than a fresh collection of MFL devices.

That's very wise advice - I see your point - I am grateful

[DRMR]

Cardinal has native M1 builds, also has AU (still needs more testing and proper plugin validation).

Some VCV users on the community forum have also been looking at native M1 builds.

[strangersun]

What about Moog's Model 15? I bought it on iPad years ago and it shows up on my m1 Mac. It's not the wide open modular platform that you might be dreaming of, but what is there is tried and true and it sounds fantastic.