Modulr Spark
Four trigger buttons, three sliders and a wooden case: the first of them, and the one every later machine answers to.
Modulr Spark is a drum machine after the grammar of a 1978 classic: four square trigger keys under their lamps, three sliders for volume, tone and decay, a small level knob, a tempo dial and a four-position pattern switch, cream on black in a sloping wooden case. Twenty-one patches, each loading a whole kit and pattern at once.
21 kits, played as they ship.
Each clip is the plug-in itself: the patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, and its pattern runs from the Start key. Each patch is Modulr’s own groove for a style, named for what it is; it is not a copy of any record. The sound is the instrument’s own output, with no effects and no mastering.
A drum machine you load, then edit as it runs.
- A disk of sources.Four square trigger keys under their lamps: kick, snare, hat and tom, struck by the keys or from your host’s MIDI notes.
- A grid of source buttons.Three sliders for volume, tone and decay, one per voice, drawn as the machine’s own panel drew them.
- A sixteen-step phrase sequencer.A tempo dial and a four-position pattern switch: sixteen built patterns, or free-running on your host’s clock.
- An output mixer with a phone amplifier.The sound is the instrument’s own output, with no effects and no mastering.
- Patches that load the whole kit.Pick a patch and the voices, the tempo and the pattern all move to it at once; the drawer closes and the beat is ready to run.
- Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, set its output level, and age it: the decay shortens and the tone softens.
What it needs.
| Format | Systems |
|---|---|
| VST3 · Audio Unit | macOS 11 or later, on Apple silicon |
The editor, and the module it becomes.
The plug-in is built. The Eurorack module is drawn, with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, and is not.
Mock UI — drawn by the specification’s own kit, not a screenshot of a shipped editor. Values are illustrative, not measured. The study is CR-78’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.
CR-78, 1978.
The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.
The first drum machine's grammar: four voices (bass drum, snare, rim shot, clap) as lit square keys on a black panel, three sliders with white caps for volume, tone and decay, a small level knob, a four-position pattern switch and a big tempo dial, all cream on black in a wooden case.
An 18 HP panel of warm walnut with the machine's black panel inset in it: eight black knobs with cream pointers, each with its own control jack under it, four amber voice lamps over the four voice knobs, cream silkscreen, an amber readout of the running pattern, and a dark jack tray at the foot.
- Four trigger buttons: bass drum, snare, rim shot and clap
- Three sliders for the volume, the tone and the decay
- A small knob for the level
- A switch between the four patterns
- A sloping wooden case with a lid
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bass | voice.bass | 0–10 | 10 |
| Snare | voice.snare | 0–10 | 10 |
| Rim | voice.rim | 0–10 | 10 |
| Clap | voice.clap | 0–10 | 10 |
| Volume | out.volume | 0–10 | 10 |
| Tone | out.tone | 0–10 | 5 |
| Decay | out.decay | 0–10 | 4 |
| Pattern | seq.pattern | 1 – 4 | 1 |
| Side | Jacks |
|---|---|
| In | Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV), Clock (CV), Bass (CV), Snare (CV), Rim (CV), Clap (CV) |
| Out | Out (Audio) |
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.