Modulr Stack

Eight voices of seven saws each, a filter with three types, a trance gate and three effects, played from your keyboard as a VST3 and Audio Unit.

Modulr Stack is a supersaw synthesizer after the grammar of the 1996 JP-8000: eight voices, two oscillators and a stack of seven detuned saws, one filter with a chosen type and slope, two envelopes and two LFOs, a sixteen-step trance gate, a chorus, a delay and a reverb, and a ribbon, a bender and a Beam above 61 keys.

Plug-in · VST3 and Audio Unit

Add to basket · $25→Legendary→

118 parametersevery one can be automated from your music software

50 patcheseach one loads the whole sound

VST3 · AUApple silicon, macOS 11 or later

Hear it

Four sounds, played as they ship.

Each clip is the plug-in itself: the patch is picked in the drawer and loaded, then a played line or chord sounds on it, the way it is played into the plug-in from a keyboard. Three are after a record, and their settings are the plug-in’s own reading of that sound’s role, not the artist’s; the last is the instrument as it is built. 50 patches ship, and they make four distinct sounds: these are one of each.

"Sandstorm" LeadLead · PlainAfter Darude, "Sandstorm" (1999).

"Airwave" PadsPad · WarmAfter Rank 1, "Airwave" (1999).

Madonna, Ray of Light BassBass · SawAfter William Orbit, Madonna, Ray of Light sessions (1998).

Trance leads generallyStudio · SightingThe instrument as it is built, played as held chords: the one setting the bank’s thirty studio patches share, none of them a reading of a record.

How it plays

A supersaw synthesizer, played from your keyboard.

Patches that load the whole sound.Pick a patch and every control moves to it at once; the drawer closes and the instrument is ready to play. Hold the preview button to hear a patch on your own MIDI; let go and the instrument is exactly as it was.
Eight voices.Poly, Mono or Unison, with a glide and a hold; in Unison the voices are spread by the unison detune.
Two oscillators and a stack of seven saws.Each oscillator has a wave list (saw, triangle, square, sine, noise, the saw stack or a feedback sine), a pulse width, a coarse and fine tune and, on the first, drift; the second can sync, ring or frequency-modulate the first. The saw stack is seven detuned saws with a mix between the centre and the sides and a stereo spread.
A mixer of four.The two oscillators, the saw stack, noise (white or pink) and the filter’s own output fed back.
One filter.Low-pass, high-pass or band-pass at 12 or 24 dB, with cutoff, resonance, the filter envelope’s amount, key tracking and the LFOs.
Two envelopes and two LFOs.An ADSR for the filter and one for the level, with velocity; two LFOs with five waves, a fade, a sync and their own depths to pitch, filter and level.
A trance gate and an arpeggiator.Sixteen steps of gate and level, with a rate, a depth and a swing, that run to your host’s transport or latch.
Three effects.A chorus, a delay and a reverb over the sum of the voices.
The ribbon, the bender and the Beam.A bender that springs back, a ribbon, and a Beam that can raise the pitch, the cutoff or the LFO.
Services.Choose whether the instrument answers your host’s MIDI and clock, set its output level, and age it.

Requirements

What it needs.

Format	Systems	Licence
VST3 · Audio Unit	Apple silicon, macOS 11 or later	A licence is needed to make sound. Without one the editor opens and the output is silent.

The study

The editor, and the module it becomes.

The plug-in is built, and its editor is shown playing a patch. The module is the same study drawn as a Eurorack module with its macro knobs and the control jacks under them, and it is not built.

The Modulr Stack plug-in editor, playing a patch — The Modulr Stack editor, playing a patch: a cool silver sheet under black title bars, the saw stack of seven stems, the filter’s response and the envelopes drawn live, the trance gate’s lanes, an amber display, and 61 keys below.

The Modulr Stack Eurorack module, 24 HP, in its case — The Modulr Stack module, 24 HP: silver and black bars, eight macro knobs each with a control jack under it, and two dark trays of jacks.

The editor is the plug-in’s own, captured as it plays. The module is drawn by the specification’s own kit, and its values are illustrative, not measured. The design is JP-8000’s grammar, redrawn in Modulr’s own words, and nothing on it is measured against the instrument.

The instrument it studies

JP-8000, 1996.

The instrument’s own grammar, as the catalogue recalls it: the sections, the controls and the look the study borrows.

One flat panel of small knobs and lit-list selectors under printed titles: a saw stack of seven detuned saws, two oscillators with a wave list, a filter with type and slope, two LFOs, effects, voice modes, a bender, a ribbon and a Beam dome over 61 keys.

Cool silver under black title bars with the saw stack’s in blue, an amber LCD with the patch name, fluted black knobs with a white line, and two dark trays of jacks.

Two oscillators, each with a lit wave list, and a mod switch (off, sync, ring, FM)
A saw stack of seven detuned saws, with its own detune and mix
One filter, with a selectable type (low-pass, high-pass, band-pass) and a slope
Envelopes for the filter and the amplifier
Two LFOs
Effects: chorus, delay and reverb
Voice modes (poly, mono, unison) with a unison detune
A bender lever, a ribbon and a Beam controller, over 61 keys

The spec sheet

The module, knob by knob.

The module is a design study and is not built. Its macros are the signature controls a player reaches for, not a generic set; each one has a control jack under it.

Macro	Key	Range	Default
Detune	saw.detune	0–100%	0%
Mix	saw.mix	0–100%	50%
Spread	saw.spread	0–100%	0%
Depth	gate.depth	0–100%	100%
Cutoff	vcf.cut	20 Hz – 20 kHz	20 kHz
Reso	vcf.res	0–100%	0%
Delay	fx.delay.mix	0–100%	0%
Reverb	fx.reverb.mix	0–100%	0%

Side	Jacks
In	Note (MIDI), V/Oct (CV), Gate (CV)
Out	Out (Audio), Env (CV), LFO (CV)

The plug-in is built. The module is not.On saleModulr Stack is a working VST3 and Audio Unit. It is not a copy of any instrument: no maker’s name or logo is drawn on it and nothing is measured against the original. The Eurorack module drawn on this page is a design study and is not built.

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.