Chicago artist Fess Grandiose on beatmaking, performance, and finding his way into modular on his own terms. Trinity and Per4mer, in the room where the music actually gets made.
Modbap x Fess GrandioseWatch the film · 5 minElectronic instruments shaped by beatmaking, performance, and hands-on control. Designed to be played, pushed, and moved in real time.
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Not modular as an academic pursuit. Not beatmaking culture as a decoration on top of it.
Modbap is an independent music technology company founded by Corry Banks. It began in modular synthesis, building Eurorack hardware shaped by the intersection of electronic music technology, beatmaking culture and hands-on performance. Both at once, which is where the name comes from.
The hardware taught us what a control should feel like under your hand, what a panel should ask of you, and how much of an instrument you can take away before it stops being playable. The next chapter, the plugins, bring the same thinking to the desktop and into your DAW.
More about ModbapSeven modules, one system. Every one of them designed to be played, not just patched.
Patch cables everywhere. An MPC on the table with a Modbap system. CV patched. Producers and beatmakers getting hands-on with Modbap modules, trying ideas, making beats, patching and hearing what happens in real time.
This is the part we love: getting the gear out of the box and into the community, where people can use it their own way.
Stay tuned. Follow us on Instagram to see where we will be next.
Beat is a German music production magazine covering music, production and DJ culture. Both reviews ran in its hardware pages.
“pleasingly rich, versatile and organic”
Beat #193 · translated from German
“crisp, clear, and digital”
Beat #214 · 11/2023 · reviewed by Daniel Bock
Ahead of NAMM, we sent the full line of Modbap modules to these four talented artists and asked each of them to build a beat set around them. This is what happened on the NAMM showroom floor at the Modbap booth.
A tool that does everything sounds like nothing. We would rather make something with a point of view you either want or do not, than something neutral enough to be forgettable.
Every control on a panel has to earn its place. If a parameter exists because it was easy to expose rather than because it is musical, it does not ship. What survives to a shipping panel is what you actually reach for.
Designed to be moved while the music plays, not dialed in once and left. Parameters are smoothed, switches crossfade, and nothing on a Modbap panel is unsafe to touch mid-take.
