Review and tutorial: VRL (Voltage Research Lab) from Pittsburgh Modular

Chapters about Sample and Hold, LFOs and Eurorack for beginners in my ever-expanding book of synth and electronic music ideas, tips and tricks here:


A full download of the jam is available on my Patreon as well as an exclusive Patron benefit.

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TIMELINE:
0:00 Intro
1:05 Overview
3:20 MIDI
4:45 Clock
5:00 Arpeggiator
6:50 Primary oscillator
11:10 Secondary oscillator
12:30 FM, AM, Ring, and wave modulation
14:45 Function Generators
17:10 Unison
18:00 Dynamics controllers
19:30 Response
20:40 Pluck
21:40 Analog Delay
23:00 Random tools
24:40 Touch controller
28:00 Sequencing
29:30 System utilities
29:50 Pros & cons
32:50 Outro jam

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NOTE: Occasionally I’ll try out affiliate marketing and include affiliate links. This means that I may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links. The content of this clip is entirely my opinion, and was not paid for or dictated in any way by the company creating the gear. Without addressing the particulars of products shown here as they might be under NDA, gear shown on this channel may be either sent by the manufacturer, on loan for review or bought at a discount.

[vaspers]

When I want in-depth, meticulous, intelligent reviews of new synthesizer products, Loopop is the best. This one is in my top 3 on my synth shopping list. Thanks!

[JubileeGiggles]

Man, your overviews are really solid, thorough, and professional. I know if i'm looking into a synth and you have a review of it, i'm gonna learn everything I want to know before I buy it, and have a reference for how to use the thing once I get it. Awesome, awesome channel

[paradiddle]

Everything I heard so far from Pittsburgh modular sounds great!

[bitspacemusic]

I have almost all of the first line of PGH modules, like Timetable, Generator, Gen Exp and the original filter. Love this.

[mariorobles]

What I like most here is that the design is very different compared to so many synths out there. It has all those nice features that I use so often on my modular system but now they are all in here super compact in this little machine. Perfect for live and to jam with a band etc.

[onkelberra]

Holy sheet that was a good review. I got goosebumps the first 30sec. That slide and arp!

[JRoecker]

This is something I am actually looking forward to picking up! Thank you for another great review!

[slowblack]

This is a beautiful synth! The exact opposite of sitting in front of a computer clicking away or lcd menu-diving. Tactile interaction and real time sound shaping, like a "real instrument to make music". Just wishing to have $1, 500 of disposable income to throw at it now... : )
Great review as usual Mr. Loopop!

[mattsynth]

Very nice how they placed all the patch points at the bottom or top of the modules.

[dr.getter]

That sound from 9:24 to 9:29 in the video.. makes me feel all good inside :)

[evilkillbot]

As always, very nice content sir, I can't imagine how you could have made a better review.. Aside from your quantizer and DC couple issues aside (nice that you did have negatives rather than a rosie rah rah promo for a product) is hard to see how Pittsburgh could have made a better product either. The compatibility u get with using one manufacturer makes me and my much bigger and pricier system a little jealous...I don't see much need for it myself but for friends considering modular or if I had my time over...those that buy this will probably have no idea the cost and significance to rackers of the little corners of sample and hold, noise and random. I bet the Wigglers who don't have them that just watched this sure do. Not sure on the asking price but I can assure anyone new to synth they would be appalled to know what it would cost to build a system like this with separate modules. Nice work to you and the makers. Kudos and thanks. Keep up the good work. Ps extra points for the inclusion of the end eor and eoc gates on the function generators, great feature, I wonder where they got that idea from?

[astrophonix]

It's like a Donald Buchla-designed VCS3!

[busch]

Great Video As Always!!!!
Pittsburgh Modular has been around for quite a bit now. Their stuff in the eurorack world was good but for me, they never really grabbed my attention. This is actually something that is really nice in a complete and comprehensive package. Sounds great too.

[FarrellMcGovern]

The colour and knobs are very reminiscent of 70's Roland stuff. I would swear that some of the knobs are exactly like those on my Roland SH-3!

[onebitmind]

I have a little tip for doing vibrato on this synth. With the modulation destination turned off (no leds lit up) but the mod attenuator turned up, there is a very small amount of bleed of Osc 2 FM to Osc 1, that you can dial in with much greater control. With the pot all the way up, it's still a useable amount of vibrato.

[AndyVonal]

Thanks Mr Loopop for the first vid I have seen about this since it was announced at Superbooth. really interesting and informative. Great job. Sounds fantastic, too!

[thesynthblog]

thanks SO much for this. finally, I'm able to get the most out of my voltage lab

[cardboardmusic]

Pittsburgh Modular produce some really interesting pieces. I love how they keep releasing these combination pieces - the SV-1 and the KB-1 in a case, and now this. However, the sad bit is that they tend to be limited editions (in the cases). I know that's it's possible to find these things as individual modules, but it's very user friendly to have the possibility to get them as one unit. So, if PM read these comments, please think of keeping some of these combi pieces in production, i'm sure there's a small but dedicated market.

[hofmann_]

Great vid as always. This thing sounds amazing!

[gunnarwaage]

This is such an amazing instrument, I can't help but assume they intended it to be used without a quantizer, they are marketing it more as an environmental sound sculpturing device.