The Story Behind MIDI Amsterdam by Modulogue

This year, we're celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Eurorack format. It's a great time to reflect on its journey.

When I started with Eurorack in 1998, only a couple of synth shops sold the modules: The Music House in Utrecht and MIDI Amsterdam. The real hype began with a "MIDI and Recording" magazine article on the Doepfer A-100 system around that same time.
I recently spoke with Martijn at The Music House, who was the first official Doepfer dealer. He taught me so much back then, and I'm still a huge Doepfer fan. 

We're planning an interview for later this year.

The team at Modulogue sat down with Tim Nieuwenhuis from MIDI Amsterdam to discuss his store and the early days of Eurorack.
It's a fascinating look at the start of the Eurorack scene in the Netherlands and how it led to a whole new community centered around sound.

I'm definitely looking forward to the next part of this story—if it becomes a series!

Video: The Story Behind MIDI Amsterdam /by/ Modulogue
" We visited Tim Nieuwenhuis' music store: 'MIDI Amsterdam', a staple in the Dutch electronic music scene for almost 30 years. Tim talks about the origin of his store, his passion for electronic music, the famous artists he's encountered over the years, and more! 

MIDI Amsterdam 

https://midiamsterdam.nl/ 

Modulogue 

https://www.modulogue.com/ade25/

/ modulogue.events 

/ modulogue 

/ modulogue

Creating Lush Reverbs and More with Bopp and Steve Video by @RaafModular

The Bopp & Steve Deconstructed Reverb by This is Not Rocket Science (TiNRS) has been on my radar ever since it was first teased at Superbooth Berlin a few years ago. With its unique approach to reverb and its unconventional interface, it immediately stood out among the sea of more traditional effects modules.

Earlier this year, TiNRS finally unveiled the finished version, and it’s been making waves in the modular community ever since. You may have already come across excellent deep-dives by DivKid and SonicState, both highlighting its creative potential and playful sound design possibilities.

But today, a new perspective caught my attention — a fresh video by Dutch modular artist Raaf Modular just popped up in my feed. 

He’s relatively new to creating content, but his style feels personal, musical, and refreshingly unpolished in the best way. 

It’s always exciting to see these modules in the hands of musicians who approach them from a purely creative angle rather than just technical.

Definitely worth checking out — and while you’re at it, give Raaf Modular a follow on your favorite social platforms. Support your local modular heroes!

Video:
Creating lush reverbs and more with Bopp and Steve by TINRS

Source: Raaf Modular

"This is a new kind of video for me.

In this one, I’m focusing on a single module — BOPP and STEVE by This Is Not Rocket Science.
This is not a review. I’m not a reviewer — I’m a musician. (plus a teacher! (red))

So rather than diving into every technical detail, I’m giving you a musical demonstration: how I use this module to patch, play, and make music. 

It’s a new direction I’m exploring, and I’m really enjoying it.
I originally started this channel to share my music, but more and more people have been asking how I create it — how I patch, how I build my sounds, and how I work with modular gear.
So this is the first step in sharing more of that side of my process.
Let me know in the comments if this kind of video speaks to you — 

I’d love your feedback. Thanks for watching

Raaf "

* The date for next year's Superbooth has just been released: May 7- 9 2026

SOMA Laboratory Announces New Colors for LYRA-4 and Limited Edition 'Rusting Soma' Edition

Polish SOMA laboratory was founded by Vlad Kreimer in 2016 after success with the LYRA-8 synthesizer, an interesting concept that he called“Organismic”, meaning that LYRA uses some principles that lie in the base of living organisms.
"The way how LYRA’s modules interact between each other and the behavior of the instrument resembles a live digital conversation."

New colors added to the original white and black versions

While LYRA-8 was based on eight generators, Soma re-launched this as LYRA-4 as a 4-voice version and the latest news is that they added a bunch of flashy colors for the fans...
They now added green, pink, orange, and Zanzibar blue to its cast of colors.

Their design is not like any traditional subtractive synthesis VCO. 

Instead of having a linear or logarithmic dependency on control voltage, they resemble the tone generators in old electric organs. Hence the use of the term “voices” instead of “VCOs”. 

Lyra uses non-linearity a lot, and the voices are constructed in such a way that allows for non-linearity to express itself.

It even comes in pink now! <3

The voices are divided into two pairs (12, 34), creating tree-like structure.

The voices can function either in an electric organ mode or in an FM synthesis mode with each of the voices and its envelope acting as a separate FM operator. The voice’s impact on FM synthesis will decrease along with the decay of its envelope.

LYRA-4 also has the next blocks:

The HYPER LFO is a complex low-frequency generator, whose waveform is synthesized from two simple LFOs by summation or multiplication of their frequencies. It also has a sync mode. The LFO can modulate the selected pairs of voices and the MOD DELAY.

The MOD DELAY consists of delay with feedback. The delay has a unique possibility of self-modulation where the output signal modulates the delay sample rate, creating cool effects.

The DISTORTION is last in the chain, after the delay. It enables the delay to also influence the distortion.

For all its experimental character, LYRA is a professional instrument. Its output dynamics and frequency response are balanced and ready for a live performance or studio recording without any additional processing.

Video: The Power of 2 x LYRA-4 (SOMA labs demo)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/@somasynths

On the other side of the color spectrum, the company is offering a special “Rusting SOMA” limited-edition bundle containing the PULSAR-23, LYRA-8, and COSMOS.
Not just another color, the special bundle's housing utilizes the highest level of production by using a unique technology and not just an artificial aging of each product.

While each product is being offered individually, each order of a complete set of the Rusting SOMA bundle comes with matching serial numbers for each product.

Each new color variant, including Rusting SOMA, is already shipping.
LYRA-4 is priced at €360
The PULSAR-23, LYRA-8, COSMOS bundle is priced at €2,700 (add €300 for Turret version)

To learn more, visit https://somasynths.com/cosmos

Eurorack Modular Make-over

My old Doepfer tower
(click to enlarge)

The final thing that had to be done in the studio after moving to Hilversum was re-organizing and cleaning my modular system.

It's a dirty job... but someone's got to do it...

I recently sold my Doepfer MAQ 16/3 sequencer, that one has mainly been replaced by the BeatStepPro sequencer. 

My Doepfer vocoder modules also found a better home... they took up too much space, and i'm more than happy with the easier to use Roland Boutique VP-03 vocoder... and this one still gives my tracks that retro Electro-Funk vibes.
Some other modules that i hardly ever used were sold too... I still do still have a few Doepfer modules for sale (pm me for a list).

The old layout just didn't make any sense anymore. Some modules were so weirdly placed that patching them always resulted in a whole spaghetti of cables.

I love my knobs
nice and clean

The new tower is now a fully analog, independent 5-Oscillator synth with a plethora of different modulation, calculation and filter options.

The only digital modules in the Eurorack system are the Doepfer Midi-to-CV converter and the RT60 digital multi-effect from the kind people at QuBitElectronix.

The new Eurorack mini-tower, controlled by
the BeatStepPro

After re-organizing the modules I took all the plastic knobs off and soaked them overnight in a jar filled with warm water with a bit of (biologic and bio-degradable) household cleaner added... It seemed to do the job perfect... 

Never use alcohol or other synthetic products because it might damage (the text on) your front-panels.

The next day I rubbed them all clean with a microfiber cloth and let them dry in the sun.

I used a slightly dampt cloth with the same cleaner to clean the front-panels, wiping them dry directly after.

I placed my Novation Drumstation on top of the tower for some of the most authentic TR-808 and TR-909 clone-drumsounds... and all still controlled by the BeatStepPro that I mentioned earlier.

The Drumstation's DIN-SYNC out is going into my TB-303, so this one nicely follows along, while it feeds its CV and a Gate signal back into my Eurorack tower . I can re-use these signals to create a copied version of the loop playing on the TB...and mutate it in any way i want...

I'm soo happy now,

the new workflow has much improved, less of the old cable-spaghetti, and the first soundcheck sounded crisp and clear.

I can't wait to record new sounds soon.

I couldn't find many guidelines for arranging modules on the web, so I made a few notes during the process last time that I did this... 

you can find that full post HERE... 

or click for the tips after the break

SiteTip: RetroSynthAds is Back

Retro Synth Ads is Back!

Just a quick post to share something nice I noticed — the blog Retro Synth Ads has (also) started posting again after being quiet for almost four years!

If you grew up loving synthesizers, you might remember how exciting it was to see new gear in magazines like Future Music, SOS... MIDI Magazine, Interface and even before that Keyboard Magazine or Electronic Musician. 

Back then, those ads were one of the only ways to find out what was new. There were no YouTube videos or websites to check every day. Just printed pages, full of dream machines.

The person behind Retro Synth Ads, based in Canada, clearly loved those ads too. He started blogging at https://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/ in 2019, sharing a lot of cool old synth brochures, advertisements and background stories. His posts are always a fun mix of history and nostalgia.

If you like classic synths or just want to remember the good old days of music gear ads, his blog is definitely worth checking out.

I have spent many hours on this site in the past and will definitely keep an eye on this again.

The archive is impressive, and easy to search through... 

Once more: https://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/

Welcome back, Retro Synth Ads!

You can always find a link to the most recent post in the right sidebar of the web-version of my own blog.... together with my other favorite blogs

Patch into more interesting SiteTips from the PatchPierre ARCHIVE