Berlin, Germany

Berlin Modular Music Interfaces

The workshop combines artistic-productive and scientific-reflective perspectives on modular synthesizers. During extensive hands-on sessions, individual projects can be developed under guidance. Excursions offer insights into the Berlin developer scene.

Berlin is a center of electronic music not only because of its clubs and festivals, DJs and sound artists, but also because of the extensive network in which hardware and software for the production of electronic music is developed, tested and distributed. Internationally active companies and small underground projects, producers of both danceable club music and avant-garde concert music are investigating in particular the possibilities of hardware synthesizer modules, which are the focus of the workshop.

Interfaces of synthesizer modules for sound generation and modulation are characterized by the arrangement of control elements such as knobs and sliders, the type of inputs and outputs for audio and control signals that can be connected via cables, and last but not least by the visual design and labeling of the front panels. Not only technical and musical aspects are materialized here, but also references to various aesthetic trends in electronic music, to specific commercial or dissident musical cultures and to certain regional or international traditions or collaborations. The history and present of specific musical zones in Berlin are addressed in a variety of ways.

Course leader

Kim Feser and Jessica Kert.

Fee info

EUR 510: EUR 510