Moving Modulations to Nostr

Here goes my first proper long form Nostr post - yay!

What is Modulations? How did it begin?

I joined Substack when it launched and started writing a blog about a lot of general stuff and it had no direction, then during Covid I started getting back into music production, exploring music theory, learning synthesis which led me to becoming deeply fascinated in it all - I originally got into music as a youngster, learnt guitar and some keyboard playing in my teens and into my twenties back in the 90s. I wrote a simple piece of music software on both my Commodore 64 and Amiga 500, later moving on to the PC learning Cubase at the point in time when it was rather fresh to the world - it all made sense and I wrote a few tracks, releasing them on what was known as MP3.com at the time.

Fast forward some 20 years or so!

Around 2018, I started getting interested in Ableton and can remember rekindling my Yamaha CS2x to use with it and then two years later during Covid, this became a big thing for me, it helped keep me sane during the lockdowns.

Not long after Covid I started a Substack called Modulations, which makes use of it’s blogging tools, audio and video embedding, podcasting and so on.

It’s gained a lot of subscribers, did have some paid subscribers for awhile but since I’ve lost them, another good reason to gradually move the project over to Nostr.

What’s the plan going forward

I’ve always enjoyed journaling and writing about my music, the tools I use and the tools that I would like to try out in the future; of which there are many of course. These days so many new products are launched every month, all of which I tend to either ignore or add to my “maybe buy someday” list.

They come in two main forms, software or hardware and then they can all be divided into Synth, Sampler, Sequencer or FX.

There has been a desire in many to switch to what we call DAWless which I can’t help but think at times is a network effect of YouTubes influencers. Don’t get me wrong many of them are good at what they do and are aware that there are some highly desirable products out on the market.

For the non computer based musicians out there, who don’t know what DAW means, it stands for Digital Audio Workstation.

Do we need them all though? Do we need to go DAWless, stick with the DAW or go for something in between?

I’m asking this for myself if I’m honest. I bought gear these past few years, sold some because I didn’t gel with it or it was gathering dust.

2025 may well be more of a Hybrid studio year, where I explore using Ableton, in conjunction with some hardware devices. I have my eyes on a couple, that will fit in well with what I already own.

In the meantime, check out https://modulatioos.substack.com

It will continue there for awhile but the dream is to Nostrify it completely if I can!!