Recording the modular live, no overdubs

I tried something this month that scared me a little: record a whole piece in one take, hands on the rig, no editing after. No comping, no overdubs, no "I'll fix that knob in the mix." Just press record and play the system like an instrument.

Here's what went wrong, honestly:

The first four takes fell apart. There's a moment about halfway through where I have to mute the bass voice and bring up a Marbles-driven sequence at the same time, and my hands are simply not big enough to do both cleanly. Take three has an audible thump where I knocked a cable. Take five I forgot to start recording at all.

But take six. Take six was alive in a way my carefully-layered studio pieces never quite are. There's a wrong note around 3:40 — Plaits drifting slightly sharp — and I left it in, because fixing it would've meant losing the take. It breathes because it's fallible.

That's the lesson I keep relearning with modular: the mistakes are where the personality lives.

I'm sitting on take six for now and may put it on the next thing. Patrons, you'll hear it first.

— Wren