Hacker Cinema
I Dream of Wires
2014 · Film · documentary · 96 min
Directed by Robert Fantinatto
An independent documentary film about the phenomenal resurgence of the modular synthesizer — exploring the passions, obsessions and dreams of people who have dedicated part of their lives to this esoteric electronic music machine. Inventors, musicians, and enthusiasts are interviewed about their relationship with the modular synthesizer — for many, it's an all-consuming passion.
8 positive2 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
I’m pretty sure the person who said that quote about non-professional musicians who purchase Eurorack modules was Paul Schreiber, who passed away about a month ago.
Gonna look it up, and I’ll edit this post when I find out.
Edit 1: Didn’t find the quote from the film yet, but did find [1]this video (unedited interview from I Dream of Wires) where Paul explains how he himself is not a musician, but rather an engineer.
[1] https://youtu.be/6ixv4F4XD4Y
Edit 2: Still haven’t found it.
I have the film at home, but I’m traveling in Europe at the moment, so it is out of reach for me currently.
My favorite documentary I have not seen (yet), I Dream of Wires from 2013, about modular synthesizers. I know in some trailer there was a maker of modules saying something to the effect that if only people actually making music with their synths bought modules he would be out of business. Can't find that trailer now or I did not watch carefully enough now. There are a few different ones on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQSxqha62j0
Eurorack analogue video is a thing. If you’re into learning more about modular synths I can highly recommend the docu-movie “I dream of Wires”.
Much of the equipment consists of analog modular synths.
If that intrigues you, definitely check out the recent documentary on the topic "I Dream of Wires" (http://www.idreamofwires.org/). It is on Netflix streaming, but there's also an extended version that is a bit more geeky. The documentary does a great job of covering synthesizers from the Moog days to the present revival of analog synths. Interesting stuff.
For more on analog synthesizers and systems, the documentary "I Dream of Wires" is highly recommended, and available on Netflix streaming.
I recommend the docu-movie "I dream of wires". I think it's on Netflix.
The documentary I Dream of Wires (2014) [1, 2] provides both an extensive and entertaining summary of the history and state of the art in modular synthesisers.
There is some extremely cool stuff coming out today. Buchla is still making insane gear like this rhythm generator [3, 4]. Some smart friends in London have made a programmable guitar pedal / module that can run Pure Data patches, they also have an Emscripten + Web Audio API powered sharing platform for same patches [5].
[1] http://www.idreamofwires.org/
[2] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3636334/
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7IVvYWT69g
[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OE8qHrRx-g
[5] http://hoxtonowl.com
Edit: [5] is open source software, firmware and hardware
Edit re software vs. hardware: Besides as has been mentioned that comparing software and hardware is a bit silly, I think it's missing the point to argue in favour of one or the other. A few unordered reasons why:
> Learning through making and programming together complement each other in a way only those who've experienced it truly understand.
> It's never been cheaper to buy synth hardware, esp. for the sake of learning e.g. Arduino, MakeyMakey, littleBits. And, it's never been easier to go to a hack space and get taught how to put a synth together (see workshops on http://musichackspace.org, more springing up in Europe at least – where are you, US music hackers?)
> Just like in most fields, the boundaries between software and hardware are becoming less distinguishable, as the Hoxton Owl project [5] clearly shows. This makes it the most exciting time to be interested in both music software and hardware!
I can recommend the documentary, "I Dream of Wires" (on Netflix) about the history of the analog modular synthesizer.
There's a great BBC documentary on the synthesizer and it's role in the rise of electronic music (in Britain particularly) in the 70s/80s called Synth Britannia, worth a watch if you like this sort of thing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1P93r9xes
Also on Netflix is a documentary film called I Dream of Wires about modular synthesizers, which I'm yet to get round to watching but is supposed to be very good.
Really must have a play on my synthesizers again, they've been gathering dust while I've been focussing on other things but a good synth really is a joy to play with.
There's a pretty cool documentary called "I Dream of Wires" that covers the early history of electronic (in this case analog electronic) music. It has a bit about the Theremin as well as the early modular synthesizers. Saw it hit Netflix the other day - well worth a watch if you are interested in this stuff.
Because they already sold the download option to the backers. People want exclusivity, and those people who have the mp4 are secretly (though not necessarily consciously) feasting on your tears of DRM-frustration because they have something you don't.
This might sound cynical, but that's how people are . There was a documentary that came out last year called I Dream of Wires about analog modular synthesizers, which are going through a renaissance right now thanks to low-cost short-run manufacturing and a much wider audience for electronic music than existed during the previous modular heyday of the 1970s. So they raised lots of money on Kickstarter, and one of the rewards for backers was exclusive access to a 4 hour Blu-Ray copy, with tons of additional footage that would be cut out of the theatrical version, but which you would certainly want to watch if this was your particular nerd obsession. Anyway, the film got made OK, but (as is very typical) the producers vastly overestimated likely interest in the film and discovered the hard way that it was too niche of a subject to appeal to regular documentary distributors. Having gone a bit over budget and spent some personal money to get it finished, they naturally wanted to break even, so after what they thought was a decent interval, they started selling the extended 4-hour Blu-ray edition to the general public on their website.
Bad idea. The people who had bought that thinking they were getting something exclusive were furious, and stalked the filmmakers across every electronic music forum where they popped their heads up, calling them fraudsters and thieves. They weren't any worse, off, as such; they had got their Blu-Rays (although I think they had to wait a long time for them, as with many Kickstarter campaigns that fall way behind schedule), and they included all the promised content delivered to a professional standard. But they thought they had bought a limited edition, and threatened the makers with lawsuits - the result being that the DVD release got pushed way back and the extended 'ahrdcore edition' has had the price jacked up to $199 (which almost nobody will ever spend) in line with the donation requirement for the original reward.