Modular synthesis, wired to real creative life.
Podular Modcast is a modular synthesis show built around conversations with artists, makers, and scene regulars. Recent episodes move from Clipping, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, 4MS, video synthesis, and concept albums to frank updates on keeping a niche music show alive.
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Podular Modcast is a deep-scene modular synthesis show where gear talk, artist process, and independent music life share the same patch bay. The show’s center is conversation. Recent episodes feature Jonathan Snipes from Clipping, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Dan Green from 4MS, Rainbow Circuit, Daedelus, and artists working as Sand Castles. The questions can be exacting. How many outlets are feeding a studio system? Is everything on the same ground? What happens when a module becomes a bridge between hardware identity and software flexibility? Those practical concerns sit beside bigger creative ones: why visual feedback changes the way an instrument is played, how a concept album can hold a complete thought, and what synesthesia or environment might mean inside a new record. The show also leaves the studio door open to the less tidy parts of making niche media. Episodes talk openly about sponsor budgets, Patreon decline, irregular release schedules, odd jobs, family demands, grief, and the uneasy feeling of trying to make a modular synthesis podcast function as a career. That candor gives the series a human texture most gear shows avoid. It is technical, but not sterile. It is community-minded, but not glossy. Product mentions from companies such as Expert Sleepers, Novation, Signal Sounds, 4MS, Ampersand Ampersand, and others appear as part of the ecosystem rather than as detached shopping copy. There are also recurring bits, secret words, Patreon appeals, featured artist segments, and moments of intentionally strange humor. The pacing can wobble, ramble, and double back. That is part of the appeal. Podular Modcast is strongest when it lets a musician or maker follow an idea from a knob, a cable, or a firmware choice into a larger argument about practice, identity, and sound. For modular listeners, it offers names, tools, and context. For experimental music fans, it offers a close view of how records and instruments are talked about by the people using them. For scene watchers, it captures a small but committed creative world trying to stay useful, curious, and alive.
Made for: For modular synth users, experimental electronic musicians, gear-curious listeners, and fans of artist interviews that assume real interest in the details. It especially suits people who like candid scene talk alongside patching, modules, albums, and shop-floor realities.
What sets it apart: Podular Modcast stands out by mixing technical modular discussion with unusually direct reflections on the economics and emotional strain of independent creative work. It feels less like polished product coverage and more like an ongoing field recording from inside the modular community.
Join us on our journey through the world of modular synthesis. We will be chatting with synthesists, module manufacturers/designers and synth shop owners to see how modular has impacted their life. And of course we will be doing some patching.
Based on 4 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Podular Modcast makes modular synthesis legible by connecting interface design and technical choices to the music those instruments encourage.
Podular Modcast treats modular synthesis as a conversation between sound, interface and artistic intention. Tim Held talks with people building and using these instruments, keeping technical questions tied to the decisions a module invites in practice.
A modular bridge with knobs attached, where Tim Held lets purists grumble while you hear the builders.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Dan Green considers the early resistance to 4MS's Meta Module and the rules musicians make for their tools.
Before 4MS's Meta Module was released, Dan Green received unsolicited emails warning that it threatened the purity of hardware music making. The objections struck him as premature: the writers, he says, had neither seen nor touched it. Green reaches for a bridge as an analogy.
PodMod considers how FAILURE's moving dials and physical controls can shape a player's style.
On PodMod, Tim, Alfred (Daedalus) and Takuma talk about FAILURE through the physical experience of playing it. Dials move when something is plugged in, giving the player a visible response. One speaker says that feedback helped them learn the instrument and shaped their style.
Sand Castles discuss how *X-Topia* grew into a continuous album with an imagined society.
Tim Held talks with Seattle musicians Michael Votter and Justin Benjamin about Sand Castles' first release, X-Topia. They made it as one continuous album, a choice Held sets against TikTok reels, singles, and the short bursts in which people often hear music.
A wandering Podular Modcast and Poundcast crossover ends with Tim Held weighing podcast ads against his wish to support modular makers.
Tim Held welcomes DJ Doug Pound and Brent Weinbach to Podular Modcast for a crossover that also appears on Poundcast. After introducing their comedy work, Held moves with them from a Tarkovsky film to the way children spend their school days.
Music tech, translated into business consequences.
Apple details, software habits, and everyday technical friction.
Records worth hearing, reasons worth arguing over.
Tim Held shares performances from Modular on the Spot Portland, discussing technical issues with field recordings and highlighting his own modular set.
Tim Held introduces an interview with modular synth artist Cave Cricket and promotes new merchandise.
A brief review of the Otterly analog multi LFO module from Expert Sleepers, highlighting its features and benefits for Eurorack synthesizer patches.
Todd Barton interviews instrument designer Ryan Gaston, starting from their first meeting at the February 2015 Serge 40th reunion in San Francisco.
Eric Piecher returns to Podular Modcast to discuss his new release Moon, following up on his previous release Noon.
Podular Modcast features Tim speaking with Jonathan Snipes of clipping about Dead Channel Sky, a record shaped by electronic music, cyberpunk imagery, and late-1990s visions of 2025.
An interview with musician Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith about her new album Gush and her creative process.
The host Podlondi welcomes listeners to the new year and briefly mentions video synthesis before introducing the return of guest Frae Frae.
Dan Green from 4MS discusses their new Meta Module on the Podular Modcast.
The host explains why PodMod has shifted from a weekly to sporadic release schedule due to economic challenges and asks listeners for Patreon support.
Takuma says Rainbow Circuit builds plugins and instruments that "slow down the computer a little bit" so players have to engage with sound and form.
Podular Modcast Episode 285 centers on Sand Castles, the duo of Michael Votter and Justin Benjamin aka Snowden, and their first release, the concept album Xtopia.
Tim Held hosts a swap-cast episode of Podular Modcast with DJ Doug Pound, Doug Lusenhop, and Brent Weinbach, and the first stretch centers on synths, samplers, and the Roland SP-404 MK2.
Tim Held introduces a modular synth patch using the Catalyst sequencer and SWAN, then transitions to an interview with his childhood friend Jared Carter, a painter and tattoo artist.