About Pittsburgh Modular
Established in 2012, Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers is a leading American manufacturer of modern, fully patchable, modular synthesizers. Pittsburgh Modular's innovative designs focus on the synthesizer as a complete instrument, with no hardwired signal path or fixed voice architecture to restrict creativity.
We sell our products to an expanding roster of renown musicians, and through a growing list of music retailers worldwide. Our instruments include the flagship, all analog Foundation 3 modular synthesizer, the affordable System 10 semi-modular synthesizers, and fully patchable effects pedal systems. Pittsburgh Modular also offers a complete line of eurorack modules, cases, and accessories.
Pittsburgh Modular Synthesizers is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where we hand-assemble all our instruments.
Richard Nicol (Pittsburgh, PA) creator and founder of Pittsburgh Modular is building a uniquely skewed vision of modular synthesis. All of the Pittsburgh modules are handmade with the look of 1950′s science fiction laboratory equipment using bold components and unique layouts to promote interaction and experimentation. Fresh ideas in modern analog circuitry are used to create new, interesting, and strangely musical tones.
Michael Johnsen (Pittsburgh, PA) Instrument builder and performer Michael Johnsen was born in 1968 in Pennsylvania. Drawing on the rich American tradition of experimentation and cobbling, he has built up an integrated menagerie of devices specifically for live performance whose idiosyncratic behaviors are revealed through their complex interactions. His work is characterized by a relative lack of ideas per se, and an intense focus on observation, the way a shepherd watches sheep. The extensive patching of large numbers of devices produces teeming chirps, sudden transients and charming failure modes; embracing the dirt in pure electronics. Most of what he might have learned has come from the natural world, like watching robins run. He is particularly fond of sounds that end.