What is The Signal Path?
The Signal Path is a Melbourne/Naarm group covering all things related to hardware based electronic music production and performance.
Expect live hardware electronic music events, synth meets at Howler Brunswick and radio shows (interviews/jams/rig rundowns) on Area3000.radio and our YouTube channel.
Modular Theme Time is a modular synth collaborative. Online and live in person. More than 100 artists from around Australia & New Zealand (and sometimes other places) have produced 27 albums together since 2019. It has now been closed to the public to concentrate on the other elements of TSP. You can listen to all the albums on most streaming services and listen/download on the MTT Bandcamp page.
Cool. I don't want to have to keep visiting the website. Can you email me?
Yes we can! We have decided to start a monthly newsletter sent directly to your email. All emails will stay with TSP and will never be used for anything but newsletter emails.
Can I get involved?
Hell yes!
If you are an artist of any kind and want to contribute or perform, send us an email and we will be in touch.
Note! TSP is not a charity, or a not for profit, per se. We are mainly one person, that gets some help from friends. There is no pay, there is no glamour, what there is in spades is love and passion. What we do get is an incredible sense of community. Without the thanks that we regularly get from music making enthusiasts, we would probably not be here today. It's the thanks that keeps us working on something, that can be, most of the time, a thankless job. So thanks everyone who ever said 'thank you for doing this'.
So, if you want to contribute to the community, for the love of being part of a community, you are most welcome.
Or, if you just want to be part of it, that can be arranged too. Or just come along, say hello. Job done!
Where would you like TSP to go?
We would love The Signal Path to hold events in venues that befit live hardware electronic music on a regular basis.
To hold ticketed events so we can pay our artists (sound, visual and any other artist we may bring along on the journey) a fair wage for their art, and not have to worry about hitting venue minimum bar spends. (These can be very high, forcing ticket prices to be high).
We aim to see live electronic music culture back into the vocabulary of the common people. Many of our friends and family still ask us how our DJing is going. This is how synonymous DJing is with electronic music today. Electronic music culture (or what was rave culture) is now seen as DJ culture by gen pop, and even some people within DJ culture are not aware of live hardware electronic performance. We hope to evolve the culture to where all forms of electronic music production and performance is seen as being part of electronic music culture. That incudes DJ's of all styles, electronic music performers of all types (hardware, computer, hybrid) and whatever may come as we head into an unseen future. Electronic music production is all about looking into the future and imagining what is possible. Lets keep pushing boundaries of sound.
How did TSP come about?
In 2019 I was confident enough to start jamming on my modular synth with friends. I really loved jamming with others as I tended push myself and experiment more. I thought the practice of jamming with others would be great for other modular artists too, so I started Modular Theme Time. MTT has now been closed to the public as I concentrate on TSP, but 27 albums later, a wonderful community grew out of it, who very much appreciated MTT, and will always be something to cherish.
In 2024, I started the TSP radio show. Sindy of Area3000 put a callout for shows at the end of the 2023 season. Different types of shows were being prioritised. Live hardware is different! I applied, and was successful.
Marcus Newman asked if he could help in the first session with Shay Doe, and videoed some of the first interview. It went well and he suggested we video the show and put on it YouTube. Super! TSP radio show and YouTube was formed. Quick thanks to Boris Divjak for taking up the video mantle.
Later that year Guy Urban Spaceman asked for me to look for a venue for Vicmod, as after covid he needed a new space. I spoke to Kevin of Stable Music who offered Howler on a Tuesday night. I thought about it and decided to put a 'less exclusive' meet on under TSP. Instead of making it just modular synths, we could welcome the electronic hardware music community at large. I ran it by Guy and he was all for the idea. The TSP synth meet was born.
In 2025 Gregor McNish offers to make a website for me, as he is now retired. How awesome is that! I hope you like it. We chatted about what we can put in it. As well as links to all things TSP and MTT, we put a guide to upcoming live hardware events on the main page. I start a Facebook message chat so that all the people I know that are live hardware can share their upcoming gigs and chat live hardware. Makes it easy for me instead of having multiple threads or asking people individually, or chasing things up. So for upcoming live hardware gigs all you have to do is drop in on the index page. Helps for those that are moving away from the social apps as well. (I would be off them as well if I could!)
Finally, I have decided to run events. Because I think that is a wonderful thing to do, and give more opportunity for artists to play and improve their live performance skills. So keep an eye out for TSP events as well.
In summary, The Signal Path was born of a passion for live hardware electronic music. Here we are now, living in the present moment. Who knows where it will take us next.