I've never subscribed to Jim's "modular synthesis vs. synthesis with modules" argument regarding Maths. The Moog System 55 and Roland System 700 didn't have Maths... Was that not modular synthesis?
-- farkas
it's not really got anything to do with maths - although maths is a good example of a few fundamental building blocks under a single panel that can be patched to do more than the individual building blocks can - it's got to do with fundamental building blocks of synthesis as modules rather than big shiny expensive synth modules that do all these things for you without any need for understanding of what's going on beneath the panel... so moog system 55 and roland system 700 - collections of fundamental building blocks of synthesis that need to be patched together to get something out of them - definitely fall in the 'modular synthesis' camp... whereas a rack that consists of only say a couple of semi modulars, a mixer and an effects module - is definitely in the 'synthesis with modules' camp...
vc cross-faders and vc panners - which I don't use often - are a good example - they can both be patched easily using a couple of channels of a cascading vca, an lfo and a few basic utility modules... buying vc cross-faders and panners (is more 'synthesis with modules' whereas patching them up when you need them is more 'modular synthesis'
neither is right or wrong, just different, & I suspect a lot, if not most, of us fall somewhere in the middle - I definitely do - in that I have both modules that are fundamental building blocks of synthesis and a few 'voice modules' - deckard's voice for example - where I don't have to patch anything into it, other than pitch and gate because someone else designed the voice for me - I don't have a complex oscillator - but I can patch multiple different ones from various vcos and utilities etc etc
the argument for maths is more: it's a collection of fundamental building blocks under a single panel, which in themselves are useful to have and it has a lot of educational material - videos and pdfs (particularly the 'maths illustrated supplement') - that when used properly (thinking about what, why, how and not just patching blindly) can give the user an introduction to patch-programming, which when taken forwards and applied across the modular as a whole can massively benefit their patching in general
"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia
Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!
sound sources < sound modifiers < modulation sources < utilities