Simplifying a live modular setup paradoxically increases musical complexity because the performer can focus on what the instrument can do

Blawan articulates a core principle of live modular performance: ‘the simpler I made the process the more complex the music got.’ With a large setup, cognitive load on patching, navigation, and error prevention crowds out musical decision-making. With a minimal, deeply-known setup the performer’s attention shifts from managing the instrument to playing it. He extends this to the recommendation: ‘start with an oscillator and a nice filter’ and learn one synthesizer you admire as a reference point. Less gear, deeply known, enables more creative expression than more gear shallowly understood. This principle is echoed by Surgeon: ‘less is more.’ The same hardware, used for years until muscle memory replaces conscious control, generates more from less.

Examples

Blawan’s live set: one oscillator (as a square or sine wave) → waveshaper (UltraFold) → filter (Maurus, used as mixer with cutoff) → Rings resonator (for character and accents) → delay → reverb → looper. Despite minimal modules, the one oscillator ‘suddenly can become an infinite amount of things’ through the effects chain.

Assessment

Explain why reducing the number of modules in a live setup might increase musical output quality rather than reduce it. What is the cognitive mechanism behind this principle? Give two specific ways a performer could increase their setup’s complexity while keeping the module count fixed.