DivKid & Tom Whitwell: Modular Mayhem, Hollywood Apes, and 60,000 Patching Possibilities

The Workshop System isn’t just another modular toy—it’s a Frankenstein’s monster of patching possibilities. Whitwell reckons there are over 60,000 ways to wire the thing, which is more combinations than you’ll find in a pub jukebox on a Friday night. This isn’t marketing fluff; it’s an open invitation to get lost in a maze of bleepy, bloopy chaos.

What’s brilliant (and a bit bonkers) is how the system was designed to be both simple and mind-bendingly flexible. Forget menus and deep dives—this is hands-on, button-bashing, circuit-bending fun. If you want to know exactly how those 60,000 patches work, you’ll have to watch the video and see Whitwell’s eyes light up as he tries to explain it. Trust me, words don’t do it justice.

If you think modular synths are a solo sport, Whitwell’s approach will knock that idea flat. He’s all about roping in other designers, typographers, and even random musicians to make the gear better. It’s not just about sharing the workload—it’s about letting the best ideas win, even if they come from outside the usual synth geek bubble. The result? Gear that’s got more fingerprints on it than a London pub door, and all the better for it.

Just when you think things can’t get any weirder, Whitwell drops the Hollywood connection. Turns out, the latest sound banks for Radio Music were crafted by Douglas Murray, a sound recordist with credits on Twin Peaks and Planet of the Apes. Instead of the usual synth bleeps, you get folders of jungle ambience, chimpanzee chatter, and cheetah purrs—recorded with the kind of detail that’d make a BBC wildlife doc look like a dodgy phone video.

This isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a proper merging of art and technology, where modular synths become playgrounds for field recordings and cinematic textures. If you want to hear what a cheetah sounds like slowed down and mangled through a modular filter, you’ll have to watch the video. It’s the closest you’ll get to a David Attenborough rave.

The latest Music Thing Modular projects aren’t just about making noise—they’re about making it easy for anyone to join the racket. The Workshop System’s card-based computer lets users and developers cook up their own tools, from tape loops to granular clouds, with a few lines of code or even a bit of AI help. It’s a platform that encourages hacking, sharing, and a healthy disregard for the rules.

Whitwell’s not interested in gatekeeping or building walled gardens. He wants to see more weirdos, more experiments, and more happy accidents. Whether it’s lending out boxes for workshops, supporting community card developers, or just making sure the next batch is even stranger than the last, the future looks gloriously messy. If you want to see modular done right—warts, rainstorms, and all—DivKid’s video is where you’ll find it.