Did two words ever conjure simultaneous feelings of dread and nostalgia better than ‘General MIDI’? That familiar bank of 128 patches created in the name of standardising instrument responses to the MIDI protocol, the term technically covers far more than just those patches but has become the de facto descriptor for sounds synonymous with barely working school keyboards and quickly eschewed default settings in all manner of DAWs and other software. And, if you’re of a generation, Ross Geller’s immortal keyboard performance in Friends. When I consider General MIDI, one of two sounds enters my head: first is that strange sliding ‘honk’ in the percussion patch, almost like some kind of synthetic dog bark (I still to this day do not know what that sound is), and second is the iconic ‘orchestra hit’ sound. And there it is in your head as well.
At just 6HP, the Bread & Butter is modestly sized. Its interface consists of just three knobs and two buttons, along with a MIDI input, stereo outputs and several CV inputs. Now, let’s be honest: while perfectly possible, it’s unlikely you’re going to simply plug a MIDI keyboard into the Bread & Butter, choose a sound and play it dry. Of course, if that is you, I wish you well. But Sebsongs clearly have more in mind than that, and much of it begins with modulation. Even with the simplest pulse triggering notes at one pitch as a starting point and a clutch of asynchronous LFOs and gates sent to various jacks, I was basking in astonishingly instant experimental composition glory, at times so interesting that I simply stood back from my system and enjoyed listening. A hit of piano here, a drum there. A bendy‑sounding guitar followed by a snappy percussion passage. Pushing things a bit harder, for instance triggering notes faster and faster, the Bread & Butter responded very nicely, even at very fast trigger speeds.
The Bread & Butter’s controls and CV inputs are choice and well deployed. Beyond gate and pitch inputs, there’s Hold, which latches notes when a gate is high and can bring out a very different side of many sounds. Bend and Velocity make for some much needed expression (and rather nostalgic pitch‑wheel‑style note bending, in the case of Bend), which, believe it or not, does lead to some genuine musicality when used as part of a wider network of modulation. The most interesting input for me is the instrument selector, which can cycle through patches with the help of some CV. This is where the Bread & Butter really comes alive, bursting with variety and sonic interest. Random voltages, LFOs: you name it, each brings out something different. Beneath the main Instrument knob are smaller knobs for tuning and panning. The Pan knob is a lovely touch, since it allows for some interesting placement of sounds all across the stereo image — excellent when united with almost any spatial effect. Turn clockwise for random panning and anti‑clockwise for alternate panning.
...with the right processing, all these have every bit the potential to sound genuinely beautiful.
Yes: aside from effects and filtering and the like, I don’t think there’s anything I would want from a General MIDI module that isn’t on offer here. What the Bread & Butter offers is a bank of sometimes awful, sometimes kitsch, sometimes passable, sometimes lovely sounds, that beckon all sorts of creative applications with a streamlined and effective set of controls. Because in fairness — like a litany of sounds we work with in the modular environment — with the right processing, all these have every bit the potential to sound genuinely beautiful. The almost‑FM‑esque Crystal, for example, or even the grim but harmonically rich Distortion Guitar. The once near‑unusable Dulcimer takes on a very different, wholly unironic appeal if you sequence it with ratcheting patterns and send it to cascade in stereo through a granular delay.
The famous designer Raymond Loewy once said: “To sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something familiar, make it surprising.” With the Bread & Butter, Sebsongs have toed that line very well. After all, if the history of art and music has taught us anything, it’s that many once‑rudimentary artefacts get revisited and reappropriated down the line in some way — often to great creative effect. The Super‑8 camera is a good example of this, as is the Farfisa organ. While General MIDI might still fall into the ‘too soon’ category for many, I have no doubt that the Bread & Butter will age nicely in years to come; surely something of a forerunner in Eurorack’s rediscovery of these horrible, brilliant sounds.
£166.80
$139