Berlin school - First modular

Hi there,

I'm quite new to the synth world. I always wanted to have one, and last year I came across the affordable and seriously awesome
Minibrute. Bought it and I've been playing with it for a while now. I figured out I like playing what is called Berlin School music and love to go on adventures with it, finding it's little nuggets and sweet spots of witch I'm sure I haven't found all of them.
But I also noticed that just the one synth has it's shortcomings (there we go!). So I went back to the musicstore to listen to some other gear, but in the pricerange I was looking for nothing really did it for me, until I heard a few VCO's for modular. When I heard the Instruo Troika I completely fell for it's warmth. I asked a few noob questions and the guy from MidiAmsterdam sent me home with a list of gear which is detailed in the rack below, with some changes I made to it by venturing on the web.
This quest set me off into watching many video's about modules and there capabilities. Sometimes dizzying, but most of the time very much fun. So now you can understand I need to get my hands on a modular.
My question to you, baring in mind I'm an absolute noob, is what do you think of what I put together and is there something missing to get me started?
I do, very much like the Troika and the Clouds modules. The filter, though i never heard it in real life, is also one of the most interesting to me.

That looks quite pleasing.
How do you connect yout Microbrute to it?
I wouldn't buy a filter I haven't wiggled before. Or at the very least compared with others I know, by video.

Thanks for your reply.
Ofcourse, I hadn't given that much thought yet.
My initial idea was to buy a beatstep pro to sequence one or two sources and play the beatstep or the minibrute over that. But I'm not sure if that would be enough to run the system as is. It's quite a lot to get my head around at first.
Thanks for the tip on the filter, I'll ask at the store if it's possible to try some of them on the Troika!

Hi all,

Sorry to just on to somebody else's thread, but a new user cannot create a new one... (?!)

Anyway, total noob with modular, although I know a little about synthesis, waveforms etc. I starting with literally nothing, but I want a small simple setup to mess with some Berlin style riffs, think Rubycon, Tangram etc. I've just got a Behringer 960 on the way to handle the sequencing, I'll get a small case and power.... I need advice on other modules now. I have a Poly D that the 960 could drive for the moment, but I'd like to build the rack up to be self sufficient. It doesn't need to do an awful lot really, a couple of oscillators should be enough for now. Some delay, a filter of course. What else will I need? Midi conversion, so I can use a regular controller perhaps? I will learn more of course when I plug in and start to mess, but right now, it's all a bit overfacing to say the least.

All advice, examples etc is very much appreciated. Budget is fairly tight at the moment, as much as possible I'd rather keep things cheap and cheerful for the moment and then upgrade as I grow with it.

Many thanks in advance :)
Joe

EDITED Sep 2nd 2021, 11:52

Hi all,

Sorry to just on to somebody else's thread, but a new user cannot create a new one... (?!)

Anyway, total noob with modular, although I know a little about synthesis, waveforms etc. I starting with literally nothing, but I want a small simple setup to mess with some Berlin style riffs, think Rubycon, Tangram etc. I've just got a Behringer 960 on the way to handle the sequencing, I'll get a small case and power.... I need advice on other modules now. I have a Poly D that the 960 could drive for the moment, but I'd like to build the rack up to be self sufficient. It doesn't need to do an awful lot really, a couple of oscillators should be enough for now. Some delay, a filter of course. What else will I need? Midi conversion, so I can use a regular controller perhaps? I will learn more of course when I plug in and start to mess, but right now, it's all a bit overfacing to say the least.

All advice, examples etc is very much appreciated. Budget is fairly tight at the moment, as much as possible I'd rather keep things cheap and cheerful for the moment and then upgrade as I grow with it.

Many thanks in advance :)
Joe
-- seanet

If I was you, I'd start by going to the My Modular page and try to build something there, then post it here. This way people can help. However, if you ask questions on other people's threads, you'll probably not get the answers you're looking for.

Lastly, one thing you could do to get an idea of where to start (which basic modules to buy etc), you could

1. Take a look at (as an example) an all in one set up, just to see what they have in there. Try Wavefonix w314 to see what Chris has put into his set-up (https://www.wavefonix.com/product-page/w314-modular-synthesizer).
2. Watch one of the many YouTube channels which talk about getting started. Some that are friendly and useful are maybe Molten Modular, or Starsky Carr. There's many more, but those are just some suggestions.

Good luck!

EDITED Sep 4th 2021, 12:32

good advice from @joesh there

but also add - read a lot of newbie posts - especially ones where they want to make similar music to you

in addition to the go to modulargrid - the best advice is to not worry about the size of the case to start with think about
- what modules do you want
- what modules do you need to support the modules you want

this almost definitely involves asking advice on forums

once you have this add 30% extra for expansion and you will have the size of the case that you need

at the bottom of the rack you will see the power requirements of the modules - for any modules that don't have power draw listed - and for expansion hp, I use 10mA/rail/hp as a rough guide for power requirements

add up all the power requirements and then add another 25-30% for overhead - this is needed otherwise you may have issues, especially when turning the modular on as some modules use significantly more when starting up than when in a normal running state (mostly digital ones)

small cases are often a false economy as they are usually very expensive per hp and fill up incredibly quickly - they are great for taking a few modules from a large rack in order to focus on them (learning a single new module for example) but are really not so great for starter racks

Hi guys

As before, also a newbie, but my problem is that I do not know anything at all. At the moment I try to watch different lessons on YouTube and try to repeat them. I am wondering if there is an online resource where you can try for free how to sound and use different models, or am I just blind?

EDITED May 16th 2023, 12:32