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Thank you guys. Yes I forgot to check availability, e.g. for the unify module. I cannot really find anything similar as a good alternative though, except Sputnik Modular 6-Channel Stereo Mixer, although I don't need 6 channels maybe and the module takes much space. Can you recommend something?
I put the quadra in as classic straight forward envelopes (4) - honestly I didn't know that Maths would be such thing, I have just seen so many people using it as a multi-purpose tool. Honestly, I don't know what this thing is going to make, I was going to get it and just try what I does.
Should I rather stick to Make Noise and take Optomix instead of the Z2040? Honestly, I am used to straight forward classic modules from my virtual Nord Modular, that's why I was going to get the Z2040. I am a bit uncertain about the possibilities of the Optomix. I read that it is also a VCA, could I omit the uVCA if I take the Optomix?
Oh, the same DK as in Psyche! Gotta give him a listen! Nice idea to rebuild his modular here! Has someone ever tried to rebuild stuff from Trent Reznor? ;-D
Just added to list. Mine is a quite scratchy, jumpy. Bought it off Cynthia in that state. I contacted Bruce about repair and he doesn't think it is worth the bother. Nice features though. Apologies for the quality of the image, it's not on the Modcan site.
big thanks to @vjunker for the dave smith character module. if he has the module you want then i would recommend him mos def. thanks man for saving me some euros and sending good condition equipment. reeespect
Unless you know a dealer who has unify in stock, its gonna be difficult to find.
On this stage of your system, Maths and quadra are overlapping a bit, though later on you will have use for both.
I think that DPO pairs really nicely with echophon, so I would go on with that, instead of EV. Both are very pricey units, and there is good options also on the cheaper end of verbs and delays.
Dont know how you´re going to clock it, you might be needing some distribution/generator for that, random source with a clock, like wogglebug etc. is handy.
Z2040 sounds really good and Rene is fun to play with, overall its a nice to system to start with.
Every module is connected to one of four busboards on the inside of the rack. These busboards are powered by a power-supply-unit that deliveres 12V+, 12V- and 5V+. If you desire you can also provide all modules with a common CV1 and/or gate from the midi-interface.
Well, I went from a MicroKorg to Eurorack in the span of 1.5 years :)
Yeah, I can hear that. Pat Martino is a crazy guy, especially how he lost his memory for awhile. I almost had a chance to see him play a few times. His playing is a bit clean for my tastes Always like to catch some of those legends when I've been in NYC at some of those storied clubs.
The thing is, modular is the thing that feels most like a physical instrument to me..also, it's mathematical, and my job and academic background is in the sciences, so it feels quite a natural blend to me. It's the intersection of physics and music. Been interested in non-linearity for many years.
Lucky you, all my electronic influences are British, basically, much better culture for it there--I'd place Aphex Twin just below Miles Davis in terms of influence..
Yeah that is a leap! especially going straight from the nylon strings to the dangerous Euro 'crack' habit.
On the guitar side of things my influences would be mainly Wes Montgomery, Pat Martino and Robben ford. I'm also familiar with the players you've listed (Friday Night in San Francisco)
I've also had a long time interest in electronic music that I simply had to finally indulge. Partly due to the frustration of no longer having time to play in bands, so I needed something I could do on my own at home.
I'm still a synth noob, but it's been great fun to start over with this new mysterious pandora's box of an instrument!
Nice--I only owned my first in 2016. Where do you live? I heard something of a jazz background in there? I'm jazz but from a more acoustic/flamenco perspective..Paco de Lucia, Al di Meola and John Mclaughlin were my earliest musical heroes. I'm still the only person I've met who's gone from non-electric guitar to synths..
I am new here and I am about to buying my first case and first modules.
These are the moduls I am having in mind. Do they make sense? Do I miss anything important, is there something I can omit?
Thank you in anticipation.
In my country, Italy, it's not really easy to find someone involved in this modular shit, but at the end of the day, when u find one, it's a blast.
I'm talking about user @tFunk, 100% recommended. Really good seller.
Looking to do more business with him in the future.
Food for thought indeed! I was just checking out your rack; a refreshingly non-standard mix of modules! DAWless?
What type of music do you make?
-- Botty
Thanks; lots of trial and error/bought and sold you don't see and I've tried to avoid hype and just figure out for myself what is best. That includes both current and future--I have about 2/3 of what you see there, the other 1/3 is tentatively planned. I just use Logic for recording and minor post processing, but otherwise I find computers annoying and not conducive to music.
I added the Intellijel Linix (thus guaranteeing that I will ever be typing Linux or Linix incorrectly wherever I need it the other way). The rack image should be updated if it's not in your browser's cache.
Would anyone mind giving me a patch suggestion for incorporating the Linix VCA? Note that the ADSR module is not there, yet, as it's a future add on.
Ha. Truthfully I'm hoping there can eventually be a way to select which panel is shown per module instead of having multiple entries for every variation. There's so many duplicates as it is now.
So it begins... but the "original" actually didn't have the C/SUM out (outputs were not summed).
-- sempervirent
As exper said, Mutable Instruments Veils and Intellijel Linix are good, clean VCAs with mixing capabilities, which is a huge plus. Also take a look at ALM Tangle Quartet, which also mixes down four audio/CV channels, and is a really clean VCA in less HP. I agree that Shelves can be shelved for the time being. If you really think you'll need more filtering than what Korgasmatron's gonna give you, check out WMD/SSF MultiMode Filter, which packs a lot of punch in 4 HP.
Right now, I am mainly using it for singular operations as I attempt to learn about modular.
Thanks to the comments here, I am looking into Intellijel's uVCF II, Linix, or the 4ms VCA matrix.
I found this tutorial to be very helpful and I'm posting it here in case someone else stumbles upon my thread and needs some similar knowledge. Why I can never have enough VCAs on YouTube.
You either use a Doepfer style built-in PSU or an external 'brick'/laptop style power supply unit (or wall wart in small systems) with a converter module. Both are connected to bus boards/cables inside your case that your modules plug into.
Thanks @chaosnick,
I'm thinking about ditching one of the M32s anyway, the AJH modules look interesting; thanks for the heads-up.
-- Botty
They make some of the best sounding, well thought out, and well constructed modules in all of eurorack. I have one VCO by them and it sounds better than just about any other VCO out there. Their ring mod SM is probably one of the most excellent modules out there. Not sure where you live but they're a particular steal for those of us in the USA at the moment if you order from a European source (namely Juno records) due to the insanely good exchange rate.
Maths has attenuverters in the center, not VCAs. I'd suggest skipping the shelves for now and getting something like a Linix or veils. You seem to be missing sound sources. Only 1 vco and a sampler basically.
Thanks for the hard truths, atrostor. Maths has two VCAs in the center, but you think I need something dedicated and I can't argue against that. What's your recommendation on a specific module or modules to fill that role?
-- Gerromie
No--Maths is a Function/Envelope generator--you patch this TO a VCA to create an amplitude for your oscillator/sound source that is activated when Maths is pinged/gated/triggered.
Thanks for the hard truths, atrostor. Maths has two VCAs in the center, but you think I need something dedicated and I can't argue against that. What's your recommendation on a specific module or modules to fill that role?
I hate to be that broken tape, but you have no VCAs here. Warps could be used as one but that's a terrible waste of a Warps. How do you plan to create sounds that has beginnings and ends, as opposed to those that play infinitely; how do you strum your synth like an instrument; where are you patching those four envelope generators to? If you don't have an answer to these questions, it means you need a VCA (i.e. a voltage controlled volume knob).
Add, remove, change out etc, all sensible views welcome! mainly used for soundscape / ambient / disonnant
-- Botty
Ditch the dual mother 32s and get yourself some AJH modules instead; more expensive but a much more beautiful and interesting proposition in the long term.
Dude! THANK YOU. I don't know if you had the same experience I'm having when you first started, but I'm basically just watching a video and thinking "I like that. I want it." That's how I conceived this rack! Hence, the "ill-advised" tagline.
This was such a great response--thanks for being such a great ambassador to this community I'm joining! I will definitely check out the Tonestar. I will find out what a wavetable oscillator is and check out the ones you recommended. Your thoughts on Clouds made me laugh. With regards to actual modular, I feel like I'm still needing to shed some of my perspectives on synthesizers. I've always thought of them as the thing with knobs and a keyboard that has all the components to make sounds all in one package. You can probably see that coming through in this attempt at a rack.
I did also fail to mention that I'm getting a Beatstep and a Keystep to start. I'm much more interested in making sounds, learning how signal flow works in these things, and learning the theory behind the noises before stepping too deeply into sequencers. For me, I'm managing the amount of info I'm taking in because it can get overwhelming very quickly for me!
What is the HP width of a regular rack that houses my MOTU 828? I figured it was 84 because the enclosure I saw had the little ears on the sides for screwing them into a rack. I figured I'd have all that housed together.
Thanks again for the response. It gives me some more homework to do and I'm happy to do it. Cheers!
-- johnnyapolis
Sure thing. About HP: it's just an industry standard--5 HP = 1 inch. MOTU is just your audio interface, right? So there's no intrinsic reason to have it racked; but eurorack modules need to go in a case that has a power supply--they attach to the bus boards inside the cases with ribbon cables they come with.
Yes, I've only been in it for 6 months but have learned a lot since then, and I would recommend don't spend too much time planning your modules because your needs will change and evolve over time as you actually use stuff..also, spend some time reading MuffWiggler, even if you don't understand a lot of what people are talking about at first.
Wavetable oscillators basically have a bank of all different types of waveforms that can be chosen or cycled through that an oscillator outputs, many of which would be impossible on most analog oscillators, so you will get very different and interesting harmonics. I'm mostly a pure analog guy, but I'd like to get the Erica Synths Black Wavetable VCO, looks great.
Although I've listened to electronic music for many years, I only owned my first one two years ago, and it was only a short leap to ditching keyboards forever...but I've been playing classical and flamenco guitar for 16 years, so from a music perspective, modular synths make a lot of sense to me. I agree with Suzanne Ciania, Buchla pioneer that "keyboards are an inappropriate interface for synthesizers."
I recommend watching this video for some of her thoughts:
As I see it, from my perspectives on playing acoustic instruments for awhile, the special thing about synthesizers and especially modular is through combining BOTH audio and voltage pathways in all sorts of novel ways which are interconnected and sequenced, you can create movement, motion, changes that would basically be impossible for a person a keyboard or any single instrument; it's more like conducting a mini orchestra.
Is something like this a little more practical for use with an external sequencer/controller?
-- johnnyapolis
yes, but you seem to have some weird manufacturers I've never even heard of...I would stick with more well known ones. Not that you can't deviate from convention, but sorting module type by "popularity" is a good starting place.
I'm very new to this and learning so much every day (as long as I can fit it into my brain and get over the hurdles, self imposed or otherwise). Am I on the right track? What would you suggest exploring for the third row or doing differently?
I should add that I have other gear outside of this including a beat step pro, mother-32 and a system-1m, but I like this rack to be stand alone for now. I might start sending cv to it from an elektron analog 4 or rytm.
Dude! THANK YOU. I don't know if you had the same experience I'm having when you first started, but I'm basically just watching a video and thinking "I like that. I want it." That's how I conceived this rack! Hence, the "ill-advised" tagline.
This was such a great response--thanks for being such a great ambassador to this community I'm joining! I will definitely check out the Tonestar. I will find out what a wavetable oscillator is and check out the ones you recommended. Your thoughts on Clouds made me laugh. With regards to actual modular, I feel like I'm still needing to shed some of my perspectives on synthesizers. I've always thought of them as the thing with knobs and a keyboard that has all the components to make sounds all in one package. You can probably see that coming through in this attempt at a rack.
I did also fail to mention that I'm getting a Beatstep and a Keystep to start. I'm much more interested in making sounds, learning how signal flow works in these things, and learning the theory behind the noises before stepping too deeply into sequencers. For me, I'm managing the amount of info I'm taking in because it can get overwhelming very quickly for me!
What is the HP width of a regular rack that houses my MOTU 828? I figured it was 84 because the enclosure I saw had the little ears on the sides for screwing them into a rack. I figured I'd have all that housed together.
Thanks again for the response. It gives me some more homework to do and I'm happy to do it. Cheers!
Well, I personally think the idea of using eurorack just for "experimental noises" is a very limiting and unmusical use for the true extant of its possibilities, but even if that was your only goal, I can make a few recommendations:
1) As an alternative option to the PGH SV-1, I'd recommend the Studio Electronics Tonestar. I think it's more interesting and the quality of their equipment is better than PGH as well as 95% of other eurorack manufacturers. Also smaller HP.
2) I see you already have Quadnic in there..in reference to #1, you might instead try a wavetable oscillator, especially for crazy sounds. The new Erica Synths Wavetable VCO looks great, but there's others, particularly morphing terrarium.
3) #2 Could just as easily apply for Clouds, which seems to me one of those "try to do a lot of things OK" module a lot of people seem to buy and then sell within a few months..so..
4) If you want to play anything other than your self contained voice (SV1), you will need VCAs and envelopes, which you currently have 0 of.
5) If you really only care about experimental drones etc. perhaps this does not matter to you, but you also have no sequencer or quantizer of any kind, thus no way to play notes, music, etc..for me, this is THE most important thing of any eurorack setup or synthesizer, since it dictates the control voltage, which is after all, what this is all about
6) Speaking of which, you don't really have any modifying voltage sources of any kind, it's all pretty much audio. If you don't have voltage out-modules you're missing most of what modular has to offer and you might as well use a keyboard synths or two. My sequencer is the Stillson Hammer Mk2 which accomplishes #5 and #6 in spades. I love it. But you'll need a bigger setup to make it worth it. I recommend not starting with any less than a 104 HP skiff. Make Noise makes a good and cheap one.
Hey all. I'm an absolute noob who just discovered modular synths a week ago. I have been not sleeping since then! I've watched a LOT of youtube videos and just discovered this site. Here are some of the modules I really liked in my short amount of research. What do you think--if I just want to play around, will this work? I have an 0-coast right now as my only piece of gear. My plan is to grab a Minitaur (for bass) and an Erebus (for pretty sounds) soon and this rack would just be for experimental noises. Am I very far off? Anything I need to research more?
Your personal experiences and ideas are super useful for me. Answers in the form of online resources are also appreciated. Thanks!
