User Posts

Hi Thermal,

Thanks a lot for your review of the SoundForce Dual Filter. Pity indeed of the jumper on the back to switch between LP & HP, otherwise it sounds great! :-)

Have fun with it and thanks a lot for letting us know, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

Thank you Garfield for the heavy compliments. What you describe sounds like "work" to me. Then I'd probably end up hating music. That, plus Hollywood is full of flakes, freaks and weirdos - I couldn't work with those folks, nor they with me. :-)

-- TumeniKnobs

Touché! Indeed that's the downside of Hollywood ;-)

Cheers, Garfield.

Hi Isolatediguana and Wishbonebrewery,

I am using this Shakmat Gemini's Path for quite some time now, never regretted that I bought it. A dual VCA with many extra options on just 6 HP. That's just fantastic! For me 8 HP would have been great too, I don't mind a bit more of panel-space however with the modern trend of going towards narrow panels, this module is just worth the investment.

Good luck with your VCA search and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

I think I have said this before, but I still don't understand why you are not working for the Holywood filming studios. Great music and overthere in Holywood they must be sleeping, not recognising the great music you are making every time again and again! :-)

Which program on your Mac are you using to do the screen recording?

Keep up the good work and thanks a lot for sharing this with us. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Thermal,

Wow, that's great. I wish you a lot of fun with those modules and please keep us informed about your experiences with these two modules.

Have fun (after the waiting time for delivery ;-) ) and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

I am not fully sure what you mean with no-HP modules, meaning you want an external solution? If that's what you mean, nothing pops up in my mind.

If you don't mind to consider a Eurorack module, then Make Noise - X-Pan module comes to mind but that's it, I think, not too many options out there.

Good luck for the search of this solution, please let me know if you found something, I also might want something into that direction and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Habn,

Wow, that's a great piece of ambient music, lovely and so relaxing! Nniiiiiccccceeeeeee ;-)

First I thought your track is 33 minutes long, that would be great but it turned out I looked wrong, it's only 3:30, next time 33 minutes? ;-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Great experimental track! I love the reverb sounds in this track, that does it for me :-)

Sweelinck mentioned it already and that was the first thing (besides the thoughts I had about your music of course) that came to my mind too: I am missing your cat in your video ;-)

Great work and thanks a lot for sharing that with us, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Igor,

Good and nice to hear from you again! Those two tracks that are currently available are two fantastic tracks! Well done. And what do I see? You are going to release the album on CD as well? I love the cover of this album, beautiful!

I look forward to your next album :-) Take care and kind regards, Garfield.

Hello Picadura,

I have no experience with ICD or pacemakers however I have some experience with Eurorack and electricity in common. Here some food for thought that hopefully might help you:

• Use good quality and thick patch cables --> thought behind this is if you use thicker patch cables risk of AC leakage currents should be lower or even eliminated and good quality should make sure that you will not have patch cables that easily wears of, especially at the connections between the cables and plugs however even a low quality cable the mantle of the cable might just come off as I had with another (non-patch and non-Eurorack) cable.
• Make sure you leave no open spaces left in your Eurorack system, meaning you should use blind panels. So nothing unexpected can happen for those "open" spots in your Eurorack --> many blind panels are made of aluminium that is not so good for your case since that might short cut electricity in one or another way. Consider for example blind panels that are made of PCB material like those from Make Noise
• Easier said then done: Use as less as possible metals in your rack. Depending on how far you would like to extend this you could consider not to take modules with metal panels, which is the majority I am afraid. However there are brands that use wooden panels (like Bastl Instruments, L.E.P.) or panels made of PCB material (like Make Noise, Mordax). I am not sure about Centrevillage.net what material they use for the front panels, might not be metal. There was one other brand that doesn't want to come to my mind who use some special non-metal material, so sorry that I forgot that brand. If I remember I will later add it here. There might be more brands around that use non-metal-panels. On the other hand... yes aluminium is a metal and yes it conducts electricity but it isn't the best conductor, so perhaps aluminium panels are still acceptable for you?
• Again depending on how important this is for you and how far you want to take this, you could take your Eurorack to a lab where they can measure the "electricity leakages" --> perhaps that's the best to start with before putting enormous energy in improving everything and perhaps its all not necessary? So having it tested by a (professional) lab might be the first step to check if anything further is needed at all?

My guts feelings says, without having here any proof to underwrite this, that I tend to agree with the physician you checked with and since these are low voltages the risks should be very limited (especially if you keep a good distance, perhaps to be checked with a professional, what that distance would be? 10 cm or 25 cm or?), otherwise other pacemaker users would have serious other problems in our nowadays daily lives. Almost everywhere in the households and at work we are using tons of (electric) devices. As long as those devices are either using low voltages and/or shielding it off, the risks should be very limited. Of course, please have this checked by an expert specialised on ICD & Pacemakers.

Take care, I hope you still can enjoy modular and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery, Sweelinck, All,

No you are not the only one, I also do not prefer black panel-based modules. Sometimes (but that are the exceptions) it looks nice however most of the times the contrast of black panel-based modules is poor and text and knob's-positions are less easy to read.

I prefer a silver/aluminium look of the panels or otherwise any other colour but not black. Of course if there would be a module that I really would like to have and it's only available with a black panel then I have no choice and as you said already Wishbonebrewery, I will buy it then but it's not by choice...

I wish there are more brands like ADDAC who use a different colour than black, though ADDAC also moves (like many other brands) to black panel-based modules, it's a bit sad indeed... Is that perhaps one of the reasons why I like Doepfer modules? ;-)

That are my 2 cents, kind regards and I wish everyone enjoyable moments with their modular system, Garfield.

Hi Warmofada,

Great looking rack! Enjoy modular :-)

I wish you and everyone a Happy New Year, may this be a good year for all of us. Stay healthy and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi FWGW,

If I haven't overlooked it and to my surprise, your rack doesn't contain any filter? So I would use the last 8 HP for a multimode filter. 8 HP isn't very much, by heart, Doepfer comes to mind but I am sure there are other interesting multi-mode filters that fit within 8 HP too. Another option might be the TipTop Audio - Forbidden Planet, nice little filter!

Otherwise stick with Farkas' advice to put a 8 HP blind panel first, till you damn sure where the last 8 HP will be spend for ;-)

Yet another option is to stick with the blind panel option but save the money you would have otherwise spend for an 8 HP module and keep saving money till you have enough money for a second case. Once you got that second case you can stop worrying about your last module because you have enough space left! :-)

Good luck with choosing a nice filter (or a fancy blind panel or saving money for another rack) and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi HGsynth,

Yes, by times I start always using the same approach however I don't mind to let go an (old) idea and start with a totally different approach. So on average I think that keeps things in balance. Once and awhile (especially when I am lazy) I start with the same (start-) setup and then evolve from there the patch however also on regularly basis I start with completely something new, never done before so to speak. Especially when I get a few new modules, I like to try a complete new approach and take it from there.

To summarise this: it really depends on a per case situation, sometimes that, sometimes something else :-)

If you recognise already the fact that you always start with the O_c as your starting point, then one day when you want to do a complete new patch, "forbid yourself" to use the O_c in the upcoming new patch and just try something completely new not remotely related and close to your usual O_c approach. Dare to try something else, and you will see after a few times you forgot you have an O_c ;-)

Have fun with the patching and try things you never tried before, don't care about the result, if it doesn't satisfy you then try again from scratch, till you find something that surprises you and you like, keep then that kind of creative approach in mind and try that approach in a similar but different way! :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi HGsynth,

For me it's similar as it is for Adaris. I also keep my patch usually for several months. Till I really can't find any more any variations on what I like and then I might start a total new one. I usually just keep on extending while finding other sounds, on the already existing patch. Meaning that it becomes at the end very complicated, most of the times most of all my patch cables have been used and then sooner or later (but rather later) I am forced to start completely from scratch. :-)

Have fun with the patching and modular in general and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Sedvted,

Send a message to modulargrid (forum master) and explain your situation.

Good luck and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Modular01,

Yes, I agree here with you. Some of the prices aren't realistic (any more). So if it's editable, go ahead and update it.

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Manbearpignick,

This is indeed a great result. You didn't make a video, yet I see the birds migration in my head by images flying by while listening to your music. Did you send the track already to Hollywood? They must be impressed :-)

Your idea with a slew limiter actually should have worked out, it surprised me that it didn't. Perhaps some knobs set wrongly? When I use a slew limiter I realise I can't do too small or too large settings, somewhere the golden midway seems to be usually working just fine for me.

Nicely done and thank you very much for sharing this with us, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Igor,

Aster is a great track, so ambient (in a positive way I mean), so relaxing and yet beautiful composition! This could go on and on for me, only 5 minutes? Why not 20 minutes? :-D

Good stuff! Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Mowse,

Nice to hear my favourite Moog sound again :-) Great rhythm you got there and I agree here with TumeniKnobs, this could be at least double or quadruple length for me!

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gabor,

Wow, what a great track is this?! High tension and great atmosphere you are building up there and your video fits perfectly well with it. I don't think I do sleep well tonight, I am so impressed (in a positive way), this will be for a long way on my mind :-)

Thank you very much for this exciting audio-visual experience you are sharing with us. I love it! Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Igor,

This time a bit more experimental from you! Pretty interesting, I finished the fourth stage and now started at the beginning of your album with the first stage. I will continue listening to your ever-interesting music! Great guitar play here too.

Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

I love the relax-ness of this track, it relaxes me down, put me in a good and right mood and though I am sad the weekend is yet over again, your music helps me from not suffering too much of the "oh shit, this is the end of the weekend"-effect ;-)
(which the Sunday usually has as an effect on me like that, knowing that I have to work again tomorrow/Monday)

It cools me down and I am pretty sure due to your music, I can handle the upcoming week! :-) Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Fred,

Nice to hear from you again and thanks a lot for the detailed patch notes, very interesting!

The track is great, I love full energy and happy songs. For me this is a joy to listen at, it gives me positive energy and gives me a happy feeling! :-) Thank you very much for that and kind regards, Garfield.

P.S.: It looks like you enjoyed yourself too, great to see you at work.

Q1: do modular cables differ meaningfully in quality?

They can. But for the most part, they don't. You can get hi-tweak patchcables with all sorts of voodoo to 'em, but those are somewhat pointless; using silver Mogami cables or some such makes far more sense on LONG cable runs, and not little 1m or less lengths.
-- Lugia

Hi Lugia,

Don't we all have at least a ballroom size studio of at least 60 feet/20 metres long wall with our Euroracks against it, hence we need (very) long cables? ;-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

Thanks a lot for your great article on this matter. You mention several valid & good points. I totally agree here with you.

So let's focus back on having fun with Eurorack :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Nickgreenberg,

Regarding your point i) Are you using filters or do you have enough variation of filters you can choose from when using your oscillators? I couldn't live without a bunch of filters to choose from when I do a patch.

Good luck and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Nickgreenberg,

Regarding your first question: Yes, there is a huge difference in quality regarding patch cables. For example take Vermona's patch cables or those from Cordial the CPI ZZ series whereby is the length in metres; these two are great patch cables but bloody expensive. Then on the other scale there is for example those patch cables from Endorphin.es, which I expected would be good patch cables but I had to return them, extremely thin cables and also very thin moulded mini-jacks. And of course then there is anything in between from fair till good. Endorphin.es is just an example there are more bad examples (like those cables that come with some of the Behringer equipment, those cables are also not top-notch stuff, but to my surprise at least a slightly bit better than those from Endorphin.es). I am using quite a bit of Make Noise patch cables, those have moulded mini-jacks too however their cables are a bit thicker and if I am too lazy to make myself the cables I usually buy those from Make Noise, kind of fair quality I guess.

Making yourself patch cables is here perhaps the best option. I am using a rather thick instrument cable from Cordial and using Neutrik mini-jacks for my CV cables (I use blue to differentiate) and I am using even a bit thicker black cable from Cordial in combination with gold-mini-jacks from Amphenol for my audio patch cables. But it's a lot of work to DIY, so if I am lazy I buy those from Make Noise :-)

That are my 2 cents, kind regards, Garfield.

Edit: removed a typo.

EDITED Aug 31st 2022, 23:01

Hi Lugia,

Nice to hear that you like your 100 new patch cables! :-) Let's hope they hold for several years and don't cause any issues.

To be honest, I am not so much a fan of moulded mini-jacks but of course for this price, who wouldn't like it? :-)

At least you don't have to worry about not having enough patch cables for a while, enjoy that luxury :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gabor,

Ha, ha, yeah, quite a bit mental track ;-) But fun to listen at and especially in combination with your video. I always appreciate your creativity of the your combination of: audio & video.

Yet another nice creative creation by you, thanks a lot for sharing this with us! :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wavne,

Thank you very much for the additional background information. I am still stunned about the beautiful look of this "machine" :-)

Is there any hope that in the future you would "extend" this Unsong Machine with CV out? That would be perfect for a modular system! :-)

I look forward in hearing your new album made with/by this Unsong Machine, kind regards, Garfield.

Hello Wavne,

That's a beautiful... instrument? You call it controller, for me it's almost an instrument :-) Beautifully made and again a very creative idea of yours! I am overwhelmed and heavily impressed :-)

I still remember the sequencer you made with a turntable, for those of us who joined this forum after that day back in 2019, here the link to yet another great creation:

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/forum/posts/index/7983

Is this Unsong machine/instrument/controller for sales and if yes, how much would that be? Those 8 character "machine" what was that originally or did you made it from "scratch"?

Thank you very much for showing your great creativity and I hope you will keep surprising us with more creative creations :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Dries,

That's a beautiful ambient track, so nice relaxed to listen at, I only want to listen to your music and do just nothing :-)

Great work! Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gumbo23,

That's a nice album you got there! :-) My favourites start from about track 6, it becomes relaxed to listen at, ideal for a weekend to rest after a week of hard work! The rhythm you got in Aurora, I like that. I guess that's done with the MPC?

I am still wondering if I want an MPC next to my racks and I think with your album, you answered that question :-) I really need to think about an MPC :-)

Thank you very much for sharing your new album with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

Ha, ha, ha! Yeah, order from every length a bundle of 50 pieces, so 200 pieces in total and that will do for a while, till another rack is full with modules ;-)

Not too sure about the quality though... Interesting though! Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Funbun,

Great large album you got there! Fantastic ambient, so nice and relaxing, this is going to be a great weekend for me listening your music!

Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

Thanks a lot for your feedback regarding the Starlab. It's already on my wish list, now I need to prioritise it! :-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi All,

Besides the above mentioned manufacturers' manuals, those from Erica Synths I like too; sometimes they can be a slightly bit short but on average good explaining manuals.

In the old days Doepfer wasn't too bad either, however for some of their new modules it isn't as good, in my opinion, as it was back in the old days.

Very clear manuals are those of Waldorf, pity though they decided to stop producing Eurorack modules, the very last modules are now on the market, soon it will be sold out, I am afraid.

Perhaps not everyone's cup of tea if it comes to manuals however those from Xaoc Devices I don't mind to read either.

Shakmat Modular manuals are quite all right too. Kind regards, Garfield.

That's indeed real sad and bad news. I never managed to get a WMD module yet, looks like I have to hurry :-(

Then I also heard that Synthesis Technology is going to stop by March 2023 :-( Yet another bad news... and I was barely recovered from the shocking news earlier this year that Mutable Instrument decide to stop their production too...

Let's hope that good times for Eurorack manufacturers will return soon! Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Arrandan,

You are pampering us with an album, great! I am now at track 2 and that has a great start, it glues me to my chair and can't let go :-) I will continue listening after this comment and see what else good stuff you have done there! :-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gabor,

That's an interesting piece of music. He, he, I feel the video is "darker" than the music. Your track gives me some thrills and could be a good sound track! :-)

By the way... that girl on top of your rack, isn't that the same girl as your "pin up girl" track from the convertible car? ;-)

Nice work and thanks a lot for sharing this with us, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

That's a great and nice relaxing track! I could hear all they music like that :-)

How is your experience with the Strymon Starlab, was it worth the investment? Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gumbo23,

Wow, that's beautiful, long time ago that I have seen such patterns :-) The music finishes it very well!

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us, kind regards, Garfield.

-- JimHowell1970

Hello Jim,

Ha, ha, great one! Perhaps you can sell that to Xaoc Devices in exchange of a new great module or something like that ;-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Katef and Lugia,

Katef: Yes definitely or consider a monster rack from Doepfer. You know the saying here on this forum: "You never can have enough VCAs" ;-)

Though one little advice, I would go for a few different VCAs from different brands, an ideal opportunity to test the differences in behaviour and how such VCA sounds! :-D

Lugia: Ha, ha, interesting point!

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

Ha, ha, I love that video! I watched it many times however it still is very entertaining and educational too :-) Hence the reason I have several audio interfaces (those Eurorack modules that "export" (sometimes "import") audio to the Eurorack outside world like for example a mixer or in other words these modules transform the higher/hotter Eurorack voltage audio signals into lower audio line level and DC gets filtered away too, if the module is of a certain quality), to make sure this is not happening to my monitors ;-)

Regarding the B. 2600, you only tell me now that those TRS 1/4" jacks are AC coupled... I bought that Lehle 7013 DC filter to make sure non-unexpected-DC-signals from that B. 2600 of mine reaches my monitors ;-) So actually that was not needed, to buy that Lehle DC filter I mean?

Don't get me wrong, I am not regretting to buy that DC filter from Lehle, it's a little nice little box, even stereo! But if I knew this upfront, perhaps it wasn't necessary to buy it :-)

It would be actually interesting to see one testing its monitors, see them going in up in smoke, especially a 2 or 3 way monitor would be interesting to see how that "smokes up" ;-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Mowse,

Nice to hear from you again. I love your sound, very recognisable and always welcome! :-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Shanewave,

Great stuff this, I could listen all day to this, cools me down, especially after a stressful day. Today somehow lots of things didn't went the way I want, gave me a bad mood but this music of yours puts me back on track :-)

Therefore a big thank you for this great experience and I hope you will continue sharing your good work with us. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

Holy Smoke! This is great stuff! You got a beautiful packed rack there and the music you manage to get out of there is sublime!

When did you say your next concert was? ;-) Kind regards, Garfield.

P.S.: Big thank you to Modulargrid for solving that issue with underscores in the link. I usually don't follow simply a link but like the above video it's clear what you get: a rack full of great modules & music ;-)