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Hi Gabe

you could try copying the rack Lugia made and then making a bare bones version that you think might work and post it back to check it will at least make sounds - possibly start with only 1 voice maybe a slightly less expensive case...

mantis case

a sound source (dust of time), 1 modulation source (Maths), 1 sound modifier (beads), a way to play (I'd go for marbles over permutation and expander), and a way to listen (the 4ms thing)

add in a bunch of almost essential utilities - not necessarily these modules, but covering the same functionality - links, kinks, shades, veils (I'd get a real one though not the clones)

play with that for a while and then think about how you want to move forwards - do you want to move towards a more complex voice, or a second voice

if by 3rd row you mean the bottom one - it is mostly modulation sources and utilities - modulation sources are needed so that you don't need to constantly tweak the knobs yourself like a deranged crackhead - you can patch these modules to do this for you - utilities increase the ways of patching so instead of patching modulation source to modulation input you patch via utilitiy modules which enable you to multiply, modify and merge them into more interesting waveforms - for example as an envelope closes an lfo is mixed into the signal to produce tremolo this is fed to the cv in of a vca and the effect is applied to the audio being sent through the vca