That all makes sense and does make a good argument for a professionally designed and self contained system to start with.
The Make Noise Tape & Microsound Music Machine is a great foundation. You'll find resources on patching the system, along with many resources for patching Maths alone
Adding Pam's and Midi and you've got everything you need for clocked modulations and synchronization with your DAW
You can always expand the system when you're ready
-- 33PO
Thanks, appreciate the input. I have watched every TMMM system video I could lay my hands on, most of them from Make Noise themselves. They do seem to care a lot about their community as well, from what I've seen, which will also be useful down the line if questions arise.
Lastly, would you say it's better, in this scenario, to have that spare 2HP devoted to a mult or to a VCA? My readings suggest that it's definitely VCA, but that brings into question why the original system would've shipped with a mult and NOT more VCA's. Dunno, both are useful.
I must say, I'm not crazy about the idea of small form factor VCA's, but I suspect it might be a loooong while before I can upgrade this case to something with space to accommodate a larger VCA. I guess I could use it without either and see which I want most?
D