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Yes! It's awesome.

So, what I often do is use the pitch + gate sequence to drive my Minibrute's voice. Then I use channel 3 to control the gate of a second VCO and channel 4 to control its pitch. However, if I just want to use the same gate (to create multi-voice chords), I'll split the gate channel out to two additional VCO's and then use channel 3 and channel 4 as pitch sequencers for those oscillators. You could also do the opposite and use channel 3 and 4 as additional gate channels to create drum rhythms (which don't need a pitch sequence).

Just jumping in with a quick comment (don't have the time atm to do a full rundown) but I wanted to make sure you knew that the Minibrute 2s actually has three completely independent sequencer channel outs. The first has two outs (pitch + gate), while the other two each have a single out (either pitch OR gate OR generic voltage). With that in mind, I'm not sure you need the metropolis unless there's a fourth gate/pitch you need that you can't generate or derive from elsewhere.

This all makes a lot of sense and looks great to me! Now, I would start with the first core modules, maybe build one complete voice and experiment how much you can get out of that and then slowly build into your drum voice and your second voice. It can feel overwhelmingly slow, but I'm glad I did this because it gave me time to learn what interfaces and patterns I really enjoyed and which ones I disliked, things I couldn't have anticipated.

Hi Marco,

What an interesting build! Let's break this down. Currently you have:

Sound Sources (4.5) - Mangrove, Twin Waves, Erica Drum, Mimeophon, [URA kinda?]
VCAs/LPGs (7) - DPLPG [2], ADDAC802[5]
Envelope Generators (4) - Maths [2], A140 [2]
Attenuators (12) - Levit8[8], Maths[4]
Mixers (4) - Levit8, Maths, Mix4, ADDAC802
Filters (2) - Sisters, Polaris
LFOs (6) - Maths (2), Twin Waves (2), Modbox (2)
Clock Modulator (2) - Tempi, Metropolis
Sequencer (2) - Metropolis, Trax
Random (3) - NSE, RND, URA
Quantizer (1) - uTune
Effects (1) - Mimeophon

To me this reads as supporting full voice synth voices and one (2-channel) drum voice, which sounds like what you're after. Sweet! However, there are a few small questions that I would ask. None of these are big and you've done a great job. Just a few things to consider:

• You say that you are focused on melody creation and to that end you have the Metropolis and the various noise/random sources going into the uTune, but I'm curious how you came to these modules specifically. The Metropolis is a nice sequencer (if not a little large), but the uTune is a somewhat specific quantizer for people who need its microtonal features. It's pretty menu-heavy and I wonder if a more general quantizer like the Intellijel Scales, might not be a better and more versatile choice. If you don't mind menus, and Ornament and Crime would offer a lot more quantizing more (and more) in a similar footprint.

• You have 2-3 voices and a drum machine, but the Metropolis can only output 1 pitch and 1 gate. I suppose the Trax is there to serve as a second sequencer, but I just want to bring up the idea of something modules like the Rene or the Qu-bit Bloom which have a few more outputs and might be more musically interesting. You could even combine a smaller, conventional sequencer with something weird like the Bloom. You have enough space between your two sequencers that, unless you absolutely need the Roland-style sequencer, you have a lot of perhaps deeper options. You might even consider replacing the Trax with a Euclidean Circles (which gives you 6 whole channels of hand-on gates). I always find that I need more gates than I expect, especially if I'm working with drums. (Remember, a main reason for spending as much space on the Erica as you have is that it has two channels, which means double the inputs, double the shaping)

One final note on sequencers: if you replace your quantizer with something more fully featured like the o_c or the Scales, you get a sequencer(s) there, too.

• The only thing this rack feels light on is modulation. Other than your Modbox, you are looking at Maths + one of your oscillators in LFO mode. Just like you can never have too many VCAs, I feel like the same is true with LFOs. In addition to modulating a parameter, they are great to modulate a VCA to add extra life/variation to some other modulation/envelope/gate/etc. I'd consider going up to at least a quad lfo (like Batumi). Maths is great in a pinch, but remember that Maths is also your third and fourth envelope (and you have three full voices in this rack). The Mimeophon really gobbles modulation and often wants as much as you can throw at it,

• You might want to slightly tweak your random plan. You have 14hp of dedicated random/noise/sh modules. Given the small number of non-random modulators, I'd consider scaling down to, perhaps, a Wogglebug or a Turing Machine (great for melodies). Then, you can expand your LFO to a quad that, perhaps, has a random LFO. I think you'll appreciate that extra flexibility.

Those are the main things I would think about. Hope this was at all helpful.

Best,
E

Hi Loumakesfriends,

I'm also in the first year of my modular experiment, so I thought I'd share some things that I've learned with regards to your set up.

1. Your only dedicated VCA is the Sinc and, while that's a great and fun module, you can get twice the VCA/LPG in the same hp with a Make Noise LxD or the 4hp Antenumbra DVCA, for instance. I'm sure you've already heard "you can never have enough VCAs" and it's quite true. You could even consider something like replacing the Sinc and the mixer with an 8hp quad VCA/mixer like the Doepfer A-135-2 Quad VCA. You only have a few sound sources in here, so, most of the time, you could use two channels of the quad for dedicated VCA and two channels for mixing, or three and one. The A-135-2 is nice because it gives you two mix outs: all not VCA-ed signals and all signals.

2. Having the Voltage Block and the Varigate in a system this small seems like overkill. You have far more channels of sequence than you have modules to drive with them. You also don't have a dedicate clock to drive your sequences. I would suggest something like a Pamela's New Workout (clock + divider + lfo + euclidean sequencer) for clock + gate duties and then, maybe something like a Scales (quantizer + sequencer) for pitch sequencing. An alternative set up would be to replace both with a Hermod, which is much-beloved and does it all in 26 hp. Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that, as you brought up the keystep, my preference would be to shove all pitch sequencing into the fantastic and much less expensive keystep and let's Pam's handle the clocks and gates.

3. DATA is a cool module but this case is too small to spend that much hp on it. Technically, it's another sound source and an oscilloscope is great when learning modular synth, but you can also just patch into VCV rack through an interface or get an outboard oscilloscope and save precious hp.

4. Things missing:

- You don't have any attenuators, dedicated LFOs or envelope generators. These are what makes your synth come alive. A few options would be to get a nice small function generator like Joranalogue Contour or Make Noise Function which can generate envelope or LFOs. Personally, though, I would just get the inevitable Maths, which gives you mixing, attenuation, dual envelopes, dual LFOs, and much more. It's also the best module for teaching modular ideas.
- A conventional oscillator. The BIA is great for perc and basslines and you can push it into lots of weird lead sound directions, but, what I found when I started at a similar place was that I quickly started missing an additional meat + potatoes analog oscillator that could complement the BIA, especially if you are planning to do pitch sequencing. In a case this small, it's hard to beat the classic Dixie II+ which sounds incredible and has tons of modulation options. It also doubles as a second LFO if you're only using the BIA voice.

Sketch:
Here's a sample version based on the feedback above that might be interesting:

Oh I love that idea! Thanks for the suggestion.

Hi all,

I would love some feedback on my first rack. I've built a little over half of it already (basically the top row and the left half of the bottom, all of the 1us) and I'm loving it so far but would love overall feedback from some experts.

My goal in this rack was to build around the arbhar to create a synth that excels at 1. strange granular beats and sound design, complemented with 2. some freaky FM. I'm pairing this with my Minibrute 2S (which is why there's no dedicated sequencer). I really wanted a self-contained small(ish) system that I wont need to keep adding to. I'm patching into my UAD, so all the reverb/delay/etc duties are handled in laptop (doing more recording than live performance).

As far as patching style goes, I really love the discovery of self-patched and cross-patched feedback and stretching modules past their obvious uses (using Maths as a subharmonic quantizer, turning Planar into a droning feedback machine, etc).

A few of my odder choices:
- Other than Arbhar, I have two main sound sources (Generate3 and Pitt Primary). I like this pair because Pitt's analog "wavetables" sound incredible FM-ing the Generate. (Also, I'm a pittsburgh boy, so I absolutely must represent). Additionally, I can coax some great drones out of the Pitt (which I love to feed into Arbhar and chop up and layer).
- Just Friends is often on related-envelope duty turning a simple beat into a series of strange rhythms, more great fuel for my granular core. Additionally, JF is a second through-zero voice which means I can cross-modulate it with Generate and get some tightly tuned feedback chaos.
- Triple Sloths drives the waveshapers and Planar. Really it can turn almost anything into a drone and when i throw it into the instruo waveshaper I basically have a semi-regular noise generator.
- Plancks is both a secondary mixer and a secondary sequencer, which helps round out my MiniBrute when I need faster/dirtier/extra channels of sequence. Also, it's paired with a tanh and can serve as a quick-and-dirty feedback mixer.
- Probably the strangest choice is 100 Grit as my only filter (other than the static high-pass module). However, I love the way it sounds, it can become a monster kick, and when it's not in use it becomes a distortion box. What's not to love!?

Anyway, would love to hear some feedback. Thanks in advance.

Best,
Erik