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I've recently decided to dust off the eurorack I built for my wife at her request. LSS, she didn't use it and I've taken it back over. I know very little about Eurorack and at this point I have no real direction outside of learning exactly what kind of sounds I can make from this. I've been focusing on the marbles/rings combo with haing a rudimentary understanding of PNW.
Any guidance on what to learn first and suggestions of arranging the case to be more user friendly would be appreciated.
The way I organize things for workflow:
Audio moves left to right, and then eventually cascade top-down through/down to effects.
Sound sources/ oscillators --> filters --> vcas.
I also do tend to arrange adjacent horizontal rows as 'voices'.
Bottom row would be clock sources and sequencers (things that require hands-on input and adjustment). Modulation sources (Maths etc.) would be in the bottom two rows. I like Pam's in the bottom left corner.
Effects (Starlab etc) to the right, mostly bottom right. In my cases, clock enters bottom left, sound exits bottom right.
The reason I arrange things this way is so I can visualize the signal flow a little better. It also tends to shorten some of the patch cable lengths. Just the way I do it...
I think it kind of depends on the style of case you have, and whether you care about color matching your panels or not. However, I generally agree with what @bopodoq says. I tend to visualize the signal path as going bottom left > top left > top right > bottom right.
Clocks and sequence / pattern creaters, etc create the signals on the bottom and send them up to be modulated, quantized, and played with. The VCOs are top left and send their lovely cacophonies right and then down towards to filters, fx, and audio manipulators. Finally the bottom right has some utilities and the in/outs.
I also like to consider how much I will be playing a particular module, and how many cables are going to be going in and out of it. I keep the modules that are more manipulatable around the outside of the case, to make them easier to play, while the set and forget ones can sit happily on the inside, buried in the spagehetti. Maybe it's just me, but reaching into the heart of a patch to delicately wiggle small knobs is not the most fun part of the modular experience.
Questions: Do you really have an extra empty row? I'm jealous. Also, any thought as to what type of music/sounds you want to get out of this rig? You have quite a nice collection of modules here; without too much tweaking you could turn this into a pretty beastly instrument, depending on what you're goign for.
Questions: Do you really have an extra empty row? I'm jealous. Also, any thought as to what type of music/sounds you want to get out of this rig? You have quite a nice collection of modules here; without too much tweaking you could turn this into a pretty beastly instrument, depending on what you're goign for.
-- HGsynth
I do, this is in two TipTop Mantis cases. This was built originally for my wife to create ethereal beds for her job as a music producer for a online game, running her guitar and/or keyboard through it. She ended up going software route instead.
I have no real solid direction of what I want to do with it outside of learning what it can do and going from there. I'm assuming it can do ambient fairly well, but I'm open to any suggestions. And no need to be jealous, the open row means I'm probably dropping another ~$2k on this over the next year. :)
I appreciate the advice on workflow from both you and @bopodoq
My first series of modules was piously positioned according to common logic.
Then, with the newcomers, we worked it out as best we could... we pushed each other, we made room ;)
For me, order is of little importance, since potentially any chain should be possible (except out > out!). This also avoids automatically reproducing the same eternal chaining.
Only common sense counts! Eg. If you're right-handed, a module like Tetrapad will be easier to handle placed to the right of your setup. And vice versa if you're left-handed.
Use long cables (three quarters of my cables are 1 meter long). This makes repositioning easier as you work.
Sequencer > square vco > filter > vca > fx1 > mixer? No...
Lfo > random > sine vco > folder > vca > fx2 > mixer? No, no...
Lfo > random > square vco > filter > folder > vca > fx2 > mixer... Et voilà!
I'm going through a Tangerine Dream "Rubycon" phase again.
-- farkas
Trying to get back on great classic tracks is a good thing. Especially an album like 'Rubycon', almost 50 years old (time flies); and with your AJH Synth modules conducted by the 960, I guess... it shouldn't be unpleasant.
Personally, I'm re-exploring another planet, Altair IV, inhabited by the Krell people 2,000 centuries ago. In support, the 1956 film and a few manuscripts found by Todd Barton... :))
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