Hey guys,
I'm looking for my first modular synth. I'd like to create something musical, no super-strage melodies, but I'd like to interrelate melodies so i'd picked a quantizer, the quantimator, that should be the brain of my researches. 3 VCos because of the chords progressions, any advise on utility modules or any big oversight I did?
Thx in advance! Big up!
Marco
https://cdn.modulargrid.net/img/racks/modulargrid_644608.jpg
Hmm...well, maybe put a second DixieII+ in instead of the Doepfer. Saves space, which you need with that honkin' big Verbos Buchla 200 clone.
I'd also try and dissuade you from that Cwejman filter. Again, it's huge (which means it's stealing space for some other things you need) and quite spendy for what it is. You could likely get more done with two smaller VCFs, especially if you can interlink them, then you'd have room for the VCAs that you're missing and the multiples you need to spread certain CVs out.
Think smaller modules here. The devices that make sense that are large (Metropolis, Verbos VCO, Maths) leave you way less room than you need if you keep using large panel spaces. That, or scrap the rack and move up to something bigger...which might be a good idea, actually. Starting with more space and having to figure out how to fill it once your mission-specific modules are in place is usually more rewarding than hitting that cab's hp limit and then realiing that there's important bits missing.
Hey Lugia, big thx for your prompt comment.
I'm seriously considering to switch from that big Cwejman Filter to two smaller but more effective ones. Any advise on some VCFs should be good for me? I also have to explain you that I've got a studio with no modular synths and just vintage gear (mostly Roland...)and I've always been fascinated by the power of older oscillator and filter. So I would try to get some modules that are as possibly powerful as the other I have, any ideas? I've been quite impressive by the vibe of the Verbos CO, and that's the reason I fit it in the system.
The other reason I'm searching for an help is that my mind is likely to think sound out of a "normal" style synthesis (1 or 2 vcos, 1 lfo, adsr etc etc), but I know that keeping limits into modular world could be the main limit! Despite that I linked in the threat the incomplete system, the correct one was https://cdn.modulargrid.net/img/racks/modulargrid_644608.jpg.
Looking for your suggestions, have a good one :)
Marco
OK...you'll notice I made the cab bigger but many modules got smaller; as a result, it's a tighter, better-implemented version. Case is a Pittsburgh EP-270 (3 x 90 hp), inexpensive for the size but with beefy power specs: 4A on +12, 3 on -12, and 2 on 5 to power 1679mA on the +12 rail, 861mA on -12, and 25mA on the 5V. This way, the power supply gets to loaf along on a light load, reducing heat and component stress and improving stability.
5 VCOs now: I shrank the Verbos Complex VCO in favor of a Sputnik, which is not only smaller, it has a little bit more going on functionally. Then there's a TZFM VCO, and two regular Doepfers. Ring mod got added, then a 4-in summing mixer before a Tiptop wavefolder with a suboctave generator. Triple VCA mixer at the end along with a passive mult (the one at the VCO end is active, plus tandemmed with a dual switchable-direction slew limiter).
Modulation row: noise/random/S+H, then a pair of EMW LFOs. Maths (of course) next, then the next two modules are an Intellijel Quadra (four AR/ASR loopable envelopes) with its expander/CV control. Erica dual ADSR next, then two filters: a Doepfer A-106-1 and a Limaflo Motomouth.
Now, these are weird filters, to be sure. The Doepfer is a dirtier take on a Korg MS-20 Sallen-Key pair, but it has this weird feature: an insert point in its resonance feedback circuit. This means that you can drop stuff into that path and alter how the filter pair deals with its resonance signal in loads of ways...for example, the filter next to it, which is a very weird vocal formant-morphing thing. So, with that sort of path, you can have the regular LP/HP combo, but everything feeding back to cause resonance is getting colored up by vocal vowel formants. That's just one example of this sort of A-106-1-type mayhem. There's others, to be sure.
Bottom row: your Metropolis is there, but I did something to the Quantimator: it mutated into a two-channel Doepfer quantizer and a two-channel shift register, with a lot of potential variation that the single-channel Quantimator could never have pulled off. Now, you can actually assign one voicing to the first quantizer/shift register, and put another on the second two...or put the VCO pitches on one side and the filter cutoffs on the other, or...well, you get the idea. Same device, but twice as nice! Two more VCAs, primarily for CV use but they can also switch to exponential for audio, then a TriATT, which can be used as a set of attenuverters, a 3-in mixer, or three channels of CV offset...or a couple of those at the same time.
Four-in stereo mixer, this goes to the Morphagene, which allows you to loop/granulate/warp/mangle the entire synth's output in stereo, with the output module (with transformer isolation and a ganged stereo level pot) right there for output to line-level.
So, yeah...it's quite a bit of your idea, just refined, put into a bigger case, and tightened up with a straightforward signal flow pattern. Fairly cost-effective for the size, too...modules came in at $5106, case is $599 street. Now that's a respectable starter Eurorack, with an eye for unconventional sound and plenty of potential. Whatcha think?
