https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view
Looking for some advice to make it cheaper or more efficient
There seems to be a problem with the link, try using your racks URL instead and modulargrid will automatically show an image of the rack.
Don't post a link to a JPG. Post a link to the page. That way it's interactive and I can follow the links to modules I'm not completely familiar with.
The link should look like this.
Notice how you can click on it and then look up each module.
Okay here's my commentary.
Disclaimer... I'm going to sound brutal. But if you were to buy this today, you'd be hoping the place where you got your stuff from accepts returns. You'd have to pay shipping back, and then try and figure out how to make the best of a bad situation. Lots of money down the tubes.
Intellijel 1U and Pulp Logic 1U are not compatible. You've mixed both in your 1U rack space. Have you picked out a case? You can go with Intellijel or Pulp Logic compatible. Your choices better fit that case.
As far as choices, you've covered your bases except for LFO, noise... AND A FILTER. You're going to want a multimode filter in here.
You have a mixer, but no attenuverters. CV modulation is important. You'll probably get your pitch and gate info from MIDI. The Steppy only generates gates. So it's not going to be a full on-board sequencer. Though it does have its uses.
All and all it's a very expensive first build for the limited features desired. You'd get more mileage out of something like a Behringer Neutron and then a small skiff adding functionality like reverb, ring modulation, sequencing, and any other toys you'd like (including other VCOs and filters, overdrive, etc.).
My opinion? This build is pretty much pointless. First up, the tile row (as Ronin also points out) is not possible. Next, there's a trigger sequencer but nothing you'd normally use one with, such as percussives, or other clock-based modules which the step sequencer can modulate. There is a clock...and there's also a MIDI interface with a clock. But you can't send the clock from the Tock out via your MIDI interface, nor can you use both the MIDI clock and the Tock at the same time since there's no logic here to facilitate that.
Then there's the single VCO. OK, fine, you can have a single VCO...but then there's that ring modulator, for which you need a second source. And while that could be the Double Bass, it wouldn't really make much sense to divide the single VCO's output then send it into the ring mod against the VCO itself. Let's say you inputted the dry VCO signal to the carrier at 880 Hz and then the -1 octave, which would be at 440 Hz. Given that ring modulators output the sum and difference frequencies, you would get 440 Hz (again...so, no point to that) and 1320 Hz, which is simply the 2nd harmonic of the octave-down signal, and since the 440 Hz signal would be reinforced by the ring mod's difference output, this would just sound like an A-440 note with a bit more second harmonic. So, pretty much a waste of the ring mod.
There's a single modulation source (the A-140) but a DC-coupled mixer which will have a couple of very not-busy inputs. The VCA isn't exactly right for audio, either. Then there's two distorters. Why?
And then, the things that are NOT THERE: a VCF, an LFO, an exponential VCA for audio, no attenuation, no output module...to be very blunt, you could get a lot more entertainment for your money while achieving the same budgetary hit by simply putting the money necessary for this in your backyard grill and setting it on fire. That's straightforward...as opposed to the frustration that'll be experienced trying to use this build.
So, "cheaper or more efficient" = don't do this, period. You need to get a far better idea of what a synthesizer is made up of and how they work if this build is any indication. Save your money and get a prebuilt patchable instead, learn how it works and why it works, then try coming back to this idea much later. You can't just throw modules into a box with a vague idea of what a synthesizer consists of and expect to get anything useable. The sole result will simply be a waste of money that could be better-applied elsewhere.
