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Thanks @chaosnick,
I'm thinking about ditching one of the M32s anyway, the AJH modules look interesting; thanks for the heads-up.
-- Botty
They make some of the best sounding, well thought out, and well constructed modules in all of eurorack. I have one VCO by them and it sounds better than just about any other VCO out there. Their ring mod SM is probably one of the most excellent modules out there. Not sure where you live but they're a particular steal for those of us in the USA at the moment if you order from a European source (namely Juno records) due to the insanely good exchange rate.
Maths has attenuverters in the center, not VCAs. I'd suggest skipping the shelves for now and getting something like a Linix or veils. You seem to be missing sound sources. Only 1 vco and a sampler basically.
Thanks for the hard truths, atrostor. Maths has two VCAs in the center, but you think I need something dedicated and I can't argue against that. What's your recommendation on a specific module or modules to fill that role?
-- Gerromie
No--Maths is a Function/Envelope generator--you patch this TO a VCA to create an amplitude for your oscillator/sound source that is activated when Maths is pinged/gated/triggered.
Thanks for the hard truths, atrostor. Maths has two VCAs in the center, but you think I need something dedicated and I can't argue against that. What's your recommendation on a specific module or modules to fill that role?
I hate to be that broken tape, but you have no VCAs here. Warps could be used as one but that's a terrible waste of a Warps. How do you plan to create sounds that has beginnings and ends, as opposed to those that play infinitely; how do you strum your synth like an instrument; where are you patching those four envelope generators to? If you don't have an answer to these questions, it means you need a VCA (i.e. a voltage controlled volume knob).
Add, remove, change out etc, all sensible views welcome! mainly used for soundscape / ambient / disonnant
-- Botty
Ditch the dual mother 32s and get yourself some AJH modules instead; more expensive but a much more beautiful and interesting proposition in the long term.
Dude! THANK YOU. I don't know if you had the same experience I'm having when you first started, but I'm basically just watching a video and thinking "I like that. I want it." That's how I conceived this rack! Hence, the "ill-advised" tagline.
This was such a great response--thanks for being such a great ambassador to this community I'm joining! I will definitely check out the Tonestar. I will find out what a wavetable oscillator is and check out the ones you recommended. Your thoughts on Clouds made me laugh. With regards to actual modular, I feel like I'm still needing to shed some of my perspectives on synthesizers. I've always thought of them as the thing with knobs and a keyboard that has all the components to make sounds all in one package. You can probably see that coming through in this attempt at a rack.
I did also fail to mention that I'm getting a Beatstep and a Keystep to start. I'm much more interested in making sounds, learning how signal flow works in these things, and learning the theory behind the noises before stepping too deeply into sequencers. For me, I'm managing the amount of info I'm taking in because it can get overwhelming very quickly for me!
What is the HP width of a regular rack that houses my MOTU 828? I figured it was 84 because the enclosure I saw had the little ears on the sides for screwing them into a rack. I figured I'd have all that housed together.
Thanks again for the response. It gives me some more homework to do and I'm happy to do it. Cheers!
-- johnnyapolis
Sure thing. About HP: it's just an industry standard--5 HP = 1 inch. MOTU is just your audio interface, right? So there's no intrinsic reason to have it racked; but eurorack modules need to go in a case that has a power supply--they attach to the bus boards inside the cases with ribbon cables they come with.
Yes, I've only been in it for 6 months but have learned a lot since then, and I would recommend don't spend too much time planning your modules because your needs will change and evolve over time as you actually use stuff..also, spend some time reading MuffWiggler, even if you don't understand a lot of what people are talking about at first.
Wavetable oscillators basically have a bank of all different types of waveforms that can be chosen or cycled through that an oscillator outputs, many of which would be impossible on most analog oscillators, so you will get very different and interesting harmonics. I'm mostly a pure analog guy, but I'd like to get the Erica Synths Black Wavetable VCO, looks great.
Although I've listened to electronic music for many years, I only owned my first one two years ago, and it was only a short leap to ditching keyboards forever...but I've been playing classical and flamenco guitar for 16 years, so from a music perspective, modular synths make a lot of sense to me. I agree with Suzanne Ciania, Buchla pioneer that "keyboards are an inappropriate interface for synthesizers."
I recommend watching this video for some of her thoughts:
As I see it, from my perspectives on playing acoustic instruments for awhile, the special thing about synthesizers and especially modular is through combining BOTH audio and voltage pathways in all sorts of novel ways which are interconnected and sequenced, you can create movement, motion, changes that would basically be impossible for a person a keyboard or any single instrument; it's more like conducting a mini orchestra.
Is something like this a little more practical for use with an external sequencer/controller?
-- johnnyapolis
yes, but you seem to have some weird manufacturers I've never even heard of...I would stick with more well known ones. Not that you can't deviate from convention, but sorting module type by "popularity" is a good starting place.
I'm very new to this and learning so much every day (as long as I can fit it into my brain and get over the hurdles, self imposed or otherwise). Am I on the right track? What would you suggest exploring for the third row or doing differently?
I should add that I have other gear outside of this including a beat step pro, mother-32 and a system-1m, but I like this rack to be stand alone for now. I might start sending cv to it from an elektron analog 4 or rytm.
Dude! THANK YOU. I don't know if you had the same experience I'm having when you first started, but I'm basically just watching a video and thinking "I like that. I want it." That's how I conceived this rack! Hence, the "ill-advised" tagline.
This was such a great response--thanks for being such a great ambassador to this community I'm joining! I will definitely check out the Tonestar. I will find out what a wavetable oscillator is and check out the ones you recommended. Your thoughts on Clouds made me laugh. With regards to actual modular, I feel like I'm still needing to shed some of my perspectives on synthesizers. I've always thought of them as the thing with knobs and a keyboard that has all the components to make sounds all in one package. You can probably see that coming through in this attempt at a rack.
I did also fail to mention that I'm getting a Beatstep and a Keystep to start. I'm much more interested in making sounds, learning how signal flow works in these things, and learning the theory behind the noises before stepping too deeply into sequencers. For me, I'm managing the amount of info I'm taking in because it can get overwhelming very quickly for me!
What is the HP width of a regular rack that houses my MOTU 828? I figured it was 84 because the enclosure I saw had the little ears on the sides for screwing them into a rack. I figured I'd have all that housed together.
Thanks again for the response. It gives me some more homework to do and I'm happy to do it. Cheers!
Well, I personally think the idea of using eurorack just for "experimental noises" is a very limiting and unmusical use for the true extant of its possibilities, but even if that was your only goal, I can make a few recommendations:
1) As an alternative option to the PGH SV-1, I'd recommend the Studio Electronics Tonestar. I think it's more interesting and the quality of their equipment is better than PGH as well as 95% of other eurorack manufacturers. Also smaller HP.
2) I see you already have Quadnic in there..in reference to #1, you might instead try a wavetable oscillator, especially for crazy sounds. The new Erica Synths Wavetable VCO looks great, but there's others, particularly morphing terrarium.
3) #2 Could just as easily apply for Clouds, which seems to me one of those "try to do a lot of things OK" module a lot of people seem to buy and then sell within a few months..so..
4) If you want to play anything other than your self contained voice (SV1), you will need VCAs and envelopes, which you currently have 0 of.
5) If you really only care about experimental drones etc. perhaps this does not matter to you, but you also have no sequencer or quantizer of any kind, thus no way to play notes, music, etc..for me, this is THE most important thing of any eurorack setup or synthesizer, since it dictates the control voltage, which is after all, what this is all about
6) Speaking of which, you don't really have any modifying voltage sources of any kind, it's all pretty much audio. If you don't have voltage out-modules you're missing most of what modular has to offer and you might as well use a keyboard synths or two. My sequencer is the Stillson Hammer Mk2 which accomplishes #5 and #6 in spades. I love it. But you'll need a bigger setup to make it worth it. I recommend not starting with any less than a 104 HP skiff. Make Noise makes a good and cheap one.
Hey all. I'm an absolute noob who just discovered modular synths a week ago. I have been not sleeping since then! I've watched a LOT of youtube videos and just discovered this site. Here are some of the modules I really liked in my short amount of research. What do you think--if I just want to play around, will this work? I have an 0-coast right now as my only piece of gear. My plan is to grab a Minitaur (for bass) and an Erebus (for pretty sounds) soon and this rack would just be for experimental noises. Am I very far off? Anything I need to research more?
Your personal experiences and ideas are super useful for me. Answers in the form of online resources are also appreciated. Thanks!
Now, that I've been true to Doepfer for twenty years, I've discovered Ladik-modules from www.ladik.eu that cost quart as much as original and come with very useful features. They integrate nicely into the system, optical and functional.
Hi, I wanted to give you some straigt up answer having the clouds and various VCO's, but I think part of the fun really is to try out crazy stuff - as long as you adhere to what is input/output. Some inputs are usually ment for either audio or cv... but its common that both can be used on many modules. However, look into a VCA and envelope(s). May seem boring, but without them, the sound you create will become very static (drone) and not vary in amplitude (level). Thats why its always good to have the basic modules (VCA, Envelopes, LFO) and usually VCF (although clounds can do some filtering). Have fun!
Hey all,
I just made my first eurorack purchase. I got mutable instruments clouds, and intelijel dixie ii +. I was wondering how I can patch these 2 together?
Thanks!
Given the age of this thread you may already know that this is a V2 of the original BI - 2 hp slimmer, a couple of extra CV inputs for Skin/Liquid (new)/Metal texture selection and Bass/Alto/Treble range. IIRC the knobs are attenuators now, not offsets.
As a Clouds owner as well, I too found the reverb to work well. Glad to see I wasn't the only one that thought that.
I look forward to seeing what ideas can come forward to create distinct textures with Clouds and it's voltage controls.
as many here, I am a complete newcomer to the world of modular synths. Nevertheless, I've been making music for some time already and already own an Analog Four synth + Octatrack Combo, which can do a lot by themselves. But I had been tempted to try out modular and so I did purchase some modules already.
This system is primarily aimed at granular/effect processing of external signal (from A4 or computer) and internal samples (I've got a Radio Music sample player on the way), as I fell in love with the capability of Clouds, around which I plan to build this. But then I figured out that the Analog Four has this great ability to send CV/Gate outs, which would spare me of buying a sequencer, so I thought it'd be nice to get an oscillator too. I quite like the strum-like sound of Rings.
I'm very much into ambient/experimental music (very textured, like Tim Hecker, Fennesz, etc.), so I'd like to ask for an advice, how to spice up the sound a bit. The sounds coming from Clouds treated via Batumi (attenuated by Triatt) are great, however I'd appreciate some more intricate ways how to build interesting sound structures. Maybe some random trigger generators to fire up snippets of sound from Clouds ... or maybe clock dividers to create interesting variations of the master clock provided by Analog Four? I don't know, I'm still a beginner, so I'd appreciate any kind of advice.
Thanks,
S.
BTW, I found Erica Black Hole to be redundant, as Clouds has great reverb as well and I won't find much use for it
So, I realize that I've got limited ability to "see" alot of the possibilities available in my modules.
I wonder what you would do if you had this modular in your hands?
I look forward to any tips or suggestions over making some original sounds.
Btw, how do you save your "patches" ? Sketch a Patch or Notebook? Love to hear more.
Oscs:
2 x Z3000 Mk2
1 x Sinc Iter
1 x A-147-2 VCDLFO
E.G.:
1 x Peaks
1 x A-140 ADSR
VCF:
1 x Ripples
1 x WMD-SSF MMF
Attenuators/VCA:
1 x Veils
1 x Shades
Utility:
1 x Links
1 x Sputnik Modular 6-Channel Stereo Mixer
1 x Dave Jones Plus
1 x Intellijel Audio I/O II
I have worked in the box for most of the last ten years. I had a good year and decided it was worth an investment in modular gear. I fell into the rabbit hole and filled out my starter travel case.
My ambitions are to expand and redesign the classic Roland and Moog sounds within my own rack. The Ripples module has really hit done it for me. MMF from SSF is another, this PING business is interesting.
Now if only I can wrap my head around Gates/Triggers and Unipolar or Bipolar and what it means to my output.
Sometimes, I do appreciate the engineering of a synth like a Juno-106, Moog Minitaur, or even Digital Synths like a D-50.
big thanks to you @Blender for making my life easy. i,m now the proud owner of your hand built turing machine mk ll magpie. great doing business with you and bigger thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.
Total Power Output: +12v @ 1400mA, -12v @ 1400mA, and +5v @750mA
Dual bus boards deliver power for up to 26 modules using standard 16 pin, keyed power headers.
The power supplies use a single external 15V DC 4-5A 2.1mm barrel jack power adapter.
Move [208] LTD Specs:
Width: 528.5mm (208hp)
Number of Rows: 2
Available Depth for Modules: 70mm
Available Depth for Modules (above Power Supply): 62mm
20 Sliding Square Nuts Per Rail Supports Up To 40 Modules
80 (4-40 Size) Panel Screws Included
Guitar Amp Style Strap Handle
Side Mounted Secure Twist Latch
Removable Lid
8 Nickel Plated Steel Corners and Necessary Screws Included
Side Mounted On/Off Switch
Powered Bus Board supplies +12v / -12v / +5v
Dual Custom Powered Bus Boards with 32 Keyed Headers
Eurorack Bus Compatible Bus Boards
Side Mounted 2.1mm Universal Power Adapter Jack
15VAC 4-5A DC Power Adapter
Move [208] LTD Dimensions:
External Width including Latch and Hinges: 23.5"
External Depth including Handle: 12"
Height (including feet & lid): 7"
Height (including feet): 4"
Minimum Depth Available for Modules: 61mm
Maximum Depth Available for Modules: 74mm
