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Hello! I've been making music on and off for ~18 years, primarily with max/msp, but also with a few hardware synths, including a Korg MS-10, and I've decided recently to make the dive into Eurorack after wanting to for years. So, I've put together a first rack. It's a little intense and I'd love to get some feedback on the design and anything that might seem redundant or that might be missing. FWIW I've decided I'm on the Euro train, so while I understand the "go slow" advice, I will not be listening to it, warning in advance :p

I am primarily looking to make drone-y ambient-ish work (including microtonal if possible) and also dance, particularly acid/IDM, driven by my laptop running max, which I think I've prepped myself for with the rack in question. There are 3 synthesis techniques (pluck, akemie, Erica VCO => A-120) that I can leverage (ideally simultaneously with the ES-8), a ton of modulating capabilities with the LFOs and VCA matrix, some additional nice filtering with the Doepfer, and I've wanted a spring reverb for years so the A-199 rounds it out.

Having worked with max/msp for about 18 years now I mostly feel prepped with for a modular mindset, but there are a few points I'm unclear on, so questions:

1) I guess the biggest is, does the design broadly make sense? I feel like it does, but I'd love to hear from others.
2) I'm going to be honest, I'm not quite sure I 100% understand what the Pamela's New Workout does, but it seems critical for properly driving things from the ES-8. Am I understanding this properly? Are there better options that I'm missing?
3) Is a Stages and a Maths too much given that a Maths can also do envelope generation?
4) Is a stereo Mixer (the Erica V2) overkill in this setup? (this one is more subjective but I'm curious)
5) The HPO is added so I can listen in easily, but I think the ES-8 can route back into my laptop, so I'm wondering if maybe the HPO isn't really needed? (not that that's the real cost issue here, but still)
6) Just generally, any recommendations of modules that would fit here, things that are outright missing, or that might be superior to ones I've selected?

I know this is a pretty big rack for a starter and that I've got a lot to learn still, but I've worked with almost all these approaches in the past (just not in this format), and I'm really excited about the potential. Thank you for your help in finding the right answers here!

EDITED May 12th 2020, 05:14