Second skiff build advice...

Hi all, I have my first skiff built, check it here:

I'm absolutely loving it but already wanting more capability/complexity... I'm using this skiff as a mood board at the moment:

I'll be putting this all in another Intellijel 104HP case...

I'm making all ambient / experimental music. You can hear at http://sleeplesswaves.bandcamp.com/

I love the Rainmaker for delay, but it's so damn big.... Is Magneto enough for delay? I have a Chronoblob delay as well already. Also toying with idea of Big Sky delay pedal...

I love the Mangrove I have, should I replace the Plaits w/ another Mangrove? I thought go for different sound... Also fell in love with Shapeshifter after seeing demo...

Clock dividers... Rotating clock divider or QCD? Do I want to use HP for expanders? What about Octocontroller in comparison???

Filtering I have a Three Sisters and Doepfer Xtreme Filter... So far I'm struggling to get anything good out of the Xtreme, any replacement suggestions? I have the Jove in the new rack... Any other filter ideas? Maybe another Three Sisters, I'm absolutely loving that...

What am I missing? What should I ditch? What did I forget? Give me the modular gods interwebs wisdom from afar!

Thanks

D

Nah, keep the Plaits...you've got it plus the Shapeshifter in this cab, and that gives you loads of digital sourcing. QCD + expander, definitely...loads of timing control potential with that. As for the Doepfer A-106-1, here's a sick and twisted idea: use its resonance insert, put the Chronoblob in it. Then take the Chronoblob's feedback insert and drop something in THAT...filter, some other processor, etc. That's what's fun about that thing, aside of the MS-20-type filter architecture. You could even set up feedback loops going back and forth from the Doepfer to the Chronoblob, and back again. Plenty of ambient drone/texture possibilities there.

Delay...here's an idea, albeit a bit spendy: Verbos's Multi-delay. Note the presence of envelope followers on each delay tap, which opens up a lot of strange amplitude-control possibilities elsewhere in the rig. And tap 8 has the reverb/octave shift on it, which has "ambient" written all over it. Same size as the Magneto, too.

Smart move with the Stages, btw...two is very much better than one there!

@Lugia Thanks for your response both now and in the past. You have such great insights and offer them to so many in this community... Cheers!!!

I've been pushing modules around for about a week and I think I have things somewhat firmed up on that second rack. I'd love to hear any final thoughts on what I pulled together... Anything missing? Any module have a better alternative? Am I redundant or off base anywhere? There are so many variables and multiple ways to do things with devices that it's sometimes hard to see the forest for the trees.

I looked at the Verbos Multi-delay and I do love 8 taps + the envelope trackers... But I just kept coming back to the Rainmaker with 16 taps and such a wealth of other features... I think I just have to eat up the HP and go for it...

With 10+ voices in these two cases I thought Planar2 made a lot of sense for interesting shifts.

I figured the stages could be used for envelopes for voices and/or step sequencing, not to mention the 1U steppy.

I only have a 2HP reverb module in the first case. I added 2x Digiverb 1Us in this case... I'm thinking they can add some interesting dimensions to voices...

I've really been feeling like I need to multi-track record lately... I only have the Doepfer A-138s mixer in the first case + a 2HP 4 channel mixer... I'm really not liking mixing down two or more voices into one w/ the 2HP and then feeding that into the Doepfer A-138s... And then I only have 3 more voices... It all gets a bit muddled / complicated feeling... And when I'm listening to recorded stereo tracks I keep wanting to be able to control volume on individual voices or throw on a plugin or two individually... I've ordered some 1/8" to 1/4" shielded mono patch cables. I'm planning on running voices directly into my audio interface so at least I can get 8 distinct tracks @ 96kHz / 24bit.

I really liked the Befaco hexmixer + hexpander but it's so much HP and so much $$$...

Anyway, thanks for any insights or thoughts!

D

Looking again... Should I sacrifice maybe the Shifty & 2hp modules (Arp, Euclid + Tune) for another Intellijel quad VCA?

Actually, I think you could get away with dropping the RCD and RCD Expander, since the QCD + Expander deals with much of the same functionality. You get the rotating division thing with the RCD, but you could likely find a way to emulate that behavior some other way.

@Lugia Sorry, that thumbnail up above is old... I'm not sure how to update it... If you click on it you can see the updated rack... I've eliminated RCD and some of the others...
D
Here's the new:

EDITED Feb 2nd 2019, 00:27

Better idea: lose the Shifty and the Jove VCF. Replace the Jove with G-Storm's 8 hp version of the Jupiter-6 filter (which I definitely endorse the use of, given that I've got an actual JP-6), then you'll have the 12 hp for the Quad VCA. But the thing that worries me, looking at the above, is that the build currently has NO VCAs...and that's just not going to work out nicely. So what I would suggest is to grab two different 6 hp VCAs: the Happy Nerding 3x VCA (linear - for CV/modulation work + mixing) and an Intellijel uVCA II (dual VCA, adjustable for either linear or exponential [audio] response, plus 2 channels of mixing). That gives you five VCAs and two mixers in one shot. Keep the 2hp modules...I think you're apt to find them rather useful.

@Lugia I love that G-Storm Jupiter-6 filter, sounds amazing from the demos. And that Happy Nerding 3x VCA looks awesome... Never knew that was even a thing!

So here's what I'm tentatively settling on at the moment:

The only things I'm tossing around are perhaps replacing one of the two DigiVerb 1U's with a second Pedal I/O, or perhaps replacing the uRings 8HP with some other tasty thing, maybe utility, another filter, or even more VCAs. Not sure if that additional voice is more important over other capabilities...

Thanks again for your depth of insight!!! Much appreciated...

I finally found an Intellijel 104HP in stock and ordered... Most are sold out here in the US... I'll be building it out over the coming months... I may not have a wife by the end of this journey... LOL...

D

G-Storm's replications are top-notch, IMHO. I'm quite familiar with the sound of both the Jupiter-6 VCF (mine is sitting about 5 feet to my left) and the ARP 4012 VCF from the original ARP 2600 versions (loads of experience with those), and they pretty much nail the sound of the originals while adding a few extra bonuses such as dual inputs and much smaller sizes than quite a few of the other replications. Noting that you had the Jove in there was a big key in opting for that change, freeing up that extra chunk of space.