Rackbrute 6U + Minibrute 2S

Hi all,

Looking to build a killer instrument setup for live use, and am just starting into modular. I use a lot of other external hardware and effects (Elektron boxes, guitar pedals, sequencers) so don't need my rack to have much in that department.

What I'm hoping this one will do is give me a lot of options for both percussive and chromatic tweaking that can be supplemented with an Analog Rytm / Four.

The setup I've gone after is to have options to compress signals separately from the Minibrute, Lifeforms, and DFAM, with the latter two also having separate EQ controls. I've got a Maths in there for general fuckery, and a Disting+EG for additional utilities. Everything would run into the stereo mixer for panning control before it gets compressed in stereo. It then goes to balanced stereo with some overall options for tone and saturation.

Thoughts? Things I've missing or haven't thought of? I'm new to eurorack so am tryna build the synth of my dreams here!

Thanks!

Why all the compressors, though? That seems to make little sense. Yes, I can understand that you want a degree of dynamic control, but that's what VCAs are for in a modular environment. Mashing the dynamic range will just sound like crap, especially since you've got compressed signals being compressed even FURTHER by yet another compressor.

Electronically-generated sounds obtain much of their impact through having the massive dynamic range that they normally do. A bass hit that swings from -80 dB up to 0 and back with a hard attack will bang WAY harder than one that's been mashed down to a 20 dB window. Normally, compression is what you use to get peaky signals under control, so this implementation seems pretty pointless to me. Leave the compression for mixing.

Also, put the DFAM back in its powered skiff. I know this arrangement seems convenient, but it's very cost-ineffective to take a device that already has a rack and power and remove it from that...to put it into a different rack and on a different P/S. You're paying for that twice, and I'm betting that if the DFAM cost $700+ up front, you wouldn't have bought it. But that's exactly what this does to it. Leave Eurorack cabs for things that require Eurorack cabs. Same goes for the SV-1 if you still have its skiff.

Pulling them out of their boxes and into a rack makes the most sense for my live setup, and I'm straddling between hardware and modular, so would prefer to start with some semi-modular units at the outset. Maybe pull them out if things grow from there.

Idea behind the compression is similar to how the sound sources would run on a digital mixer or DAW. I was sort of considering the MB2, SV-1, and DFAM as their "own" soundsources that are coming together to make some kind of performance. So mentally I have them each on some kind of "channel" that has compression and eq to have them sit together nicely. There's also the ability to sidechain. In the bass example you give, sure, there's a hard hitting bass that goes from -80 to 0, but anything else that comes at the same time is going to clip it -- particularly a bass drum. I use compression for evenness and gain control.

The master, stereo compressor is a glue compressor that can also add some saturation and take out any stray peaks. This sort of gainstaging is pretty common in production setups. I just don't know how it translates to modular. I'm trying to imaging what I'd be doing if I had something like the MB/SV-1/DFAM running their final outputs into Ableton.

Does that make sense?

Yes, I'm quite familiar with how compression gets used in production. I'm also aware that, of all of the types of processing I've used over the years, compression is the one you shouldn't print to multitrack with. When doing your initial gainstaging, you need ALL of the tracks to have a similar dynamic going into the mixing/rendering stage so that it makes it easier to determine the general levels of elements within the mix. At that point is where you'd want to compress...on a strip insert, going into the mixbus. If you've compressed to the multitrack, you then have no dynamic leeway and the resultant track(s) won't "breathe".

About the only times I've ever compressed to multitrack were on randomly-peaky sources, mainly vocals. And invariably, I was pushed into that by the vocalist's incompetence with performing for a mic. Vocals that swing between -20 and blasto dB really don't make for fun mixing work.

If you're trying to do "loudness wars"-type tracks, then I could see the point of repetitively mashing, mashing, mashing the dynamic range. But keep in mind, also, that people are REALLY tired of that squashed sound. It might make radio happy, because they always shoot for having the "loudest signal" in any market, but it winds up sounding mashed and crummy...mainly because, like in the first paragraph, the music isn't "breathing".