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Many of us follow the "on budget" restriction, but I see the 4ms pod more as an auxiliary box, and not very comfortable to chain with others. In addition to the recommended TipTop mantis (6U 104 HP) you have some less ambitious options to start with. For example https://koma-elektronik.com/?product=koma-case-3u-84hp-powered which would cost you about €90 more than the 4MS. The good thing about it is the system to grow, you can easily add another 84Hp case using the same source, depending of course on the consumption of modules that you include. €90 is money in real life but nothing in the modular world, believe me.
Regarding the modules, I miss a quantized pitch source and some gate or clock generator.
A filter is essential too. Doepfer has good filters at very affordable prices.
The VCA and envelopes part you have covered at the moment with Maths.
A small mixer (perhaps also from Doepfer) will allow you to send more than one signal from your Dixie (it has 6 outputs) to the Z5000.
To start and adjust to the budget you can always look at modules from Ladik or Doepfer. They have many utilities at a very good price.
-- ferranadsr

I realize the case is small. My thought was for expansion to happen via a second daisy-chained case. I'll also admit to being eager to get started. My thought process was, for better or worse, that I could get my hands on a few good pieces, learn what I've got, what I lack, and then build out the second case based on that. ;)

I do most of my musical stuff on what people would call "the budget" end of things, so not sure I'll ever end up with the rigs you guys have, and that's okay. I'm more interested in setting up an exploratory tool for playing with raw sound. My creative output thrives on limits and finding ways around those to find unorthodox methodologies and sounds. This is a supplemental tool to stimulate the creative process, and not necessarily for the creation of an entirety of a performance, if that makes sense. At risk of sounding pretentious. ;) :p

OK so a mantis costs a bit more than the tiny 'budget case' that you got but it has over 3 times as much space - so in reality it is the "budget option" - just a slightly more long term budget option - a bit like buying a jumbo pack of dishwasher tablets or whatever...

and a mantis on it's own is still quite a small modular & there's no need to fill it in one go... etc etc... and still very portable if that's an issue for you... work out the cost/hp and you'll see what I mean

I'd spend some time figuring out what modules you actually want and those that you need to support them, before buying another case - build the case around the modular instead of constraining the modular to the case... otherwise you end up serially buying small cases - which ends up more expensive than the slightly bigger case

I get that I need a filter. I also had a quad mixer, more vcos, and xoh on the list. I waited on the xoh to see if I can just pad it through analog mixer.

most decent analog mixers made in the last 20 years should be able to cope with modular levels, especially when padded, I have a 15+ year old yamaha mg10 that works perfectly as an end of chain mixer for modular - but this doesn't mean that you won't want sub-mixers or matrix mixers in the rack - you probably will

If I were to, say, double the setup with a daisy-chained case, what would you say the necessary modules would be, specifically on the utility side of things?

don't get another tiny case!!! get the mantis!!!!! see above!

but: a low pass filter, a low pass gate, a waveshaper, sub-mixers, attenuators, attenuverters, matrix mixer, logic, a sequential switch, a clock divider would all be good starting points - and definitely look at doepfer and ladik for these (but make sure the tiny case is deep enough!!) - most of my utilities are doepfer

-- JimHowell1970

Infinitely helpful, thank you all!

Re: cases. Noted. Most likely a mistake on my part, but it is what it is at this point. I'm fairly confident I'll be able to make two 64HP cases fit into my workflow just fine, if maybe not optimally; but, I do appreciate the info. I get the value of the bigger cases, etc. I do understand your point, but like I said, is what it is at this point, so further trying to sell me on another case, while good advice....that ship has sailed. ;)

Like Jim said, "the folly"... :D :p

If I can't get two pod64x's to fit into my workflow, I promise I'll man up, come back and admit it! And get a Mantis. ;) :)

Probably a dumb question that will expose my ignorance, but can't the 0-ctrl act as clock/gate/sequential switch?

Or do I need to pair that with an external clock/gate/sequencer, etc. for those features to work? I get that I CAN, but do I NEED to? Or will using the 0-ctrl clock be sufficient in that regard?

I've got more research (and a lot of experimenting) to do but you guys have helped to steer me in a good direction. Appreciate it!