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Thank you everyone for the suggestions!

@RZRO awesome, and thanks for the tip about the dedicated output. I'll save on that at the moment to add some logic or sequencer.

Pamelas New Workout & Varigate 4+ (or Steppy) instead of Circles
-- 33PO

Yeah I was considering Varigate 4+ as well, maybe it could be more versatile. Circles looks fun as hell, but it doesn't provide too many options or modulation inputs.
I was also thinking about Pamela (or maybe Make Noise Tempi?) but I'm a bit concerned about the menu diving...

Look at various modules to alter gate lengths and/or positions, then Boolean logic to use those gates to derive new rhythms from the gate interactions. There's also some modules that come in handy with clock tampering, such as comparators (they send a gate when CV fed through it exceeds a given level), discriminators such as min/max modules, directional CV trackers (these send a gate depending on CV movement...up, down, same) and so on. Putting a suitable "library" of these sorts of modules together with a suitable master clock for everything is a big key to getting some wild hits, crossrhythms, and the like.
-- Lugia

This is honestly super interesting, I didn't know half of the things you have mentioned even existed. Do you have any suggestions for putting together some of these logic and gate combiners?

You could save space and money in your rack by getting an all in one drum synth and sequencer like Tukra
https://www.tesseractmodular.com/eurorack-modules/tukra
-- sacguy71

This also looks super cool, thanks!

EDITED May 2nd 2022, 22:45

Hi everyone,

I'm planning a beginner rack focused on drums, and I would love to get your help!

I'm a percussionist and I produce electronic music with Ableton Live and traditional samplers / drum machines, but in the last months I'm struggling to find new inspiration. So I decided to pull the trigger and start my modular journey.

My budget at the moment is up to 2000 dollars. In the future I could expand the system but for now I prefer to focus only on the pieces that are essential to have a basic, independent drum rack.
I would rather avoid sample players and screen-based modules, because it wouldn't be much different from using Ableton. I would like my system to be as analog and performance-oriented as possible. As for the sound, I aim to produce techno / dance / Thom York-like beats.

So, let's deep dive into my first sketch: Euclidean Circles is the main sequencer and Maths is the modulation source. The drum voices are BIA (kick) and three Erica Synth modules for snare, hi-hat and clap. Doepfer A-138s mixes the four voices in stereo, and then everything is passed to the Intellijel output module.

Do you think I'm missing something? Is Euclidean Rhythms enough to make interesting, full-blown beats?
Should I rearrange the voices or remove / replace something?

Thank you so much for your time and advices!

EDITED Apr 29th 2022, 18:27

@JimHowell1970, sure, this is my actual Nifty Case:

As you can see it misses a lot of stuff, but I'm slowly expanding it. The things I'm planning to get next are LFOs and VCAs, precision adders, attenuators and maybe a complex filter.

@troux thanks, I considered getting the Palette too. Maybe it's too expensive for me at the moment, but it would be a nice addition for sure.

Sure thing @Lugia, for the future I'm planning to build a way more complex setup, but for this time I just wanted to get to grips with these few hp. I know the sound you get is very limited but it's really what I'm looking for haha.

Hi Jim, thank you for your in-depth thoughts!

So, first of all yes, I already own some of those! I own the Plaits, the O&C and the Monsoon. At the moment I have a 84hp 3U cre8audio Nifty Case, but it's almost full and hopefully I'm gonna upgrade it to a nice 104hp 6U Tiptop Mantis case very soon!
So, why the Pico Case? Well... it's mainly for "organisational" reasons with my other gear. I make ambient music and I'm really happy with my Synthstrom Deluge as the core for my system... modular is also nice for ambient sounds, but I find it a bit unplayable in a live situation. I use my modular to sample sounds and then I arrange them with my Deluge, or i prepare cassette loops... but I'm not really able to play it live, too many cables and patching, it's very unpredictable, requires tuning and you never really get the same results.

So, since I still love eurorack and I like to keep things minimal, I decided to make a really small system with a limited range of features I can easily tweak live. I got some really cool results modulating Plaits' harmonic in chord mode and Monsoon's pitch and density with my Marbles, so it's something I already kind of tried... I planned this system with the idea of creating some easy-to-make generative polyphonic ambience while I play my Deluge and the other stuff.

So the modules I was planning to get are the Doepfer LFO and the utilities (which are missing in my bigger case too haha). I thought that having 4 LFOs could be nice to make slow, constant variations on Plaits and Clouds with the off-phase thing. Marbles is a bit too on the "step" side, and it's also bigger. But maybe the Doepfer one is too limited, and I shoud consider something more complex... Batumi maybe?

I totally overlooked the VCA depth!! Haha sorry for this, usually I'm very careful to depth and power specs when I plan my racks XD
So I could remove it and put in something like the ALM Tangle Quartet! Four VCAs in 8hp, it fits perfectly, and I would also get the two additional VCAs.

O&C - yes, I was thinking of installing the Hemispheres for that exact reason! To use it more like a swiss army module than a quantizer on steroids. But - speaking of playability - it could be the wrong choice here (lots of menu diving).
I'll take a look at the 2hp modules you suggested me! Somehow I have to rearrange this.

Thank you so much!

EDITED Mar 9th 2021, 20:18

Hey guys,

I planned this minimal system for very specific generative music purposes.

I wanted to limit myself to this tiny 42hp case by Erica Synth.
Beehive (Plaits clone) mainly in chord mode (I'm considering a Rings clone too, but Plaits is maybe more versatile), Monsoon for granular processing and reverb, Doepfer A-145-4 quad LFO for slow off-phase modulation on several parameters (so that the LFOs never come perfectly back into sync with each other): the goal is to achieve Brian Eno-inspired generative ambient / drone stuff, like he did with tape loops. That's it, really straightforward.
Then Ornament Crime for additional modulation, cross-modulation, random, envelopes, basic sequencing and so on; I'm also controlling stuff with the Doepfer dual VCA. Clock comes from a square wave LFO. I'm considering flashing the Hemisphere firmware to have more options on the Ornament, but I'm not sure.

So, I have 4hp left: what should I add? I was thinking maybe of some kind of attenuators / attenuverters to have more control on the CV, aside of the VCAs... or maybe a filter? What do you think?
Thanks.

EDITED Mar 9th 2021, 14:33

... wow. This is crazy.
I didn't think it was even possible to get all this control over your mixing, in such a little space, without sacrificing too much modulation. I had to read a couple of time to understand how Takaab Nearness mixer works, haha. But it looks like a cool useful piece of gear. So basically I can pan every voice from the Soundforce module and then send the outs to the main mixer (Happy Nerding). Splendid.
And also PWRchecker, great addition! Thank you so much!

EDITED Jan 21st 2021, 13:32

I tried, but it didn't appear...

I try again here:

EDITED Jan 20th 2021, 20:53

Don't know why it doesn't appear, I posted the link like this tho.

Hi!
Sorry if I make some language mistakes, but english is not my mother language.

So, I'm planning a little eurorack drum case, the only thing is that I wanted to limit myself to a single 104hp 3U row (so I thought of the Palette 104 case by Intellijel).
Another important thing is that this system will be connected to my Synthstrom Deluge (via midi and cv), so I felt free to save on particularly advanced sequencers.

The sound I'm looking for is on the unconventional / idm side (not your basic 808s), I wanted to achieve more complex beats with glitchy yet rhythmic percussion.
So i tried to build everything in a random fashion, and I also like it to be playable and tweakable live. There are only three voices but I did put in a lot of modulation and random sources.

The main voices are BIA, Plaits (which can also do melodic stuff) and Fracture for snippets and grains, processed by Monsoon. I know there aren't many VCAs, but all voices should have envelopes, if I'm not mistaken.
Marbles generates / processes irregular clocks and voltages, combined with A-160-2 clock divider. Euclidean Circles v2 as a trigger / gate sequencer, also for modulating BIA with short gates. NE Mimetic Digitalis is more of a modulation source on steroids here, since it's unquantized. I was thinking of using Intellijel's Noise Tool as an additional clock / random / s&h source.

I have a little space left... what do you think I should add? Some other VCAs? Or maybe I have too much modulation and I should remove / replace something? Should I put in a quantizer like o_C if I want to use MD as a traditional cv sequencer? Or a small full-packed envelope generator like NE Pons Asinorum? Or maybe another filter?
Any suggestion or critique is well accepted! Thank you!

www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1442143

EDITED Jan 20th 2021, 21:03