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maybe you could give me feedback on my planned system. I plan to go in the ambient direction. Other instruments used are guitar and bass with effect pedals. Plaits and Rings shall be the main voices. The melodies are said to come from Marbles and Hermod. The loop module is primarily intended to serve as a looper for a background bass guitar voice. In morphagene I want to record guitar sounds and then manipulate them. Milky Way and Beads for the effects section and Maths for many other functions.
What would you exchange or what is missing in principle?
I don't think you're missing anything important! Looks like a competent ambient guitar processing setup with possibilities to create new interesting timbres, even without an external instrument.
The only thing I can think about is maybe having some quality of life stuff regarding interfacing with your guitar and pedals. Maybe some jack converters etc?
underpowered rack wart... by the time you've sorted a case and rails and the power supply and the boost psu, you might as well have bought a mantis - better power, no rack wart and bigger...
I don't see the need for both pachinko and hermod - in this size case...
I'd throw out the ears and the 2hp loop - the loop because morphagene will do this and the ears because - at the moment for guitar/bass interface I would go for the sonicsmith ev1 - it's got the best pitch follower, and gas other features that are useful
as you're a guitar/bass player, with pedals, then I'd also get at least one pedal interface module (will make life easier) - whilst some pedals will work fine at modular levels - moogerfoogers for example, most won't and need attenuation on the way out and then boosting on the way back in - I'd also want at least one expression pedal interface - so that you can control the modular with your feet whilst playing the guitar - it really helps
I'd also want more utilities - think plumbing - for both audio and cv!
"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia
Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!
@Wiktorian
I've been thinking about jack converters or about a send and return module. I only know the knob.farm ferry. Unfortunately, this is not available for known reasons. Are there others with the same function?
@JimHowell1970
What do you mean with underpowered rack wart?
Maybe I'll start with Hermod first. The LFO, Random, Scale and Sequencer functions seem very useful when playing with the guitar.
Which utility modules do you think would be important? A clock divider seems extremely useful to me. An attenuator could also be an advantage for the high levels in the rack.
As a CV function generator, i have planned maths that I want to learn down to the smallest detail and then see what else I need
I saw a lot of racks with ornament and crime on modulargrid. Especially in small racks. The many functions, especially in the area of CV modulation, are very impressive. But the module seems to me complicated, especially at the beginning
well more rack wart than underpowered I guess - the uZeus - it takes up rack space... & it's not a great power supply, can be noisy and is tbh a bit underpowered... but sufficient for the rack you have pictured...
I think mixers are incredibly useful - especially matrix mixers - for creating interesting modulation...
I don't think you really benefit from a clock divider that much in this rack - not a lot to trigger & marbles can do clock division...
possibly don't need the output module - I'd get attenuators instead... unless you need the headphone output - and then I'd get the ALM hpo as it's only 2hp - odd hp modules are a pita
sequential switches are useful
as I said above expression pedal and to some extent on/off pedal interfaces are really useful - especially if you are going to play guitar or bass into your modular
"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia
Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!
You'll notice that I upped the size of the cab from 84 to 104, and added a tile row. This is designed with an Intellijel 7U x 104 in mind, which helps with a number of things, such as pedal interfacing, power, and so on as well as simply providing more SPACE in which to push the build a bit further. Went ahead and filled it on out, as well.
Oh, crap...what have I done here? Welllllllll....
TOP: Konstant Labs PWRchekr, so you can keep an eye on your DC rails, then a 1 hp blank to help the PWRchekr stand out a bit better and to fill a 1 hp hole, natch. Then, TWO Plaits (since two oscillators allows for a lot more in the way of things such as audio-rate modulation, FM, and so on) which are followed by a Veils. Then that HUGE black thing there is G-Storm's redux of the famous Synton Syrinx filter, which is one of the most expressive VCFs out there. It works on vocal formants (and a bunch of other methods!), so the output has a rather voice-like contour to the timbre...provided you use it that way, as there's a lot of other things it'll do, filter-wise...especially with the expression pedals! Then Rings, Beads...and a Tesseract TexMix setup with four mono ins + the master module. The TexMix gives you VCAs for audio levels per input, dual FX sends and dual stereo returns, panning, your outputs and a headphone preamp.
MIDDLE: Manikk quad freerun LFOs with symmetry control over the square and triangle wave outs. Then Maths, and after that is a Tiptop MISO for manipulating/merging/messing with modulation signals, and a second Veils for VCA control over modulation signals. An Intellijel Quadrax/Qx combo handles basic AR envelopes, but also a bunch of other sorts of mayhem since the Qx can be used as a "cascader" for the EGs there, offering EOR and EOF outs. Then for more "normal" envelopes, a Doepfer A-140-2 Dual ADSR. After that are effects...the Morphagene, a Frequency Central Stasis Leak, giving tap delay, chorus, and reverb and stereoization, and a Happy Nerding FX Aid XL for all of the other onboard FX.
TILES: This is where it gets fun. First up is the stereo input module, which connects to the dual input 1/4" jacks on the cab. Then after that are two expression pedal interfaces, a third that uses a pedal switch to flip between A and B signal paths, and two sets of Intellijel external FX interfaces that let you add two loops of mono I/O pedals to the fray. Then the stereo out, which fixes the output module question as it connects, like the input module, to the output jacks on the cab.
Now, if you know the Intellijel cabs, you'll notice that this is built "upside-down". This is very deliberate, as it brings all of the external 1/4" jacks for pedals, stompboxes, and the synth's I/O plus the power switch close together so that you don't have 1/4" cables hanging all over the modular, and this will make using the pedal complement much easier. So you have to tote it around upside-down...eh, not an issue, really. This build effectively eliminates the original's power supply module, fixing that issue, plus it deals with the audio I/O question AND allows the build to be much more guitar-centric via the tile row's interfaces.
Wow, thanks a lot for the effort. That looks to me like a setup with a lot of possibilities. The miso seems like a simple useful module. Could you give me an application example? I can use it to sum modulation sources, invert them, etc. Is that correct? I didn't know about the stasis leak. Does anyone have experience with it? In terms of usability and audio quality? I'm just wondering if morphagene and beads make sense together in the final state. Beads has a nice reverb and can also be used as a delay. The granular possibilities are also very interesting from what I've seen so far. Couldn't Morphagene and Stasis Leak replace Beads?
Wow, thanks a lot for the effort. That looks to me like a setup with a lot of possibilities. The miso seems like a simple useful module. Could you give me an application example? I can use it to sum modulation sources, invert them, etc. Is that correct?
-- FWGW
And more besides. MISO can also supply DC offsets, scalar changes, modulation signal waveshaping...it's a Swiss Army Knife for modulation sections. And coupled with some VCAs, that can get REALLY wild because you can tandem those functions with the VCAs in linear mode to control modulation amplitudes. For example, there's this: https://i.discogs.com/tR56UmH3E9cR204H0-eIzMI6F_IEF1KrxwiiiEp8bZM/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:500/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTUwMjAz/LTEyMjExNzgxOTMu/anBlZw.jpeg Note how the amplitude there is increasing over the scope's time window? That takes a VCA to accomplish. So, yeah...MISO + VCAs, or if space is limited, a Frap 321 + a smaller set of VCAs, which does a lot of similar things but being a 6 hp module, it's not got the panel space that the MISO has, ergo a bit less control.
You have a lot of module who aren't "one knob per function". It can be ok for you but also can bring confusion and discomfort to play, specially fx aid, marbles and disting mk4. Do you want to do live concerts or just program at home?
You also don't have stereo mixer like stmix or mixup. With 5 stereo effect module, it may be missing.
You have a lot of module who aren't "one knob per function". It can be ok for you but also can bring confusion and discomfort to play, specially fx aid, marbles and disting mk4. Do you want to do live concerts or just program at home?
You also don't have stereo mixer like stmix or mixup. With 5 stereo effect module, it may be missing.
-- SamuelGeai
The only menu-diving module amongst those is the Disting...which is super-powerful but also a real pain to navigate with its minimal display. As for the FX Aid, it's dirt-simple, like the majority of the Spin FV-1 devices. And Marbles shouldn't scare anyone who's accustomed to manipulating random sources.
The problem with "one knob" functionality in a small build like this one is that it wouldn't be a small build if that were implemented. That's the real reason for avoiding that trap; small builds require function-dense modules so that you can get lots of functionality per module, which is key to making a small build that can hold its own against huge builds that are more "one-knob"-like. And, of course, so that you can tote the synth around in a small cab, instead of hauling Doepfer monster cases around.
In fact, I tried to build many functions for different patches or applications into the case. It will primarily be used at home, for experimentation or to learn basic modular things. I'm sure that in the learning process, some modules will be exchanged for others. I think that's unavoidable and probably normal in this way of making music. I chose the limitation to this size because I already own the case and I think that there is no module in the plan that I could not use when switching to a larger case in the future because in my opinion there are not really special or only are application-oriented modules in the plan
