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Putting Behringer in a rack always makes me feel a little dirty, but at ~$150, this was too hard to pass up.
I've only had it for a day, so I'm still a novice with it.
I put it in a nifty case with a Rossum Assimil8tor for voicing, and a Doepfer A-121-3 vcf to tame the output.
It's pretty nice. Well made, clean readable graphics, and I really like the feel of the buttons on the keypad.
Other vendors would be charging $500 (or more) for this hardware and feature set.
It's big in the rack at 52hp, but it also doesn't feel as cramped to work with like other complex modules.
The documentation is terrible, even for Behringer. There's a little "what", but there's not much "how".
But the thing I wanted to mention here is the often derided Musictribe app.
In this case, it's the RS-9's saving grace.
You can set the usual i/o things, but a second page let's you build and edit the patterns and steps,
and makes the module understandable for those like me that are just starting out with it.
The app's not pretty, but it gets the job done. I went from frustrated to smiling in about 5 minutes.
That's it for now. Recommended, especially at this price point.
We've been optimising effects for both linear LED strips and for 2D LED grids. KOLOR can now output characters including text and shapes to LED grids! You can modulate the shape and location, as well as of course, the colour! If you've been thinking about backing KOLOR, now is a great time to help us get up over 100% of our funding goal! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elkelektronik/kolor-eurorack-controller-for-led-pixel-strips
I wonder if its got Propellerhead Recycle .rex file compatibility?
Enjoy your spare HP, don't rush to fill every last space, this is not like filling sticker books. Resist the urge to 'complete' your rack, its never complete so just relax.
Thonk is now making their own modules!
Here’s the first, a very narrow, but full featured, oscillator/LFO.
Sounds great, and allows you to pull the four waveforms (sine, square, triangle, and saw) off at the same time.
Very easy build, would make a good first kit. Inexpensive too, at this writing (Nov 1, 2024) it’s only 65 pounds. Build
Many thanks to both of you. I need to search for mults, utilities & VCAs.
I forgot to mention that I have Batumi and planned to buy Ochd for LFOs, when I get rid of the Hermod currently getting in the way. I also have a Verbos Pan & Scan but I'm not sure about it, and a Twiigs for random probability of triggering evnts with my kick / live perf.
--> " Since your plan is to integrate with your DAW pretty much the whole time, you have quite a lot of flexibility and can probably hold off on filling your hp until you have a better sense of how the instrument works for you and your flow."
you couldn't be more right, I'm still exploring ! For now, I'm still doing this in my matrix :
Since I use a 4x4 Matrix Mixer for audio inputs (maybe I'll try 3 audio sources and 1 modulation) I still hesitate between BearModules's Stereo Mix 1U or your Befaco Stmix as a final auudio output but maybe I'm missing a cool opportunity for an end-of-chain mixer with 4 stereo inputs)
For the past few days I tried to get a grasp on Route 4 and Switch 4, but that could be overkill with the Matrix Mixer in the way I want to use layers of sounds and designated fxs chains that are often stereo ? or maybe the videos I watched weren't showing enough/the right approach. What I feel I need is definitely 'hands-on' modules like these though, glad I leaerned about them!
I will write some more as I explore :)
Thank you,
Victor
The font size on Microsoft Edge is too small for the entire website, almost unreadable...
-- electricfish
Ensure you have 100% zoom. I think the symbol in your address bar indicates a non standard value.
maybe you changed it unintentionally with Ctrl + mousewheel
common keyboard shortcut for 100 % zoom is Ctrl + 0.
those shortcuts should work in most web browsers
The font size on Microsoft Edge is too small for the entire website, almost unreadable. It looks like the website thinks my screen is huge, which is not the case. I am not sure if this is a bug or some sort of cache issue. But I haven't found anything in the cache. It used to work normally before, but something got broken. Any idea on how to fix it?
For me, the Panharmonium is its own thing. It has its own idea of harmonics and doesn't play well with others if you want things "in tune". The Doepfer frequency shifter is also kind of like that. I use the mini synth voice after the Pan to tame it and maybe chop up the output. That said, it makes sounds like nothing else and when I use it, it dominates: "this is a Panharmonium piece". I'm still learning it, but it's challenging.
It's such a cool concept and all of the videos I've seen sound really wild. I can kind of see why it might not be great at blending in with the crowd, though, as you say. I have the Assimil8or and the sound quality and intuitiveness of the interface is out of this world, so I'm very keen to experiment with a differnt piece of Rossum gear. The Doepfer frequency shifter I've also had my eye on (shame about the price); I can only imagine how much it helps in a patch.
Because the stuff I do is almost always auto-generated, the SIG is usually my starting point. I just love it. It's always good for making those moments where you have to stop and listen in wonder at what it's doing. I have the two sequential switches after it so I can use SIG as a selectable chord bank. I'm sort of slicing the four channels sideways into a single channel, then use the adder to transpose the key, the switches to select the bank. That CV/gate pair then gets split back into four pairs by the Shifty, envelopes are made and then it all goes up to the Mob of Emus, VCF'ed, VCA'ed, and out. Takes a lot of wires to set up the patch, but holy smokes, it sounds amazing.
That is an insanely neat patch. I'm still in the "trying to remember what button combo does what" phase of learning the SIG, but the potential is clear. I love the idea of essentually improvising a duet with the synth.
I’ve got nothing too exotic, very meat and potatoes compared to most setups I’ve seen here.
-- noodle_hut
It's the meat and potatoes that get the job done. The fancy garnishes can wait.
For me, the Panharmonium is its own thing. It has its own idea of harmonics and doesn't play well with others if you want things "in tune". The Doepfer frequency shifter is also kind of like that. I use the mini synth voice after the Pan to tame it and maybe chop up the output. That said, it makes sounds like nothing else and when I use it, it dominates: "this is a Panharmonium piece". I'm still learning it, but it's challenging.
Because the stuff I do is almost always auto-generated, the SIG is usually my starting point. I just love it. It's always good for making those moments where you have to stop and listen in wonder at what it's doing. I have the two sequential switches after it so I can use SIG as a selectable chord bank. I'm sort of slicing the four channels sideways into a single channel, then use the adder to transpose the key, the switches to select the bank. That CV/gate pair then gets split back into four pairs by the Shifty, envelopes are made and then it all goes up to the Mob of Emus, VCF'ed, VCA'ed, and out. Takes a lot of wires to set up the patch, but holy smokes, it sounds amazing.
The three thru-zero VCOs section in the lower right is a new idea to play with FM. It’s not quite there yet, but getting close. The OXi Coral is also new. It really wants to be fed by midi, so I use the Befaco CV Thing to give it 8 analog inputs, giving me eight voices in a small space. You can see there’s also the midi i/o from the NerdSeq directly to the left of it. Shows promise.
The NerdSeq. sigh. I use it all the time, and it can do a thousand things, but the interface makes those thousand things hard to find and use. Ten pounds in a one pound sack. It really needs another interface layer on top of what’s there. Clearer documentation would help as well. It reminds me of programming in assembly language. Tedious. A love/hate relationship with that one. Same with the Disting, but for different reasons. If you’ve got one, you know.
I really like the clock section in the lower left. Gives me everything I need including start/stop and reset. One button starts the whole thing. That Multicore there has two ribbon cables on the back that mirror to the other Multicore on row two. Saves me from draping clock and control all over, and the RJ45 connectors still work to bridge to other boxes. Glad that I read the manual for them. And the QAM multiples are great. Well made at a good price.
I’ve got nothing too exotic, very meat and potatoes compared to most setups I’ve seen here.
Thanks @Sweelinck
Nyx, the cat, helped. I should really get a Dreadbox Nyx at some point just because of the name.
Enjoy your spare HP, don't rush to fill every last space, this is not like filling sticker books. Resist the urge to 'complete' your rack, its never complete so just relax.
Sympathetic little session with a crazy camera angle (also allowing another elegant performance from one of your cats) and a nice participation from Font. Cool, the weekend looks good :)
New camera angle and the deep bass is from my new Nano Modules Font filter.
Cheers for listening
Enjoy your spare HP, don't rush to fill every last space, this is not like filling sticker books. Resist the urge to 'complete' your rack, its never complete so just relax.
What are the jumper configurations on these? I cant find a full manual for it
Like a jumper config to disable 0 in the pulse rate would be nice, for when manually performing, its hard to position it back to 1 really fast.
Or at least in turn, would've been nicer to have the manual knob be a CV offset instead of being disabled when a cable is plugged in :\
Keeping in mind that you already have the case and the phaser, and you want to integrate with the TR8S and still do generative sound creation, I took a swipe at reconfiguring your rack. Please take this simply as a suggestion, don't feel like you need to buy these modules just because I suggested them. I had to make a number of unfortunate cuts to keep things fitting in the rack, which means there are other ways of revising your plan. I welcome other users' input/critiques on what I've designed.
In this version of your rack, the bottom row is control voltage creation and manipulation, and the top row is your audio. The signal typically goes bottom to top, left to right.
So, let's start bottom left, where the signal starts: Pam's for clocking and the expander to MIDI sync with your TR8S. Pam's can work as the master clock in this scenario. Pam's is also quite versatile, and can do some really nice random voltages, and even quantize them. Then we have Divkid/Instruo's Ochd and expander - musically related triangle waveform LFOs with interesting functions. Then Instruo's Tagh, giving some flavors of random. After Later Audio's very useful SHTH (sample & hold / track & hold) takes up 2 hp next to it. Then, these signals can all be attenuated/invertered by the Happy Nerding 3XMIA, making them tailorable. Joranalogue's Contour 1 provides a function generator and further LFO (and even VCO) capabilities (I had to cut MATHS for space). Intellijel's chainable Quad VCA allows audio signals from above or CV signals from the left to get modulated. Then the very useful Frap Tools 321 for further signal futzing, mixing, attenuvertiung, and phase playing; just a useful little module. The intensely useful micro Ornaments and Crime provides access to a number of programs (they call them applets), including up to four channels of quantization. Finally, a stereo matrix mixer to mix and blend the audio signals from above.
Ok, now we have a lot of cv control, let's put it to use in the top row. Finding the right oscillator really is a matter of taste and what sounds good to you. Space is limited in your rack, so we have Klavis' Twin Waves Mk II, a gnarly sounding digital dual VCO. Complimenting that is the analogue TS-L from Instruo. Filters are similar, it's a matter of personal preference. I selected a dual LP filter in the Shakmat Dual Dagger followed by the Doepfer A-121-3 multimode filter. Now we have a minimum of three voices and three filter options (and of course, the Contour 1 can act as a crude LP filter, if needed).
With our sound sources behind us, we have a buffered mult (Joranalogue's Link 2), which is always useful, and a quad VCA (Doepfer's A-135-2) to help sculpt the envelopes from Contour 1 and the mOrnaments and Crime. Now some sound fun: nano version of Mutable Instruments Rings. You just can't make this module sound bad. I kept the phaser and Qu-Bit's M0jave since you've already identified those as things you like. I've had to drop the Nautilus for space (unfortunate, since it's a cool module), but I gave you Happy Nerding's FX Aid XL - a number of great sounding effects in 8 hp. Finally, your various stereo lines get mixed down by Befaco's STMIX, and the now mixed down stereo signal heads to the Joranalogue Transmit 2 to head to an outboard mixer/speakers.
So let's review. We have sequences and quantized random from Pams, Tagh, Ornaments and Crime, and potentially outboard gear. We have at least three voices to accept 1v/oct signals (Twin Waves and TS-L) and filters, but we have more (nRings and Contour 1), if needed. These voices can be manipulated and sculpted through one of your eight VCAs with any number of modulating signals (which are also available to change the parameters on your modules). These sculpted sounds can be effected by Mojave, FX Aid XL, and the phaser, and then get mixed down to a single stereo pair. You will need an outboard mixer or speakers to hear the signal. If you wanted to connect directly to the computer and mix in your DAW instead, you might want to consider taking out the STMIX and Transmit 2 and replacing with an Expert Sleepers ES-9.
Anyways, this is just an example of how I might approach this rack. Like I said, however, this is only a suggestion. I'd love to hear what other users come up with.
hey, thank for thé answer,
•i want to craft sound,maybe generative, but for sure having sequence
•modular wont help me anywhere but it is all for fun and workflow change
• i have a tr8s i could want to connect but have no idea with midi output or audio
• i already have the erica black k phaser
•i already have my case but almost empty, looking and hesitating about how to fill it
Looks like quite the fun system. Out of curioustiy, how do you like the Panharmonium and SIG+? The Panharmonium is on my wishlist, would love to know if it lived up to your expectations/thoughts about it. The SIG+ I have in my rack, but it's definitely a module you have to spend some time with to understand. Curious what your takes on them are?
Thanks to @NSOTB ! Good seller, good communication, module in perfect condition and very well cared for, insured and well protected shipping. A pleasure to do business with Dirk!
-- nikeindex
THX a lot my dear friend. Was a great pleasure to deal with you! Hope you ll enjoy the VB. Happy X-Mas to you and to all "Modulargridderz" :)
Thanks to @NSOTB ! Good seller, good communication, module in perfect condition and very well cared for, insured and well protected shipping. A pleasure to do business with Dirk!
Is there new firmware? On the xor site I see no updated firmware or changelog in existing firmware that says this is supported. My unit is in the mail so I am concerned?
-- jlytle63704
The new firmware will be there before your unit arrives!
Your unit is not in the mail yet as I start shipping the first Dualchord today. No worries.
Is there new firmware? On the xor site I see no updated firmware or changelog in existing firmware that says this is supported. My unit is in the mail so I am concerned?
We're now up over 60% funded on Kickstarter! Thanks to everyone who has backed this project so far. If you're keen to create colourful, patterned effects with your Eurorack you can pick up a KOLOR module over at the Kickstarter campaign!
I'd move the Data closer to the middle. It has passthru, so nothing's lost by doing that.
Put the active mult right after the Pam's workout, and the Plog after that. Makes for a powerful combination.
It could benefit having one or two Doepfer a-138n mixers to sub-mix things together.
I found the Victor to be kind of boring and limited in what it brings to the rack, and it's joystick is meh.
Put an Oxi Coral in there instead. It'll give you tonal colors that the system 55 doesn't have.
On the other hand, if you're going Behringer, you could get 3(!) B2600's for what that System 55 costs.
One in each color!!
This video is all about exploring textures in ambient music. Many people think of ambient music as music without rhythm, structure, or texture, often with a lot of reverb to wash everything together. But I like to search for rhythmical, noisy, and textural structures within ambient music. This video is a sonic exploration of that. The textures in this piece are shaped by the Passive Operator from Error Instruments. Their experimental modules are truly inspiring, pushing me to explore new sonic territories. For the bass and the lead melody, I’m using Sena from Vostok Instruments. The rhythmic patterns are played by XPO and Plaits. Rings and STO are providing a counter melody. The pad/wash is created by Beads. The effect modules are my loyal nautical duo Sealegs and Nautilus.
Sounds like you have a pretty clear plan of where you want to go (also, it seems pretty cool).
Since your plan is to integrate with your DAW pretty much the whole time, you have quite a lot of flexibility and can probably hold off on filling your hp until you have a better sense of how the instrument works for you and your flow. VCV Rack is free and has plenty of modules that can cover your needs. Plus, my understanding is that you can use VCV as a plug-in in Ableton. You're also dealing with a lot of modules I don't have direct experience with, so I'm hesitant to make recommendations of physical modules to get or switch out.
That being said, you certainly wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice if you added some utilities to your rack. Utilities are the plumbing and architecture that make your big modules actually work to their fullest capacity and in the most interesting ways. It's unfortunately also true that it's hard to figure out what utilities you need until you're midway through patching and realize you're missing a specific funtion and can't do the thing you want to do. Again though, since you're integrating with a DAW, I'm hesistant to tell you to buy anything. All of the below functions can be found in VCV, potentially for free, as well.
With all that out of the way, I would suggest more VCAs, perhaps a chainable one like the Intellijel Quad VCA, or a stereo VCA (I have WMD's AXYS crossfader/stereo vca and like it a lot), to allow you to craft your sound. A stereo mixer (I have used the Befaco Stmix) might also help control your various voices. You might want to consider something like Joranalogue's Route 4 or Switch 4, for hands-on routing of signals to different effects modules. Also, I just love sample and hold circuits, so I always suggest them. Additionally, you need modulators. What's the point of having access to all of these sound-warping parameters if you don't have any cv signals to use on them? LFOs are plentiful in the modular world, but there certainly are some standouts. I personnaly use XAOC's Batumi and DivKid's/Instruo's Ochd in pretty much every patch. You'll also want to think about attenuaters/attenuverters to tame the modulators. I have Erogenous Tones Levit8 and it's a huge amount of control in a few hp (I've never needed to fill mine up).
These are just things to consider, though, since as you say this is a DAW-connected project, you really don't need to buy much other than the ES module for connectivity and to get going. If you felt like buying modules, though, utilities, vcas, and lfos are where I'd put my focus.
True. I built a few super dense cases (like 12+ modules 62hp palettes) and accessibility/playability is an issue. I manage-ish by iterating on module position/direction and using angled Tendril cables with optimized length (once patched I usually keep the rig for a few weeks).
Yes. Percall seems like a good idea. It would replace the Mega tang ? Only issue is I would not have the Fx send/return, which is kind of cool in such a small space. I'll think of a way. Maybe I could take out Pons Asinorum and add and small submixer to emulate an Fx send.
Does this happen even when you set all bits to 'On'? If so then yes, there could be an issue with the expander.
I'm not sure what the results of connecting the expanders to the wrong headers would be but perhaps double check that the ribbon cable is connected to the correct expansion header and that it's oriented in the proper position.
My concern here would be playability. With minimal stuff, you want subtle changes over time. Turning all of those tiny knobs so close together when a bunch of cables are patched will be difficult, if not maddening.
Befaco Percall might also be a module to consider here.
Good luck and have fun.
2 brooks will serve as bass and lead.
2 doepfer vco and noise will be used to patch percussive sounds (ideally kick, snare and some sort of hh). Kick patch will likely go through LPG 1U.
I dig minimal techno. So the most important thing for me is to be able to easily mute/unmute stuff and control the length/snapyness of sounds.
Steppy will sequence the 3 percussive sounds and a reset signal.
Bloom will handle bass and lead.
One brooks (lead) will go to mixer Xer dualis via Wasp filter, Dvca and Electus.
The second brooks will go to mixer via Wasp filter and Mega tangle.
Mega tangle will also power percussions and MFX will be patched through send/return.
Neo trinity ans Pons asinorum will modulate, with quadratt to attenuate modulation.
Does it work?
Can I get a powerful kick patch here?
Any changes I could make to improve the setup in this form factor (104hp/4U) ?
Any feedback ?
meh. didnt know what to add. I was watching a few reviews and doing research on cheap complete systems, and I am interested in this system, however, it's missing a lot of good functionality, which is probably why it's missing a 4th row. This is my idea for a 4th row. I tried to get mostly utilitie modules and a few bells and whistles. Might be good. Might not.
thoughts comments complants?
It's your experience against what we are seeing in a video. Also, wether you find wobbly pots a non-issue it's up to you. Personally I have only seen Ciani's Buchla system up close, and never touched one, but if I were to buy one and got wobbly pots, I would be even more inclined to get a replacement, given the price. I find much more reasurring and indicative of good craftsmanship and quality sturdy pots and knobs found in Doepfer's and Frap Tools' modules, for example. But again, it's my opinion.
-- Fruarse
The wobbly pots on the Buchla are not a defect. Just look at some photos of their modules on Schneidersladen, all of the potentiometers are PCB mounted, so they will wobble. Sure, there are manufacturers who have better build quality, but it's not like Behringer is the only one who uses PCB mounted potentiometers. Some of my Bastl modules also have the same pots and I haven't seen anyone complain about their build quality even though they were more expensive than any Behringer module.
I find the ethical concerns about cloning less clear cut when it is common practice in eurorack to clone or directly borrow ideas from other manufacturers. And given how many people recently gave up eurorack I don't think it's bad that there are cheap gateway modules that reel in people into the hobby. Most Behringer modules will be replaced eventually in people's racks as they take up too much space and offer little utility.
Hi all
Ive been thinking about building this module but the problem i have
is the lack of information available on how to upload firmware to the
module and the inaccessable calibration proceedure by (Forestcaver)
on antumbras website. just throws up a 404 error.
Could anyone out there point me in the right direction please.
Many thanks for reading post.
Archaos.
Again, thank you for your input, much appreciated, you are TOP.
I mean to use this mainly with external inputs, i don't see myself NOT use Ableton actually, (or if I could use Rample as a backing track machine, and play the (real) drums over that with a knee mic and enveloppe following -> plaits or just triggers, use Hermod modulations and sequences again like [Maysun ](
it revolves around randomness of kick hits with Twiigs, through fxs and Arbhar, playing samples with Rample that arer ein the same key as the backing track
I feel lik using multitracking with ES-9, using EQs and sequences from Ableton is my thing.
I am still a beginner experimenting so I could use some advice on VCAs and modulators as you said to make it really interersting, take me somewhere I don't know! I can sense the potential but I miss that extra knowledge in patching for now !
So yes I intend to use live drums too, but not regular beats, I mean free performance.
And what 1U modules could enhance all that ?
I'll let others with more direct experience with these modules provide specific feedback.
As a side note, I have the ES-9. It's great, but it takes some figuring out. It is, however, very deep, so double check the specs of your rack before deciding where to put it.
From a general perspective, though, you seem to have created an effects rack for handlng external inputs and signals, but do not have many ways of accessing the many controllable parameters that make this rack so potentially powerful. If you are serious about using this with something like ableton or vcv rack, then this feedback might be moot, but I highly recommend more modulators and vcas. I see the Disting there, which is supposed to be very powerful and has tons of algorithms, but might not be the best choice for live playing given the size of the display. You have a lot of 1u space left, so those should probably go towards utilities.
Do you ever intend to use this instument standalone, without external inputs? Also, when you're planning on triggering with drums, do you mean an electric kit that can send out midi, or do you mean using an envelope follower on an audio signal from recording live drums?
An introduction to the music of Hans Otte, via a modular interpretation of two parts (2 and 7) from his Book of Sounds (1979-82).
Also contains several ideas for generative/aleatory sequencing in a modular system: in particular, decoupling pitch and gate, combining a multi-channel sample player (Disting EX) with a sequencer that has per-step gate outputs (0-Ctrl), and using a series of probabilistic gates (Missed Opportunities) to distribute/alternate pitch variations. Detailed patch notes in the video.
I've been worried about potentially overexerting the modules if I leave them on for too long (e.g, +6 hours). With how expensive they can be, it's hard not to treat modules with kid-gloves at times.
Hey, welcome! Glad you've taken the plunge to put a rack out and ask for feedback.
A few general points, first:
* Please provide a link to the rack itself, rather than a jpg. That way we can click on your rack and see what modules you have and maybe clone/redesign the rack.
* Can you clarify which of these modules you already own versus which you are planning to get?
* Agree with your assessment about modulators and utiltiies. We can suggest some once we get a better sense of the above.
