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EDITED Oct 23rd 2023, 11:25

This is my newest iteration of my small techno rack. Again, I am aiming to add this to my Syntakt and maybe one more external synth. So it is a real focused system. I want to use the BIA for kick/Bassline stuff. Not sure about the dixie though. Would I be even able to use it as a second voice with this rack? Otherwise I would rather put a dedicated lfo. Currently I plan to use the pnw as lfo and clock.

Since I am new to modular, I want to make sure I can get the most out of it and learn each module really well. Which of these modules would I absolutely need to get some best going? So that u don't have to buy these all at once. So far I have only the BIA since I found it used and took the shot.

Version 3

Thank you both again for your insights and especially @33PO for putting a rack together. I will go over the parts and maybe iterate it a bit further. Will come back with some more questions for sure. Have a good start into the week :)

@33PO Thank you so much for your suggestion.

Mimetic Digitales and Steppy go great together like peanutbutter and jelly. Add a quantizer like Intellijel Scales and you'll have plenty of stepped modulation plus good control turning stepped CV into notes

Absolutely, the Scales seems to be a great option here.

1 - Pam's Pro Workout for Clocks, LFO, Random + Cosmotronic Delta for Envelopes / VCA

I thin the Pamela Pro Workout is a great Option. Instead of the Cosmotronic Delta for Envelopes / VCA would you think that the Javelin from WMD or the Sinc Bucina from NE might be also a good choice? Both modules are smaller and it would safe some space.

AI is a fine choice. Plaits will have more algorithms and cover more sonic territory

Currently I also thinking replacing it with the Manis Iteritas, but I guess that is just preference and both will do great.

Ghost would be a great all-in-one choice for a small system. It's able to do all these FX at once, plus it has VCA and Filter built in.

I am wondering if I even need a dedicated FX section. My current plan is couple the rack with my Elektron Syntakt and will route the audio from it into the Syntakt. Syntakt has a dedicated FX processor with reverb, delay and sort of overdrive. You can even implement ducking here since my percussion will come from the Syntakt. Moreover, I have some effect pedals for guitar lying around like a Fuzz, Reverb or Flanger. So I could apply FX to the synth voice outside of the rack and give it some more character. Or am I missing something?

Thank you all so much for your input! This is exactly what I needed to see the flaws in my thought process ;) It is easy to loose yourself in all the information provided everywhere and I really want to make sure I don't condense this into garbage that does not work well with each other haha. I think a main focus should be on the fact that the (bass) monosynth I am trying to create here has all the moving parts it needs and secondly that these parts are complimenting each other. I think the latter is something I am struggling most with. I will put some more thought into this and share an updated version again. Looking forward for your very helpful and honest feed back :)

Hi there,

I am planning a new rack that is aimed at minimal, monophonic techno basslines (and maybe leads). A brief disclaime, I know this is a small 62HP setup and there will be folks here that scream go bigger, but thats not the point of this setup. It is not supposed to be a standalone do-it-all solution. I want it to become a piece in my setup that is great a doing good and interesting basslines that I can keep evolving. I want to couple it with an Elektron Syntakt that takes care of all drum/percussion duties and the main clock. I hope you can help me figure out if I am missing a crucial part in this setup or should replace some modules against more versatile modules.

Let me go through my thought process in this setup:
Sequencing: I want to use steppy and mimiteic digitalis since I love what people are doing with the combination, this is what really got me hooked into planning and building my own modular synth in the first place
Clock: I have the Horlogic Solum in here for clocking, wich seems to have nice capabilities of also splitting the clock
LFO: Clep Diaz, but I am not 100% sure about it since the After Later Audio Clone of MI Tides can do LFO duties as well. Maybe you have some suggestions here.
Envelope: After Later Audio Clone of MI Tides
Filter: After Later Audio Clone of MI Ripples
Voice: Noise Engineering AI since I like what people do with it. Still I am not sure if I also should have a second Oscillator in here, maybe a simpler one?
Reverb/Delay/Distortion: Noise Engineering Versio since it is flexible with the Firmware and sounds really cool.

Am I missing something crucial in my setup or do you see any breaking points or parts that do not move together? Any suggestion is welcome! Please keep in mind that I am fully aware of the size limitation but this is also my personal preference and maybe a way of challenging myself.

Thanks a lot! :)

current rack iteration

Cool! Drone can come into this setup later. Good point about the quantizer, I have the Intellijel Scales in mind. Any utilities I am forgetting here?

Absolutely! And to clarify this a bit more, I don't need to play them simultaneously. I want to learn Modular Synth and to some weird, cool sounding stuff with it as a new way for creative expression. And if I have something where I think a hard riff would fit, I would let the rack do its thing and play a over it.

But to come back to what I want soundwise from a rack I think harder techno-ish beats with filled with some madness, weird accents or sometimes unpredictable patterns. Again, thats why I like the NE soundscape and my music background is more in the harder genres of rock. But then again, I don't want to follow a pattern or genre but want to explore my own creativity and what I can come up with. This first rack will be the starting point, there are for sure changes along the journey but I want it to be as goood as possible now so that I can start learning, exploring and eventually finding the music I want to make with it. Hope that makes sense

Thanks again for your responses! I thought about the db-01 and put more thought into the direction I want to go. I think I was a bit misguided that I want/need to have a similar sound in my rack. I don't. I want something more experimental with a clear focus on harder beats/synth. This is why I want to go with the Noise Engineering BIA (Although I am not totally clear this is the NE voice I wanna go with, maybe I will end up with the Cursus Iteritas Percido or even add the Erica Synth Bassline Module). I also choose a bigger case and I am not totally fixed on this design yet, but this also comes down to the cost of such a case.

I added the Pamela New Workout as I like the module after researching it. It seems quite deep so that I will have to learn a lot while using it (Goes basically for every module here). Also, I added a Quad VCA, here the MI Veils. Moreover, I still keep the Desmodus Versio as I like the fact that you can change firmware and transform it into a different module. This seems quite usable!

I added the MUM M8 Filter but would like your thoughts about this. I also had my eyes on MI Ripples and others.

Finally, I like what Mimetic Digitalis can do so I kept it in this setup. Since I have the Pamelas New Workout in there as well I wanted to ask if you think it can replace the Intellijel Steppy? I like the straightforward way to control a sequence with steppy and based on the intellijel case you can easily multiply its clock to trigger for example Mimetic Digitalis.

I hope that I can evolve this setup into something I can use in a live setting to play harder beats (not necessary fast) with some drone atmosphere (need to maybe add a second NE voice or MI Elements). On the other hand, I want to be able to play on my guitar some hard fuzz riffs while having a nice hard beat sequence running on this beauty. Would be also cool within my band as additional instrument. If you think there is something missing to achieve this goal further suggestions are very much welcome.

I had a DB-01 and Digitakt before I started buying modules. Honestly, I think you should get the DB-01 and work with it, then see what you are still missing and want from modular. It will be expensive to build up modules that come close to what the DB-01 offers, and the DB-01 has three CV inputs (in addition to clock in/out and MIDI in/out) and a hot output, so it can be easily hooked up to a rack in future. Erica Synths does have a Bassline module (I suspect it shares much circuitry with the DB-01) but it lacks noise, synced LFO, and most importantly the seriously playable sequencer that really puts it into 303 territory. I know this is a modular forum and I should be talking up Eurorack, but sometimes the alternative is better.
-- plragde

Speaking money-wise and maybe also how fast I can get something going, it would be the better option at this point. Interesting to read that you had the same setup before moving on. So I am really considering it, but will first continue my research. I am quite hooked on the idea to start a modular system because I want to explore it and to create my own instrument. However, I realise that this is far from being done and I think that finding the sound you want can take years of experimenting, trial and error, and so on. I also saw the Bassline module and even though it is not the same as the db-01, it might be a good start in a setup.

@Lugia: Your comment is much appreciated. There is a lot of densely compressed information in there! I think at this point I have to re-evaluate my options and maybe start out with VCV-Rack, play around, see what I can get done in there and understand the process of building a modular synth in more depth. Then I might come back here with my second shot on a system. If I end up buying the db-01 I will post that here ;)

Thank you so much for your comments! I love this community already! I think while you get lost in your research about modules etc it is good to have a reality check, which you definetely gave me! Also one has to be careful that GAS is not hitting, but I already learned my lessons buying and selling guitar pedals and have now just a handful which do the job.

First of all, modular synth are in my (very limited) opinion the place to live your creativity to the fullest (given enough space and money). Having that said, I would like to start out with something where I spend my 1500 - 2000 Euro/$ and have a system I can begin with exploring. You all make a good point about getting a bigger case and maybe Lugia is right that I shouldn't just copy what some person on YT does (well I liked the sound, but it might be that I will go some other way eventually). Also I get your point about the shiny LEDs on the NE stuff, I totally see that to be very annoying.

Also thank you sacguy71 for sharing your intellijel setup, looks interesting and I will get some inspiration. Might be as well that I just end up getting the DB-01 combined with my Digitakt. No, I think want to go Modular and explore this space!

Do you have any suggestions for must haves (modular-wise) in a setup that kinda has a DB-01 (303) character but also leaves room for some more weird and melodic stuff? I know thats very broad, but at this point I just wanna get some directions to do more research before I come up with a second version of my initial idea and eventually do my first buys. Great thing about modular is the possibility for endless expansion!

So I am recently diving into the whole modular synth world and man, its cool! But also quite overwhelming.
I hope I can get some advice from you so that I don't throw away my money onto some fantasy that cannot work out.

Let me give you some background so that you better understand where I would like to go with this. I am a guitarist, play in a band and love atmospheric stuff with delay/reverb pedals and also hard riffs with a fuzz. Before you think I am looking for something where I can plug my guitar in, thats not the case. I want to have my own additional instrument with which I can create music, maybe in a band setting, maybe just by myself, but it should be something with which I could perform live. A few month back I bought my first desktop synth (Behringer Crave) and a Digitakt (love it and it would definitely be my drummachine).

When you look at the rack I put together it looks a lot like the one from Ricky Tinez in one of his videos. Thing is, I love these Noise Engineering modules already! So what do I want? Like I said, it should be able to perform live or in a jam. Second, I want something that can be hard (strong bass, a bit 303 style) but also sometimes melodic, with some melancholic atmosphere. I also was thinking about the size and I understand that 4U 62 HP is rather small and I know you will tell me to go bigger, but keep in mind that I want to be able to bring this thing around. And I am a minimalist personality-wise ;)

As a side note, before I started looking into modular synths I almost bought the Erica Synth Bassline because damn that thing has a great sound. If I could have something in this direction with a bit more weird stuff going on when I want to I think I found my dream instrument.

Anyways, your help and advice is so much appreciated!!

That is the current setup and I am happy to throw things out or replace them with something crucial that is missing. The order is not really fixed here and is an issue I approach once I have the core moduls I need in it.