After following several guides, I have my first rack. But will it work?

Hey gang.

My interest in synths has now passed beyond a Korg or Moog synth. It is now time for the Eurorack instrument. After following several guides on the webs from several sites, the linked synth is what I have come up with. I am expecting this to be able to cover a ton of ground, from techno to ambient soundscapes, to simple bloops and rhythms. But will this do? Will it fill the void my monophonic synths can't fill? Can I get a simple midi controller and get amazing results? I don't know, for this is my first venture into this wonderful world of custom synths.

Tear it apart if you must.

Hi @ninetoincline, welcome to modular and Modular Grid!

A few comments:

-- your initial draft rig above isn't bad. Do consider if you need a dedicated audio out like 4ms listen, or if you don't need something like that given your intended use case(s).

-- DEFINITELY suggest you consider a larger case. Whatever your initial design is, it's best if you can have an additional 25-50% (or more) space left in your case so you can comfortably add some modules as you learn more

-- Pressure Points may or may not make sense in this build. Depends how you want to control things. It takes up relatively a lot of HP in this small draft case, so do consider if you really want / need it here.

-- of the modules you have above, I would consider Maths, PWN, Plaits, Quad VCA and Wasp very good (almost "no regrets") modules, so you definitely have some very useful picks already included.

-- IMO part of the joy of modular is complex oscillators (like Make Noise DPO or Instruo Cs-l) and wavefolders (like Intellijel Bifold); those do things that aren't easily done in VSTs or normal monosynths. Also part of the joy of modular is lots of modulation, and modulating modulators: to do that, you need enough modulation sources plus some control/mixing. Hence you might consider more modulation sources, things like Mutable Stages, Xaoc Batumi, Instruo Och-D, etc., plus a way to control and mix them like 4MS SISM, Tiptop MISO, and/or VCAs dedicated to your CV control.

-- almost everybody starting out underestimates the need and value of "utilities" in a modular system. In software and hardware synths, the utilities are generally in the "background" (e.g. not in the marketing material used to sell the synth) but are absolutely necessary to make everything else work. IMO a good way to learn modular utilities is to browse all the modules on Doepfer, Ladik, Joranalogue, Intellijel and Mutable Instruments catalogues, and to study anything that isn't obviously a sound source or filter. Mutable's Links and Kinks (or something like them) deserve to be in most modular systems. Keep in mind you need enough utilities in your rig to make the "fun" modules really shine.

-- last, I recommend you lookup user Lugia on this website, and examine a lot of his different draft racks. They tend to be very thoughtful and give excellent ideas of what different well-designed modular systems can look like. There are some good designs by other folks too, but I know for a fact there are a ton of interesting draft Lugia racks available to view.

Hopefully other folks on the forum can add some comments / further help for you.

Good luck, enjoy!

Nicholas

A beautiful reply. Thank you so much, Nicholas.

-- last, I recommend you lookup user Lugia on this website, and examine a lot of his different draft racks. They tend to be very thoughtful and give excellent ideas of what different well-designed modular systems can look like. There are some good designs by other folks too, but I know for a fact there are a ton of interesting draft Lugia racks available to view.

HI, yes I would second that. Lugia is ace because he really goes into depth explaining his choice of modules. Helped me immensely.

Hmmmm...OK, the first immediate issue here seems to be module size vs. case size. If you're insisting on using "big" modules like the above, you're going to have to go much bigger on the cab itself. As in, say, 2 x 168 hp big.

OR...you can go to a 2 x 104 like the Mantis or even some 126 hp widths like you see from MDLR Case and Case From Lake, but shrink the modules down to a more sensible size.

Case in point: you have a Grids in the build. Now, ignoring the simple fact that Grids is discontinued, it fits into 16 hp...if you can find one. Now, click here: https://www.modulargrid.net/e/calsynth-ugrids-matte-black-aluminum That's ALSO a grids...but a clone of the original, with the same (open source) circuitry, but it fits into HALF the space. It's also available new, whereas the original is not. Another example here would have to be the Behringer 911. OK...it's an ADSR envelope generator, no CV ins, fits in 8 hp. Then you flip around to Doepfer's listings, and there you'll find their A-140-2. 8 hp, check. But one ADSR? No, this has TWO. And you also get CV over duration! Yes, it's more expensive...but as a rule, much of Eurorack follows the ubiquitous "You get what you pay for" rule.

My suggestion would be to take this rack and then see how to replace the single function modules at the larger sizes with multifunction ones at smaller sizes. With the possible exception of the Maths, Pressure Points, and Pam's, everything else you see there has variants of some sort that up the functionality, shrink things down so that more can be added, or both. And again...larger case. Fact is, you should design this in a MUCH bigger cab first...then start shrinking things down while aiming for that Mantis form factor.