Do you Instrument or do you Function?

A workflow question to the forum: do you organize your racks by function or as an instrument? I used to organize my rack according to instrument workflow, for example left to right through a subtractive chain VCO to VCA. Because of the sheer number of modules I now have, and my experimenting with folding signals back and forwards and sideways, the linearity doesn't seem to matter as much.

I'm building a new studio and I will be putting things into dedicated racks instead of a bunch of mismatched cases—mobility isn't an issue. I am leaning toward lumping all the VCOs in one section, all the VCFs and another and then the utilities and such in a third and so on. I realize that this will depend on how many modules and/or cases one has (I have a lot), and the "whatever works for you, man" thing, but I'm interested in others' thoughts on workflow arrangements.

So, what do you do and why? Thanks and Happy Noodling!

EDITED Nov 24th, 20:39

I have adjusted and refined my setup many times over the past five years. I've bought, sold, re-bought, and rearranged countless modules and have finally (mostly) settled on what works for me. The general idea is aligned with the signal flow of a traditional fixed-architecture synth. After so much experimentation, I know how I usually use each module and I have arranged them to have the shortest cable runs possible. I like to constantly tweak knobs, so keeping cables as short and out of the way as possible is important for me. I try to have my signal flow going from left to right and top to bottom so I can avoid too many criss-crossing cables, which is visually important for me so I can remember where everything is going. I'm getting too old to remember how I've routed everything otherwise. Haha
Good luck and have fun!

After seeing this video of Monotrail Tech Talk, I've settled to a "function" organization.

Basically he divides systems in four main categories :
1) The MonoSynth
2) The Sonic Exploration Lab
3) The Performance System
4) The Dedicated Tool

It helped me a lot to think about my systems this way.

Within a case, I follow the signal flow from left to right, with sequencers in the middle.

For me my system is just as my mind, chaotic. I work with an erica megarack in my "studio" and a 2X80HP portable batery powered case for working outside (where I get most of my inspiration). Modules go in and out of the rack and the case and never have a permanent place in both of my cases. This way I invite my self to experiment, puzzle and avoid patching routines.

Love this question, and it's something I've pondered a lot, as well.

After a few years of doing this, I have collected several racks worth of modules (my racks are public, "A. Setup Winter 24" is the current configuration, and "A. Unexpected Bounty" is where I plan to go with it). I've tried a number of different ways of interacting with the system, but I've learned that my mental workflow is most efficient when I group modules by function. I also go left to right and top to bottom, for the most part, but I've started to think more carefully about ergonomics and playability, and because of that, I've started move modules out slightly differently and add spaces between them for bettwe access. I've also had to adjust for the realities of multiple racks in a small room and long patchcords to connect them.

For my planned final case (A. Unexpected Bounty...), in my topleft case I'll have clocking modules, then my randomness generators, lfos, sample+hold, and envelope generators and generally my cv creators/manipulators. Top middle cases are voices and filters and drums. Top right are predominantly effects. Bottom racks are reserved for modules that are more playable and interactable. Bottom left is CV mixing, blending, futzing, and quantizing. Bottom middle is predominantly playable modules and the final mixer. That's my general plan, which I then adapt based on logistics and space. Finally, I like to pepper specific utiltities about (a mult here, s+h there, some lfo's or random about), so that I have those accessable throughout the system.

For me my system is just as my mind, chaotic. I work with an erica megarack in my "studio" and a 2X80HP portable batery powered case for working outside (where I get most of my inspiration). Modules go in and out of the rack and the case and never have a permanent place in both of my cases. This way I invite my self to experiment, puzzle and avoid patching routines.
-- Niemandsland

I've heard other people say similar, but I think I'm too attention deficit to handle such chaos and be efficient. That said, I can easily see how it leads to deeper experimentation. On another note, I'd love to hear more about this battery powered rack. Did you DIY this?

Basically, I have three 3U 84HP "monosynths" (one based on a GTO/QPAS combo, one based on Tiptop Buchla modules, and one expanded Mavis) and then a home base rack with a Nerdseq, Sweet Sixteen, BearModules matrix mixer, Doepfer Octal Linear VCA, and some other things I wanted to try or plan to try but not necessarily take on the go with me. I like being able to take the "monosynths" to play with musicians in band settings while still easily being able to use them in tandem as a larger, more vaguely defined system at home.

EDITED Nov 26th, 17:31

For me my system is just as my mind, chaotic. I work with an erica megarack in my "studio" and a 2X80HP portable batery powered case for working outside (where I get most of my inspiration). Modules go in and out of the rack and the case and never have a permanent place in both of my cases. This way I invite my self to experiment, puzzle and avoid patching routines.
-- Niemandsland

I've heard other people say similar, but I think I'm too attention deficit to handle such chaos and be efficient. That said, I can easily see how it leads to deeper experimentation. On another note, I'd love to hear more about this battery powered rack. Did you DIY this?

-- HGsynth

it is basicly a "pelican case with a aluminium frame that I can tilt in an angle out of the case. Powered with a laptop batery charger thru a 4MS power suply. I a'm currently redisigning this case to make it more sturdy, protect the backside of the models and get some extra HP from a tighter built and by placing the power suply on the side of the inner case.

EDITED Nov 27th, 08:03

it is basicly a "pelican case with a aluminium frame that I can tilt in an angle out of the case. Powered with a laptop batery charger thru a 4MS power suply. I a'm currently redisigning this case to make it more sturdy, protect the backside of the models and get some extra HP from a tighter built and by placing the power suply on the side of the inner case.!

-- Niemandsland

That's so cool! It's a dream of mine to be able to synth-out in a forest or park somewhere, preferrably without extension cords. I'll have to look into something like this.

EDITED Nov 28th, 03:28

I try to keep things left to right, with a sort of normlization of proximity, so I can use short doepfer yellow wires as much as possible to avoid a drape of wires over everything. I'm building in 3 rows, so what's above and below also matter.
I also try and put a mult after signals that are valuable enough to spread around (if there's room).

Almost all of the racks I see here look like random modules in random positions, that they think are cool.
A wooden box full of interesting strings and pickups and knobs and wire is not a guitar.
How many racks laid out on Modular Grid ever got built?

A side note: See those two Doepfer Multicores, one by the clocks, and another starting the OXI Coral section?
You can use two ribbon cables on the backs to connect them, and they're passive and bidirectional.
Really helps to keep things neat, and the RJ45 connectors still can be used to extend to other cases.
Saves up to 14 long wires to distribute the clocks and triggers, and shorting RJ45 can turn a multicore pair into a distributed multiple.

EDITED Dec 1st, 20:14