Seeing as how I'm in love with the Basimilus Iteritas Alter, I just had to have it in my rack. So I revised what I'm after and tried to make smart useful choices.
I have a Moog 104hp skiff, and that's not very much room, however, I knew that I wanted something not too overwhelming, and something that wasn't going to take up much room on my desk. I felt that if I got a powered Mantis case, I would be overwhelmed with the question, "How the hell am I gonna fill this thing up?" I felt better knowing I could come back to that question at a later date after I've had some practice with the simple basics, not to mention I was just trying to be cheap(ish).
That raises the real question; Just what am I after in my rack?
I come from making and listening to progressive house, trance, industrial, idm, just all sorts of electronic music. So I knew I wanted variety. I knew I wanted something to engineer my own kick drums piece by piece. I wanted to make some melodic plucky moog-ish synths like Deadmau5. I knew I wanted some grungy crunchy percussive sounds like Nine Inch Nails. But I also want to practice more experimental things I could record to expand my productions and style. One other thing I thought about is this all has to go into my computer for editing, but I also want the option to externally sequence things with midi coming from my computer as well.
So, in summary, here's what I chose to achieve just that:
uMidi - This is going to mainly be for external sequencing melodies, arps, kick drums, all from Ableton Live
Pamela's New Workout - I want to use this with the Sequencer I chose but also for the inputs of Basimilus, the trigger for Maths, and possibly to clock the uMidi. I alos love that i have 8 different outputs I can change with Euclidean rhythms and clock deviders/multipliers.
Disting MK4 - I was recommended this module specifically for having more options in functionality. I like all the randomness it holds, as well as the amount of control and modulation it offers. Perfect swiss army knife with MANY options. I don't even know what ill use it for but I'm sure ill find something. What's important is having and learning about my options and unlocking functionality. And Disting is PERFECT for that.
Varigat 4+ - I knew I wanted a pretty standard sequencer with a cool balance between CV and Gate triggering, but I also found it useful that it comes with some scale shifting, quantization, different sequencing modes, and much more. I know I can also quantize it with Disting MK4 as a plus.
BIA - Basimilus is just bad ass sounding. That's it.
uBraids II - I like the original Braids by Mutable Instruments. I had the option of playing with the digital version in VCV rack. I like that it has some preset sounds that I can use to my advantage in making my house tracks, with the option of slightly modulating their sound.
ONA - I wanted a standard oscillator with a few more wave forms, but what really drew me to this module is that it has an LFO setting, and octave shifts.
Maths - because who doesn't need a Maths? Ill primarily be using it for an envelope generator, but I'm sure ill use its other functions somewhere along my experimentation sessions.
Polaris - I wanted this module because of its options. I wanted a filter that was useful in making some good plucky synths out of its frequency modulation, and some good drones with the bandpass setting. Seems like a good choice.
FX Aid - its got 32 different effects. sounds good to me. I also have the option to change the firmware to my wants.
Levit8 - I chose this for the sake of having a mixer with many inputs and outputs. It seems like a great utility, and fairly simple with lots of functionality. Something useful.
So there you have it. Something simple, efficient, and wonderful to behold. It will be great for practice, and hopefully give me an idea for my next case.
