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One thing worth mentioning - Beads has a built-in autolimiter that, if no sound comes in for 1-2 seconds, it'll start automatically raising the volume level of the input to try to catch whatever it can detect. Unfortunately, that includes ground noise in many cases (it's super sensitive). Take a look at the Background Hiss/Noise section of the manual, Émilie provided the ability to disable the auto gain circuit and adjust it manually behind a button-knob combo.
I think you're on the right track with the Disting - sequencing, random, and modulation would definitely expand your rack's functionality tremendously.
If you're into DIY, I think the biggest bang for your buck would be an mxmxmx Ornament and Crime. The O_c has two dominant firmwares at the moment: the default one, which allows it to act as a sequencer, source of random, quadrature LFO, complex envelope generator, quantizer, and a couple other things, but usually one item at a time. The hemispheres firmware cuts down on the scale of these features, but adds a ton of different utilities, and you can run two at once. I have one for each firmware, and they always come in handy. Pusherman has a bunch of kits, including a full (chonky) through-hole kit, and a micro kit with all the surface mount pieces already soldered.
For the glitch effects, I'm not sure if there's currently a good DIY option for that sort of thing, but the QuBit Data Bender sounds right up your alley
I'd also like to toss in Pittsburgh Modular's Double Helix dual oscillator. The frequency ranges for both oscillators are absurd, from well below 1 Hz to nearly supersonic, and there's no range selection, it's all there on the same knob sweep. This makes dialing in a specific frequency a little trickier, but you'll definitely be able to cover a wider range than most modules.
Every time I think about what could be missing from the case, I catch myself and realize that it's already there. I think you're going to find that you'll want either more modulation sources, a filter, or another mixer. I'd recommend looking into the latter as a replacement for the uStep or Branches - you won't always want to use Tides as a chord generator, but when you do, it'll allow you to squeeze all three voices out of your system instead of just one.
You may also want to look into a unity mix in 1u if it fits - in small systems, it'll let you change the base note and have a couple of sequences moving in the same key (if your sequencer doesn't already allow for that). It could also serve as a down and dirty mixer for multiple voices.
I hope this helps - I think, even if you bought this today as is, you'd have a wonderfully capable machine.
Now, I'm no EE guy, but I'd wager if the circuits are designed and built well, you should be able to construct an endless chain of clock dividers. Generally, all they're doing is counting the steps that are coming in, so you're not clocking a PLL or something like that that's attempting to keep pace with a steady signal. So if you're looking to get a bunch of subdivisions down to 1/4096, I wouldn't doubt that that would be possible
Hi everyone, I'm Ryan, from Pittsburgh. I first discovered modular via a Buchla 200 series in grad school, and finally had enough savings ~6 years later to start building my own (not Buchla). Still looking to expand and get a better case, but I'm starting to get a good sense of what I want my modular to be and why.
Music is more of a hobby right now, but I'm trying to find a project to work the modular into. In the meantime, you can hear some of my 'studies' on my YouTube channel.
Also, shout out to the modular community here, and on reddit, and elsewhere. The openness and understanding of the people I've encountered online is often uplifting and helpful, and is half of why I love this instrument. I wish other parts of life were so kind.
I would recommend you consider what each module's core functionality is, and how they'll interact. True, modular is a very mutable interface, but you're going to need to look into a few different types of modules to help smooth over the way different modules interact - namely, smaller mixers, attenuators/attenuverters, and VCA's. This allows you to group and adjust control voltage on the fly, and there are some modules that will check off some of this list in one module (like Mutable's Blinds or Befaco's A*B+C).
You'll also want dedicated envelope and/or LFO modules. True, you do get that out of Tides, but Rings, Warps, Braids, and the Telharmonic aren't necessarily the best for something like audio-rate modulation, which Tides will give you in spades. I think you'll find yourself using it at audio rate more often than as a dedicated envelope generator or LFO.
I'd suggest taking a step back and start a little smaller. Pick out one of each:
* one of those main sound sources (look into Plaits - it's the next gen Braids)
* a modulator (like Tides)
* a dedicated envelope generator
* something that provides mixing and attenuversion and VCA, if possible
* a dedicated output module (which Pittsburgh's interface can provide)
* a sequencer, random module (e.g. Marbles), or Midi control module (unless you have something like the Arturia Keystep that gives you CV out)
This would give you a wealth of possibilities to work with while giving you space to explore and master control voltage. When you choose to expand and pick up more of the modules on your list, you'll be better prepared to use them. But you'll find that, after a bit of playing around, that that alone will give you a pretty wide palette of possibilities.
This is part of why the 2018 Tides is a little more useful in a smaller system - the addition of attenuverters and the extension of the level control to cover a few different functions helps cut out some other modules for certain tasks. For example, in it's audio mode, the level control can act as a pseudo-vca (like the original, but it only affects the bipolar output).
You'll still need a mixer and a VCA for things like chords mode, or gating CV's. As for mixing multiple outputs, in the default audio mode, you git a bipolar, unipolar, pulse, and sub output. Generally, I find myself only using two of those, maybe three (I rarely use audio output as an audio signal on its own - but it's really useful as the modulation frequency for AM).
I've found Tides to be extremely compatible with pretty much anything. If you're starting out, and you don't want to expand too quickly, Maths acts as a great source of modulation and mixing, though you'll probably still want a simple VCA to play around with as well. And if you're getting a second oscillator at some point, checkout something like Blinds - the sine output of Tides is fantastic for ring modulation, and that ability to invert the phase of a modulation source is useful in some circumstances.
I have two of the original Tides, and now a 2018 Tides I received as a gift in my system. Personally, I love the original Tides and still use them constantly. The new Tides has a lot of useful tricks up its sleeves that I haven't entirely explored yet, like being able to take four identical LFO's at different phases, or pan the same LFO across four different outputs, or clocking envelopes at four different speeds. The chords mode, is really pretty if you have a four channel mixer to mix it all down.
I'd suggest that if you're working with a small rack (or a rack that will stay small for a while), you may want to save up for the newer model. Don't get me wrong, the original Tides was maybe the third module I ever bought, and it was extremely useful even without all the bells and whistles that the new Tides has, but Tides 2018 will buy you some really cool functionality that you would need other modules for, especially when it comes to attenuating CV to the three waveshape inputs - that was my biggest frustration with the original Tides, and one of the reasons I had to buy an additional mixer/attenuation module.
The CV out from Prizma goes into the V/OCT input of the oscillator (be it Braids or Tides). The TR out from Prizma will then go to your TRIG input of Braids, or an envelope on Peaks, or a VCA, or whatnot, depending on how things are configured and how the rest of your patch out of the oscillator travels.
Let me know if you have more questions. These first steps can be confusing, but once you get a couple of patch flows down, it's a piece of cake.
You might be right, three full-blown VCO's may be overkill, but an LFO would be very useful and free up your other audio-rate oscillator for things like FM or a secondary voice to mix in. You also definitely need a couple of VCA's - one for the voice to fully silence once the main envelope closes, and one to be able to play around with things like bringing modulation in with an envelope, etc. There are filters (granted, with only one filter) that include a built-in VCA, like the SSF Pole-Zero or Mutable Instruments Ripples, but a dedicated VCA - or even one included in a mixer of some sort - is a necessary utility to have on hand.
The filters and VCO's should sound great together, and the noise/s&h is a great addition!
You could really use a VCA and mixer. Some modules contain both. I recommend checking out something like Befaco's A*B+C, which can act as two 2 channel mixers, one of which has a through-zero VCA, allowing for both +V envelope cutoff's and ring modulation, which would be extremely helpful for weird drum sounds; or Mutable instruments Streams, which has its own built-in envelopes and a vactrol emulation mode for a LPG effect (in case you want Buchla bongo-type stuff, although you'll want an additional mixer).
You'll also want another oscillator or modulation source. I'd even consider replacing Pittsburgh Modular's ADSR with something like Mutable Instrument's Peaks, which can handle multiple outputs at once.
I'd also recommend not ruling out starting with an all-in-one semimodular. Pittsburgh Modular's Lifeforms SV-1 sounds phenomenal and has everything you want. Or even build around what functionality it appears to offer. There's plenty of options out there, but you hit on the majority of what you'd need for a decent monosynth or drum+snare system.
