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Thanks for reading. I have a very specific philosophy for this next rack and could use your best feedback. Some "Elements" are non-negotiable as you will see, but within the rules of the system I still have a ton of room for changes & feedback. Please, give me your very best advice & experience on this one. It is still early in the design.

Here's a link to my current proposed setup (note, active work in progress):

Project Origin: Like so many of us, Mutable Instruments had a lifechanging impact on me. The Elements module is second only to the Mother-32 in its personal importance. With Mutable's production shutting down, it's time for me to build my Mutable Instruments dream system with Elements as a centerpiece to honor Emilie, modular synthesis, and create a highly-expressive & hands-on musical instrument with a strongly-unified aesthetic & philosophy.

Rack Theme: Saying goodbye to Mutable with a boundaryless all-silver system that deeply embraces the modular ethos, absolutely self-contained when necessary and portable within 7U case for outdoor & field recording at times.

Case: Intellijel 7U Performance Silver

System Philosophy:

1) Embrace of giving up rigid control and embrace of interacting with the system as an ecosystem.
When I sit to play, I do best with a low-planning, high-exploring feel. (Obviously a system this deep rewards advance planning of patches - but I'm shooting for "immediacy" of building new patches in the moment with minimal advance planning)

2) Extremely tactile & visual. As close as possible to "1 knob per function, and 1 function per knob."
Menu diving EXTREMELY frowned-on and must be exceptionally well-justified. A piano or violin doesn't have any menu-diving. We're trying to avoid building a computer here. I want to see (and touch) what I'm doing.

3) As boundaryless as possible in honor to Emilie.
Lack of clear-cut "this module is for THIS and that module is for THAT." A focus on highly-mutable modules that can serve multiple purposes, but ALWAYS without violating Rules 1 and 2. Nothing overloaded or menu-divey, I don't enjoy it at all.

4) Able to interact with the environment.
I use a beautiful Audio-Technica stereo field mic and will occasionally be piping it into the system as a live soundsource.

5) Bonus: Some sort of tactile interface for the performer.
Like Rule 4, but may not fit in the case, and I can live without it.

Color Scheme: All-silver, absolutely non-negotiable lol :)

Type of music: I am absolutely omnivorous in this regard, so I look forward to taking what the system gives me. Intention is to create a beautiful color pallet and a clean, simple easel to apply it across, then see where the day takes me.

Non-negotiable modules:
- Mutable Instruments Elements
- Mutable Instruments Tides
- Mutable Instruments Veils
- Mutable Instruments Stages
- Mutable Instruments Blinds
- Mutable Instruments Frames
- Mutable Instruments Beads
- Mutable Instruments Marbles

Semi-negotiable modules:
- 1U Intellijel Stereo Line In (BUT I need a way to get live stereo field-recordings into the system. Usually I have an external stereo mixer or preamp available, but to keep it all in the system, maybe a stereo pre-amp module instead?)
- 1U Intellijel Headphones (BUT I want a clean & simple way to listen directly on headphones without more hardware)
- Mutable Instruments Ripples (I don't have any particular attachment to it, but obviously it's a compact and well-designed filter that fits the aesthetic)

Here's a link to the basic "Non-Negotiable" modules in a single rack (though again, both of the 1Us are replaceable as long as their functions above are covered by a replacement module):

Note - all module positions are negotiable, and I'm interested to hear your reasoning about the positions.

Thanks so much for your time.

EDITED May 11th 2022, 22:08