I have a 150HP cabinet coming in very soon. This cabinet will be used to house a modular drum machine/pattern generator/sequencer with an emphasis on performance. Live performance, that is. Ideally, when this thing is complete, I want to be able to program rhythm patterns on-the-fly, trigger pre-programmed rhythm patterns, trigger algorithm-generated rhythms, or any combination thereof.

My first challenge is to choose a decent drum sound synthesizer/sampler. It would be nice to have the capability of using sampled drum sounds but sampling is not a must-have. A drum synth that can generate great percussive sounds is acceptable. Or some module that combines the two would be even better. Eight voice total polyphony is my desired target.

For on-the-fly rhythm programming and the triggering of pre-programmed rhythm patterns, I could just use something like an Arturia Beatstep Pro, a Korg SQ 64, or something else that I may not have yet considered to control the sound generators that will eventually populate this rack. But when we get to algorithmic drum pattern generation, I really don't know where to even start looking.

I figured it would be a good idea to ask someone who is a lot smarter than me. And this exactly why I am here. If you had 150HP of rack space to dedicate to the ultimate modular drum machine for live performance, how would you build it? I welcome your insights and thank you for any help you may be able to provide.


The best advice is to start slow. Get only a few modules at a time. Learn them and figure out what modules to get next as you figure out a workflow

Just spitballing modules that I'd want to include...

Sound Generation:
Quad Drum + Qex expander or Erica Synths LXR should be on the top of your list for drum sounds. Either of these alone could start banging out beats with a sequencer (like Beatstep).

Basimilus Iteritas Alter is THE king of kicks, but Kickain is a newer option that looks really good too

Check out Percall if your thinking about creating drum sounds from "scratch" with oscillators and noise

Sequencing:
Euclidian Circles

Varigate 8+ with Voltage Block is an incredible combo for sequencing gates and stepped modulation

Check out the full suite of 4ms clock modules (+ expanders). Rotating Clock Divider is an all-time favorite. Quad Clock Distributer and Shuffling Clock Multiplier+ are all amazing. Pingable Envelope Generator for modulation

There's a lot of rhythmic fun to be had with gate generators like Grids, Zularic/Numetic, Knights Gallop and Moffenzeef MITO. Add in some logic and sequential switches for more variety.

Pamela's Workout is useful in every rack

Mixers:
Jumble Henge
Tesseract mixers + output module or Cosmix

Effects:
Tons of great choices for multi effects or specialized reverbs/delays. FX Aid sounds great and has many algorithms.


Regarding Rhythms generation,
Shakmat is really great at this. Knight Gallop and Four Bricks are amazingly powerful.
I agree with the above: looking for clock dividers/logic is a very fun approach to patterns generation. 4ms clock dividers are feature packed. Shakmat time wizard combines dividers and logic.
I agree too that Befaco Percall is great.
Also look at sequential switches.

For sounds this really depends on the sounds that you want to achieve. Endorphin has nice multi voice modules. But there are many options to listen to.
A square wave osc , a noise source and a good filter can do a lot :)