First Rack - advice needed

Hello! Newcomer here, I was playing with vcv rack and I am planning to go to a real stuff.

Going to start with 6U 104HP.

Mainly looking for a set to be able to play "techno" (sample drum for drum beat and pizza-ikarie for bassline/voices). Sometimes going ambient/drone would be nice.
Pico out so I would plug headphones and I wouldn't need any extra stuff to just play.
Dark matter for some overdrive and data bender for its glitchiness.

I would complete the first row initially and after some time playing with it I would expand with the second row.

What do you think? What am I missing?
Thanks!

EDITED Apr 28th 2023, 13:18

What do you think? What am I missing?
Thanks!
-- przyprawa

some vcas would be a good addition - do yourself a favour & get a quad cascading one - a veils clone for example...

maybe spend some time thinking about the hints in my signature too...

Thanks JimHowell1970!

I was thinking about Bastl Aikido as it is a 4 channel VCA and cascading mixer. Also Ikarie has a built-in vca in. Isn't that good enough?

For utilities would 3x MIA and/or Miso be sufficient?

I would add that things seem a bit dry here. So for ambient especially, but also techno, one might think of supplementing with a little effect like Pico DSP, FX Aid, or Desmodus Versio?

Thanks JimHowell1970!

I was thinking about Bastl Aikido as it is a 4 channel VCA and cascading mixer. Also Ikarie has a built-in vca in. Isn't that good enough?

For utilities would 3x MIA and/or Miso be sufficient?

-- przyprawa

between the ikarie and the aikido you've probably got enough to get you going - you may or may not need more in the future... NB vcas are for modulation as well as for audio...

again the 3*MIA or miso are probably a good start - see my signature and contemplate it for hours... in lots of ways utilities are more important than what sound sources you have... they exponentially open up your patching options... a matrix mixer for example is a great idea... spending a lot of time researching utilities is a really good way to spend time... and thinking about how you would incorporate them into your patching... both for audio and modulation...

I also agree very strongly with @Sweelinck - some effects would be a great idea... I'd go for the fx aid pro if you can... so you can see what you are doing (it has a screen to show the algo you are using - whereas the other versions only have a led array - which is not so understandable)

I will look into 3xMIA and FX aid then.

Thanks for the feedback!

NB there are 3 versions of fx aid... fx aid, fx aid xl and fx aid pro...

I have the fx aid xl and it's a bit of a pain to work with - as you need a cheat sheet to work out which algorithm is running...

I intend to get a pro version soon - so I can use the 1st 32 algorithms as a cheat sheet for the xl

if I were you I would buy the pro... and if you want more of them - it's entirely possible you'll want a couple (or more) then get other ones... it will make your life easier...