Not hugely original (a lot of MI, haha) but thought I’d see if there were any big misses here. I’m attempting to put together a medium sized rack (paired with a minibrute) that allows for some sample manipulation with accompaniment. This size of rack is tricky if you’re trying to make it self contained - can’t be exhaustive but want some flexibility. Some targeted questions:

  • Didn’t add any additional sample tools beyond the Beads (and Disting i guess). Seeing a lot of Beads+Morphogene on YouTube, not sure if that’s a better idea.

  • No dedicated delay module, more valuable to add than something else?

  • Went heavy on modulation and sequencing, too many options there?


the picture above does not match the link.... so which is it? I'm guessing the link as it's more mi

vaguely similar to what I started out with - I was mostly mutable and maths forced me out of my too small starter case! - but that was before the release of stages, plaits and marbles - iirc my first modules were veils, clouds, tides, peaks, rings and a rebel technology mix02 and some moogerfoogers and the cp251 (which I already had) and then I added a 2hp tm and tune

so why Turing Machine and not Marbles? - as you have multiple voices in both versions Marbles would seem more useful as it is basically 3 quantized turing machines in one module - otherwise you are stuck with the single interval - you could use stages as a sequencer and links can be used as a precision adder iirc - but you'd still need to quantize stages - alt firmware may have this feature, idk - or you could use 1/2 the disting - how were you planning on quantizing the turing machine?

I'm not convinced about the usage of things like teletype - personally I'd rather program a modular with knobs and patch cables, than by writing code and I think they are something that seems like a great idea at the time and then would not get used - pushing this out would also make space for marbles, another cascading vca or mixer (possibly shades or happy nerding - particularly for mixing modulation) and going for an original plaits instead of a clone - everything else mutable is mutable.. so this looks out of place to me! you might also be able to squeeze in an fx aid xl - which will cover your delay and a lot more - try to go xl if you can fit it in = not only is it more ergonomic, but you get a lot more modulation inputs - so much more useful!

I'd hold back on the bastl outs - if you are in the us or japan you will probably want balanced outs, if you are elsewhere the outputs from the xpan will probably work fine - if you need headphones then alm make a reasonably priced headphone module that is 2hp!

"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia

Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!

sound sources < sound modifiers < modulation sources < utilities


Thank you so much for commenting! It’s nice to know that it’s ok to stick with a single manufacturer, I’ll be acquiring over time so i can drop what doesn’t make sense.

I can use a tabletop mixer for headphone out, also probably dropping the x-pan for an Optomix as I’d rather have an LPG than CV panning.

Just watched a Hainbach video where he had a nice setup (quad VCO, harmonizer) that I’ll look into as well.