Hi joesh. What exactly are you hoping to accomplish? What sort of music are you making? Do you have any other external gear?
This looks very similar to the FSS Makrow, which I have used upside down in the past. Just flip it and it will be fine.
I think I would postpone the Magneto for now to recover some space to get rid of all the 2hp modules. You will probably hate trying to patch and tweak all of those little ones. In my experience, tiny modules should be used very sparingly to fill a gap here and there. You could get something like an FX Aid XL or an external tape delay pedal to use that space for other modules that you are going to want and need. The Magneto might be a good addition to a second Mantis case, but I think it's taking up too much space for now. In fact, you could get 2 FX Aids, and eliminate the Magneto and Erica Black Hole DSP and have even more room without losing much of the sound and fun of those hp hungry effect modules.
Just some thoughts I have as I look over this. Have fun and good luck!
Take this with a grain of salt, but I'm looking at this rack wondering, "Where is the movement?" I love unique voice modules, but it looks like a case of sexy-module-syndrome to me. I think I would want considerably more modulation and utility modules to attain drifting, shifting, ambient soundscapes. 3xMIA, Zadar, Quadrax, and Batumi have already been mentioned, and are good options. I think a Triple Sloths or Zlob Diode Chaos could introduce some uncertainty along with Marbles. A logic module or comparator like Joranalogue's Compare 2 would allow you to extract gates from CV sources to trigger other parts of your setup, etc. I would probably bypass Arbhar for now if you already have Beads. There is a lot more potential in the other voice modules that you have yet to unleash.
Pam's New Workout is awesome and a must-have in my opinion, but not exactly a fun hands-on module. It has Euclidean functions that might be conducive to ambient, but more of a set it and forget kind of thing in my experience. And yeah, an FX Aid XL would probably be fun too. Finally, +1 on the full-size MI Rings if you want to add that.
Just some thoughts on how I would approach your rack going forward. I'm just a random dude on the internet though, so don't put too much stock in what I say.
Above all, have fun.
The Happy Nerding FX Aid XL would likely have everything you need in 6hp. Tons of great reverb algorithms.
+2 on Oblique Strategies. Good enough for Eno, Bowie, and Talking Heads to create career defining albums? Good enough for me. :)
Killer acid as always, man. Would love to experiment with your rack. Looks so fun.
Is that the FX Aid on reverb duties? Kind of reminiscent of one of their algorithms I tried out.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks for listening, gang. I appreciate the kind words. Haven't had much time to make music for a while, so it's good to just press record and get something out there.
It's funny, I've gotten Cabaret Voltaire comparisons before. Those guys are definitely a subconscious influence, for sure. I did record a cover of "Nag, Nag, Nag" for fun a while back, but don't really set out to intentionally make music that sounds like them, but a lot of what comes out in this Cierny Vlk project does bear a resemblance. I think a lot of the ideas are probably coming from the same place.
Thanks again. Have a great week.
That Instruo Tanh[3] looks like an interesting small feedback tamer.
Awesome. Thanks for putting this together.
Haven't shared any new music in a while, so here's a glitchy rhythmic improv that I recorded today. I stumbled into a few cool grooves along the way.
Gear list includes: RD-8, Data Bender, Sample Drum, Crucible, and E352. Recorded into a Tascam Model 12. I recently went DAWless, and the Tascam is a godsend. Really cool piece of gear.
Thanks for listening. No worries if it's not your thing. Have a great weekend everyone.
Looks like the Korg Radias.
Sounds heavily compressed/limited to me. Might want to add something like that to your signal chain.
This is awesome, @mowse. I admire your patience and your ability to let the music develop organically. Very well done.
Thanks for sharing.
Haha. I wonder how much a kidney goes for these days?
Just for the record, I'm not the seller.
Lapsus Os is a great alternative. Probably no need to switch.
With DLD, could I say for example, have one of the inputs be say from a radio and I could capture 4 or 5 seconds of a broadcast and then loop that? then I would want to 'mangle' that looping sample in certain ways...and then eventually maybe go back to the original once or twice...I probably need a different module to do the 'mangling' I'm assuming?
-- jb61264
Yes, that's one of the things DLD could do. Data Bender would probably be your mangler, but with DLD you have two delay lines so you can do some cool stuff. Check out some of the demos. DivKid has a good one from a few years back.
I've found Data Bender to be more of an effect or "happy accident" machine. You can freeze the buffer and sort of navigate around it, but it's a little imprecise for honing in on specific parts of the buffer in real-time. When I've tried this, my input is already so mangled and stuttering that I wouldn't classify it as a looper, but I'm sure others have been able to use that feature more effectively. I use the 4ms Dual Looping Delay for the real-time sampling/looping thing. It's pretty much perfect for that. I'm sure there are other options that require less hp for looping, but the interface and ergonomics of the DLD are great.
I’m actually about to move to the next level in size with a 13U x 168HP Needham case on order. Looking forward to having all my modules racked and all in one case, including the M32 and Subharmonicon. They’ll be used much more having them available in the case.
-- TumeniKnobs
That's a great size for your rack, and brings up another good point. There's a lot of talk on the forums about leaving semi-modulars outside of the rack due to the cost per hp and all of that. I've probably advised people to consider that cost myself. The more important question to consider is, "how will you make the best use of semi-modulars?" If they will just gather dust by having them sit outside of your main rack, that's a terrible outcome. I had a DFAM that I stopped using after I took it out of my main rack. I've definitely changed my tune on the pros and cons of racking a semi-modular. Rack 'em up, I say! The benefit of getting more use out of a Subharmonicon or Model D outweighs the $1.46 per hp or whatever it amounts to.
Glad you were able to gather something useful G00se222. I suppose your search for the right utilities will depend on the directions your music and overall approach to making music take. I like a lot of hands-on improvisation so a lot of the utilities and modules I've purchased reflect that, some with a lack of CV control over parameters that others would probably want CV control over. There are a lot of folks in here who take a generative approach and probably think that my choice of modules is completely ridiculous and unthinkable. I don't care for menus and unapologetically "digital" sounding modules all that much either, so most of my rack is kind of an east-coast analog subtractive kind of thing. Again, some folks would find that completely uninteresting, but I'm happy and that's all that matters when it comes to the personalized instruments we are all building.
While there are no modules that will appeal to every musician or rack configuration, one of the most useful utility type modules I've found is Happy Nerding's 3xMIA for attenuating, mixing, polarizing CV, etc. They've been hard to find recently, but definitely worth tracking one down. Warm Star makes a matrix mixer called The Bends that can do a lot of the same things. That's a fun module too.
Happy new year to you. Have fun!
Haha. Yeah, noise is not for everyone. I grew up on pop and postpunk music but as I’ve gotten older I have moved towards the fringes. Minimalism, noise, drone, and experimental stuff… I think I appreciate the ideas more than the execution these days, though I still love well-crafted songs too. I doubt anyone would want me choosing music for a party nowadays (unless they want to hear an hour of Sunn 0))) or Richie Hawtin). Lol
Yes, that’s part of the music. That sound is all over the album. Definitely interesting.
Merzbow (and all of the harsh noise stuff) is an acquired taste. Tread carefully. Haha
Here's an Oren Ambarchi track that I've had on repeat recently:
Happy new year to you @jb61264. I'm glad you are here. Looking forward to hearing your music in 2022!
+1 on attenuverters. Another Happy Nerding module to recommend here is 3xMIA. I use that thing in almost every patch.
I feel like a dedicated effects module would compliment this set-up very well. Something like the Happy Nerding FX Aid XL would be a safe and useful addition to the Moog semi-modulars. Also, unless you already have the older Pamela's Workout, you will likely find Pamela's New Workout both easier to find and more fully featured.
Have fun and good luck.
Juniper would be good. Kind of in the vein of some other stuff I was messing around with. Good call. Let me know if you need a wav file. I think you already have that one though.
Thanks!
I haven't been satisfied with any ideas I've come up with over the past couple of months, but I'm working on a guitar/synth collab with a friend tonight. Not sure if we'll stumble upon with anything worthwhile though. I'll message you if anything comes of it. Creative lulls are frustrating. I'm sure it will pass eventually.
Great quote @Vow3ll. Words to live by.
I totally ripped off the name for my rack from a Bob Mould album. It fit what I was trying to accomplish though. :)
Take care!
Yeah, 12u 104hp was the original goal. We see how that worked out. Haha. I started with a Make Noise skiff and took a modular approach to that as well. I have four of those now along with two Mantis cases. That’s why I don’t get bent out of shape about the tiny beginner racks. It’s all modular. If people want to expand, they will.
Happy 2022 to you, my friend. Keep having fun and sharing your music!
Time flies. I feel like I just joined this forum and dipped my toe in the modular ocean. I've been sharing rack updates a few times a year since I posted my initial noob "Help Me" plan. I was sort of an old-school synth guy who got disillusioned with making music and sold all my gear years ago. I happened upon some interviews with Genesis P-Orridge and the Cabaret Voltaire guys back in 2019 and got the itch to incorporate synths into an art project that I had been thinking about. The rest is a whirlwind of noise, fun, and an empty wallet.
My initial rack plan was about half the size of my current setup below (still need to buy the Vortices and LRMSMSLR in the picture). The plan was to build something for repetitive noise and abrasive glitchy techno-ish sounds. Somewhere along the way I remembered that I actually enjoy making music in a bunch of different genres. Some days I'm fascinated with Merzbow, other days I'm fascinated with Depeche Mode, or Fad Gadget, or Drexciya, or Boards of Canada, or Japan, or Oren Ambarchi, or Kraftwerk, or Can, or Surgeon, or Prefuse 73, or... you get the picture. So, my rack grew until space and money ran out. And I'm happy.
What I've discovered that I can share with the other noobs is there are a lot of well-intentioned but rigid folks who will tell you how you should do things, but rarely are they right beyond some very simple guidance (buy a bigger rack, don't overlook utilities, etc.). Everyone will do this differently, and what works for someone else will not work for you. Don't run out and buy a dual comparator, Maths, or an analog frequency shifter because someone else says you need those modules. I bought Clouds and hated it. I bought a Disting and hate it (though it still sits mostly unpatched in my rack, just in case).
You will know what you need when you need it. When you reach for something that is not there, that's the next module you should buy, whatever it is. If someone tells you that you are doing it wrong, whether it's because of a tiny case, or not enough VCAs, or too many filters, or whatever, don't worry about it. You'll figure out the direction you are heading along the way. I'm sure there is someone out there having a blast with nothing more than a Basimilus Iteritas Alter and a Pamela's New Workout. And that's all that matters in the grand scheme of things: FUN. No need to suffer for your art like some frustrated Nietzschean hermit. Just have fun with it all.
Buy a few modules that look like fun and see if you can figure out how to make them work. Do the research yourself. Read manuals, watch DivKid/MylarMelodies/etc. videos until your brain starts to think in a British accent. Plug something into something else and see if it sounds cool. Then sell what isn't working to get the next module that will help you achieve the sound you are looking for. It's really that simple. I wasted some money doing this, but I learned a lot along the way and I actually have what I need now. The GAS is gone. Now I'm just tweaking my layout here and there so everything makes sense to ME. It's all a personal journey, not what some random dude on the internet (like myself) tells you is the "right" way. Don't get me wrong, forums are super helpful, but mostly as a way to make sense of what you are experimenting with and experiencing along the way.
Anyway, happy holidays to you all. Thanks for following along with my updates over the past few years. I hope you all are happy, healthy, and having fun!
@farkas I agree that Crucible sounds wonderful, but I haven't been able to get any "hats" sounds out of it, just ride. Is there a trick I'm missing?
-- troux
It had been a while since I messed around with any drum sounds, so I patched up Crucible this morning. It definitely excels at ride/crash type stuff, but I got a decent hi hat groove going with size, decay, excite, and deform all set around 9 o’clock with pitch and tone set around 12 o’clock. Triggers into the edge and choke inputs. Attenuated lfos into size and decay, and a channel of Voltage Block into velocity in a sort of ascending sawtooth-ish kind of pattern. I also find that I like to filter the output of Crucible a little. I was just using Ripples today, but I’m sure you could get some cool results with other filters/effects.
This little experiment made me want to make some techno again. Haha.
Edit: I love the Patching Panda Punch v3 for percussive sounds, so I'm sure their Hatz v2 is awesome for analog drum machine style hi-hats. I have a few other sources for that kind of sound, otherwise I would probably get one.
WMD Crucible is pretty awesome. I haven't found a better realistic source of cymbals.
I’m planning on putting some new stuff together before the end of the year. I’ll be in touch.
Thanks for doing this again, @troux.
Yeah, I'll step in to sing the praises of MylarMelodies as well. I've probably learned more useful information about modular from his videos and podcast than all of the forums out there combined. The generosity and modesty of his wisdom and humor is apparent if you look past a "clickbait" title on a single video. I'm not a big fan of the tiny palette videos out there, but I also understand that for a lot of people, modular is not a lifestyle but a hobby and a curiosity. These are just videos to show what can be done with a more modest investment, though I'm not sure that everyone realizes the very real exploratory limitations of the palette-as-instrument.
Mylar is the man. Respect where it's due.
Hi @bernardhumperdink. I am a big fan of all the artists you mentioned. In fact, I saw Broadcast with Prefuse 73 live in the early 2000s. Great show.
You might enjoy the Erica Sample Drum for some glitchy happy accidents.
Have fun and good luck.
Get healthy soon. Synthworld will keep you in our thoughts.
That was great, @funbun. Subscribed to your channel.
I've been interested in the AE stuff. Please keep sharing.
Happy holidays.
To be fair, I shipped some stuff to Eastern Europe a while back and it took months to arrive. Between customs and other countries' postal services, there is a possibility for error and huge delays.
LEFT = UP, RIGHT = DOWN. Control signals start on the bottom with sequencing, MIDI interfacing, soundcard I/O, etc, then go up on the left along with modules to work with them in that path. Generators (oscillators and their pals) on top, as they're less likely to be tweaked while playing. And filters + FX go above the final output mixer, sent down the right side from the top. Modulators, if left in the middle, can then branch out to anywhere in that circular flow with a minimum of cable-snarl. And putting the FX right near the final mixer makes them easier to add to the mix. So, even though there might be several "instruments" patched up on a single synth, you're able to follow what's going on with the patches more easily.
-- Lugia
Yup! That's exactly the layout that I've found has worked for me (and probably will work for others).
I have 208hp x 12u set up in a half horizontal/half vertical layout (picture 4 Mantis cases with brackets or something similar). I keep sequencing, mixing, and controllers in the front, with oscillators and filters at the top, signal flow mostly left-to-right. Most of the time I am sitting while patching, so this works well for me. I have been constantly tweaking and reworking my layout for two years, and have arrived at something that is almost exactly what I had hoped for. My muscle memory knows exactly where to reach now. It all makes sense to me, which is ultimately all that really matters.
As far as module ergonomics, I prefer large-ish modules with minimal menu-diving and button combos. Kind of a WYSIWYG interface for the most part, as I like to work fast. I've eliminated most of the modules that I just didn't enjoy using, and finally arrived at a rack size, layout, and module selection that has eliminated any serious GAS. I just can't think of much else I would ever want or need.
How about you?
I've got to give a shout out to Reverb. Support another musician and save some money in the process. Nothing but great experiences with the used Euro and hardware synth folks out there.
Thanks for sharing. Surgeon's "Winged Assassin" was in my top Spotify plays this year. Big fan.
I have recorded lots of modular songs into a DAW
sacguy71Do you mean the scratching noises as ModularBen on Soundcloud? I laugh myself broken.
-- Next_G
Come on, man. Don’t you have something better to do than troll a very small community of supportive folks? Music has different sounds and meanings to each of us. What you are doing doesn’t accomplish anything. We will continue to support each other’s interests and growth regardless of this kind of negative energy.
I'm not sure how I overlooked this module and thread, but I'm going to strongly consider picking up a Tarot. Very cool.
Erm, I'm confused. Either you miss-typed or I'm missing something. The PanMix IS Euro level? Surely that means I DO need a drop it down to line level before hitting external gear. No?
-- rextable
There have been quite a few discussions about the necessity of euro-to-line output modules in beginner rack posts on this forum over the past year or two. In general, most people don't need them. I've been at this for a few years, and I still don't use one. I just monitor levels into external gear closely. You can take a look at my rack and those of the other commenters by clicking on their user name. Some users have invested in output modules, many haven't. I do use a Strymon AA.1 for an effects pedal send/return, but otherwise I haven't needed a dedicated output for recording, etc.
I don't know, man... 10 buffered mults? Two Pam's?
The folks that commented before are definitely pointing you in the right direction, especially for a case this size. Everyone is going to do this modular thing differently, for sure, but I can't imagine this is the best use of the limited space you are giving yourself. Are you planning on using the PNWs as your main sequencer, or do you have something external to sequence pitch more effectively?
I'm not a Maths disciple, but since you brought it up twice, it is excellent as Jim said for grasping and accessing the fundamentals of MODULAR synthesis. You may have years of experience with synthesis, but trying to cram all of the functionality of a fixed architecture synth into the small euro case you have selected is very difficult (impossible?), hence the Maths love. Need a mixer? Need a subharmonic generator? Need to attenuvert four different envelopes? Need a basic logic function? Need to create a weird shifting bouncing ball envelope? Maths... It doesn't have to be a complex signal chain. It just gives you all of the stuff you are ultimately going to need more than 10 buffered mults.
The PanMix is euro level. You probably won't need an external output module.
Have fun and good luck!
