Thanks Farkas for your reply.

I realized Ive had most of the racks ive had up here for years on private. So here are a few of the racks ive designed over the years... I havent touched them in a long time, but at the time I was doing a bunch of research through all you guys and through the many racks designed up on here as well as youtube vids...

Clearly I have not made any of these yet, nor have I gone down the road of starting them basically all in the design phase. Which is entirely why i posed these questions and this thread here. I would still love some more help. I am going to investigate some more about those specific modules you have listed. I know I have included the LoFi module in most of the builds I came up with, having had the guitar pedal for years and years and years now, it has always been a favourite end of chain situation to add that grimy sort of warbley VHS sound that I am chasing overall with everything im talking about. So here are three of the racks that I sort of refined (all still online clearly, I have no idea how these would work IRL) so maybe whomever feels like helping here could give me some ideas about any of these... slash, basically like ive been saying here: I would love to get my feet wet by creating the smallest practical setup for me to get sounds like Im looking for, for the cheapest. Obviously I am going to be making compromises right off the top in order to get there, but I don't think its possible to get everything I would be looking for out of custom building a synth like this without a long time of buying and selling modules. But thats why I am here asking you seasoned guys these questions in general, because I need your help and need to understand the practicality of each module I would be choosing to start building a small rig...

Smaller than all of the rigs I am posting here that I have designed obviously by the way, these are all seemingly big expensive setups that I wouldn't be able to do for a long time, nor do I have any idea if they would be actually practical all together the way i have digitally put them together.

So yeah, continued interest in my cause and this thread would be appreciated.

ModularGrid Rack


Lugia you sound a little angry hah. And lol, its certainly not about modular 'looking cool' in fact, it would be easy to make the argument that most modular gear suffers from pretty poor user interfaces (the opposite of a good VST/Kontakt instrument)... which is why i'm here asking these question.

But yeah, if basically the only thing all you guys are telling me is that Merzbow type messed up sounds and drones is the kind of stuff that modular does best then yah, ill probably stay in the box because to me, as experimental as I am with music and sound... melody is still key. Maybe ill do this drum rig modular setup ive been planning for years... but even then... I think a teenage engineering device could do more interesting stuff then 5 grand worth of modules. What are most of you guys here trying to do with modular? Or does a lot of it have a lot to due with the addiction of new modules/gear in general? I have that addiction so don't worry, im not judging clearly... I am generally curious though, if everyone here is telling me that pads are generally/practically impossible to do with a synth that is built, then what are the type of sounds you are all chasing?

U-he Bazille for instance, is a very cool digital modular system, and thats definitely capable of some beautiful melodic sound, as well as absolutely gross nonsense that is great to mess with obviously. And there are some even better stuff that can be done with reaktor across the board.


Ok guys, that certainly makes sense. I guess I asked the wrong questions then because yeah... I dont think I would want to completelyyyy create a polysynth from the whole way up for sure.

I like the idea of having something to run my hardware stuff into (or even coming out of my comp if need be), basically I guess what I was trying to ask/get some advice on IS and FX rack. Whenever I have fucked around on here doing some designs it seems that is actually more along the lines of what I have researched out a bit, seemingly mostly modulation/effects based modules as opposed to oscillators themselves from the ground up. I definitely dont have a laundry stash of cash kicking around... but I do want to slowly start dipping my feet into the eurowater here \m/

OK... soo... since you guys still know wayyyy more about actual modules that could be good id love to hear some ideas here... most of my guitar work and pedal preferences have always been based around reverb, chorus and delay pedals... ive messed around with Zvex's Lo-Fi Junky module a few times at a buddies, which is sort of the kind of tape/warble type situation i guess im looking for sound design wise in certain ways... And certainly I guess I would be running some samples through this beast. I am looking for something that I can use to make drone-y environments with those IDM sounds basically being the product in certain respects.

EDIT: I guess I should say, a very big thing that im inspired by across all synths and FX is the idea/ability to create sounds from randomness... so I guess thats something to consider as well for what Im thinking. I know there are a lot of wacky Mutable Instruments modules that may kind of help me out there that could be built into this FX rack?


But it is possible is it not? Ive messed around with my buddies rack which is mostly Make Noise modules and ive certainly found it to be capable of some cool sounds... obviously lots of wacky weird stuff like most racks, but I found that it was very interesting at the same time.

Yeah for sure ive got tons and tons of guitar pedals and a few decent hardware synths... I am just very intrigued by perpetually modifying and refining things until ive narrowed in on the ideal canvas of noise.


Hey guys and gals... so, im an in-the-box kind of guy for all my synths currently. I have tons and tons of experience using virtual synths and have a fairly specific style that I am after and would certainly love some advice/help in designing something to achieve the sounds im looking for with relative ease in a rack synth.

Ive designed a few racks on here before, many in my list but I am certainly unexperienced with actual physical modular gear.

Ostensibly I am looking for that Boards of Canada type sound, very 70's/80's sounding old VHS warbley atmospheric pads and leads... Sort of like these synths that I use heavily:

Amongst many others in my collection, but I think that comes across sound wise that I am looking to build. Mostly almost a midi controllable pad synth in a lot of ways. I am looking for it to be fairly simple for sure, (not horrendously expensive if I can manage it haha, I know modular gets ridiculously expensive from the couple I have mapped out) yet something that I can achieve a ton of different sounds along those lines.

Id love some help, and build ideas. Thanks a bunch.


This is awesome! Where can I go about learning how to do this mod? and/or purchasing the kit/faceplate? This 5hp version is fantastic and looks great.


Amazing!!!