help needed: moog sound studio 3x126hp expansion

hey guys,

I am very new to eurorack and bought few years back the moog sound studio dfam/mother32 and last year I got the subharmonicon. I really like the hands on approach and now the more I patch these instruments with each other’s, the more fun I have. So I decided to fall in the rabbit hole now. I would like to ask if my thoughts are right and my setup makes sense. There is no particular genre I want to make. I want to jam, have fun, record something and make a track out of it.

Here is the gear I have and want to use with my upgraded eurorack moog sound studio.
4x moogs, but maybe I will sell the subharomicon
1x mixer with balanced inputs
1x delay pedal, 1x reverb pedal via send/return on the mixer
And possible 2 pedals as inserts.
1x Digitakt for sequencing

When I was testing the dfam (vca out) with my mixer I need to lower the volume about noonish and also the gain on the mixer is the lowest. So should i still use just cables or an module like the xport?

So here comes my modular selection and why.
Mutant brain - for integration of digitakt – must have
Pamela - for clock, random and support for dfam sequencing – must have
Xport – for each synth voice to feed my mixer. Does it make sense?
Maths – you know why – must have
Samara – utility goes very nice with Batumi
Batumi – lfo musically
Ochd – lfo organic
LPG – low pass gate always wanted to have one for the plucky stuff maybe in combination with plaits.
Quad vca – must have
Some mults
Plaits – must have
Rings – would add additional flavor to the sounds I have.
Disrting ex – it does it all and good option to see what I would need in a eurorack
Tallin – I really need a distortion and this has a very small footrprint and 2x.
Scales – to get musical stuff from random voltage
Wasp + Forbidden Planet – filter to have something different than the ladder.

So now the question is: what is missing and does my selection make sense. What should I change? Many thanks for your inputs and thoughts

too many voices... not enough utility modules...

take a look at my signature and spend some time thinking about the contents in relation to this rack...

personally I'd keep the moogs in their own cases rather than pay twice to house and power them...

scales seems a bit unnecessary - pams can be used as a quantizer if needed

the mults could be replaced with either stackcables or headphone splitters

plaits has a built in lpg

I'd want a matrix mixer - doepfer for example - useful for making complex modulation etc

hey jim, thanks for your comment.

i was thinking a lot if i should keep the moogs in there cases, cause than i could just build a small rack which saves money at the end. but on the other hand if everything is placed in one bigger case it would be easier to patch i guess. i thought i have enough utility modules.

sound source: would be the moog oscillators than
sound modifieres: what would be apart from a filter?
modulation sources: whats missing, i have lfo, envelope follower and generartor
utility - what is missing? i have vca, attenuators, slew, offset
what would be an example on how to use a matrix mixer. i don't understand what would be the benefit of using one.

thanks

hey jim, thanks for your comment.

i was thinking a lot if i should keep the moogs in there cases, cause than i could just build a small rack which saves money at the end. but on the other hand if everything is placed in one bigger case it would be easier to patch i guess.

you just need some longer cables...

I've got 8 cases and I have no issues patching between them

i thought i have enough utility modules.

yeah... it's similar to the 'you can never have too many vcas' meme... now replace 'vcas' with 'utilities' and it becomes more accurate!

sound source: would be the moog oscillators than

the moogs are more voices - basically they are mono-synths - as are to a large extent plaits and rings (although rings can also be a sound modifier), you don't really have any traditional stand alone oscillators in here

sound modifieres: what would be apart from a filter?

yeah filters (which the semis also have built in don't they?), but also lpg, wavefolders, and other effects in general - good idea with the sbg (handy one that if your pedals have expression inputs) - that way you can experiment with where you place things like delay and reverb in the chain... reverb into filter for example

modulation sources: whats missing, i have lfo, envelope follower and generartor

it's not necessarily what's missing... more do you have enough?

utility - what is missing? i have vca, attenuators, slew, offset

again, not necessarily anything missing - I'd at least add some logic and some simple mixers (both ac and dc-coupled)

the samara will get used up very quickly and maths is best when patch-programmed which often takes up the bulit in utilities - see the 'maths illustrated supplement' available to download online

attenuators and attenuverters get used up quickly too - lots of modules don't include them - and 10v peak to peak is often too much modulation - less is often more...

a stand alone clock divider is also a great idea - send it audio - the /2 will output a square wave 1 octave lower than the original, the /4 will output a square wave 2 octaves lower

sequential (and non-sequential) switches - switch between inputs or ouputs based upon a clock or manually...

what would be an example on how to use a matrix mixer. i don't understand what would be the benefit of using one.

OK - a couple of examples

patch in copies of 4 modulation sources - mix them together and now you have 4 different, but related modulation signals...

patch in an audio source - and out to an effect - and the effect back in - mix the dry signal and the effect back into the output to the effect... suddenly you have controlled feedback... plus a dry and wet output or a single output with control over the wet and dry mix - you could also patch it so that there's a filter in the feedback loop - useful for delays if they don't have feedback loops themselves

thanks for your detailed answers jim. lots of new thoughts on how to optimize. i watched also a video on how to use a matrix mixer actually very flexible tool which totally makes sense to have. i will use the moogs in their cases and only get one for the eurorack stuff. i will get rid of plaits and rings and focus on stuff which modulates and supports.