Last year, my friend introduced me to the world of modular and I have been completely enamored ever since. Until recently, I was just an observer, constantly watching YouTube videos trying to dream of what my rack would look like if I ever decided to take the plunge. And finally, about a month ago, I decided I was ready to start my journey. I purchased some modules I knew I wanted to get started and a case large enough for some future expansion (Rackbrute 6U). Modules I currently have are Marbles, Rings (shocking right?), a Quad VCA from Intellijel, and an Ooots from knob.farm.

I wanted to make a plan for my build, I understand my plan will probably change with every module purchased, but I at least wanted to have a general idea as to what a completed build would cost and hopefully start thinking towards what my next purchase would be. I'm taking it slow, learning modules as much as I can, but I'm just the kind of person who likes to think ahead. And ultimately, even though I'm wanting to plan out the whole build, it will be a very long time before I can even purchase all of these modules.

I put together a completed build plan and was looking for any advice on recommendations/changes I should make. I'm a complete noob so please be kind if this just looks like an incoherent mess.

ModularGrid Rack

Music I'm looking to make: Ambient electro
Some changes I've already considered: Beads for Clouds, Plonk instead of Plaits.

Last detail, I have quite a few guitar pedals that I would love to utilize with my future rack. Is the Strymon AA.1 a good choice for that?


Quick tip: replace the image link you've shared with the URL of the rack itself and people can dig in, make copies, etc.


Thanks! Just made the change.


That Strymon is OK as a basic pedal interface, but it has limitations, such as no way to properly control I/O levels in the event of a stompbox getting overloaded, or one that outputs too hot of a signal. I'd suggest the Bastl Hendrikson instead...you'd then get some CV control over your wet/dry balance, plus LED indications for overloads. Little more spendy...but you DO get more.

Secondly, you need to downsize some of these modules. Even though this is a proper 6U cab, you still need to be careful about space economy while avoiding ergonomics issues. But if done right...well...
ModularGrid Rack
You'll notice that I went with Mutable clones here in all cases except the Beads (which isn't out in clone versions yet), and all of these allowed a great deal of extra space to come into play.

For starters, your Rample now has a dedicated stereo mixer, allowing you to pan and mix your four channels of sampler properly. More mashing allowed a PAIR of Plaits clones, not merely one, and these now get their own summing mixer. The uRinks is your Rings, the u4xVCA is a Veils clone, and between them I put in a single multimode VCF, Bastl's nifty Cinnamon...about the same idea as the Ripples, but with a bit more character. Then the Takaab dual LPG (this is the present version...they downsized it to 2 hp), Beads, and the aforementioned Hendrikson pedal I/O.

Bottom row starts with the Pam's, but then the Nonlinearcircuits chaotic modulator got mashed WAY down into a Zlob Diode Chaos...same sort of idea, much smaller. Marbles became a Pachinko, saving more hp. And by mashing, I was able to add not only a Batumi quad LFO, but its Poti expander as well. There's a Frap 321 after that, which lets you crossmix/mangle/tamper with modulation signals, then an After Later dVCA, which is half of a Veils. Quadrax/Qx, followed by the Ears...then a REAL stereo mixer from Happy Nerding, which allows CV over either level or panning per channel, has your headphone preamp, and also some stereo metering...then this feeds to Happy Nerding's Isolator for your stereo ganged level and transformer isolation on the output.

First off, it's probably a good thing that I looked at this, as you had the size of the Rackbrute wrong. According to Arturia's own docs, it's not 89 hp per row...but 88. Big difference, even though we're only talking 1 hp here. The double VCO setup now lets you set up detuning, resulting in a much fatter sound, or you can use the second Plaits clone as another separate VCO for a different "voice" line. Modulation is HUGELY improved here with the addition of the quad LFO + 321 + VCAs. Also, the Ears is now by the mixer, which should work much better than having it anywhere near the power supply. You can probably get away with a digital module like the Rample, but an input preamp like that next to a power supply opens you up to noise and crud every time you opted to use the Ears where it was. Lastly, REAL mixing, with VCA control and stereo panning...big improvement there.

Even though you've got a few modules already, this should hopefully give you some reasons to rethink how this was going. Cramming a full-on build into even a 6U Rackbrute is a tad difficult unless you shrink modules whenever possible. This should be a much more capable result, even if you only adopt some of the suggestions here.