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A VCO from Patching Panda. Really a good one, lots of waveforms, lots of mod inputs, lots of cross-collaboration in the unit. And it sounds really good too. I went long on the test/demo section because I was having fun just playing with it.
Hybrid boards, many surface mount components pre-installed but plenty to solder. Good build, though some soldering is tight and very close to SMD components so care is advised. Not a beginner kit.
I second the 4ms DLD suggestion. This is a very interesting effect module. Each side has a feedback loop and adding any sound modifier in the loops opens many possibilities. It can do a lot, from gentle and clean sound design to pure madness.
Hello,
I have a same question about the very same topic.
I'm new to modular and started to get interested into this since few weeks, but have years of experience with guitars, pedals, synth, noise machines, etc.
My possible approach to a modular system would be to have something that I can both use stand alone (like in a drone/noise/ambient manner) or together with my guitar and synths and made so that I can implement/interface it also with instruments levels so that I can rout it thru my guitar pedalboard for example.
I did some experiments with VCV Rack, and found very powerful a combination of Plaits and a second VCO/oscillator combined with a quad LFO to generate sounds and drones.
After talking with a friend and try out few his modules, I also got very interested about Schlappi and Noise Engineering modules. For example I like a lot the Desmodus series, since the same module can be loaded with all firmwares available. Boundary looks like I swiss army knife that I can use as VCO, envelope, etc...
But I also find Doepfer modules to be super cool, simple and utile to what you need them for.
I would like to keep it as small and compact as possible, like 64HP. After few mindstorms, I came up with this first idea, pictured below.
My only concern at the moment is the Strymon AA.1: are there any other alternatives out there for such "guitar interfaces", so that, as said, I can insert my guitar (or another synth) into this system and then go out back into my pedalboard?
What modules to you use? Otherwise any other advices?
-- gila_crisis
Hi, have a look at the Bored brain injectr. It has a guitar preamp, envelop follower and Fx-loop for pedals.
LOOK NO FURTHER! https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2255800164534876.html
Ran across this while looking for some good deals on 3.5 to 3.5mm cables. No, they're not in candy-colors and such, just black. But DAAAAAMN are they cheap! Around $65 got me a bundle of 50 cm and a bundle of 100 cm cables, shipping included.
And if your modular is big enough to serve as an efficiency apartment, they even sell 'em in lots of 1000!
Remove the DFAM. It's got a case, and it's got power already...so it doesn't need to be in the Eurorack case taking up room and crowding out modules that DON'T have a case or power. Already, you can see here that you've been forced into using some tiny (and therefore difficult to work with under many circumstances) modules that probably shouldn't be tiny. And then there's the CV issue...Moog's 60-hp-ers use a bipolar CV (both above and below 0v values are valid) where Eurorack uses CVs that run from 0v and upward. Erica has a fix for this with their MScale PICO module, but you don't have room for one, so...
In truth, I wouldn't go with a single row skiff here at all. They're sort of a "trap", because while it IS possible to build a rig in a single-row skiff, compromises have to be made and it takes some experience to know how to do that without screwing yourself over. Instead, get (and yes, I know you hear this constantly on here) a Tiptop Mantis which gives you 2 x 104 hp, has good power and ergonomics, and which costs (in the USA) less than $350. It's perhaps the best starter case out there. You can even expand it via joining brackets and add a second Mantis later on (or a third or fourth IF you have some external support for the top cabs).
As for the MPC...if there's a limitation to which channels can address the analog I/O but you can still assign things to MIDI outputs, it might make more sense to look into Expert Sleepers' interfaces, particularly the ones that incorporate a class-compliant MIDI port. These can be expanded as needed by dropping in more 4 hp width expansion modules, so you can literally dictate how many CV/gate/trig/clock/etc outs and ins (yep...you can transmit CV data back to your DAW with one of those!) you need.
And an example of why you need more space fits right in with your industrial noise stuff...go and have a look at the offerings from Moffenzeef and Schlappi Engineering that, at present, you can't fit into the build. Seriously...go bigger.
A 'slide' mode would be great. If I'm swapping out a 2hp module for a 3hp module, having to manually move every module down 1hp is really fiddly.
-- stogoshuffle
It can be if you're manually dragging the modules. But the other mode is quick and works like you'd want here. Hover the cursor over a module, then hit either "," or "." to move it left or right respectively. Even if you have a pile of little stuff in a row, this can be dealt with in seconds by using those shortcuts.
what, where did that Data Bender come from. It isn't permanent right, or?
-- cpaf
It'd better not be permanent, because right now you're missing pretty much ALL necessary utility modules, and some critical modules (such as a proper complement of VCAs) are nowhere to be seen.
If you've not gotten the A-100 cab already...don't. Tiptop's Mantis cases are bigger, have about the same power specs, and cost way less than Doepfer's cabs. The Doepfer stuff is great if you need depth, or if you're planning to take your rig on the road, but if the build is intended mainly for studio use or only occasional live work, it's just about perfect.
And yes, you can expand the Mantis via a link bracket to have two of them stacked. Plus, going to 2 x 104 gives you 40 more hp to put some of those modules I mentioned above into this so it'll work like a synthesizer and not like an expensive box of noisemakers.
HEY!
Planning my first deep dive into the sea of eurorack and I have a Moog DFAM and a Grandmother to start with.
My goal is to expand the DFAM and have something interesting to play with live. The music I make ranges from calm ambient to aggressive noise.
I'm using an MPC LIVE 2 with CV as my main sequencing unit.
Does anyone have any inputs or anything to add to this setup?
Every thought is appreciated
A 'slide' mode would be great. If I'm swapping out a 2hp module for a 3hp module, having to manually move every module down 1hp is really fiddly. It would be great if I could enable 'slide mode', and the modules already in the rack are 'locked', but I can slide them around and the modules 'push' eachother. Kinda like I do when I'm laying out my rack in real life before I plug/screw anything in.
@Lugia gave a great example of what you could do with the space freed up by the removal of the strega, also I completely agree about the size of the other modules (especially starlab) in this size build... just remember it's all just food for thought - going slowly and deciding what you really want (and what you actually need) in your case(s) over time is a very personal thing... but generally too many big modules (& needlessly racked semis) tend to push out other modules that are more useful
"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!!!
I have unlocked all the Dovemans modules and set them to discontinued.
You can always try to contact a manufacturer when you send them a private message by clicking on the link Message the Manufacturer near the manufacturer approved stamp.
Thank you for your time and thoughts about this, I do appreciate it. I think I got over my skis when I saw the black and gold system and thought I could jump in the deep end. I'll move slow, but I'll be mindful.
As a general convention in Eurorack, clock pulses are +5v, but not vpp as clocks (and gates and triggers) are only positive-going from 0v. There are negative-going trigger/gates out there, but they're unusual, such as Behringer's use of the VERY EFFING ANNOYING Moog S-Trig standard in some of their Moog-alikes, or the various modules that invert the clock for synths that use that, such as the Korg MS-20. That adherence to the +5v standard is what allows you to run that module, clock an internal sequencer by some other manufacturer, send gates through Boolean logic, etc and have the whole mess work together...it's been that way since Dieter Doepfer came up with Ye Olde Eurorack Standard about 25-ish years ago.
The reason for moving the Strega is because it has its own cab and power, and the Eurorack cab is for things (as a rule) that DON'T have those. So here, you're taking up a healthy chunk of hp for that, which now blocks adding modules.
The better solution would be to remove the Strega, then fill the space left with modules that can expand BOTH the Eurorack cab and the Strega, since there's no bar against patches that go "outside" of the case.
Plus, check what's NOT in the case due to the Strega. For example, modulars need VCAs...but all you've got of those here are the ones in the Strega. Not good. So take 8-12 hp for some proper VCAs right off the bat. No attenuverters, only one (DC-coupled) mixer with a mono output while there's piles of stereo path modules, and so on. Part of that can also be fixed by looking at SMALLER modules with the same functionality. For example, the Starlab. It takes up 28 hp, costs $650. So, instead of that, you could go with a Rings clone and a basic stereo reverb such as Purrtronix's spring reverb clone. For the Rings clone, my suggestion would be Oscillosaurus's version. Those two together fit in 22 hp (you get 6 back) and cost $304-ish. That's less than HALF of the Starlab's cost, and it replicates much of the primary functions that the Starlab has. The rest of the stuff, such as LFOs, etc, are already supposed to be in the build already for other functions...which, again, you're crowded out of having in here. And yes, I AM counting the Maths that's there, because using it just as an LFO is like buying a vintage Lamborghini Countach and just driving it to the grocery store.
...and so on. Fact is, there's NO ONE on here that can precisely nail a build on the very first try. The process of building one of these instruments requires a pile of thought and constant reconsiderations to arrive at a system that both fulfills your needs AND which has the necessary module complement to be an instrument that you'll use and grow with over years, instead of a noisemaker that'll wind up in a closet several months down the road. Plus, you also find ways to make it cheaper, like the above strategy. And even though I've done loads of builds on here for others that I can knock out pretty quickly, I'm doing that with 40+ years in electronic music to inform me as to how they should be built out. I might SEEM fast at that, but if you factor in that backlog of experience, you eventually realize that you have to factor the experience into the time outlay. Others on here also have similar background experience, and can do much the same thing...but it's due to their long backgrounds making things easier.
Gonna work out a build on this, in fact...I'll put the Strega in a blanked-up row at the bottom so you can see how it fits...
EDIT: OK, here we are. Thanks to Make Noise, we have this nifty "utility bar" in the middle of the case that'll come in handy.
UPPER: First thing there is a KonstantLabs PWRchekr, which lets you keep an eye on your DC rail health. Then instead of the XPOs, I opted for something even more over the top and put in a pair of Neutron Sound Dust of Time dual digital oscillators. Each one of those contains TWO oscillators for a total of four; in theory, you could actually use the build as a 4-voice paraphonic synth. The DoTs also have MIDI inputs, plus a pile of other surprises. And they can also receive updates as well as third-party oscillator models. Left the Moddemix by these in case you want to ring-mod the oscillators together. Then the first Codex Modulex quad VCA (a Veils clone) lets you maintain the stereo balance; just run the LEFT outputs to VCAs 1 and 2, then take output 2, and the RIGHT outs go to 3 and 4, with their output being on out 4. Feed outs 2 and 4 to the QPAS...but now, they're under VCA control.
QPAS, of course, is still in here...but with another Codex Modulex quad VCA after it. This is where things get even wackier, because you can now use TWO output pairs from the QPAS, with VCA control over both pairs. This set of VCAs can feed directly to the mixer in the lower row, but what I would suggest is to use that utility row and two of those mult busses to split the 2 and 4 outs from this VCA set and then feed them to the mixer AND the Beads in parallel. We'll see how those are dealt with in a sec. But anyway, the Beads (instead of just a stereo reverb) allows loads of granular screwing-around in addition to being a mere reverb. Now things get weird...
From the Beads, you can send its outputs on to the After Later VCA (or you can split its inputs off of that with mult busses 3 and 4) or it can go directly to the Doepfer mixer OR to the Happy Nerding 4x Stereo Mix. With that, you can run your mult busses as "aux"-like sends, and even split the last quad VCA out to feed the Beads and the VCAs simultaneously. Those VCAs, btw, give you level control over whatever is after them, and for the Rangoon's summing from stereo to its mono input. Or, or, or...suffice to say, I left that pretty open-ended so that you can adapt the mixbus and its send/returns however you like. And like I said, Rangoon is last, and it provides the physically-modeled resonator that's the Rings clone...with an extra trick or two.
LOWER: Your Tempi/Rene mkii stays where it is, and it's a great choice for both control AND sequencing. Then Ochd, Maths...and new stuff, in this case a Frap 321 and another After Later VCA pair. This is what I sometimes refer to (in its various forms) as your "modulation core"...it lets you modify your modulation signals in a pile of ways. After that, there's a Zadar + Nin for all of the envelope generation.
And then, the mixers. Plural. And this is so that, if desired, you can PARALLEL your effects processors via the 4x Stereo Mix by sending the Beads and the Rangoon's outputs to two stereo pairs, then take your synth feeds through the Doepfer mixer for panning and level adjustment. The Doepfer would then get sent on to the third or fourth 4x input pairs, and you can directly control the balance between FX and synth via that little thing. As for the Doepfer, it's got four mono ins with panning, so in theory you could go directly off of the second quad VCA's individual outs for both level control AND discrete mixing. Of course, I left lots of that rather open-ended so that you can easily vary the mixer/FX routing and balancing via a few different methods, not merely one fixed method. Last, the Strega is down below so you can get an idea of how it would fit into this; it's not actually in the build per se.
i have korg volca modular and wanto make pharao music like superb artist in video
what modules i need to make this music style?
-- esmeralda
More. That's what's needed.
Simply because you've got a modular (or rather, patchable; the Volca Modular isn't a true modular synth) synth doesn't mean that you've got the Golden Ticket to being a one-man backup band for the likes of Umm Kulthoum. Instead of looking at what this one artist uses to get at that sound, look instead at what the actual practitioners are using. For one thing, you'll find a lot of "home keyboard" like things that have this little extra keyboard (like this: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Pa700OR--korg-pa700-oriental-61-key-arranger-workstation ...look below the left speaker) for doing all of the different scalar tunings that you find in the various Arabic stylings. And there's a BUNCH of those!
So, one problem right off is going to be some method to get at those microtonal bits. In a real modular, this is pretty easy, as there's quantizers out there that can do microtonality...some even take Scala files. But otherwise...not so much, as the majority of instruments in the West are designed for plain ol' dodecaphonic equal temperament, which is one thing I find rather annoying at times because I like Pythagorean-type "pure" tunings in my ambient work, but a perfect 5th isn't a pure 5th, so I have to resort to expression controllers, odd quantizer settings, etc to get at that reliably.
Then there's the instrumentation itself, which is pretty different from what we find in Western instruments. You're going to want to be able to get at simulacra of those with your electronics, so knowing what things like an 'Ud, Santur, Setar, Bendir, and so on sound like is also important here. And if that sounds like some beefy ethnomusicology shit...well, it is. Even to aim for that sound palette requires that you've got a handle on them, sound-wise.
So, yeah...I get it, but I also get what's necessary for that sound. Perhaps trying something like VCV Rack might make sense here, as I know for a fact that it's got microtonality-capable quantizers.
No proper VCAs is a big no-no. Also, relying on JUST a Maths for all of your modulation duties is possibly asking too much of that one module alone.
A lot of this is happening because of the cab size. It's just too small. I know everyone wants to whip one of these things up, especially since you've got certain YouTube influencers showing these off as viable options for beginners. But they're not, because it takes way more experience and/or smarts to sort out how to cram ALL of the necessary modules into a single skiff of 104 hp or less (ESPECIALLY less!). Plus, with that Tempi in there, you're going to miss out on all of the cool stuff it can do when paired with a Rene mkii sequencer/touchplate controller because...well, space.
Rule of thumb in modular is to start with a case that you are 100% SURE is too big...because, invariably, it's not. Your build above could work fine in something like a Mantis, because that gives you the space to add all of the modulation, utilities, etc etc that can make those modules really cut loose. But in a single skiff, the results show some serious "sexy module syndrome", because you've got no room due to those "showcase" modules...which can't perform at their best without the utility, etc stuff. Sure, attenuverters and adders and so on aren't "sexy"...but they ARE essential.
One other VCA point: both Antumbra and After Later that I know of offer something of a "half-Veils"...two variable-topology VCAs in 4 hp with a summing buss that allows you to output them separately or together as a 2-into-1 mix. These can be VERY useful, especially for dropping into little spaces in your modulation complement so that you can futz around with modulation levels. Pair that with some small CV/mod mixer such as Frap's 321 or Tiptop's MISO, and you'll have a VERY powerful "modification core" solely for your LFOs, EGs, slope gens, etc.
Let's say I belive you, voice in my head: what, pray tell, should go in that slot if keep the stega out? I really love the strega and really want everything in one case to do the big reveal like a cheap magician, but it will come out if I can find good replacements. I'm an amateur with some extra dollars and interest, not an artist by any stretch.
I'm super new. Like "vcv since January" new. I feel like this could work, since the make noise case is powered (and out of stock). But I've caught the bug, and I want to get deeper.
He's using the modular but more as performing overdubs on the tracks he composed on other equipment - it's not just DJ pantomime stuff. You can see some of his modular-only performances on YouTube, like this one:
But to the OP, you'll need a lot more than a Volca Modular :) (the Volca is how I got sucked into the modular wormhole too)
If you get the Batumi, I recommend getting the Poti expansion module for it as it opens up additional features without having to adjust the switches on the back of the module. For cases, Tiptop Mantis is great but I like the Intellijel 7u case as it has 1u row for cool additional modules that can make use of a small setup. For travel, I use my 7u Intellijel case.
I agree. He did ask me to pay F&F or add 4% to cover the fees. I added the 4% instead of doing F&F although I almost did. Not sure why people want that fee covered, as someone who has sold countless things online I’ve never asked someone to pay F&F or asked to have them cover the fee. To me it makes more sense to incorporate it into the price I’m asking.
All these stories are why I NEVER do PayPal F&F. I once had a small manufacturer in Europe insist that I use F&F, even though I was willing to cover the goods and services fee lol. And it would have cost me more to do F&F anyway because it was international. Needless to say I cancelled the transaction.
ES-8 works great as an ADAT expander, I have one permanently connected to my audio interface and only use it in USB mode rarely. The Optx does have a channel advantage, but if sending CV into your DAW the ES-8 has DC coupled inputs as well as outputs.
I’m not sure if the Motu Ultralite mk3 does have ADAT though, so def worth double checking that. If confirmed that it does not, (and you’re using a Mac), the ES-8 will have the advantage of being able to be set up as an aggregate audio interface (this doesn’t work so well on Windows).
Since the MPC is going to have you extensively covered for sampling I feel like the Rample might take up HP that could be better used for something else. Do the CV and gate outs on the MPC handle envelopes or LFOs? If not, something like a Klavis Quadigy, Intellijel Quadrax or Cosmotronic Delta-V might be a good replacement to provide modulation for the Doepfer voice. A modulatable effect like Mimeophon or Morphagene or Qu-bit Prism should give you something that will get good and weird in the way that Euro effects do so well. Noise Engineering Versio modules also offer the benefit of swappable firmwares (and sound amazing). I don’t know how well the MPC can handle Eurorack level audio, so something to receive and send at line levels like Boredbrain Xchangr might also really help to integrate. You’ll want to process sounds from the MPC in the rack, but also bring them back to mix and mangle.
Edit: Just saw the Doepfer amplifier so can disregard that last suggestion :)
dump the b-company vca - and get a decent quad cascading vca from a reputable company - veils if you can find one, an intellijel or a happy Nerding 3*vca - you will need more vcas so it's a better investment (especially the veils!!)
as @benscott suggested get a bigger case - you will need it much sooner than you hope/expect/think - tiptop mantis is by far the best combination of hp/cost/decent power/manufacturer reputation - the power in the mantis is way way better than the uZeus!!! plus you will avoid the waste of space that is a rack wart (power supply module)
I wouldn't put a compressor in a build this size - and probably wouldn't go with a dual adsr - doesn't the gm have cv and envelope out - I might add a voltage controlled envelope generator of some sort though
"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!!!
I recommend a larger case at least 6u for room to add utility modules and a good sequencer.
Your setup would benefit from more modulation sources to make use of the audio in your setup. Something like a Batumi would be perfect.
