@ecstatic_sutherland I ended up adding some analog oscillators to my rack just to have a few more synthesis techniques available and so I'd have a lot of options to play with, and on top of that so I could have some polyphony. There are a ton of different ways you could approach that though, including other digital oscillators like the Telharmonic or even a second Akemie's Castle.
I haven't used Rings at all so I can't say exactly where it fits in, or Stages either. I would expect the Zadar has potential for more grit and character than Stages, but might be less controllably expressive? And yes, if you do get it I'd get a Nin too.
Out of curiosity how many of these modules do you have so far? I sped into modular pretty quickly so if you're starting from scratch I won't suggest (as is common) that you go slow, but I might suggest you go moderately lol and get about half of what you've picked out here? An Akemie, a nice analog filter (FM synthesis plus a good analog filter is a great combo), and a handful supporting pieces would go a long way right out of the gate and might help with some of the questions you're raising.
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