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Greetings. This is my first post.

First, my Eurorack vision is to make a complete instrument. I'm looking to create a Eurorack version somewhere between a Buchla easel and Reason's Complex-1. Here's what I was thinking:

The only thing I'm 100% committed to is the Endorphin.es Shuttle System (I already [just] bought it - and love it). Right now, using shuttle control, I can add 16 LFOs/envelopes/sequences using Bitwig, but again, my vision is a complete instrument.

I was thinking an Arturia Minibrute might be a good control center as it has that button keyboard, a good sequencer (from what I hear), and an extra oscillator and envelope and lfo. Also, it seems to be reasonably priced. Alternatives would be a Eurorack sequencer like Rene or Ground Control or whatever...

My questions are:
1. Do you recommend an Arturia Minibrute 2s (with 6U case) as a control center for this Eurorack? Pros and cons?
2. What modules do you think would compliment the shuttle system/minbrute 2s combination. I would like an oscilloscope and a speaker (if possible, but those do seem hard to find)... edit: This second row likely won't come for a while...

Thank you so much. I'm excited for this journey...

Jeff B

Thanks for any advice.

EDITED Jun 18th 2020, 22:16

@troux My thinking is now.... 'Everything is too small or My fingers are too fat' I am trying to keep things compact. Though seeing as I'm on my 3rd Row of 84hp and my Wishlist of modules is about another 3 rows... I'm not sure how compact it will eventually be! Ha!

Here's the latest ambient track/loop/thing now with added ADDAC103, this is how I want to use it for little clicky blippy stuff, though you do get a nice Kick drum out of it too to annoy the wife with ;-) I need to restrain Ochd, so some bits are going through the AT-AT-AT to tame them down a bit, I probably need to look at getting a Passive Half/Full wave rectifier too.

Cheers

Really nice :)

Very good stuff @baltergeist, I especially like fly and grace, a wide range there.

Received DivKid's øchd earlier this week. Spent the evening patching, learning and wandering into this little drone with a simple sequence dropped in. Trident, Telharmonic, DPO, tiny bit of reverb by Clouds, additional space created with Mimeophon. All modulation performed by øchd.

What I'd like to see most is a button above (info) when you hover over a module which is 'manual'. It links to all manuals. This would be a massive time saver as I could just go to my setup and instantly find the manual rather than having to search.

Is modularist community overwhelmingly a nation of music lovers or technicians?
-- Sweelinck

Yes, absolutely.

These days, music and technology are so intertwined that you can't exactly separate them. See that drum circle over there? OK...now, what they're doing might SEEM like getting back in touch with primitive whatever blahblah, but if you look at what they're playing, you start seeing synthetic drumheads, devices that (these days) are carefully researched to create the optimal thudding noises everyone likes (OR NOT!!!) in commercials for SUVs to get numnutz consumers to pay attention and fork out for something they don't need, etc. And if you RECORD that drum circle...well, then you're up to your chin in tech all of a sudden!

Conversely, if we didn't have that tech, we wouldn't be in such a musically-rich period right now. Not only does the presence of cheap and easily-available technology propel the creation of new music, it ALSO allows for everyone to be able to access musical styles, cultures, and periods that...prior to the emergence of proper electronic recording technology in the mid-1920s...would've been lost to time. Consider: there's long been arguments of how early music is supposed to be performed. But there are ZERO arguments of how, say, Stravinsky's music is supposed to be performed, because you had the tech to record how Stravinsky actually wanted it across several decades of his life.

Also, most music we hear now technically IS "electronic" by default. One of the original criteria for electronic music was that it could only be heard with loudspeakers. But then, what do you make of a recording of the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by George Szell? For one thing, Szell's death in 1970 pretty much assures that ONLY recordings of his performances now exist; I don't see any concert announcements that read "MAESTRO SZELL RETURNS FROM THE GRAVE!!! ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!" Secondly, the confluence of players in the orchestra, the hall used for the sessions, etc etc also implies a non-reproduceable live performance situation. So...you're stuck with what's coming out of the speakers, and arguably, that makes it fit that criteria. Plus, should you so desire, you can take those Szell recordings (with a dubious degree of legality) and repurpose them in the same DAW that takes in those raw synth waveforms and does...well, much the same thing there, too.

Nice, I'll give em a listen!

I sold my Marbles a little while ago and, as is often the case, am feeling some remorse. Looking to save both money and space, I'm considering a clone. Does anyone have thoughts on Pachinko vs Cara micro vs the other cloes out there? I'm assuming functionality is identical and the differences have more to do with ergonomics/layout/aesthetics. Thanks!

A simply factual observation: this thread, 'What do you love (or prefer) about modular', totals at that moment 252 views and 9 participants (and thanks to them, 16 posts).
252 views, 9 participants.
3 or 4 percent...

Is modularist community overwhelmingly a nation of music lovers or technicians?
-- Sweelinck

What do you mean by music lovers or technicians? One could be both?

I have a few things I've used a Cocoquantus 2 on, as well as a Tetrax:

And a long one:

These are just doodles/improvs.

Feature Request: Filter by depth. Certain cases are rather shallow (like skiffs) and it would be nice I could filter out any modules that just can't fit.
-- WesleyM77

As a workaround: you can order by depth.

A simply factual observation: this thread, 'What do you love (or prefer) about modular', totals at that moment 252 views and 9 participants (and thanks to them, 16 posts).
252 views, 9 participants.
3 or 4 percent...

Is modularist community overwhelmingly a nation of music lovers or technicians?

After diving in for several weeks of tweaking knobs, I surfaced to make changes that yield big returns.

First, I swapped STO for DPO and migrated Plaits to the "travel skiff" top row. I'm now very psyched about my bottom row VCO layout with this beautiful landscape of deep, complex oscillation. One potato... two potato... 17 outputs across four complex VCO's? I think I counted that right.

Second, I decided to not purchase Make Noise X-Pan. Instead, I went with Intellijel Planar2 because it's just SO interactive and fun to play. I love the flavor of Make Noise, so it was a harder decision than most. So far, I feel like it was a good one.

Third, I bought a second Maths. It lives in a 60hp skiff, called The Modulation Harness, geared towards modulation of my semi-modular gear. If HP isn't an issue then one probably can't go wrong with a second Maths.

Fourth, Rene v2 is now my primary sequencer. Rene feels good to play. Mimetic Digitalis is tons of fun, but I sometimes I feel like it lacks a certain intimacy. It cranks out fast variations and 'shreds' but can feel a bit one-knob centric and "searchy" when I want to slow down and be purposeful about what I'm doing. I moved it into The Modulation Harness.

So, what I've achieved is simplification of my overall landscape that came with big improvements to what I like to do and how I do it. Sitting down at this instrument is now such a mesmerizing and enjoyable experience.

Oh, one last thing... ochd arrived in the mail. Totally worth the wait. Super sweet module. Thanks, DivKid!

Now I've got three weeks to dive back in to measure my decisions.

EDITED Jun 16th 2020, 23:26

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Yeah! I wish you lots of fun with the 103 :-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Apache-Raver,

Thanks for the info on those Dreadbox modules, I might consider the Ataxia actually.

Thinks are going well here, just that I am not sure which platform I should use for sharing music, any suggestions of a website that doesn't cause trouble if you want to quit it or not using it for a while?

Kind regards, Garfield.

Nice @wishbonebrewery, I need to find a disting but they're MIA everywhere right now! One takeaway from your rack that I'll give you kudos on is how much you've prioritized smaller modules. I took a look at mine after seeing yours and was like "Everything's too big!!" I need to reevaluate my next steps

Hi Garfield, the 103 Arrived today, I can see this being lots of fun :) Just playing with the pure drum vibe its fun.

@Troux, its the combo of Erica Pico DSP, Monsoon Clouds and 2HP Verb and I think I was using the Stereo Tape delay from the Disting MK4 too.... lots of effects haha.

Nice pieces, I'm especially enjoying STO in the wash. Are the pads generally from the Clouds clone? They sound really great.

Best Demo so far from the EO. Thanks!

Feature Request: Filter by depth. Certain cases are rather shallow (like skiffs) and it would be nice I could filter out any modules that just can't fit.

I think I've found a good solution for me in the Toraiz Squid now. It creates fully random patterns/velocities/pitches and is plug&play with all my other hardware.

Hey Buddy, Yeah Atraxia is good mate, well worth the money, the envelopes are quite snappy, not as snappy as the frequency central system X envelope, but quite close, and the lfo's can be triggered to your clock. Well worth the money. I also got the Nostalgia delay which is a lot of fun. How are you doing?

Niiiiice!
-- wishbonebrewery

Spanks!

EDITED Jun 16th 2020, 07:04

Hi Garfield,
Thanks for your opinion too! Endorphin products are really amazing. I will take a look about Ground Control! I liked that it is a module. Because Im looking for a little controller to mount an little system for performances. Maybe Polyend PRESET module. To sequence rithms I though in Circadiam of tiptop. But it doesn’t sequences notes or different scales and them my system become more bigger. I tink that T-1 could be a new option, I mean that T-1 can mix rithm and melodies. Well, every opinion can help me!
Thanks for your time again, and Apreciate your answer.
King regards,
Pablo

I remember their stuff from way back in the day and stumbled on them again recently, it's very cool that they're still making synths. Have any sounds you've made that you'd want to share? I'd be curious to give it a listen.

I've been looking at this one for a bit and pretty sure I'm going to get it. Thanks for the demo!

If you're curious about the sound of the 4MS Ensemble Oscillator this may help

Hi Apache-Raver,

Nice setup you got yourself there, nice to look at your setup and looking at your modular "activities" while listening at your sequenced music!

That red module in the right bottom corner, what is that, by any chance the Dreadbox - Ataxia EG? If yes, what's your impression about this module and Dreadbox' new modules series in common, good? I might consider here or there one of them too...

Thank you very much for sharing and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

There are some fantastic nice sounds in it and that together with the beautiful percussion sounds, well done again :-) !

So when is this ADDAC 103 module arriving at your doorstep? Can't wait for your demo patch on that one :-D

Thanks a lot for sharing and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Pablo,

In context with modular synthesizers I agree here with Lugia, not having at least CVs & gates out and in or at least a clock in, is a big miss from a design phase point of view.

The Arturia - Keystep Pro or the Endorphin.es - Ground Control (a Eurorack module by the way) have this already... granted, I am waiting already a year or so for the Ground Control that still hasn't been released and recently has been postponed till October...

Some basic ideas and concepts sounds indeed interesting but so pity of this missed chance :-(

But please let me know once you have found the ideal sequencer for modular, I would love to know since I still haven't found the ideal one; though the above two mentioned ones come quite close (but haven't tested them yet).

Kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Iammurals,

You are writing that you are not really looking to ever have to use it as a stand alone system but you then forgot to tell us what you already have and how this is going to fit in your current situation, so because of that, it's pretty difficult to advice on anything useful.

I have two main advices:

• Look into a rack that's at least 3 times the size of what you got planned now, you have no space to grow here, meaning you have to straight away buy a second rack if you want to add just one module (and if you are going to like modular, you will for sure going to add more than one module...)
• If you need this "only" for sound processing and design then why not use the computer with Ableton or something like that and do there everything? Much easier, most likely much cheaper too

Please carefully think how you want to go to use it and how this then all should fit within your current situation? If you have the possibility then you should try at least a part of that setup at your local dealer to see if it delivers what you expect from it, such testing might give you a total unexpected result, believe me. Before I bought any module and casing, I came once till thrice a week to my local dealer and the only thing I did was testing, testing and testing. I tested (as far as the modules where available for testing) all the modules I was interested in and then I continued with testing, testing and testing. I have done that for about 3 till 4 months in a row before I started to buy my first modular stuff and yet now I got a modular synth, I keep testing, testing, testing and reading, reading, and checking, checking and checking everything I can find about modular synthesizers.

To summarise: modular synthesizers are fantastic, really! But they require you to do a huge pre-work and pre-investigation on it, to get a rough idea on how it's going to work (or not as it will show in test results).

Good luck with it and oh... did I mention already that you should test it first at your local dealer? ;-)

Kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Jrs77,

The ACL - Sinfonion might be just right then, ridiculous expensive but ideal for us lazy people who don't want to put any notes into any devices. With the Sinfinion you just provide a clock and some input, let's say a slow LFO and there you go. You have three "normal" channels/voices for notes, then one specific "chord" channel (3 or 4 note-chords), for that you can use the chord "sequencer" but even if you don't use that "sequencer" (officially it's called chord progression sequencer) it still runs fantastic and putting some input in that sequencer is easier than eating an apple. It's not in a way that you have to put single notes for that chord sequencer, just a few settings, removing / adding only a few notes in a few chord steps and there you go.

The part I like most of the Sinfonion is the Arpeggio, just plug the clock into it, use the 1 V/oct output to connect it to one of your nicest oscillator sounds you got and the Sinfonion is doing the rest for you, playing chords, melodies (well kind of, created either by those 3 voice-channels and/or by the arpeggio), whatever you want. If you get a little bit less lazy than 100% (so let's say being lazy at 95%) then with once and a while pressing a button you change the sound, note, chord, arpeggio, transposition and all the other things I most likely forgot.

You can let sound it all nicely in-tune or if you want to let it sound not too perfect you use the detune option and there goes your nice sounding sounds to smithereens ;-)

The Sinfonion is quite complicated but the manual is written pretty good with quite some humour, so it's easy to read through, follow the simple steps mentioned there and you got most likely what you want (and way beyond that).

The user interface is very friendly and once you have gone once through the manual, you need that manual only for a few special settings but most of the time it's easy, not much to remember, no serious menu diving, most is just one-level, with a few exceptions I think (like factory reset or something like that, but the often used options is just pressing one button and then you can select what you want).

You have assignable "things" like: 4 CVs that you can assign, 2 inputs, 2 outputs and... nice one: two pot-meters that you can assign to parameters you like to change with them.

Oh yes, make sure you got enough voices that you can "feed" the Sinfonion with, that's perhaps the only con (beside the price) of this fantastic thing: The Sinfonion is like a black hole, it absorbs (and requires) all your modules you have in your rack; it's for medium till large environments. So if you just have two oscillators you might just not have enough "food" for the Sinfonion to feed it and keep it happy ;-) You need 8 voices: 3 for those normal channels, then 4 (so a quad VCO is perfect for the job; I am using here the Doepfer A-111-4 for the chords, these two go quite well together) for the chord channel and a voice for the arpeggio. I guess you can start with 6 voices and in the future grow to 8 voices, starting with using just one normal channel first; but 6 voices is the minimum I would advice to go for. If you don't have a quad VCO yet, you could even start with 5 voices, 3 voices for the chords then, 1 for the arpeggio and 1 (to start with) for one of those three normal channels.

Good luck and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Lugia,
Yes, you right about the process of design.
But I think that they make the process of this way, for being a part of the crowdfunding paltaform to go ahead with the project.
Honestly, the design of the piece looks really strong and functional, I trust the Nordic industrial vision. Look like Elektron product.
I decided to be part of Backers and trust in the work of these guys. Lets take a chance for good design.
We will see Lugia, really appreciate your opinion. Maybe Beatstep Pro form Arturia be the most similar product.
Cheer Lugia!!
Great regards,
Pablo

Niiiiice!

Hey peeps. My goal for modular is having a box for processing and sound design that I'm not really looking to ever have to use as a standalone system.

My main wants are processing modules and sound sources for sound designing and adding effects to techno projects or bass music in general.

Let me know if anything seems odd given those goals, this is my first setup I've designed and it has gone through many iterations.

I'm planning on just starting out with the ES-9 and the BIA (with the Morphagene hopefully following soon after).

Thanks for any feedback,
murals._..

Not yet, it's not. The site lists the CV/gate/vel and clock I/Os as a stretch goal, not available in the present version. And this was probably a big mistake on the developers' parts, given the amount of similar devices available that have that connectivity already.

It's not that this wouldn't be a useful device, mind you...I just think that the developers should've considered that connectivity from the beginning, not as an afterthought.

Thanks for listening!

Note to Self:

The O-CTRL lacks a quantizer, so I would need to add one to my rack. PNW cannot quantize inputs - only its own internal waves. I would probably want Sumdif if I add BIA so I don't have to mix it through the W/D knob of Morphagene or Arbhar. Trying to mix that way would be annoying and make it difficult to add effects to Morphagene or Arbhar output, alone. Therefore, this is really the minimum viable setup for adding BIA. This setup has 11 powered modules. Apparently I can add another ribbon cable to add the 11th module, but I would have to verify this.

EDITED Jun 15th 2020, 19:48

Here we got a new Midi controller, at the Kickstarter backer support.
I think that it is interesting to integrate whit modulars. They included recently CV/Gate whit pitch and velocity.
Take a look at the project...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/torsoelectronics/t-1-expressive-algorithmic-midi-sequencing/posts/2865472

Maybe a new flavor for modulars.

Cheers.
Pablo

CV/Gates on T-1
23 hour left

So, If anyone interested
Take a look
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/torsoelectronics/t-1-expressive-algorithmic-midi-sequencing/posts/2878481

EDITED Jul 7th 2020, 12:36

A quick Youtube of the current patch

I basically need a device that let's me create melodies without me having to have an idea about the melody first. And I need something that doesn't play like a piano or whatever.

I've watched tons of videos about the Varigate 4+ and it does what I want. The Conductive Labs NDLR would be great and maybe even better, but I can't buy it anywhere.

The Squarp Pyramid is a nice device, but again I have to punch in every single note for every step and then start playing around for each step. I can do all of these things with my current devices allready, as they all have 16step sequencers integrated.

Thks for sharing your experience and take time to write full explanation. I will try to use hosa cable (maybe Doepfer Adapter Cable 6.3/3.5 mm) to plug directly on soundcraft epm8. Maybe the release of the doepfer 130-8 octo vca mixer from doepfer could be also a gamechanger (or quad vca slim version to use output separatly and pan on soundcraft).

First of all, a disclaimer about taking my advice too seriously: I still consider myself to be very much in the amateur, or even hobbyist, category. Which is to say I don't have any official musical production training/education. I take my personal research very seriously and do my best to honor the knowledge and history that is shared here, but I'm no expert. So this is personal opinion.

That said, I am happy to share my experience. My personal modular system ended up like this:

And there are three very important pieces of external gear that go along with it:

• Digitakt - primary beats and clock source and sequencing
• SH01a - bass lines and chords
• Soundcraft Signature 12 MTK - mixer and audio interface to the computer

In the end I decided to relieve myself of doing beats in the modular because I would like to stick with only the Intellijel case. That's a combination of financial consideration + trying to force some constraints on myself so I maximize my use of what I have. The Digitakt also has the added bonus of its 8 MIDI tracks, which means I can use it to sequence my 3 modular sound sources (as you can see, there are 3 oscillators in there: Basimilus, Akemie's, Plaits), plus the SH01a. Which brings me to the mixer...

The sounds I like are very often crunchy, so I am OK with a not-perfect and not-pristine sound. So I did end up just going directly from the modular outputs into the mixer, also with 3.5mm to 1/4" hosa cables like @jburzy01 says above. I agree with the comments by @chaosnick above, but again, I am amateur hour here, so the sound is "good enough for rock and roll" for me. That's not to say I'm not tone obsessed, just that I have a pragmatic streak and don't kid myself that I am working with a professional studio. As an amateur, if I wanted to work towards clarity, I'd probably just stay entirely in the computer and DAW. That said, the "Peak" LED on the mixer does not light up on tracks from the modular. I have input gain buried to the left (i.e., as low as it goes) for most modules going in. Occasionally, I'll raise the input gain from the Erbe-Verb.

So generally, I have the Digitakt always going into the 9/10 stereo input channel. I always have my Chronoblob going into the other primary stereo input channel, 7/8, because it does stereo delays. And then one of the mono inputs gets the SH01a, say mixer track 6. After that, I usually have tracks 1-3 coming from the modular corresponding to patches using the Basimilus, Akemie's and Plaits. Then what I really like to do is feed the dry signals from any of these sound sources (Digitakt, SH01a, modular synth patches) via the mixer's sends back to the modular via the Intellijel Audio I/O to the Chronoblob or Erbe-Verb. And then I send the Erbe-Verb's outs directly to the mixer's mono tracks 4 and 5, which are hard-panned left and right, respectively. I also do similar things with sending a drum beat via one of the mixer's sends to the case, to the QPAS and back to the mixer.

Finally, the fact that the "MTK" version of this Soundcraft mixer has the multitrack USB connectivity to my computer, it is my interface to record directly into Ableton as discreet tracks.

This setup works for me, but the Basimilus is a pretty gritty FM sound, the Akemie's has its wonderfully, notoriously dirty/gritty sine waves an my favorite BHDSP2 patch is the granular delay. So I'm already in a slightly fuzzed out sonic space. If you are going for very clean/accurate sounds, you may want to focus more on some of the suggestions above regarding modules that step down to line level. I have kept @Lugia's comments to heart in case I get to the point where I feel it would be worthwhile to get more accurate sound.

But I spend many happy hours here for now...

I’m no expert since I don’t actually own one, but I’m almost certain what you described can be achieved with the Squarp Pyramid I already mentioned.

Also, the Varigate is a fantastic module but it doesn’t do what you seem to think it does. At this point, my suggestion would be to do a lot more research about existing midi sequencers you consider easy enough to purchase, reading product manuals carefully and what not, as well as reading about basic modular concepts such as gates vs CV etc, and probably also have a look at a few 1st rack advice threads on this forum which contain a ton of answers to many usual questions.

I'm new too, but I think what you want to do may be accomplished by routing your sound signal to a VCA audio input, and routing the ADSR to the corresponding VCA voltage input. So, VCO->Korgasmatron->VCA input, and ADSR->VCA CV input. Try it anyway. That stereo mixer looks nice.

At the moment I use Ableton and some Max-Plugins to create random melodies that I then feed into my Models:Samples or Cycles, but I would like something that doesn't require my PC. I've looked for standalone random melody boxes, that could simply send a midi-signal into my Model:Samples or Cycles, but such a thing does'nt exist.
-- jrs77

Sure it does: https://conductivelabs.com/ It's capable of that and a lot more besides; I have and use one myself.

-- Lugia

Projects like these I've found others aswell, but none of them are comercially available products, so I can't buy one of them. The newest of these interesting projects is the Torso T-1, but it's aswell only a kickstarter project so far.

EDITED Jun 14th 2020, 21:42

At the moment I use Max-Plugins in Ableton that create random patterns with a single mouse click (note, pitch and velocity), which I then modify to my liking and feed into my Model:Samples or Cycles through USB/Midi.
A standalone midi-device of this nature doesn't exist as far as I know, so I'm looking for the next best thing, which is something like the Varigate 4+, where I can simply play around with the sliders to create a "random melody".

Using the probability function and conditinal triggers doesn't help me that much, as I still need to first program note/pitch/velocity for each step on my Model:Samples or Cycles, beforehand.

So yeah, what I'm looking for is something that puts out random patterns/melodies within seconds of pressing a few knobs or pushing some sliders around, like on the Varigate 4+.

At the moment I use Ableton and some Max-Plugins to create random melodies that I then feed into my Models:Samples or Cycles, but I would like something that doesn't require my PC. I've looked for standalone random melody boxes, that could simply send a midi-signal into my Model:Samples or Cycles, but such a thing does'nt exist.
-- jrs77

Sure it does: https://conductivelabs.com/ It's capable of that and a lot more besides; I have and use one myself.