your ideas on this rack update?

Hi folks,

My new 15Ux126HP Case from Lake! has arrived, and with it I am re-racking some modules, and arriving at this:

I'm curious to hear your ideas on this and if there are any obvious improvements. Below I'll go through i) my purposes for this rig and ii) my current ideas for likely changes.

The purpose for this rig is to have an inspiring and powerful mobile rig, mainly for use at my GF's place in the company of her and the cats(!!!), but more broadly to have a good mobile modular instrument. It is indeed mobile, thanks to Case from Lake!, but fully loaded a bit of a pain to move around, about as much (or little) fun to move around as a small drum kit. The musical purposes for this rig are:
1. provide a playground for sound design
2. provide some deep sequencing capabilities, including opportunities explore extended sequencing techniques (e.g. sequencing sequencers)
3. have enough perc voices and lanes to do some interesting rhythm programming in modular
4. have enough basic mix and FX capabilities to do a rough mix in modular
5. be able to record several tracks of audio and CV to a laptop (currently covered by ES8&6). I don't plan to get a full song out of the rig at any one time, but to get some key pitched and perc tracks out of it (via ES8&6) should be doable. Net net I'd like to be able to rough out track ideas on this rig, suck them into the DAW, and finish them there.

My current sense of this rig:
a) it feels both inspiring and unbalanced. Yay that it's inspring! I doubt I'll ever fully balance this rig, but a little more balance might help.
b) yes, I've gone OTT on oscillators (top two rows). Note that maybe half of those work well as perc voices also. I intend to keep 75%+ of the top two rows dedicated to "voicing."
c) middle row is sequencing. Of course mainly these will be doing pitched voice and perc sequencing. Vector's 8 tracks would be enough for most applications. The other sequencers are there to give me some options: different UI and workflow, some more lanes, some more opportunities for complex sequencing (e.g. switching or sequencing sequencers, etc.). I DO plan to run some sequencing to Xaoc Lipsk when that arrives, which should allow me to sequence timbres / wavefolding; Flux to Lipsk is an intriguing possibility. On the middle row, I feel like Vector+Extender will always be there, but some of the other stuff might get swapped out for more "workhorse" alternatives.
d) 4th row (from top) is CV and utilities. I feel >80% good about this row. Sum & Difference I don't seem to use much. I might try to free up space for another Quad VCA.
e) bottom row is sound mangling, FX, mix, and output. Module order is kinda strange (due to case depth limitations in some places). Basically on the left I've got sound mangling (XAOC Leibniz units, wavefolder, filter), middle is several mix & fx units, and right hand side is signal out. The WORNG unit is in that row to fill some rough-mix / spatialize duties.

My current sense of opportunities for revisions:
-- more filtering. I'm not a huge filter user, but this rig could benefit from more filtering options. Any suggestions on i) stereo filters that would fit well here or ii) LPGs with lots of lanes per HP (which might be great adds to the perc sound design)?
-- more mixdown lanes in small HP: the Doepfer + WORNG units are not really cutting it presently. I would gladly take suggestions for simple but HP efficient mix solutions to consider swapping in.
-- more switching / logic for complex sequencing: BossBowII (when available) or similar might be good for helping me get the sequencer lanes interacting musically with each other
-- another obvious possibility is to move the E370 out of this rig, as it is so huge! But for the near future, it is staying.
-- obviously most of the HP is already claimed, so any swap ins will require removing a lower priority module. And FYI I already own a lot of these modules (I've been re-racking them to the new case).

Curious to hear any ideas / responses you might have to the above rig, thanks!

Nicholas

EDITED Jul 16th 2022, 21:22

Mixing lanes: Jim's been big on the Tesseract TexMix series, and I've come to appreciate the simplicity and size aspects they've got. Plus, you can build onto a TexMix if/when necessary...with quad mono or stereo strip modules, and you also get a really nice AUX send/return implementation.

The only other thing that jumps out at me as far as changes to the present build is that you might want to move the buffered mult and precision adder in row #2 to the left end of the row. That way, they're a little more convenient (you don't have to dive into a patchcord jungle) and the cables to the oscillators can be dressed over the top of the unit if needed.

E370: Don't take it out! If it fits as well as it does here, then that's a sign you're doing something right.

Switching/logic: BassBow II might be able to do that, but it might be even more interesting to use a bunch of branched 3 or 4-step sequential switches (like Doepfer's A-151), and then drive them with various clocks. With that, you can whip up some really complicated sequencer line behavior. Screams for Boolean logic!

Ya done good, Nick!

Hi Nick

wow that's a big case... I think I'd have gone for 2*9u instead of 1 big case... which would have left an extra row for expansion!

mixing really needs to be addressed... especially with so many voices

lpgs - take a look at the jolin labs - 8 in 6hp
filters - alm dual dagger - dual filter 6hp
switches - doepfer a151 - 4 way switch in 4hp

what are the low priority modules? which modules are you still to purchase, if any?

have you tried the harmonic oscillator in stages? might be able to replace the verbos - don't know never tried either...

do you really need the data - could you replace it with the korg - or vcv rack when you need a scope?

I count 37 audio rate outputs in the top 2 rows - some could do with sub-mixers by the look of it - maybe 3 or 4 4hp cp3 style ones...

doesn't seem to be much for cv mixing - obviously I'd want a matrix mixer...

I think we need to see how much space there really is for the mixing solution before working on it...

filters - alm dual dagger - dual filter 6hp
-- JimHowell1970

I assume you mean Shakmat's Dual Dagger ;-) Amazing little module, 4 filters to play with !

EDITED Jul 18th 2022, 08:00

@Lugia, thanks for the suggestions and thumbs up!

@Jim, thanks for the ideas! Lots of points you raised, I'll try to respond to the major ones below:
-- The Jolin LPG bank you mentioned is likely a great fit here.
-- "Mixing really needs to be addressed..." Agreed! Working backwards, ES8+6 give me 10 outs to DAW, I don't see myself needing more than that with this setup. Lots of potential ways to manage the up to 10 voices, let's say main options are 4 mono + 3 stereo pairs, or 6 mono + 2 stereo pairs. I have some spare Doepfer A-138N (4-ch narrow mixer) I could slot in, those can cover some mono needs. I'm inclined to get 1 Intellijel Mixup, which seems like a low $ and HP way to up the mix channel count, and a 2nd Mixup (if needed) could later be added and chained to the first. Also, SoundStage is a new module for me, I need some more soak time to get a sense of how I'll likely use it... I'm inclined to run a LOT of my pitched sources through it and treat it like a stereo sound-field out. Net net, my current sense is another 10-16HP devoted to mixing could really meet the needs for this setup.
-- you mentioned CV mixing. On that end I've got Sum&Diff, SISM, and Morph4. Do you have a more preferred setup for CV mixing / mangling? I did see your suggestion of a matrix mixer, just wondering if there's anything more / less to your preferred CV mix setup?
-- "low priority modules" and remaining space. As of today, I've got 95%+ of the modules above (most being re-racked from earlier cases into the new case). AND there's some fluidity between this setup and my home setup. My home setup has all its major functional needs covered, and some HP to spare, so if I want to pull a few items out of the travel rig (above) and slot them into the home rig, that works fine. BUT I think where we're netting out is I'll probably need to free up 16-26HP in the rig above for LPG and mixing additions. In my next few sessions with the setup, I'll focus on (top) rows 1-3 to check which of those modules I least need in this setup.
-- likely next steps: add Jolin LPGs and a little more mixing capability, and get a bunch more soak time with the setup before other changes (if needed).

@Toodee, thanks for the clarification above, that sounds right.

Thanks a lot for the review and suggestions folks!

EDITED Jul 17th 2022, 22:49

filters - alm dual dagger - dual filter 6hp
-- JimHowell1970

I assume you mean Shakmat's Dual Dagger ;-) Amazing little module, 4 filters to play with !

-- toodee

yes - got the manufacturer wrong... old(ish) age...

@Jim, thanks for the ideas! Lots of points you raised, I'll try to respond to the major ones below:
-- The Jolin LPG bank you mentioned is likely a great fit here.
-- "Mixing really needs to be addressed..." Agreed! Working backwards, ES8+6 give me 10 outs to DAW, I don't see myself needing more than that with this setup. Lots of potential ways to manage the up to 10 voices, let's say main options are 4 mono + 3 stereo pairs, or 6 mono + 2 stereo pairs. I have some spare Doepfer A-138N (4-ch narrow mixer) I could slot in, those can cover some mono needs. I'm inclined to get 1 Intellijel Mixup, which seems like a low $ and HP way to up the mix channel count, and a 2nd Mixup (if needed) could later be added and chained to the first. Also, SoundStage is a new module for me, I need some more soak time to get a sense of how I'll likely use it... I'm inclined to run a LOT of my pitched sources through it and treat it like a stereo sound-field out. Net net, my current sense is another 10-16HP devoted to mixing could really meet the needs for this setup.

quite possibly!

-- you mentioned CV mixing. On that end I've got Sum&Diff, SISM, and Morph4. Do you have a more preferred setup for CV mixing / mangling? I did see your suggestion of a matrix mixer, just wondering if there's anything more / less to your preferred CV mix setup?

good start, but I find matrix mixers to be incredibly useful for cv - take copies of n modulation sources and get n different, but related and more complex ones out - I have 2 in my system that's about 1200hp for audio at the moment - they're of the smaller 10hp variety (& diy) personally if I were going to buy again (add on more likely than upgrade) I'd go for either the doepfer (bigger and better ergonomics) and/or the 4ms vcam (cv controllable) and/or one of the nlc offerings (cluster/clump - again better ergonomics and/or cv control)

-- "low priority modules" and remaining space. As of today, I've got 95%+ of the modules above (most being re-racked from earlier cases into the new case). AND there's some fluidity between this setup and my home setup. My home setup has all its major functional needs covered, and some HP to spare, so if I want to pull a few items out of the travel rig (above) and slot them into the home rig, that works fine. BUT I think where we're netting out is I'll probably need to free up 16-26HP in the rig above for LPG and mixing additions. In my next few sessions with the setup, I'll focus on (top) rows 1-3 to check which of those modules I least need in this setup.

yeah I think that's where I'd be looking too... I'd much rather have fewer sound sources and be able to route them more places and effect them more than be sound source heavy... remember you can mult outputs to different filters/effects and the fx aid has pitch and frequency shifters etc so I'd probably throw one of those in too - probably instead of scales - not sure how much use you'd get especially as you seem to have a 'battleship' sequencer with the vector and expander - with pitch already quantized

-- likely next steps: add Jolin LPGs and a little more mixing capability, and get a bunch more soak time with the setup before other changes (if needed).

sounds like a plan...

have fun!