User Posts

I've really been enjoying Knights Gallop from Shakmat for controlling my kick snare patterns. It is super playable, but it only generates two triggers meant for kick and snare from one clock . I just built a Time Wizard from Shakmat as well and am using that for hats and melodies now and have only had a couple of hours use, but I am liking it so far. Joining the different divisions into an OR gate can reveal some nice patterns and its just a knob twist to change the pattern up a bit. I have also found the Sl3kt from WMD useful for switching between patterns on the fly, so you can have one pattern playing while adjusting the other pattern and then you can switch with the flip of a switch.

I bought into the hate for in rack percussion when I was first getting started and bought a drum machine and immediately regretted it. It takes up more room on the desk. It's another power supply, bag, and cables needed to carry to gigs. It's more wires and connections to remember to make at the show. People say it can do what in rack can do, but it's just not true. Yes, it can make drum sounds and can even have accents. Yes you can program sequences and store multiple sequences to switch between. Yes it can be clocked from your system or be a clock for your system. That's about it though. It can't be immediately tweaked and adjusted to fit an improvised set. It cant react to changes you make in the melody as you make those changes, or build and swell and fall with an LFO that is building dynamics within your set. It is not immediate and it is not a part of your system. It is a thing on the side that needs to be adjusted constantly or preprogrammed methodically to not just be a constant rhythm marching through your set and not allowing it to breathe and move. Yes, it will cost you more money, but what you get is miles beyond what a drum machine can do. That argument is like saying don't build a modular synth, just buy a keyboard synth. It completely ignores the whole point of modular. The setup I am building towards will be about $10k and it will have one acid bass line with a simple VCO, filter, distortion, delay. It will have a kick drum that uses three different modules to get the shape and flexibility I want. It will be using Erica Synths Sample Drum with two different noise samples being triggered at a time(and the two samples being triggered cycle via CV from Mimetic digitalis for variety/accents) and crossfaded into one voice. It will have high hats that probabilistically cycle between two variable noise sources fed into two low pass gates which are then crossfaded together into a hit and an accent which will also be varied by the gates/triggers sent to the LPGs. There will be multiple feedback sources that can be shaped into tones/textures that can be modulated by the rhythm, or an LFO, or both. Feeding all of it, I have Pams, Knights Gallop, Time Wizard, and Bin Seq feeding two different rhythms into a sL3kt to switch between on the fly, so I can be shaping/modifying one rhythm while the other is playing. They will also be providing timing for the bass line, effects, feedback shaping etc. From Sl3kt the triggers get fed into Idum which can mutate/modify the rhythm at will. I have mutes to shut down or change gate routing at will. There will be effects after all this, but the effects could be after your drum machine if you wanted to do it that way(which you should). The point of my rig is to be able to play it spontaneously and be able to shape and shift the rhythms to fit the feel of whatever I am doing in that moment. I am an improvisational person so this is ideal for me and was the whole draw of modular synthesis for me. I'm sure that a drum machine fits a lot of peoples needs, but the way in rack drums are tossed out as unreasonable is silly to me as the entire point of modular is to build the instrument you want to build.

Yes.

FIRST ROW
- first module “the trigger sequencer” for the Jomox. I don’t know if I want to go just with a knob to assign steps to the sequence. I would prefer to do it with pads. Maybe even through a kind of MIDI controller (or keyboard)
- same for the synth part. I own an Arturia Keystep and I could use it to play and sequence the Bouchla 258t.
- the Antimatter Audio Crossfold seems cool (watching some Youtube videos) and the Dual Borg filter sounds amazing.

For a sequencer with pads checkout the new TrigSec-1 from Tenderfoot Electronics. He is also coming out with a new clock with some great features. It is tempting me to reconfigure the reconfiguration of my drum pod...

I have my drums setup in a 64hp 4ms Pod. Currently it looks like this...

But I am not super happy with it. It requires external clock input and while Kompass is pretty great it only has three triggers out and I need more than that so I am still pulling more triggers and gates from Pams in my main case.

This is the dream that will eventually be reality.

The Shakmat Clock O Pawn is awesome and the Time Wizard is great too and provides all the triggers I would need and is super playable. I have really liked what I have heard/seen from the Prok drums and I have one Disting mk4 for samples and one for effects. The vortices mixer is overkill, but the feedback looping you can do with it is crazy. Ochd is just there to modulate things. The only thing I am missing is a way to sidechain the kick.

Theres no way to have the Beatstep Pro send a gate to the O_C when it starts?

I don't personally have one, but the guy I jam with has two, the reverb tail generator and the delay and they are built super solid like all NE stuff and the two together are a whole lot of fun. Im out of space/money at the moment or I would buy them.

The Void Modular stuff is heavy, definitely check it out.

Definitely clears things up. I always forget about the LFOs from Pams and I'm not familiar with the Behringer modules. I would probably second the 0_C as a multi function module to fill that space and fill any role you need in a pinch, or maybe a triple sloths to add subtle movement to your patches. You can get two sloths with the o_C using the Lo Rentz app though, so that might be the better fit still.

How are you mixing all of this? How will you be modulating all of this? How will you be utilizing all those Midi inputs?

I have the 4ms Ensemble Oscillator and love it. Modulating the spread to create melodies over the core melody is super satisfying. Not sure what exactly you are after, but that module sounds amazing. You could also go with a 4ms Listen Four or Four Quarters(depending on what outputs you want) and it will replace your output module and allow for 2 panable mono channels and 2 full stereo channels of input as well as a headphone out and not take up too much space.

I will third the 4ms Ensemble Oscillator. You can get some really beautiful drones with it and then use CV to affect the spread and it just gets better.

Look into Schlappi Engineering Boundary to replace/complient Maths.

I have two Pamela's New Workout modules and my new favorite is Shakmat Clock O Pawn with Shakmat Time Wizard. No menu diving, easy to use and works great. It does not have as many features as Pam but far simpler to understand and use. I bought it as an extra clock and clock divider/multiply module to improve my understanding of clock modulation with Eurorack.
-- sacguy71

I was considering a second Pams for my drum skiff rework, but I think I am going to go with the Clock O Pawn/Time Wizard route. I want the drum rig to be as immediate/hands on as possible and that combo looks like tons of fun.

Thanks for the info on the difference between exponential and linear VCAs. I moved some stuff around and actually pulled the Qu-bit Prism because it is fairly redundant with the Data Bender. I switched the TangledQ for the exponential Doepfer so I have some variety in my VCAs and it made room to add an FXAid XL and keep the Ornament & Crime. I hate menu diving, but that module is such a swiss army knife in a case like this. Here is the current take:

I do have a lot of VCAs! I will work on it and see if I can get creative while I wait for the holidays to pass and money to be mine again.

I have been looking for good compression for the drums. I had looked at the 1u Golden Master, but people said it was noisy. Most people liked the 3u so that might end up in the drum skiff. The Mutant Hot Glue looks amazing, but big, and space is limited for now. I definitely want my rhythm section to be able to cut through better than it is. I hadn't thought of using on of my attenuators to boost it before. More things to think over.

I can do ducking with Boundary or Cascade, but that takes away their use as my main envelope generators. I have rarely found myself using the octal VCA because there are built in VCAs in the Boundary, Cascade, Doepfer LFO, and I have the Tangled Quartet as well as Skis in the drum skiff. Quantas Ampla would only eliminate 4 VCAs out of 17 total and give me the ability to duck four channels at once with one gate synced to the kick which the Bastl Tea Kick has a square out as well as the kick out. It will be a while before I can afford to get Data Bender, so I will continue to use the O&C and Tides and see what I can get out of them. I haven't used Tides as a VCO yet, so maybe that's what tonight will bring!

Here is the main case:

Here is the drum skiff:

Here is the Zoia/Voice skiff:

I also have a Naked Boards MC- 8 to control parameters of the Zoia, which I mostly use as end of chain effects and some utilities.

I still have a Make Noise 0-CTRL on order from when I first set out on this costly journey.

I have not purchased the Data Bender, the Ochd, and the Quantas Ampla as money has run out. In their place I have a tides knock off, an ornament and crime knock off, and a Doepfer 6hp 8xVCA. I need the ducking possibilities of the Quantas Ampla and don't really need all 8 VCAs on the Doepfer so I think thats a good trade. I have mostly been using the O&C as a random generator or a sloth and I have been using Tides as modulation as well. The hope is to replace those two with Ochd and create room for Data Bender. It wont be as good, but It should fill the role. I feel like I could use more random once I lose those two, but space is running out.

The drum skiff is probably the weakest and will be the next thing to overhaul when time/money permits.

Any thoughts/recommendations?

Id suggest a Soundmachine LS1 lightstrip or two to have tactile control and instant release over whatever parameter you want.

I've heard not so great things about the Endorphin.es 1u compressor. I would suggest going with their 1u mixer as it has built in sidechaining. You can get your drums all mixed together and sent to whatever other system you want.

I recently pulled out most of my drum/rhythm modules out of my rack to free up some space, and put them in this 64hp 4ms skiff. I think it came together pretty well and is a easy to transport fun little rhythm machine. It needs a clock in and I have to have some triggers off the main rack to get full use of everything at once, but it gets pretty chaotic with everything blasting at once. What do you think?

Maths is an extremely versatile and capable module, the size of it is its only downfall. In a small system like this every HP counts. In the end it is your system and if you already have the modules and they are accomplishing the tasks you want, keep going and have some fun with it!

I would suggest replacing Maths with a Schlappi Engineering Boundary. It can do most of what a Maths can do in an easier to use and smaller form factor. That would free up 8HP which opens you up to a lot of options.