Hi Diego,

Perhaps you should buy an additional (monster) rack and get less worried about HP space ;-) I got quite a few VCAs but that Waldorf - DVCA1 is the best so far. I still want to try the ACL - VCA I have high expectations (on the quality) there too, but from a user interface point of view, I love the DVCA1, it's seriously worth it, that's why I bought a second unit quite some while ago and now I am considering to buy a third unit of it, it's that good :-) You don't have to CV (can "to CV" be a verb? :-) ) both linear and exponential, I usually CV only the exponential but manually you can adjust the knobs for linear as well as exponential and that gives it the extra touch. Beside that, and because of that (lin+exp both at the same time possible) you can boost the signal quite seriously (it can cause a distortion if you go too far with that; easily to be detected by a red LED that quite accurately indicates if you are going over the edge, i.e. going into distortion). If I have soft/low signals, I usually use the DVCA1 to boost it up. I am sure there are VCAs that can boost the signal even stronger than the DVCA1 can do but for me it's enough at +13.5 dB.

But okay, if you insist on not going bigger with your cases, then check out the Patching Panda - Punch module (I got the old version, it was a special offer; there is now a newer version 2 I think), that's really a punchy VCA module, I love that one too, totally different from the DVCA1 though and sometimes I feel the Punch module is unclear in usage but if you have sharp/punchy fast repetitive sounds that needs to get some kick in the a*** then Punch comes in handy!

If you hold a gun at my head and I have to make a choice between QPAS or the Black Dual VCF, then it's definitely going to be the Black Dual VCF. It's more direct control, easier to understand (at the beginning, on a more deeper level both modules shouldn't be under estimated their complexity though), and more... how to put that under words... direct fun (with QPAS it's a longer learning curve kind of fun)? If you want to play with the resonance then this Black Dual VCF module is yours! It can get totally crazy nuts but it's rather easy to keep the resonance under control as well. If you want an example of how this Black Dual VCF sounds, check out this track of mine:

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/forum/posts/index/8963

I demo there exactly this module! :-)

That kind of "searching for the frog" sound, I am "searching" that with this Black Dual VCF module, almost everything you hear here is almost all done by this Black Dual VCF!

For some more details please read my text at/in the above link and listen to that demo track, it should convince you to get this module! :-D

In this demo track I brought the resonance (far) over the edge :-) But you can control it a bit more subtle than I did here too.

I copy one of my comments here from that post:

I just can't stop playing with this filter, it really invites you to play around with it.

I hope that demo track will convince you and kind regards, Garfield.

For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads