User Posts

Hi Andrés,

Well let me start to remind you of the reply and advice that Lugia already provided here, so please keep that in mind. Then I am sorry to let you know that I have barely any experience with a DAW and no experience at all with MAX, so I can't help you much about these two.

Naturally I can (and I will, a bit further down here) help you with having a look at your rack. On the other hand... most likely I am the worst person to ask since I like to have for my own rack setup lots of space for future module extensions. So for me a rack never can be big enough, it only can be too small ;-)

Okay let's put those above-mentioned things here aside and have a look at your suggested above module setup, not keeping in mind a DAW or MAX usage, just a "simple" and plain modular setup. From that point of view, I will here below provide my feedback. Please note that might be here and there quite critical, that's not meant in anyway bad way, you just pick out the best parts for yourself and you take it from there.

I do see you have a Plaits, that's a great module, I have that one myself and I use it quite often. I would like to suggest you however to look into at least another voice to provide enough variety. So get another VCO. There are tons of modules available for that purpose, if you want to take it easy consider a Make Noise - STO module, great small module that provides a good sound and some patching possibilities.

Is that just me or can't I find any filters at all in your rack? A rack without a filter is... boring? ;-) You need to consider at least two filters to give it some variety. One filter can be a multimode filter the other filter entirely up to you what you prefer or like to do with it. I, myself, like crazy filters, a Doepfer A-124 Wasp filter is great for going bananas and the little milder yet still great filter A-106 SEM filter are good ones or perhaps I should say: they are my favourites :-) If you want something else yet interesting an Erica Synths - Black Dual VCF is a great stereo filter. Different then the Doepfer yet a big feast to use it! There are so many filters, in a way it is better to have any filter than not having a filter at all ;-)

I do notice you have planned two drum/percussion related modules being the Akemie's Taiko and the Intellijel Plonk modules, I don't have them myself but I do believe these are good modules, however to start with modular and already look into percussion & drum stuff while not even have covered the basics, mwah... If you have a good percussion/drum solution outside your modular, then stick with that first, get experience with a simple modular setup first. Once you are comfortable with that you could then start to look into which parts of drums and percussion you want to consider to take that into modular... If you want to have drums/percussion fully done by modular, yes that's of course possible but that doesn't go cheap neither that goes low in HP space I am afraid.

I noticed you planned Quadrax as your LFO and Quad VCA as your VCA, fair enough I guess. Keep in mind that it's nice to have a second or even a third LFO. The same goes for VCAs, the famous slogan here on this forum is: "You never can have enough VCAs" and that's not too much off from the truth, so you could consider a second VCA. I am crazy about the Waldorf DVCA1, the best VCA module in the world, at least to me that is (and for the moment, haven't discovered yet a better one) however I can imagine it's not everybody's cup of tea since it's a large module, however it's a great dual VCA. Waldorf stopped producing modules so if you are interested you should hurry and get one before it's everywhere sold out. Otherwise consider a Xoac Devices Tallin dual VCA, much smaller module, yet still a good dual VCA. There are tons of VCAs, many of them are good.

Mimeophon is definitely a great module, it's on my wish list too however it's a bit large for a rather small rack, so you might want to reconsider this, up to you. Yes, it's good to have at least one or two effects in your modular setup, so from that point of view it's good and you can keep it in your rack --> hence, again, consider a larger rack ;-)

Are you going to use your DAW only or are you going to use an external mixer as well? In case you are going to use an external mixer, you might want to consider the Expert Sleepers - ES-9 instead, I know that one is bloody expensive but it provides you an audio output towards your external mixer. Other options for audio interfaces are Intellijel - Audio I/O, Befaco Out v3, Bastl Instruments - Ciao! and many others. If you like XLR inputs & outputs then consider ACL - Audio Interface or Vermona - Tai-4.

I might have overlooked it but I think I didn't see any envelopes (EGs), so get at least one, better to have at least two. If you want to get started with a simple one consider a Doepfer A-140, great ADSR for not too much money.

I haven't even started about utility modules but start to look into the above. Seriously consider a larger rack and reconsider certain choices of your modules. Good luck with the planning, check all type of modules, the more you investigate, read and check the more things might get clearer or not because there is a lot to check ;-) Once you have updated your rack, let us know then let's have a look again. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Eexee,

If you have to put the attack up to 5-6 then I am afraid you might have another issue going on, that shouldn't be the case. I don't know which Doepfer ADSR you have, if it's just the A-140, the one I am using too, then make sure that how often you trigger your ADSR should be roughly in the rhythm of the ADSR itself as well, that's how I call that for myself, not sure how to put this properly under words.

What I mean with that is that if you offer very fast gates to a (Doepfer) ADSR/EG then make sure you put the ADSR in fast mode, i.e. put that time range switch to L (low time, so high speed) or M (medium time/speed) but not H (high time thus low speed) and visa versa so if you provide a slow trigger set the ADSR to H (high time, thus slow speed). Once that's corresponding to each other than I don't think there is a need to put the attack so high to avoid clicks.

Let me know if that works out for you and good luck. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Andrés,

Nah, nothing is crazy within modular, that's the fun part of it. You can do almost anything and it usually turns out into a lot of fun, that's the big pro of modular :-D I just wanted to warn you that it can become (very) expensive but if that doesn't frighten you off too much then yeah, go for it! :-) Your indicated budget is a slightly bit low but for starters it should get you somewhere if you plan your rack carefully and if you allow yourself to add something to that budget over the years, then I guess it's fine.

However to do yourself a pleasure for the near future, plan a bit larger case and you really don't have to plan it fully occupied by modules, keep half or at least one third empty, you are going to need that space for the (near) future. My advice for a minimum case size is either 3 x 84 HP or 2 x 168 HP. The Doepfer A-100 LMS9 is 3 x 168 HP and here in Europe the cheapest available case if you count it back to a "Euro per HP" price. That might sound now totally over the top to you but it really isn't once you get deep into modular (not even that deep).

Well, good luck with the planning then and welcome to modular :-D Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Modulargrid,

Yes, for me, the use case would be very similar to Troux as well. It's nice to make extra copies of the rack, so in case you screw up one, you have a saved copy. It's also sometimes nice and good to look back to older racks I was using, they still might contain good ideas of how to setup a rack.

I also would prefer to use date stamps in the names so one can go back in history (not really using that yet because that would use lots of space). Sometimes it's handy to go back to an old rack. So Lugia's suggestion to be able to export the racks and save them locally that would be indeed the most flexible and, at least from me as a user, the best option. I could save up to hundreds or even thousands of racks locally (just an example, not saying I will ever have so many) and if I want to see them I delete a few on ModularGrid and upload then those I want to check again.

It's then also easier to do some rack suggestions for other users, I reduced that once I noticed that goes down from my "total to use number of racks". Though... once I would export them those would be no longer visible for those users then... hmm... that wouldn't solve that problem I am afraid. Okay, so increasing a bit the maximum number of racks might be still useful for that issue :-)

Naturally you could increase the maximum number of racks for a Unicorn account, that would be the easiest short term solution for you ;-) However sooner or later this question comes back to you then.

I do indeed believe that creating an archive solution might be pretty intensive work for you, so perhaps having the possibility to export it and saving it locally for the Unicorn accounts and at a later point upload them again, why not? Do you see any issues with that? Virus? Is that not somehow to be avoided? And for Unicorn accounts that are no longer Unicorn accounts, well these accounts can't upload and/or export/download then any longer any racks saved locally.

Naturally, I don't want you to force into anything, you need to feel comfortable in keep supporting this great ModularGrid.net website, that's the most important thing, but if there is a small chance of having racks exported locally, now that would be fantastic! :-) In which format, I don't care much as long as it is MacOS compatible and I (as a user) can then upload it again here into my racks overview on ModularGrid.net

That are my 2 cents, thank you very much in advance and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Andrés,

Ha, ha, that's a nice and funny track :-) Since you got that working nicely, why would you like to do this with modular? Sounds good to me already how it is now! Going modular is very expensive and this sounds already so good, not sure if with less money for modular you are getting this any better than what you have now already?

Up to you of course but perhaps you should reconsider going modular? Of course I don't want to talk you away from modular but please believe me, modular is going to cost a fortune, even if you plan to spend for the moment not much... I do speak here from experience, so can many other members here.

Anyway, either way you go, I wish you good luck with your nice, funny and experimental music and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Eexee,

That's strange that Doepfer ADSRs give you "clicks". One hint that might help is that the potentiometers should never be exactly zero for (Doepfer) ADSRs, well, of course you can do it, but perhaps that's why there are "clicks"? Just stay a little bit (really not much just a bit) away from the zero and you shouldn't face any "clicks".

I hope that helps and kind regards, Garfield.

Feature request: add the ability to archive racks for when you're tired of looking at them but don't want to delete them!
-- troux

+1 for me :-)

P.S. / Edit: Since that would costs storage on the web server, it might be considered to make this available to unicorn accounts only?

EDITED Aug 9th 2021, 00:53

Hi Gumbo23,

Ha, ha, I love this track, so much fun to listen at! :-) Beautiful, interesting and humouristic sounds you got there. Lots of resonance sounds ;-)

Keep on coming with tracks like these, they make my day and make me smile :-D Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Steve,

Wow, a new album, that's great! With EP do you mean the real thing on a vinyl record? That would be fantastic! :-)

All tracks make use of a lot of fun sounds, nice and attractive to the listener! From those four tracks, my favourite is the Wednesday Acid track. Kind of relaxing to listen at. By the way, how is the Metropolix?

Thanks a lot for sharing this and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Funbun,

Nice video as always and nice to know your music is made by your modular system :-)

Can't wait for the next video how this canoe story continues! Thank you very much for sharing with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Yes this is a lovely, nice, long jam :-) So beautiful and relaxed, music like this I could hear all day long!

Makes me think about getting a Chainsaw too :-) I put it on my wish list. Thanks for this great demo of the Chainsaw :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Glitchedxoff,

I have the Doepfer A-140 and I like it, it's good quality for a good basic ADSR. I love the inverse output on this module that at certain times comes in very handy.

The Erica Synths Black HADSR EG and the Black VC EG modules are great too. HADSR gives you one more stage, the hold stage. The VC EG gives you control on a per stage level by CVs, lovely module this is. Both of these modules have extension modules available that can be used to give you even more control (and outputs).

Good luck for the search for a great EG and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Farkas,

Brilliant! In that sense that I admire your courage to just get started, recording and yes, really getting started, getting into it :-) That's nice to hear and to see in the video. The jazz I am missing a slightly bit here in this jam, other than that great work!

Thanks a lot for sharing this, have a good weekend and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Nickgreenberg,

Sorry about my rushed-off reply from yesterday night, I was about to go to bed but I wanted to give you a first reply. Thanks again for your feedback as well as for your kind remarks, much appreciated :-)

Regarding your first point about shortening the report, indeed that seems to be the good way forward, similar feedback received already and together with Plragde looking into this. I think I follow up here on the advice from Plragde to split the document; I still need to work out that idea a bit more and I might need to update my website for that a bit but I think I will go that road yes. Still the contents of it I will leave for the moment about the same, naturally feedbacks that I receive and those that I consider worthwhile to implement, I will do so accordingly.

Then about the speed... hmm yes, what I did is, I made a very extensive template for my review reports. So the large "text" work has already been done, so that part is mostly copy/paste however for every module I have to check the about 200+ parameters that might be different for each module. Then the functionality (chapter 5) is different for each module or might be different and that needs to be fine tuned to the functionality of the module that I am reviewing. Similar for chapters 4 and 6 and of course the summarise chapter 2.

About your second point, I explained that already yesterday to you. Yes, if I would have more time I could do a video as well. On the other hand, as already explained, I do think there are already enough videos available on Youtube ;-) But perhaps in the far future I might change my mind about this matter. Let's see.

Your third point, has some overlap with the speed matter from your first point; so for that please refer to my reply to your above first point. About more interesting modules, ha, ha, yes I certainly understand your point here, as also already explained yesterday, over time I will build up my experience (I hope at least I will) and then slowly and step by step I will look into the more interesting and complicated modules, however that will take its time.

Yes, that list of Doudoroff's sequencers is great, isn't it? Very good point :-) That's in the future "already covered" in my review reports in paragraph 5.5 - Comparing this module with other modules; currently marked as a placeholder only. Once I have more time, I am going to look into that and come up with a template for that paragraph as well as I need to have enough modules with one and the same functionality to be able to compare them with each other. This is something I definitely want to work on, not sure how soon but that's one of my priorities! Thanks a lot for pointing this out :-)

He, he, 15 minutes to check out a module? :-) Isn't that a bit (too) short? :-) Not that I want you to force into anything else other than what you prefer to do of course. For a simple module like a Doepfer A-140 ADSR or Doepfer A-145 LFO I might indeed also look only an hour or so into it, however for me at least, the other extreme is the Vector (Five12) sequencer over more than a year-and-a-half time span I think I spend certainly a month perhaps even two months (in total and let's say a few hours per day) time to investigate sequencers, checked that Doudoroff's list and checked almost all interesting sequencers. For me choosing a good sequencer was so far the most intensive research and most difficult decision. Luckily the Vector plus expander doesn't let me down, it's a great sequencer by the way.

Don't get me wrong here, point taken from you, this is very valuable information for me to understand the reader better. So lesson learnt for me: I need to focus on keeping the review report as compact as possible, so a quicker check for the reader is easier and better possible. In that sense, thanks a lot for your input :-)

The "what's in it for me" I answered already, to summarise that, this is for me a fantastic hobby and for a fantastic hobby I don't mind to spend tons of time :-)

Thank you very much, I hope with my style of answering I don't frighting you off and I hope you keep coming with your feedback in the future if you notice anything that's worth letting me know. Till then, I wish you a good weekend, enjoy modular and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

Thanks a lot for your reply. As already mentioned in my previous post to you, I added the "Reverse power protection" parameter, you might have missed it :-)

Those voltage ranges for each output and/or input, is actually a good one. The part that disturbs me a bit here is that for this kind of information most manufacturers even don't bother to provide such information neither on their websites nor in their manuals. Yes, I know there are a few manufacturers who provide this information, then again not consequently over all their modules...

That makes it even more difficult for me to provide a consequent stream of "equal information" (as that's what it seems to me you are looking for, and I actually do look for that too) regarding that matter. I added the reverse power protection parameter since I do think that's indeed good to have that information quickly available, you got a good point there and thank you very much for that.

Regarding the voltage ranges for the jacks, yes it's a very valid and good point too however for the moment I do see a practical issue about that (since the manufacturers barely provide this information, i.e. as explained above) that I am not going to include that as part of the parameters in chapter 3 however the little good news for you is, for those modules where this information is provided, I usually add that in the flow diagram in paragraph 5.4. So what you could do for the time being till the manufacturers will provide more regularly this information, is to check out paragraph 5.4, if a module has been provided with this information then you can find it in the flow diagram.

Thanks a lot for your feedback, have a good weekend and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gumbo23,

Ha, ha, this is cool, dub music done by a modular system! Bravo! :-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Plragde,

Thank you very much for your honest opinion. Just while I was reading your reply, some idea of splitting the document came up to my mind. Let me give that idea some more time to grow and I need to chew on that a bit longer, I just might have found a way to reduce the review report, just looking at the number of pages; roughly reducing it by half. The contents will stay for the moment the same, I guess but I might need to work on that too.

Thanks again, I need to catch some sleep, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Nickgreenberg,

Wow, thank you very much for your extensive feedback and post! That's very kind of you :-) It's getting late here. I need more time to process your information and give it some thoughts where and how it can help me.

To some of the general information and questions you provide, I can give already some information:

Well... the entire idea of mine to come up with a text-only (but including figures, diagrams, etc.) review report had a good reason, at least to start with like I do it now. I didn't wanted to be the one-thousandth-and-one Youtube reviewer of module X or Y. There are already so many reviewers doing videos that I don't think it would make much sense that I would be just one more person adding videos to Youtube. I still might do that in the mid/far future however it's not planned for the next few years (I think/guess but you never know).

I mean, look at what you already concluded and which I agree with, there are two or three good reviewers, check their Youtube videos and then you have already a certain impression (good or bad) about a certain module. And I was hoping here is where I come in then ;-) Once you are interested in a certain module that you then would check if I would have written a review report about it to check those details that interest you, you don't have to read the entire review report (if you don't like to spend too much time), just those bits and bytes that might interest you or where you want to know more specific/technical information about. Check at least chapter 2 and then whatever parts of the document depending on what kind of information you are looking for. If you miss certain things please do let me know.

There are at least two reasons why I do... let's say the less fancy modules... One is, there are less reviews of those modules on Youtube as well, the other reason and that one is perhaps "what's in it for me" is that I learn from it as well. Creating review reports is for me a kind of way to force myself to go deeper into one particular module, trying to completely understand it, hence only then I am able to create in Visio a flow diagram for paragraph 5.4 and some other stuff that I otherwise wouldn't know or at least not for sure. I also want to start rather with easy and not too complicated functionality because I have to build up experience and I don't want straight away to start with complicated modules. The chance that I would overlook important facts or even would write something that might not be correct at all is then much higher and that's what I want to avoid. If I write a review report of a module, I want and I have to:
- completely understand that module, even if it's only then when I get started with writing the review report
- it needs to be based as much as possible on facts, not emotional feelings or whatsoever, as "clean" and "neutral" as possible, with the exception of course of chapter 2 where I give my own opinion (and a few other paragraphs, see the review report for such exceptions; I mention that clearly so the reader know if it's just my opinion or something fact-base)
- I need to kind of like the module or at least I want to stand behind it what I am writing in the review report
- I want to have used the module for quite some time before getting to start to write a review report

The last reason, is the reason why I asked Farkas (in the here above posts) if he can wait a bit. Yes, I do have that A-103 filter module but because of my new studio setup I had no time at all yet to start use that module. So, I want to build up some experience first before I start to write a review report about it. Now is this module a bit similar (but not the same of course) to the A-124 module of which I already wrote a review report, so I am quite confident that I can write a review report in a rather short time about A-103 as well; hence the reason why I will write one about A-103.

So if I today decide to start writing a review report about the Sinfonion, one of the most complex modules I know then this review report would be from my point of view most likely not going to be complete nor fully correct because that module is so complex you need some serious experience with it before you can analyse a module like that. Naturally there are a bit less complicated modules as well however even a Vector (Five12), a great sequencer but before I am able to write a review report on that one, I need much more experience too. What I am writing in the review reports, as already mentioned, I want to mean that from my heart and I should be able to completely stand behind that what I am writing.

So what's there in for me? To be honest, for the moment not much; close to nothing actually. The above mentioned second reason that it's a learning curve for me too, is most likely the most that there's in for me.

Thus yes, this is mainly labour of love that I am putting in here :-)

Please allow me to read more carefully the details of your detailed feedback, process that and then I will try to come back to you about that. Please do note that I very much appreciate it, I just need more time to reply :-) Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

Meanwhile I have added a parameter called: "Reverse power protection" in the general functionality table in paragraph 5.1. I have reflected that in the summarise overview picture too in chapter 2. This will applicable for all review reports with appendix A version 1.11 and higher.

Not sure if this is what you meant, but that has now been implemented ;-) Thank you very much for your feedback and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Plragde,

Thank you very much for your extensive reply and information! I have heard of LaTeX indeed, and the way you describe it for your usage it seems indeed the (much) better choice than Word. In my very old days I had done once or twice programming in LISP but that's so long ago that I don't remember much of it.

I think, if I am honest here, I am more the kind of person that wants or "needs" WYSIWYG program rather than a programming program to create documentation ;-) I used to work with a fantastic WYSIWYG program back in the days that Windows and Mac barely had decent graphic cards, using an Acorn RISC computer (doesn't exist any more), however that's long ago and never came across a WYSIWYG program that was that nice to use, so I am afraid I got stuck with Word... though I just discover that Apple offers Pages, perhaps I try that one and see if that works less frustrating...

I still will keep LaTeX in mind though because if I understand that well it can automate the process of making (parts of the) documentation and that would be perhaps interesting to me, hmmm... I need more time to have this investigated till then I am stuck with Word I am afraid.

Thank you very much for this interesting chat and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Plragde,

Okay fair enough. Regarding the split of the documents, yes I certainly get your point. Actually here local on my computer I have split the things but that's rather to make my life easier when creating the review report or rather the preparation of it. Please do also refer to my above/earlier comments about splitting the document in several parts, it certainly has pros however, pity enough, also cons. That's my concern. Anyway, I will continue to chew on that idea :-)

So which program are you using for the more complicated documents? Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

Could you please let me know in details what you meant with your previous post? I will then check if and how I can adapt that in future review reports.

Thank you very much in advance and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Plragde,

I had a look into the appendix/chapter numbering, yes it is possible within Word to do "Appendix numbering" instead of chapter numbering, I manage to get that work. That would be heading 1 (in style format section). Then Heading 2, i.e. for paragraph numbers, I managed to get that to work to, so I was quite happy at that level. Say Appendix A then paragraph would be A.1 however then the further levels, I got stuck at heading 3 level, there seems to be no way within Word (at least I couldn't figure it out, even not with googling it on the Internet) to make that work, Word forces you then to use the format 1.1.1 instead of A.1.1 :-( I need to keep the formatting accurate since chapter 7 (Appendix A) is in a way a copy of the paragraph numbers of the rest of the document, only a 7 has been put in front. So let's say in the report you want to check something about paragraph 3.8 - PCB details, then in chapter 7 that would be 7.3.8 - PCB details where you can find the entire explanation of paragraph 3.8.

But somehow if I switch over to Appendix only numbering, it doesn't work beyond heading level 2 :-(
And it doesn't help to switch on Legal style numbering as suggested by someone on the Internet.

So if you know how to get that work, please do let me know otherwise I am sorry to let you know that chapter 7 will stay as chapter 7 - Appendix A. It reminds me why I hate Word ;-)

Thank you very much for your feedback and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Shanewave,

Nice to see you are building up the system and start to create a great track :-)

Wow, that sound that starts to kick in at about 2:38 is beautifully done! You got some lovely sound creation here and it's interesting to see you "at work" :-) Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gabor,

Oh that's a nice slowly progressing piece of music, nicccceeeee :-)

Ha, ha, and some quite nice and fun sounds you are providing us here too, lovely! Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Thank you very much for the background information Lugia! Always nice to read such information and very informative :-)

Hi Lugia,

The Mu-tron and the mellotron are that about the same thing or two totally different things?

Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Joystick,

Interesting rack, especially since I can't find any joystick module though your nickname is joystick ;-)

Have fun with your new rack and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Tunç,

Wow, that's a great track the Aquadrum, nice way you are using that aquadrum too! Beautifully played :-)

Ha, ha, Katana Zero Remix is from a completely different world, so to speak ;-) Nice to see you at work at your modular system there! Exciting music that is, wow :-)

If I have time, will have a look another time at the other stuff you have shared with us. Thank you very much for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

That synthesizer sound, the leading voice, wow, what a sound! That's great, sounds quite J.M. Jarre-ish to me ;-)

Nice jam once again! Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Wow, this is a great jam! Lovely lively music, yet nice relaxing. Oh, oh, oh, that drum that kicks in at around 7:40+, what a nice sound! I am just testing parts of my new studio setup and I am using your jam to got my laptop connection tested towards to the mixer, great music to test a studio! :-)

That tickin' sound you got there starting at about 8:31, that comes out of my new monitors so beautifully, wow! This is a real treat for my new studio ;-) And then that drum, that's blowing me out of my own studio! :-D

Thanks a lot for this great jam, nice video too by the way! I love the cat Nyx hanging around there ;-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

What exactly do you mean by what you just wrote? That the module is diode-protected against connecting the power cable the wrong way? I had played with the idea of that to add that indeed as one of the many parameters to the review report however not all manufacturers mention that in their manual and/or on their website, so would it be clever to add this parameter? Please do let me know and I will seriously consider this.

Or if you meant something else, please let me know in more details what exactly do you mean? Thank you very much in advance and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Plragde,

Thanks a lot for your feedback and ideas. Not all of them but quite a few of your ideas, I was playing around with that as well. Not so long ago, I also came to the idea of splitting the document into more parts, something similar you are suggesting. That has in a way certainly some pros... however...

I see some serious cons with that as well. I do for my profession quite some documentation as well and what I observe for large document-setup systems is that it can be come easily and fast quite non-logically, i.e. one might loose easily an overview of the entire structure. What might seems logic to you and me, perhaps because of our work or because the way we think, doesn't mean that it is easy to understand for others, or even if it would be, the danger is still there that people might be no longer interested in it, i.e. dis-encourage them and that's something I would like to avoid.

I do believe that if I would split it into more documents that it becomes for the majority of the readers even more difficult "to look through it" and to understand it. I take the feedback of Ronin1973 to my heart about 60+ pages is an overkill. Yes, he is most probably right, then by splitting this documents in several parts, I do think that makes things worse rather than better. I might be wrong of course and I am open for discussion if you like. Another important point is and must be that the amount of work should be decreasing or staying the same for me, it shouldn't become even more, this what I am doing now is already close to insane ;-)

Things from your feedback that I will take back and chew on it for a while is a change log, I was already playing with that idea but not so sure if I should do that, that would cause even more pages, and your feedback about the non-chapter number of an appendix. I only have Word as a tool and I hate it but since I have no other better tool available and I don't want to spend too much time in getting to know other tools that might be better, I need to somehow learn to live with the dreadful tool called... Word ;-) Anyway, it's the tool I usually use for my work too, so it's "easy" to stay with the same documentation tool. Once I am in a good mood (towards Word) then I will check out that chapter number regarding the appendix :-)

Thank you very much for your open feedback and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi ModLifeCrisis,

Yeah, a nice video from you again! :-) He, he, that kind of stamping sound just before 04:00 sounds very good, you later transform the sound a bit. Then around 4:20+ that sequence kick in there is nice too!

I enjoyed your video and listening to it very much, thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

It was indeed inside the module original box but your suggestion that the retailer might have threw it in... yes that starts to sound more and more logical to me now... hmmm.... I guess that must have been the case indeed.

Thank you for this feedback/idea and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

Interesting that you mention the Central Station Plus from Presonus, that's the only rack mounted monitor controller that I could find so far. How happy are you with that device, is it worth it? How is the sound quality or perhaps I should ask it differently, does it has any influence on the sound quality?

Writing review reports (the way I do it) might seem like overkill too, but I get your point, sounds to me that it makes sense and therefore it doesn't sound like a large overkill to me; perhaps a small overkill ;-)

Hmm... you make me hesitating... Central Station+ or using a mixer for controlling the monitors...?

Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gworn,

Nice track accomplished with a good video, it's nice to see you at work :-) He, he, nice cat at the end of the video! :-D

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

Ha, ha, thank you very much for your honest opinion and feedback on this matter. This gives me valuable feedback, realising that my idea didn't work very well, since I thought when I explain in chapter 1 how to use the review report, readers don't have to read the entire review report...

The idea is, that if you don't have time, that you just check out chapter 2, which is a short summarise of the (entire) review report.

In case you have a bit more time, then you only need to read chapters 2 up till 6, which is less or just at 20 pages (without contents and the bla-bla stuff).

If you yet still have more time you can go through chapter 7 which explains every parameter or characteristic that has been used or indicated for in the review report, but you don't have to read chapter 7. If you read it once, it's valid for all the review reports. The version number of chapter 7 provides you an idea if you might want/need to reread chapter 7 in another year time if the version number is too far of from when you read it for the last time but even that isn't a must to understand the rest of the review report.

By the way, the review reports are not a replacement for a user manual, I refer explicitly in the review report to the manufacturer's manual (if one available).

To summarise: For those who really have less time only read chapter 2. For those who have a bit more time read chapter 2 up till chapter 6, around 20 or less pages.

I hope this explanation helps :-) Thanks a lot for your feedback and if you have suggestions for improvements, add-ons, or what-so-ever, please do let me know. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Ronin1973,

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. I like the idea of using a mixer as a gate-keeper of one's monitors. I will play around with this idea and see how that might fit in my situation, that indeed perhaps solves a few problems since I have perhaps a mixer left over in my new studio setup and that would save me getting a monitor controller. Interesting! :-)

Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Bleepadelic,

Nice one! But so short... Hopefully your next track will be a bit longer? :-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Ha, ha, naughty you! Teasing me with techno ;-) Still lots of fun to be heard in this remix jam. That kind of ping pong sound you got there, reminds me a little bit of the classic Popcorn track ;-)

Thanks for the fun and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Farkas,

No worries about the trouble part, writing a review report is no trouble to me, that's what I want anyway. Every month I have to think of one or two more modules of which I shall write a review report. So I will write a review report of the A-103 anyway, you made me curious :-)

Ha, ha, thanks regarding the new setup. Just only today, being almost ready with cabling the new setup, I realised that I totally forgot to connect my Vermona DRM-1 to my mixer... and I don't have cables enough so I need to get some more cables before I can continue :-( I was hoping I was ready with the cabling... anyway, hopefully in August I am ready with my new setup.

Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

+1 regarding the workflow, sounds totally logically and I need to check if it's worth the investment for a monitor controller, my new main monitors (KS Digital A100s) will be connected to my main switch, so using the main mixer in combination with the Mackies will be only for rare occasions where I want to check the sound on more than one monitor brand just to make sure it all sounds okay-ish (in case of finalising a recording).

I agree and like that motto of that Nashville engineer! Thank you very much for your help and feedback Lugia, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi All,

Does for nobody rings a bell which brand's modules came (or still comes) with a lollipop in the original box?

Thank you very much in advance and kind regards, Garfield.

Yeah! Second row = new rack. I had some trouble with the power brick that got lost somewhere sometime between Barcelona and Germany.

-- zuggamasta

I am glad to hear that it works now :-)

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Directly the beginning starts with some very nice and funny sounds, love that beginning of your jam!

The track on its own is one of the kind you never can have enough, it's great to listen at, nice and relaxing, yeah, keep on coming with stuff like that :-)

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Senor-Bling and Lugia,

Yes... I was afraid you were coming up with the idea of a monitor controller ;-) In that case I would rather consider for example a Mackie Big Knob Studio+, a bit more possibilities.

Though I agree that the setup (of what I suggested/wrote) has a high potential for confusion, since there is no risk of damage, then meanwhile using that and then take my time to consider what's the best solution for using which monitor controller shouldn't be a too bad idea?

Even though with a new studio setup, I am already running out of "table space", so if there is a good monitor controller in 19" rack format that you can recommend then please let me know :-)

What I do miss on most of the monitor controllers I have come across so far is the lack of sufficient XLR inputs and especially sufficient XLR outputs :-( Thank you very much in advance and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gworn,

That's a beautifully composed track, wow! It sounds playful to me, yet relaxing, just perfect before going to sleep soon.

Your video is fun too, seeing your setup, you at work and once and a while something else, yes, that's quite nice too!

That sequence you got running there reminds me of some music I know but doesn't want to come to mind... the early Tangerine Dreams perhaps? :-) Yeah that might be it, actually, one of their early concerts, is it The Albuquerque Concert from Livemiles?

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

Hi Farkas,

Thank you. Well... I do have the A-103 so it is a possibility :-) It's just that I am still busy working on my new studio setup, so for the moment I can't test the module. I bought this module recently because there was a special offer however because of the new studio setup I had no time yet to test it at all. I don't mind to make a review report of it however I want to have played with it first before "creating or building" an opinion on it.

So how much time do you have? Could you wait till end of September or October with buying? If yes, then I don't mind to make a review report of the A-103, I am quite curious myself too :-) Thanks, you have a good weekend too! Kind regards, Garfield.

Hello All,

Sorry for the slightly bit off-topic question however I don't know where else to ask.

I have a pair of monitors (Mackies MR624) and these have each an XLR input and a jack input, is it all right to connect these monitors at the same time to two mixers? One mixer will use the XLR inputs and the other mixer the jack inputs.

Will that going to damage the monitors (or the mixers)? Naturally, I will only use one mixer at the same time with these monitors however in the very rare occasion that I might forget or oversee something, for a very short time perhaps both mixers are sending output to this same pair of monitors.

Please let me know what your experiences are with this approach and if everything will be all right or is that going to be somehow (why?) very bad for the monitors?

Thank you very much in advance and kind regards, Garfield.