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What a post -- thanks @lugia!

Koan... I had a cracked version of that on my Win 95 PC back in the day. Never could make it do anything good :)

Welps compared to folks like @Lugia and @Garfield, and also modular friends in town, my setup is quite a bit smaller.
My friends have WALLS of modular probably 100k plus in gear. Still when one guy I know did a show he only patched a dozen or so modules out of the thousands in his collection.

It is supposed to be a dance night, but all I know about the venue is that will be "a small club". Unhelpful.

Kitting out the rack in mono will save a lot of hp. That said, unless although I add a second PSU per @troux's suggestion, I'm going to run out of juice before I run out of space!

EDITED Apr 12th 2021, 21:01

MASSIVE! and "only 300hp left" hahaha

EDITED Apr 12th 2021, 20:57

Thanks a lot :)

So everyone on here is a troll, got it!

Thanks, yeah it is huge and lot of room to expand. The great thing about Doepfer cases are that they have nice metal locking covers and handles so with a hand cart, one can transport them around fairly easily. I do have my Doepfer 6u suitcase for jams now so that can make life easier when I do jams at local clubs and friends' places. It also helps me stop G.A.S. to focus on mastering my gear and create fun tracks. Here is a quick ambient jam I made to test the case after moving modules over:

So even after moving my dozen or so modules from 6u case and base case to the monster, I still have 300+ HP left over to grow!
While I would love to get 4ms Spherical Wavetable Navigator & Spectral Multiband Resonator (SMR) plus Xaoc Devices Odessa & Belgrad and lots more, I will slow down and create patches with this monster and my MDLR case and perhaps add few modules at end of the year. I do need more long patch cables to reach between cases however. Also getting Mutable Instruments Beads/Blades would be awesome to feed into Rings and Marbles for ultimate ambient patches.

Great patch! Lot's of things going on, but it is not too busy or too long.

How is using a derogatory term, as defined by the link I sent, against a whole group of people not xenophobia?

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/xenophobia

Why am I explaining this?

Why does degree of offensiveness matter?

Why be offensive like that, even just a little bit?

Thin edge of the wedge? Once one person is accepted as being okay to throw slurs around about groups of people, who's to say it's not okay for the next person? Where to draw the line?

I say just don't do it at all!

As I say, what was being said didn't require the use of xenophobic language and it still doesn't.

Someone has to stand up against this outdated and mind-numbingly pointless behaviour, no matter how small it is...

By all means start throwing around the n-word - there are groups of people here in the UK who seem to think that is acceptable, therefore everyone else should accept it right? Er... no!

In fairness to Lugia, that's not xenophobic. Derogatory, perhaps, but not xenophobic. 'Rubes' is pretty benign in the US, maybe not in the UK?

Nice! That thing is huge. I was thinking to get a large cabinet like that, but I am still wanting to keep some level of portability. I know eventually I will get something like that, but will also rethink my studio space to accommodate it.

Gates are sent from the Beatstep pro mult'ed out to the Erica Synths Sample Drum and MI Veils.

The two outputs from Veils are mixed in the Duatt and passed to the CV 1 of Sample Drum, which would be mapped to sample selection.

This should result in each gate from the beatstep pro triggering a different sample and an additional sample when both gates are triggered.

This is the nastiest post I have read on here so far... seriously? Please consider removing the xenophobic language!
-- Kel_

??? What xenophobic language?

-- Lugia

It's hard to believe you don't know...

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/rube

We are in the 21st Century now, we don't use offensive terms like this against whole groups of people in this way, I mean why not use the n-word? It's along those lines. Not cool.

I'd stop worrying so much if I were you

eurorack psu is similar in current draw to a laptop

you'll almost definitely be fine

My first skiff should arrive tomorrow, and while I've been doing the math to ensure I won't be overdrawing from my available onboard power, one thing I hadn't given much thought to were my surge protectors and keeping the PSU itself powered properly. I've seen uninterruptible power supplies online; is that worth considering, or are there other surge protector related tips/advice people have? I'm just getting into learning this stuff and don't have an especially technical background, so my knowledge of household electrical is pretty limited. I'll be moving into my own house soon, but currently I've got a near-always-running window AC, a high-end windows PC w 1000w psu, 3 external HD hubs (connecting 6 extra hard drives), two 2k monitors, a large Yamaha stereo receiver, a Yamaha MG10xu mixer, a Moog DFAM, Moog Werkstatt, and a few other miscellaneous 9V devices all going in the same small room, not to mention a space heater that occasionally is running (from its own outlet), and obviously a few lamps. Besides the AC/space heater, all this is pretty much connected via a trio of surge protectors across two or three outlets, I think they are pretty decent models and I've had them for years, but I don't know the specs on them offhand.

Is this something I should be thinking about more? I have an 84 hp Synthrotek 3u skiff coming tomorrow, and a double 3u in a couple weeks (though I'll be moving around then), so that's at least 2 modular PSUs added into what already feels like quite a bit of equipment for my little apartment room. Haven't had any problems thus far, I vaguely remember my landlord telling me the electrical for our place (shared multi-unit with his place) was pretty robust, but, trying to make sure I'm covering all my bases here.

EDITED Apr 12th 2021, 03:43

As for the $5k QMMG...clearly, this derp hasn't quite picked up on the fact that Make Noise's MMG is NOT discontinued
-- Lugia

Ah yes, but the CURRENTLY available ones don't have the ugly color scheme or the "good" vactrols.
-- eexee

Reminds me a bit of the snakeoil behind the idea that running a certain, specific green magic marker around the edge of your CDs will make them sound better. I tend to laugh my a$$ off when I run into someone these days who STILL believes this nonsense, especially after Wayne Green (W2NSD, the former editor of 73 Magazine and a shortlived sister high-end audio publication) finally told the story of how he and some of his other staffers cooked this total lie up to see how far everyone in the audiophile community would run with it.

EDITED Apr 12th 2021, 03:39

This keeps coming up on here, so let's dive into it...

Many people think Brian Eno came up with this type of music. Not true, however. To really look at the origins of generative composition, we need to go back quite a bit and look at "process composition" and "stochastic composition".

Process music is a form of music in which a certain set of procedures gets done, with the musical output as a result. Probably the simplest version of this that comes to mind is Steve Reich's "Pendulum Music", a work which involves using microphones swinging back and forth over speakers, with variations in feedback responses being the musical "output". Then when all speakers are emitting a steady feedback tone, you cut the amps. (see here: ) But anything that works in this way...a series of given procedures (sometimes posing as the "score"), followed by a musical result from them, is referred to as this.

Stochastic composition is also sometimes referred to as "chance-based". And that's not exactly correct, as stochastics involves the odds that ONLY certain specific outcomes will occur, with the composer grading the level of probability as part of the compositional process. Actual chance-based music refers to a music that's assembled out of random sources of audio as a result of totally random processes. But stochastic composition only involves the element of chance as far as choices between specific states and/or outcomes.

Now, generative music involves BOTH of these. The setup of a generative system is essentially identical to the "process" part in process music, and that "process" involves numerous chance potentialities with distinct and only slightly random end-results.

If we go back and look at where generative begins, we'll also be going back to the early stages of synth technology...and also, Albany, New York.

Back circa 1970, the State University of New York at Albany premiered its newest piece of music tech, the Coordinated Electronic Music System (or CEMS for short). This huge modular was co-designed by the composer Joel Chadabe and Robert Moog, and included off-the-shelf Moog modules alongside a number of custom control bus modules specific to the CEMS. And one of the very first works realized on this monster modular was Chadabe's "Ideas of Motion at Bolton Landing" ( and yes, that's part of the CEMS on the cover art), which can probably lay claim to being the first generative electronic composition. The CEMS, once programmed, was simply allowed to play itself...and the tape just ran, and recorded the result. Other than those two things, there was no human input at all. And that definitely makes this work the start-point for generative music.

But how did it work? OK...the CEMS was built up around an array of Moog 960 sequencers, plus a bunch of logic functions to manipulate them. This would then send note info to the "voicing" racks while, at the same time, the "modulation" also could play a part in some of the stochastic determinations. In essence, this is very little-changed in many present-day generative systems. But what did change between then and now was computers...

When small computer systems started to become more commonplace, you started to see various types of "automata" applications that involved aspects of generative processes...but very few of these involved the direct generation of sound. Instead, you saw MIDI applications such as "M", which applies stochastic principles to the generation of MIDI data to be sent to synthesizers. But this situation would change rather quickly, mainly due to two developments.

The first was the development of sound hardware that could act directly under the computer's control. Prior to the first DAW systems, sound cards on computers were kinda "meh". But when Digidesign first put out the Samplecell hardware and the Sound Tools software to work with it, this then opened up a new vista on how the computer could address the synthesizer. Within a couple of years, this was sort of obsoleted by Digidesign...but a new version of some IRCAM software stepped into the gap, namely Max/MSP. Max was, of course, the object-oriented sound programming language developed by Miller Puckette during his tenure at IRCAM for use originally with the 4X machine, then a further iteration was part of the ISPW (IRCAM Sound Processing Workstation). But a couple of iterations later, and Max/MSP was created to directly address the DSP in the Macintosh architecture so that you had what basically was "ISPW, the Home Version". The doors had been flung open!

Around this same time, a startup called SSEYO started to figure out how to create a music composition "system". This eventually became Koan, which was more or less the first "all-in-1" generative package. It included a SoundFont-like system for its voicing, and various stochastic methods for creating various types of musical fragments, which were then combined in a final patch to generate new pieces of music. It was around this time (early 1990s) that Brian Eno began extensive experiments and use of Koan, as part of his interest in "self-regulating systems", such as the tape delay system + sequencer rig used for "Discrete Music". The best examples of this can probably be found on Eno's "The Drop", which is a collection of ambient works primarily programmed and realized in Koan.

BUT...

One of the things that Eno noticed (along with a lot of other people) is that computers don't necessarily deal as nicely with gradual changes as do analog systems. And this can be directly attributed to the fact that computers work in discrete steps, all the way back down to the basic 1 and 0 of their binary architecture. Now, there ARE analog computers...and, interestingly, it was discovered that these "obsolete devices" were capable of dealing with chaotic systems FAR better than their digital counterparts. A digital computer, for example, really, really, REALLY doesn't like dealing with such chaotic systems as Lorenz attractors...but to an analog computer, calculating that is a snap.

Now, synthesizers have an awful lot in common with analog computers. You have certain on-off digital functions...but the "heavy lifting" in an analog computer is done by linear interaction between a set of op-amps, as these can generate voltage curves and functions with NO stepping and NO binary logic. Similarly, synthesizers involve circuits that are generating sound based on linear, non-stepped voltages plus some digital functions...not much difference, really. And this is where we go back to devices such as the CEMS.

Back when the CEMS was built, there weren't a lot of possible choices regarding modules, circuit architecture, and the like. You had Moog, Buchla, and ARP had just popped up on the scene, plus EMS was in startup mode as well. And that was about it! Nowadays...well, just LOOK!!! Choices abound! And this simply makes generative even MORE attractive.

But the problem here is that many people think generative synth programming is pretty simple. You get one or two things, set up a patch that makes them boop and bleep in a relatively even manner, and that's it...right?

Uh-uh. REAL generative systems are capable of running for HOURS (or days, weeks, months, years...) on end, very rarely repeating anything, but still staying in a certain composer-defined "lane". This goes back to another thing that Eno explored while still working with tape loops, in that he found that you could create an essentially non-repeating result by mixing several inequally-long tape loops of homogenous musical material. The most famous use of this is, of course, Eno's "Music for Airports", which were actually deployed in several airports as sonic installation pieces. But you can see how well this can work if you just do a little math; let's say we have three loops, one is 34 seconds long, the next is 55 seconds, and the third is 107 seconds. These will line up again after 200,090 seconds, or 55.58-ish hours of continuous playback. For an installation in a place such as an airport, no one will likely perceive that the music contains these looped iterations provided that the sonic material on the loops gives little to no indication of obvious cadential signals. The piece will simply seem to go on forever.

And this is the sort of thing that should be aimed for in generative modular systems.

Now, HOW to get to this has numerous possibilities. But nearly all of them involve a larger amount of modules than you'd typically find in yr.typ monosynth. And they also involve what's known as "orders of control".

Play a note on a synth. That's "1st order"...your keypress causes two control signals to be generated, one for pitch information, the other for time. Shorter press, shorter note. Higher keypress = higher note. And so on...

But with generative music, this concept basically goes batshit insane!

So...here's our synth again, waiting for notes. But THIS time, we're not using the keyboard. Instead, you've got three LFOs and three quantizers. Set each LFO to a rather long period, use different waveforms. Then feed each LFO to a quantizer, and program the quantizer so that each "step" also causes a trigger to be sent to the EG, etc. As long as you've inputted the same scale/mode for each quantizer, you'll have a three-part result that keeps repeating notes based on the CVs generated from the LFO behavior. Now we're starting into generative turf!

Three lines = boring after a while, though. So, let's now take a fourth LFO and use that to control the rates of the other three...but with a twist, in that we're going to use a multi-attenuator module (think Intellijel's QuadrATT tile here) to change the voltage behavior sent to each LFO from the fourth one. So...one gets timing LFO signals at 2/3rds of the level, the next gets 1/2, and the last is on full...but inverted! This has us at 3rd order, with the "main" LFO controlling the three others, which in turn control note generation via the quantizers. At THIS point, you're getting into "nonrepeating" territory, and you have timing variation.

Is that as far as you can go? HELL, no!!! So...let's toss a comparator into the mayhem, and set it up so that it reads the "main" LFO's output and outputs its gate when the comparator voltage level gets crossed. So then you take THAT gate and invert it, then send it to a VCA that's controlling the output level of your "third voice" in our theoretical system. Now, when the "main" LFO goes over that voltage threshold, the comparator turns "voice 3" off by dropping that VCA's CV to zero (via the inverter). 4th order, and we're just getting going here...

So...a few MORE comparators and VCAs, and we're going to drop these into crossmodulation patches between our VCOs. Now, we not only have the system self-regulating on timing and note generation, plus the "tutti rest" on voice 3, we ALSO have a similar comparator-VCA setup controlling FM aspects between the VCOs. Even better, you could just as well use envelope generators before the VCAs, key THOSE, and get gradual changes of VCO timbre. You can even affect spatialization this way, by using LFOs and EGs to control panning circuits, and those can get as complex as you want (Ambisonics, anyone?).

Sequencers get fun like this, too. This is why you want 'em to have gate and/or trigger outs on each step, because you can use those to mess with things. F'rinstance, take a trigger out from step 11 on a 16-step sequencer. Then connect that sequencer's "reset" function to a Boolean logic AND gate's output...and input two of those comparators to the inputs of the AND gate. And as for that step 11 output, send it to...oh...the "sync" on one of the three LFOs. Now THAT gets wild...the LFO waveform will only reset if and when the sequencer gets to step 11, but with the sequencer's reset keyed to the combination of two LFO waveforms (via the AND gate), this might only happen every once in a while.

And on and on and ON...

So, if you think you can cram a "generative" system into an 84 hp skiff...forget it. To get a SERIOUS generative result requires quite a few modules, because you're creating a system that has to:

1) generate several musical parts
2) have massive order of control capabilities so that you arrive at that nonrepetitive goal.

If the output sounds like something NOT made by a machine, then you win every Internet made since 1896. And you'll have succeeded at building a generative system that really, honestly, ACTUALLY operates in self-regulatory generation. But as noted, this takes space, it takes a lot of "not so typical" modules, and it takes some understanding about how chaos-based systems of this sort work as well as knowledge of modules that can work in tandem toward this result. It ain't cheap. It IS a considerable hassle. But when it comes together and you get that stream of generative sound...yeah, it's worth it.

As for the $5k QMMG...clearly, this derp hasn't quite picked up on the fact that Make Noise's MMG is NOT discontinued
-- Lugia

Ah yes, but the CURRENTLY available ones don't have the ugly color scheme or the "good" vactrols.

Very cool and I just put most of my 6u modules into my new monster case so now all my modules in one place for easy patch access. Really love the combo of Doepfer 12u monster base with 12u monster case. Tons of room on base for sequencers and mixers and have room to expand. However, now that I have a lot of modular stuff, I need to process and dig deeper into my setup! I am still learning how to make use of complex modules like Rossum Mob of Emus and Acid Rain Maestro and how to tie my sequencers together to create fun submixes and chains of patterns.

Do you really need stereo in a live show? Aren't pretty much all club sound systems mono anyway?
-- the-erc

Depends. If you're talking about a dance club, then yeah...most of those systems are summed-down to mono before hitting crossovers for the frequency division to the amps for the different driver sections, especially in the low end. However, if you're talking about a venue that primarily deals with live music, those DO tend to be stereo quite a bit of the time.

This is the nastiest post I have read on here so far... seriously? Please consider removing the xenophobic language!
-- Kel_

??? What xenophobic language?

The +12V rail is the main one that modules use. Not everything requires the -12V rail, and these days the trend with the +5V rail is for some manufacturers to put the downconversion onboard the module that needs it. But the current headroom issue is per rail, since the two 12V and 5V rails are all powered by different circuits. And you can pop the +12V by overdrawing, but leave the -12 and +5 (unless the +5 requires the +12) more or less intact. So if you've got 1500 mA on the +12V rail, and the P/S feeding the rail is rated for 2A, you're fine. But getting too much further above that 1500 mA gets a bit dicey, particularly if the build is very module-dense as each module will have SOME inrush...and adding each of those up can get you into the trouble zone pretty quickly.

EDITED Apr 12th 2021, 01:29

Thank you both, incredibly kind!

And.... I am slowly working on an album of such pieces. I've even gone so far as to get new strings for the upright for the first time in over a decade, though I've yet to install them. I'm also going to see if I can afford to pay someone to do some Peter Brötzmann/John Zorn-style sax on a few things. We shall see!

@cmb_ is right, Monday32921 is a 10 out of 10, I want an album of that!

The little less skronky one (Monday32921) is exceptional! When you first posted the original one (Free) I was a little taken aback when you referred to it as a "goof" because as I was listening, to me, it was so serious and spot on, but I completely understand where you a coming from and how "goof" is appropriate. Really nice the both of them.

Hi farkas. For output to pedals look at:
ADDAC200PI Pedal Integrator
https://www.addacsystem.com/en/products/modules/addac200-series/addac200pi
I wanted the ADDAC but it wasn't available at the time so I ended up with knob.farm Ferry which is fine.
https://knob.farm/modules/ferry

There are many other pedal interface modules which you can find here on MG including this "full-feature" module, Merge, from Adventure Audio:
https://www.adventurepedals.com/eurorack/merge

Strymon makes one as well (AA.1 Amplifier Atenuator)
https://www.strymon.net/product/aa1/

For input I use CG Products Pre:
https://www.cg-products.de/
For input you are probably all set with the Doepfer A119 (seems perfect, pre-amp, envelope follower, and comparator).
But check out some of the other modules from CG Products; the Peak + Hold, Noise VCA, Delay 1022, etc. With the Peak + Hold > Noise VCA I can get very good percussion sounds with guitar as input (or really anything as input, basically pinging the filter). I have an envelope follower from Grp.

I have done a lot of stuff with guitar and the modular but I should say I have only played around a little running guitar through the modular. The guitar has been on a separate track and I haven't really recorded anything with the guitar going through or modulating the modular. You can use the signal for FM with VCFs, VCOs, etc. and go crazy running the audio through Clouds, Arbhar, Nebula, etc. But I find I haven't utilized any of that when I record tracks, I mostly use the modular as the 'rhythm section' or I'll comp chords and let the modular do its thing. Maybe now you'll have inspired me to utilize it in this fashion, I hope so!

Let me know if you discover anything good.

Hi ModLifeCrisis,

Now that's a lovely long track! The way you play with those sounds is beautifully done, it's a pleasure to listen at it :-)

He, he, very recognisable that you sit behind the computer and reshuffle the racks with your (future) modules and indeed quite additive; I experienced that as well. I need to start doing that for my new studio setup somewhere soon as well but still hesitating because I know once I start, I barely can stop...

Thank you very much for your nice demo video and the great sound, this is how every weekend should start, very enjoyable :-) ! Kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular

Hi Garfield, thanks for the response. I appreciate it. It is very hard to stop, once you stop. I'm now considering a mainly Mutable Instruments set up and am too afraid to start it. :)

That is a great patch and performance! Love it. The slow degradation of the repeats on the El Capistan is such a great subtle morphing effect. So many great disparate sounds brought together in a very cohesive way.

And I totally understand the ModularGrid addiction. You're not alone. I've fully embraced it and it's been a remarkably fulfilling journey so far. Modular tickles me in so many ways - the scientist part of my brain is more stimulated now than it has been in decades, the musician part of my brain has been seriously broadened, the hobbyist/collector side of me is getting satiated. I'm thrilled to have discovered this experience.

I always enjoy your videos. Please keep them coming.

Cheers
-- TumeniKnobs

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. And good to know I'm not alone. I love the way you're embracing it. I think that is very healthy and something I should maybe try. Cheers to you too. Regards, MLC.

That is a great patch and performance! Love it. The slow degradation of the repeats on the El Capistan is such a great subtle morphing effect. So many great disparate sounds brought together in a very cohesive way.

And I totally understand the ModularGrid addiction. You're not alone. I've fully embraced it and it's been a remarkably fulfilling journey so far. Modular tickles me in so many ways - the scientist part of my brain is more stimulated now than it has been in decades, the musician part of my brain has been seriously broadened, the hobbyist/collector side of me is getting satiated. I'm thrilled to have discovered this experience.

I always enjoy your videos. Please keep them coming.

Cheers

Thanks to @Plexusgel for a fast shipping and good packaging. Quick to answer and friendly!

Do you really need stereo in a live show? Aren't pretty much all club sound systems mono anyway?

hahaha well I'd never heard of Geoff Hinton before - cool middle name!

you don't want to exceed 3/4ths of the power supply's current capacity due to potential problems with power inrush,
-- Lugia

Clarification sought : 3/4 of the power supply's total capacity, or on each rail separately? In my box the +12V is getting pretty close to the wind, but there is very little on -12V.

Whoops, yeah I meant Graham Hinton... Geoff Hinton is someone completely different

Ah yes in an ideal world everyone would have Graham Hinton power supplies

It's like Steevio and using switched mults as gate/trigger mixers - all I can really say is it works for me (and I'm sure a lot of other people) - might not for you - the only way to find out is to try it

EDITED Apr 11th 2021, 10:34

This is the nastiest post I have read on here so far... seriously? Please consider removing the xenophobic language!

Many will miss it, but I think you can say what you need to without the particular phrase you used. No need.

I am a country person, but I am no idiot!

EDITED Apr 11th 2021, 06:42

Thanks for the tips, I hadn't yet heard about keeping to < 75% draw, I'd been planning to ramp it closer to full. I'll avoid that.

Dunno if ur US based but I saw a good deal on a used one at Control in Brooklyn earlier:

https://www.ctrl-mod.com/collections/used/products/c0ntr0l-bkbpb112zi2i?variant=39315629310006

Small Form Factor Techno Jambox

Modules to the side are housed in Abyss Devices 1U -> 3U Adapters

Just use any decent flying bus cable with the right amount of headers. However, DO keep an eye on your current draw figures...you don't want to exceed 3/4ths of the power supply's current capacity due to potential problems with power inrush, which can send your amperage draw OVER the design limit for the p/s for a small fraction of a second...which is enough to cause problems. Also, if there's a wide gap between potential supply and draw load, this means your p/s can run cooler...and given that heat is Public Enemy #1 for electronic components, that's something you want.

Step 1: jettison the idea of trying to build this with only one make of modules (and case as well, apparently). All you're going to accomplish is hamstringing yourself by being unable to add things that AREN'T Intellijel...and this is a pretty serious error!

Step 2: try a bigger case, especially if you're hell-bent on using W---I---D---E modules such as the Rainmaker, Metropolix, et al. Right now, those things aren't doing you any favors; the Rainmaker and Metropolix alone take up 70 hp, and that has just a touch more than 1/3rd of this cab's 3U rows being taken up by just TWO modules!

Step 3: don't take my word for it. Get a copy of VCV Rack if you don't have one already, then try setting this build up in there. It won't be 100% exact, but at this point it doesn't matter, because the idea here is to show that what you've got isn't adequate as far as sound generation is concerned. Jim is VERY correct; module redundancy is actually a thing that SHOULD happen in some cases (especially VCOs...you can't set up a fat, detuned sound without that second VCO) and trying to avoid this is not something either he or I would recommend.

Utilities? Sufficient VCAs? Attenuverters? Submixers?

Seems less like something that induces "terror" and more like that incomparable feeling of "meh..."

NFTs...gah...I got excoriated over on Reddit's r/vaporwave forum by some "true believer" in that because I dared to point out that this is, in all likelihood, some fad-grade nonsense that's just ASKING to get punked by someone well-versed in culture jamming. True, there ARE artists making money via this method (one musical act that comes to mind here is Kings of Leon), but when that bubble pops, look out!

As for the $5k QMMG...clearly, this derp hasn't quite picked up on the fact that Make Noise's MMG is NOT discontinued, and that four of them tallies up to $940 street. Add a very basic mixer/attenuator module that lets you break out submixes (sorta like Intellijel's QuadrATT tile...but as a "proper" module) and you have a...QMMG! Sure, it's physically bigger, but you have the same basic function PLUS a lot more control capabilities over each MMG. And instead of a fixed mixing paradigm, you could just as easily swap the basic mixer out for a quad VCA instead. Given that, I 100% do NOT see the point in trying to shuck rubes over this "RAR vintage W0W!!!111!!1!" module that they want $5 grand for.

This behavior is something I've long despised. I didn't like it when synth-brokers were trying to use Usenet back in the day to run their commercial enterprises (in violation of the Usenet charter and, in one especially egregious case, the Usenet AUP for U Michigan), and I don't like it now. It's become a lot easier to spot, thankfully. But during that early Usenet period, you had all sorts of bottom-feeders trolling around, buying disused synths for pennies on the dollar and then flipping them for sometimes HUNDREDS of times more than they'd paid. And around that time, you also had the emerging concept of "synth collectors"...people who bought synths and DIDN'T play them, simply because they were "valuable". I'm sure that 90% of those instruments are now dead from disuse unless they were "rescued" somehow. Fools, money, etc etc.

Thanks Jim -- good to know! (Have browsed enough Muff's thread's with Geoff Hinton telling everyone off to get nervous about many power related things.)

if you are still under 70-80% with the extra modules it is possible to add an additional busboard

it is also possible to make double (or triple) headed power cables* - I think intellijel make these or small flying busboards that might be suitable

it really depends on the space in the rack the 2hp modules can also be quite deep so this may have an impact on which solluttion will work best for you

*this is really quite easy and inexpensive to do and can be done with no specialist tools

I've had 2 cases with 2 power supplies in running happily for a couple of years... and happily patch between these cases too!

EDITED Apr 10th 2021, 23:13

I'm not an electrician but that makes me nervous. Are there no issues with multiple power supplies in the same box like that?

What do you do when you run out of connections for a skiff (you have power to spare but more modules than connectors)? Is it simple to add or daisy chain on extras? Those 2hps save a lot of space but seem to add up quick where # modules-to-connectors go.

@the-erc I was thinking about it and thought "Why not swap the 4 step sequencer with a Micro Zeus?" I think that would work 🤔🤔🤔

Edited to add: I also swapped the CP3 with an Isolator so you can get the output levels you want.

EDITED Apr 10th 2021, 20:37

what exactly are you trying to do?

what do you mean by redundant? "functional duplication" in modular is often a very good thing

currently you seem to be quite modulation heavy - tetrapad/tete/quadrax/planar, melodic sequencer and adsr channel heavy - metropolix is I think 2 channels (and you only have one vco!) and you may not need adsr envelopes = the intellijel dual adsr is huge compared to similar modules from other brands

no vcas????

rainmaker is too big, imo, in a single rack like this unless some compromise is made with other modules being smaller than they should be (and I don't think you can do this in solely intellijel)

so you almost definitely need to add a quad vca and another vco - which means 20hp+ if you want to stay intellijel only (personally I wouldn't - I hate constraints)

I've got some ideas @the-erc, I'll take another crack at it this evening.