@farkas this is a very interesting rack and post
question: you said "With Spotify and other data-collection companies actively stealing (or paying fractions of pennies for) the work and ideas of artists in order to create artificially intelligent generative music that sounds like those artists..." are there a couple key articles / videos you could point me to on this topic? The Mylarmelodies vid you mentioned is ~80 minutes long. Thought I'd just ask you where the good bits of info you've seen on this topic are
reactions to your rack:
-- looks awesome! It contains a lot of my "top pick" modules I consider most interesting. Having instruments that I find exciting, inspiring, that I want to come back to over and over -- that's a big deal. A mixture of sonic appeal and depth, physical beauty, kinesthetics, ease & fun of use but also challenge and depth, to me that makes a great instrument. Your rig has a lot of that vibe to me
-- I'm also new to modular but experienced in music and synthesis. I had asked some recent questions to the forum. JimH and Lugia got back to me with loads of useful recommendations. One Jim said that sticks out to me in this instance is basically "consider separating your drum modules from others." To me that seems helpful and I thought I'd pass it along. So maybe as you evolve your rack(s) you split rhythm from other?
-- what else might be useful in your evolving rack? I haven't scrubbed your rig design module by module, but at a glance, I might suggest:
** It's a big rack, so maybe sprinkling some more "utility / submix pods" in 2-3 spots around the rig could help. This could mean mults and low-HP mono and stereo mixers. While it doesn't sound sexy on the face of it, in effect it should allow for a huge range of parallel signal paths. I know you've already got some utilities sprinkled around; IMO a few additional submix pods could be interesting.
** More waveshapers!? To me those are a very exciting part of modular, esp when driven with deep modulation and/or audio rate. Also very neat is Instruo Tain, a switching utility that can be driven at audio rate. So like the OS2 scissor you have, but able to intake anything. My jaw dropped the first time I got that working. I'm not sure if Switchblade will work at audio rate, but I know Tain will. And today I spent some good time with Rossum Linneaus; it really changes my ideas of what a filter can be. Yes it can do the normal "removes spectral content" aspect of filtering, but it can also add a lot of content in interesting ways. To me Linneaus is a really interesting waveshaper. All these modules I'm mentioning essentially fit the category "what could come after an OSC but before final FX?" that would add interesting depth and flexibility to your already formidable rig.
** syncing audio rate modulators: I just learned about this recently, when reading the manual on Rossum Trident, and I'm SOO excited about the technique. Basically, if doing audio rate modulation, syncing the modulator to the carrier gives rock-solid pitch tracking (due to the sync) while you can get a huge range of timbral variety from the audio rate modulation, and even change the modulation depth without losing pitch tracking. If you haven't already spent time with this technique, I would recommend it, as it opens up a vast added dimension of timbral variety. It's the bees knees! The Trident literature explains this technique pretty fully, and I've verified the technique works in broader usage.
I hope at least some of these ideas above are interesting / helpful / fun.
Cheers!