Need advice for additions/modif. Granular, glitch, ambient, acoustic instruments, turntable

Hello there, first post, first rack, at least one I want to talk about and ask for some advice on what could be improved / replaced.

here it is :

I have an Intellijel 7u performance case and I want to do live (Ambient, glitchy, experimental, noise) around textures, use of samples, or even backing tracks, CC/EQ from Ableton with Es-8, maybe ES-9 ; and use eurorack for live sampling / fxs / treatment, live acoustic instruments with mics.

Got a Blofeld for pads, atmos etc... Doepfer Black Energy II for drones/basses (sequenced via Ableton) and I was thinking about using a turntable with external mobile preamp (Phono In/line Out) to use some concrete noises from vinyls I have through Arbhar. I also have Data Bender ,Monsoon, 100 Grit, Melotous Versio, Faille Temporelle.

I wanted a matrix mixer for maximum versatility, experiments and I think it's a + for live perfs.

As a drummer, I also wanted to implement triggers from hits on a acoustic Low Tom, cymbals, maybe a kick. Or trigger Plaits as a voice or Rample as a sample trigger (in the same key as the backing track or a 808 quantized through Ableton and ES-8).
IDUM is a possibility I though about for the Rample channels unused, that could do idm types of bleeps/bloops/bursts/ratchets.

I want it to be a case for collaborations with any type of (acoustic) musicians too and I feel the Endless Processor is a cool bridge between acoustic sounds and eurorack world.

I feel I may lack modulations/utilities ? I have rooms for 1U as well. (I already have a Line In from Mosaic for turntable/Blofeld)
right now I have a Hermod instead of ES-8 so I still have lfos and other modulation sources but it's overkill with the idea of using Ableton anyways.

I don't have the disting EX yet. Is that a good idea ? Any thoughts on the best fx chains ? best use of Matrix Mixer ?

THANK YOU for reading me, any advice, question are welcomed !

EDITED Sunday December 08, 13:45

Hey, welcome! Glad you've taken the plunge to put a rack out and ask for feedback.

A few general points, first:
* Please provide a link to the rack itself, rather than a jpg. That way we can click on your rack and see what modules you have and maybe clone/redesign the rack.
* Can you clarify which of these modules you already own versus which you are planning to get?
* Agree with your assessment about modulators and utiltiies. We can suggest some once we get a better sense of the above.

Good luck!

Thanks for the quick fb !
So I don't have :
-ES-8/9
-IDUM
- Disting EX
- nRings

And priorities goto ES-8/9 cause I'll def need it whatever I decide.to do
The rest are just options, but IDUM looksfun with Rample?

EDITED Sunday December 08, 13:47

I'll let others with more direct experience with these modules provide specific feedback.

As a side note, I have the ES-9. It's great, but it takes some figuring out. It is, however, very deep, so double check the specs of your rack before deciding where to put it.

From a general perspective, though, you seem to have created an effects rack for handlng external inputs and signals, but do not have many ways of accessing the many controllable parameters that make this rack so potentially powerful. If you are serious about using this with something like ableton or vcv rack, then this feedback might be moot, but I highly recommend more modulators and vcas. I see the Disting there, which is supposed to be very powerful and has tons of algorithms, but might not be the best choice for live playing given the size of the display. You have a lot of 1u space left, so those should probably go towards utilities.

Do you ever intend to use this instument standalone, without external inputs? Also, when you're planning on triggering with drums, do you mean an electric kit that can send out midi, or do you mean using an envelope follower on an audio signal from recording live drums?

Again, thank you for your input, much appreciated, you are TOP.

I mean to use this mainly with external inputs, i don't see myself NOT use Ableton actually, (or if I could use Rample as a backing track machine, and play the (real) drums over that with a knee mic and enveloppe following -> plaits or just triggers, use Hermod modulations and sequences again like [Maysun ](
it revolves around randomness of kick hits with Twiigs, through fxs and Arbhar, playing samples with Rample that arer ein the same key as the backing track

I feel lik using multitracking with ES-9, using EQs and sequences from Ableton is my thing.

I am still a beginner experimenting so I could use some advice on VCAs and modulators as you said to make it really interersting, take me somewhere I don't know! I can sense the potential but I miss that extra knowledge in patching for now !

So yes I intend to use live drums too, but not regular beats, I mean free performance.
And what 1U modules could enhance all that ?

THANK YOU

EDITED Sunday December 08, 21:23

Sounds like you have a pretty clear plan of where you want to go (also, it seems pretty cool).

Since your plan is to integrate with your DAW pretty much the whole time, you have quite a lot of flexibility and can probably hold off on filling your hp until you have a better sense of how the instrument works for you and your flow. VCV Rack is free and has plenty of modules that can cover your needs. Plus, my understanding is that you can use VCV as a plug-in in Ableton. You're also dealing with a lot of modules I don't have direct experience with, so I'm hesitant to make recommendations of physical modules to get or switch out.

That being said, you certainly wouldn't be doing yourself a disservice if you added some utilities to your rack. Utilities are the plumbing and architecture that make your big modules actually work to their fullest capacity and in the most interesting ways. It's unfortunately also true that it's hard to figure out what utilities you need until you're midway through patching and realize you're missing a specific funtion and can't do the thing you want to do. Again though, since you're integrating with a DAW, I'm hesistant to tell you to buy anything. All of the below functions can be found in VCV, potentially for free, as well.

With all that out of the way, I would suggest more VCAs, perhaps a chainable one like the Intellijel Quad VCA, or a stereo VCA (I have WMD's AXYS crossfader/stereo vca and like it a lot), to allow you to craft your sound. A stereo mixer (I have used the Befaco Stmix) might also help control your various voices. You might want to consider something like Joranalogue's Route 4 or Switch 4, for hands-on routing of signals to different effects modules. Also, I just love sample and hold circuits, so I always suggest them. Additionally, you need modulators. What's the point of having access to all of these sound-warping parameters if you don't have any cv signals to use on them? LFOs are plentiful in the modular world, but there certainly are some standouts. I personnaly use XAOC's Batumi and DivKid's/Instruo's Ochd in pretty much every patch. You'll also want to think about attenuaters/attenuverters to tame the modulators. I have Erogenous Tones Levit8 and it's a huge amount of control in a few hp (I've never needed to fill mine up).

These are just things to consider, though, since as you say this is a DAW-connected project, you really don't need to buy much other than the ES module for connectivity and to get going. If you felt like buying modules, though, utilities, vcas, and lfos are where I'd put my focus.

Hope this is useful, and good luck!