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Hi Volt-a-tone,

Welcome to ModularGrid :-) Hopefully your modules will be soon available at European dealers as well, so we can try them out at the other side of the ocean too ;-)

Your Dual VCLFO looks interesting, can't wait to have that one tested. Do you have planned a VCO too?

Good luck and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hey there,

Any suggestion about this rack? I'm missing something really important? (I'm talking about modulation and so on).

Thanks for your time.

Stay safe out there and fuck covid

Hey Everyone

Looking at cases and, of coirse,checked out the Behringer Go. The top case has a depth og 40mm while the lower one has a de[th of 62mm only in the front 60% of the case.

Their Moog-a-like 104 was, er, similar to the Moog case but much shallower and wouldn't accept some modules.

To save a few mm, this seems very strange to me.

The Mantis is 50mm. The RackBrute is 53mm.

Is 50mm a 'safe' depth?

Is there a minimum depth a case should be? Or ,perhaps, how deep is the deepest module? Or, how ,many modules WOULD NOT fit into a 40mm case?

Ian

Hey all, I'm getting started on my Eurorack journey and am looking for recommendations about monitors. I mostly come from the live/band drumming world, so monitoring electronics beyond "can I hear my bandmates?" is very new to me!

My intent is to use my synth to process and interact with some acoustic/electric instruments, especially an old Yamaha CP-70 electric piano I have. Currently, I'm outputting my rack audio through a Bastl Ciao to a small Yamaha digital mixer, which is also getting audio from the piano. (Eventually, the piano audio will be going into the rack via an I/O module.) I'm doing some simple DAW demoing from there when the mood strikes, but mostly just listening to the summed mix on headphones as I learn this new combined instrument. If I really want to hear something in the room, I'll do a quick monitor via my very standard home theater receiver and speakers. But I do want to invest in some quality monitors that will help me physically experience the music more!

I've looked at Genelec 8030 monitors based on some advice from friends, my local shop, videos, etc. My Sweetwater sales rep recommended I look at Focals, but as more of a studio thing. I'm thinking that I want monitors that specifically represent electronic music well vs. ones that are designed for flat studio response and mixing. (Correct me if I'm off-base with that thinking.) And it's hard to know what people are legitimately recommending vs. trying to sell you... I work in marketing, so I know how the game works!

Anyway, your recommendations are welcome at any price point. I'd rather make a bigger investment that's going to keep working as I get better at this vs. a cheaper quick fix now. Thanks all!

I'm using WMD's Arpitecht with the Triad expander. The Chainsaw was designed to work alongside the Triad. I've been having a lot of fun with this combination.

Hi!
I just saw that Monsoon by Big T Music has a duplicate of their module here on MG:

From Noverber 12, 2019:
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/other-unknown-monsoon-----

From March 6, 2020:
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/other-unknown-monsoon--

Probably best to erase the newest one, but I'm unsure of how...

/Anders

Hi everybody,

I own a Synthtech E352, and I use the WaveEdit software.
There is something I want to do.
Creating a wavetable wave by wave, and not a complete wavetable in one time as the WaveEdit do.

I plan to record electromagnetic fields and create wavetable with those recordings.

I don't find information about this.

So if someone could help me it will be very apreciate.

Thanks for your help

EDITED May 23rd 2020, 16:04

Hey, DonghyukHeo, love your videos very much!
Could you make a video or at least describe here in more detail the process of how you split midi files into various osc?
Please, it would be very interesting!
Wishing you all the best and waiting for new tracks!

Hi, Garfield Modular.

It usually took a day or two to make MIDI file.

The procedure is quite simple. Download MIDI files from the Internet and split it into 2 or 3 tracks to send each oscillator.

There is nothing between my modular and audio interface(Focusrite Scarlette), just putting 2 output from modular to 2 line input of Scarlette. I'm using Ableton live as a DAW. I do not mix it, but auto-mastering it in the masteringbox.com

I don't think I can deal with full orchestral symphonies now , they needs so many modules...

I hope to be able to do it if I can get more modules one day.

Thanks

Just remember: even if those Eurorack modules can handle the amplification level, you'll still need to extract your desired signal from what'll be a lot of noise. The two solutions for this are either very aggressive bandpass filtering after the preamp to localize the range in which the signals can be found (usually subaudio ranges) or the use of a lock-in amplifier which can "track" the signal as it fluctuates. I'd also suggest making use of several window comparators which can extract voltage level information and convert this into gates, which can then be used as needed.

And yeah, that Grass device I linked to is pretty chunky...but you have to admit that, as unwieldy as it is, that damn thing looks COOL in addition to being one (of several) of the right devices for the task. Not as technologically badass as MY lock-in analyzer (made by EG&G...the folks who also run Area 51!) that's on top of a rack right behind me as I type this, but those Grass things definitely have that "evil guvment lab" look DOWN. Test gear suuuUUUUUcks to haul around...but onstage, it definitely projects a "whoa..." factor!

Hi Everyone

I'd like to create a system that creates chord progressions based on probability.

For example, in the key of C, let's say the first chord is C, then here would be, say, a 40% chance the next chord would be F, a 40% chance it would be G and a 20% chance it would be Am.

Let's say it is Am. Then there might be a 30% chance the next chord would be F, 30% it could be Dm, 20% Em, and 20% of G. And so on.

There are a couple of modules in VCV Rack which can do this but there are no hardware equivalents. One of them uses a Markov Chain which seems a good way to go.

Is this possible in a modular system? If so, can anyone suggest any modules to look at?

Thanks,
Ian

Hey everybody,

I have several compositions for multiple acoustic instruments that I am trying to breath new life into and I think eurorack could be a really cool way to accomplish this. The way they are composed midi data for the pieces already exists so I just need a machine to feed it through. I am super open to any tips and suggestions regarding the layout, alternate modules/substitutions, and what I could put to fill in that last bit of space (14 hp on the top row and 10 hp on the bottom row). I would like to possibly add some drum modules but am also open to other ideas especially if I missed something essential (this is my first rack so it's possible). Thanks for the input, I appreciate it!

Please comment, give advice on the rack (well two skiffs) that I have sort of cobbled together:

I currently own all of the modules in these two skiffs (except for the Disting, Stages, Quad Invert and Morphagene). I would like to make ambient type music. Here are a few YouTube videos that I really like the sounds/moods of:

Am I going in the right direction here with my current module choices and what I am thinking of adding? Am I missing anything obvious?

Thanks

EDITED May 20th 2020, 05:03

Hello Lugia and thank you for the wonderful feedback. I totally agree on a lot of what you say but am lucky to find ways around some of the problems you described.

Two of the modules I have do the converting of biometric feedback into CVs using electrodes and small clips. I am looking to expand upon this idea with more inputs from more sensors. The setup I have can do simple voicings, so one of the things I’m working on is the guts of the eurorack to create more complex harmonies, rhythms and algorithms.

I really dig the link you sent, hopefully my case ends up a bit smaller and lighter in the end.

Hi Wishbonebrewery,

Yes, this is what I needed! After listening here on this forum as well as from my own music collection quite some exciting music, your music is the kind of "closing chapter" for today of listening music. Nice, relaxing and almost kind of inner-healing music to me!

You got there some real nice deep bass sound, pfeew! It's in the middle of the night here and I don't want to get in trouble with my neighbour or worse with my wife, so I have to wait for a daytime opportunity that I can play your track seriously loud and test if I can "drone off" the roof tiles of my roof (I am sitting at the attic and listening to your music). I am pretty sure this bass-sound of yours would be able to pull that off ;-)

Perssonaly, after so nice relaxed 10 minutes and close to twenty seconds, you pulled me a bit off with the end of your track to just cut-off the music like that, other than that, yet another lovely track from you. So thank you very much for sharing that with us :-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Gasbug,

Wow, that's something completely else than all that "Techno stuff" (just kidding "Techno" guys here ;-) ) people usually come here with ;-) I am insulting now a bit those fantastic members here who come with some beautiful ambient music as well, it was rather jokingly meant and I guess you know what I mean here :-)

Beautifully done, how much days or months has that taken you? I read somewhere in one of your replies on You Tube that you use a laptop to MIDI control your Hermod and then the rest with the modular system I guess. So, you actually configure everything in your laptop and then control your modular system, right? Must still have been a lot of work :-D

I like your recording, quite crisp and clear, what's your recording device if I may ask? Is that DAW only or something in between, I would appreciate some details on that one.

The usage of stereo effects are nicely done too, I heard several different instruments on the left and right channels but luckily also a few instruments nicely in the sweet-stereo-spot, so well done!

(I am mentioning the above, as if that's just a simple easy thing to do, this stereo effects and getting something in the sweet-stereo-spot, but hell no that isn't easy at all. I am currently trying to record some "noise" (I am not daring to call it music) of my own but getting this stereo stuff right isn't easy at all, I realised...)

So that leaves me only to ask for one more "small little favour" ;-) When will you come up with a full classical symphony of let's say Beethoven or Mahler? :-D

Thank you very much for sharing and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Mibitek,

Wow, nice setup you got there :-) While listening at your intriguing sounds watching your lovely modular-video. I particularly like the view on your "forest" of patch cables ;-)

I wouldn't have mind if it was 2 minutes long instead of 1 minute. So nicely done and I look forward in hearing as well as in watching your next modular-video/sound-track!

Thank you very much for sharing and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Ha ha ha!

Anyhow....
here's another little patch

Welcome! Looking forward to checking out your modules.
Have fun and good luck!

Hi,

Just wanted to announce ourselves on this forum. We are a new modular company based in Milwaukee, WI. We've just recently gotten listed on Modular Grid and just today posted 3 new filter modules based on the AS3320 chip.

To start with, we are putting out a line of affordable 6hp modules. So far we have DUAL VCLFO, ADSR, RING MOD, 24dB LPF, 24dB HPF and 12dB BPF and more coming very soon!

https://www.voltatone.com/

Let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Thanks,
Volt-a-tone

Hi Exposure,

Thanks for letting us know the details, I always feel that's interesting to see how people get to certain sounds. The vintage/old recording vibe is a nice thought :-)

Ha, ha, yeah, Arturia choose the "Brute" name very well there.

Have fun with modular and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Illlumen,

Welcome to modular :-) Did you already both some of the modules? If not yet, you might want to take it easy here. Since you got already a Peak and an OP-1 with a Bass Station too, there is no need to hurry here. You might want to re-considery our choice on the Harmonic Oscillator unless you felt in serious love with it (did you tested it at a dealer?) because it's a large module and looking at the small rack you have, space is something you don't have or at least you should keep in mind your limited HP-space.

I don't have experiences with those modules you mentioned, so I can't comment on them in details, just take it easy and please consider a larger rack. Did you checked out the Intellijel 7U case, 2 * 104 HP? That might be nice to start with.

Good luck with the planning and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Kel,

Ha, ha, fair enough, only a bit lazy when it comes to think about: "Does this signal contain DC components, yes or no?" ;-)

Cheers, Garfield.

sooooo many notes

I get the impression I am a deep sea diver discovering some ancient underwater music technology!

Very nice :)

I love the Harmonic Oscillator for its organic sound. I am looking for something that could complement my OP-1 and Peak soundwise. As far as I know the E352 Cloud Terrarium should fit the bill quite good. So it would be my first priority. Combined with the Belgrad I imagine wonderful worlds of hybrid drones and moving textures. As third VCO i am looking at a Klavis Twin Wave, especially for its digital "dirt". What do you think?

Hi all,
here a little dark cinematic modular ambient experimentation made with my custon modular sytem mostly based on Make Noise Shared System with some nice additions like Noise Engineering Loqueric Iteritas, mirco O_c and antumbra smog (micro clouds).

The patch idea: Thre are three voices influencing each other. Telharmonic with dpo e telharmonic in ring modulation with the other dpo osc. Loqueric iteritas is the main voice, all passing through clouds. All is modulated by some dependent slow lfos and envelopes.

Hey there,
finally I dived into the rabbit hole and got my first rack. I already have an #OP-1, #Peak and #Bass Station II. They cover a lot of ground and possibilities already - so I wanted my rack to be very precise and focussed. I feel comfortable in a lot genres (Indie, #Ambient, #Downtempo, #Experimental, Techno) but with this racks I wanted something with the possiblity to dive deep without using my mouse. You could call it getting lost in the process. I already had some very deep and productive hours with this rack.

What I am looking for next is a second oscillator. I have the Cloud Terrarium in mind. I tried the #Verbos Complex Oscillator, too. But I think the Harmonic Oscillator fits much more into my acoustic portfolio. I am also looking into getting a #Klavis Twin Wave, which could cover the more digital dirt for me. I was pondering a lot wether I want to have effects in my rack. For now, I want to get the Make Noise #Mimeophone for crazy modulated echo stuff. Sure, I could get something external like Red Panda #Particle - but maybe both sometimes? For reverb needs I have been driving well with plugins, Valhalla and Altiverb. I tend to set and forget them once the setting fits into the track, so no need for CV modulation here.

You see, I have been working (and thinking) a lot about possible next steps.

What do you think? Any special tipps?
What is your experience with those modules mentioned?

Instead on focussing on the original Clouds I would get Typhoon with the Superparasites firmware. You will free up more space and you have much more direct sound tweaking possibilities. Intellijels Quad VCA could be worth a look. I'd save some more money - you'll be in need for more possibilities, soon.

looks like you forgot the power switch?

Hey Garfield,

The cracking noise comes from the filtered noise model in the MI Plaits, I left it there for most of the track as I wanted to give it a kind of vintage / old recording vibe.

Distortions are from the Minibrute. The brute factor know is pretty sweet, between 25% and 45% it adds warmth and fattens the sound, past 50% it goes completely mad.

Thanks for your comments Garfield,

Conceptually, this is interesting, but I'm not sure exactly what this cab is for. Is this a "voice", or is this where you intend to do the signal conversion?

One other point about biosignal work: it's not merely a matter of "connect ficus tree to input preamp". In order to amplify signals of this magnitude, you'll probably wind up needing far more gain than a typical Eurorack input can offer, plus a good bit of signal cleanup. For a decent older example, see l80AAOSwJU5drCq6" target="_blank">https://www.ebay.com/itm/EEG-POLYGRAPH-DATA-RECORDING-MACHINE-GRASS-MODEL-79D-PARTING-OUT/153691498905?hash=item23c8ba2999l80AAOSwJU5drCq6 What you choose for electrodes and leads will also be important; some work well for one application, but are utterly useless for others.

You'll mainly be looking at EEG gear for your signal pickup, since those systems have the necessary amplification factors to bring the biosignals up to a relatively usable level. They also tend to offer the HP/LPFs needed to remove noise and spurious signals on the input...and believe me, you WILL be wrestling with that noise/garbage issue, since it only takes a few feet of unshielded cable to pick up enough electronic crap at the required amplification levels to render all of your bioinput totally useless. However, if you're uncomfortable with electronics that go WAY outside typical synth gear...well, you're just plain screwed. This is very much one of these control methods that requires going outside of most synth users' comfort zones.

It's an interesting idea...one I've tinkered with on occasion. But at the same time, it's an infinite rabbit-hole...so be forewarned!

Um, this is work... need to think about it! Give me a day or so ;)

Oh noooo no no, there is no way you can be into modular synths and be lazy! Some effort is required...!

No wonder you are scared hehe

Come on... you are capable of typing many words, listening to music and saying kind things about it all... not the actions of a lazy person!!

I have no nightmares no, it's not that hard, a little effort and you will also feel confident.

Let me be clear, an oscillator is a device that turns a DC signal into an AC signal - whooooop! Such a simple idea that causes so much confusion! The higher the input voltage the faster the capacitor charges and therefore the faster the release... i.e. the faster the oscillation between charge and discharge... yikes!! Is that it... well, yeah :)

All you need to do to be safe is think about the signal you are generating, is it in audio range? If yes, then, with suitable attenuation (either in the mixer itself or before the signal reaches the mixer e.g. output module), you can almost certainly connect it to your mixer!

I am sure there are folk who will challenge these ideas, but as a working definition it has never screwed me over :)

EDITED May 19th 2020, 00:44

Hi Kel,

Ha, ha, well perhaps with your experience then I would feel confident in being able to make sure that I don't send any DC signals to my mixer but ehm... I don't think I have that expertise yet to be able to do that :-) And on the other hand, my name is Garfield, so I am damn lazy and I don't want to think about... "does this signal has perhaps any DC components, so can I send this to my mixer?"

Sorry, I am too damn lazy for that ;-) I choose my nickname here on purpose ;-)

Ha, ha, 10 up till even 30 outputs to your external mixer... big mixer you got there :-D Well, my mixer is much smaller, so what I am doing is, I am using the Doepfer A-135p (currently two of them) and A-135o so all my "output signals" I mix them with my Doepfer modules (they are chain-able, so if I need to add more voices, I "just" add more of those A-135p modules, theoretically because HP-space & finance might be some issues) and then put them as one (stereo) output to my audio interface. Okay admitted, I got a few audio interfaces, but not as much as handling 10 till 20 voices, maximum I currently can bring to my mixer are 6 outputs (3 * stereo) and for the moment that's enough. Agreed... I am lacking a little bit on Eurorack mixers. I have a Hikari mixer as well (nice one by the way, but not as fancy as the Doepfer) but I could use one more (stereo) mixer. But at least with my current setup I don't worry at all about DC signals to the mixer or not because I forward all the audio output via an audio interface to my mixer. Then again, I guess I mentioned already, I am lazy ;-)

Do you never have nightmares that one day you will overlook a DC component and blow up your monitors? ;-D Well, I had nightmares from day-one since I know about what DC can do to your monitors or speakers...

Kind regards, DC-scared and lazy Garfield ;-)

Thank you Kel, this is the feedback I’m looking for. I was trying to squeeze a quad VCA into the rack but can see I can do a bit more with MI Blinds. If you needed to adjust the rack to fit it in, what might you do?

Er... so don't send Envelopes, LFOs, Gates, Triggers and other modulation sources to your mixer!

You should never send a DC signal to your mixer/sound card!

That's just knowing and paying attention to what you are doing :)

To give you some kind of idea, I typically use between 10 and 20 outputs from my modular straight to the mixer - sometimes up to ~30 - trying to accommodate all those signals through dedicated output modules is impractical to say the least :D

Hi Kel and Ez_bois243,

Just out of curiosity, how sure can you be that your mixer is properly filtering away any unwanted DC signals? Or are you saying that all (modern) mixers do that by default on all their inputs? Unless of course you checked your mixer specifications on that. I couldn't really rule it out on my mixer though.

Once I got to know about those DC signals, I am, being honest here :-) pissing my pants, and not daring to put anything to my mixer before let it go through a proper audio output interface, making sure that any DC components are gone.

Kind regards, Garfield.

Yeah - check the specs!! Attenuate your incoming signals completely... and slowly bring up the levels - you'll get it :))

Hi Ez_bois243,

Yes the Stereo mixer of Toppobrillo will give you good mixer possibilities, absolutely however it's not an audio (input/output) interface as such. On the other hand if you feel as comfortable as Kel to leave it out and you can handle it directly on your mixer then that's fine of course as well. As mentioned it was just a thought :-)

Enjoy your modular and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Exposure,

Thanks a lot for that nice treat :-) I enjoyed listening at it, very slowly you build up the tension in your music, more and more and... my heart was beating overly excited by your music so much tension was there for the listener, yeah, I like that! :-)

Just one question, on one of your main voices there was a kind of cracking/sizzling noise, did you put it there on purpose, or did you overlooked it? If you put it on purpose there, how did you managed that? Quite curious actually.

Ha, ha, and you definitely know where to find your distortion knobs on your modules ;-)

I look forward in hearing more of your music and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Garfield it's good to be here. I actually already have a little home studio going including an audio interface and monitors. I believe the outputs of the Toppobrillo will give me a good clean signal for the interface unless I'm mistaken.

An audio interface module is great for starting out, but I let mine go in the end... why? I got a mixer that has tons of headroom and the capability to attenuate incoming signals - it's perfect!

Having said that, I still have an input module for external sources because they do need amplifying considerably to make sense in the modular world.

Gain staging is one of the mot essential skills in music production, if you pay attention to this, and make sure you never clip your signals - you will get better results faster. I spent years messing up before I fully understood this simple but absolutely critical process.

Hi Ez_bois243,

Welcome to the modular world :-) Most has already been said by Kel and Farkas, so please follow/consider their advice, that's spot on.

One little question, just as a kind of food for thought... how are you going to output your sound from your modular rack to your (I assume: external) mixer?

What I am trying to say is :-) That you might want to look into an Audio Interface module. Unless I have it overlooked in your rack. If you have a guitar somewhere laying around and want to use that here and there for some input music into your modular system as well then you might straight away want to consider an Audio Input/Output interface module; otherwise just an output interface might be sufficient.

As already mentioned, take it easy, just a few modules in one go, and start experimenting and playing around with them and enjoy the modular journey into the sonic-cosmic :-) Kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Take your time, follow the triple check protocol when connecting:

Look before you connect, look after you have connected, then check again to make sure you have the power cables the right way round!

Never, ever, deviate from this and you will never fry a module!

Seriously, I will reiterate, you have so much already, obviously up to you... but I strongly recommend you hold your horses going for more modules - you will appreciate everything so much more :)

Hey thank you so much both of you, for taking your time to go over this build with me. I appreciate how you've already honed in on what I need. I agree the MI clones are probably the direction to go if I want to actually keep this within my budget. I did however purchase Veils, Shelves and Maths last night, since I found a few good deals locally. Also it looks like the Knit Plaits clone is almost as expensive as an original Plaits model now so I might just go with Mutable on that as well. I found a marbles clone called Pachinko that's slightly cheaper than Cara. However I can't tell if it lacks any functionality that Cara has. Does anyone know?

I love the Lofi junky idea, I'm a fan of Zvex's guitar pedals and I think this is an effect that I'll get a lot of mileage with. The Milky Way also looks useful so I'll probably snag one at some point. The Stereo Mix 2 is exactly what I was after, thank you for bringing it to my attention! Also pretty stoked about the Varigate 4+ as it looks like the perfect sequencer for this build.

Here are the changes I've made including a few of the modules I've already purchased for myself:

Please feel free to share your thoughts if you have any! I am SO excited to power these up and hear what they can do!

Quick side note: I am in the US. Demand seems high over here right now? Maybe not, but I can't find a reasonably priced Mantis so I'm probably going to pickup a Behringer Eurorack Go. I'll just keep the DFAM and Neutron out of the skiff.

A few days back Reaper stopped working on my computer for an unknown reason, I remembered my audio interface included a copy of Ableton Live Lite so I decided to give it a try and record something.

I used the modular to record some clips and then added effects. Sound sources are MI Plaits + Intellijel µVCF and a Minibrute S2.

Still a lot to learn regarding modular, ableton live and music production in general, but I had a good time recording this one.

I like the idea!

Unfortunately, unless I am missing something, you don't have enough CV utilities for attenuating, inverting and mixing your CV signals. Maths, sure, all well and good, but for the number of modulation sources in there I would say you need at least a couple of extra CV processing modules - say something like MI Blinds.

You're almost certainly going to become very frustrated very quickly without these!

If this doesn't make sense to you and you don't understand why you absolutely need these kinds of utilities, please say so and I am sure someone, possibly myself, will point you in the right direction :)