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Did a fill-out of this, minus the Subby. Now THIS is a decent 6U rig...

OK, what happened here? Some of the larger modules were downsized in order to get more functionality into the rig. However, if you take a close look, pretty much all of the original functions are there, along with a few tweaks.

TOP: There's a 1 hp spacer between the P/S and the MIDI interface. This is to get a tad more distance between the P/S and the rest of the top row, but moreso to provide a little bit more airflow to keep the P/S temp down a little. After that is the Tubbutech MIDI interface, then a Doepfer noise/sample and hold. The Rample follows that, then there's four VCAs and a Doepfer Mini Stereo Mixer. This is set up like this so that you can have basic VCA level control over the Rampler channels, then you can do your final level tweaks and panning (yep...I set it up for stereo output!) on the mixer before the audio hits the stereo VCF. And in this case, I opted for a very cool Patching Panda one that has several filter topologies...and, of course, a stereo thruput. Then this signal path ends at the Morphagene...but after that is one of Purrtronics' spring emulators, the Purrvrrb. This has a mono input and stereo outs, and we'll see why that's important in a bit...

BOTTOM: A Ladik dual line input (with metering and individual level controls) feeds a pair of Erica envelope followers. This way, you can not only inject a stereo signal into the modular, but you can also use the signal thru the EFs to provide modulation extracted from the incoming amplitude curves. LFOs are dealt with with a 4ms QPLFO, which is a quad LFO that has cycle times that range from the low end of audio down to 71 minutes...plus, you can 'ping' these with a trigger to reset the cycle AND to define new LFO times. After that is a fave modulation scrambler, Frap's 321, which I paired with an After Later dual VCA, which is a clone of 1/2 of a Veils so that you can amplitude-control your modulation signals. Then there's the Quadrax and the Qx expander. Remember that bit about the 'pings' for the QPLFO? The Qx sends end-of-rise and end-of-fall triggers based on the Quadrax's activity, and those triggers can be fed to the "ping" input on the QPLFO for LFO cycle resets or new timing values. But you can also turn the Qx on itself and this makes the Quadrax function in "cascade" fashion. For example, let's say you want a new envelope to start when another peaks...all you'd do is to send the EOR from one section to the next EG trigger. Send an EOR from that back to the first EG, and then you've got the two of them pinging off of each other. Quite nuts, really...and VERY useful.

Your mono effects are next. I swapped out the Erica bucket-brigade for a smaller Pittsburgh one, then the Frequency Shifter is after that. And then we're into the final mix/output, where I put in a Tesseract TexMix setup with four mono ins (sort of...vide infra) that all have VCA control, but you get panning, dual AUX sends, and a CUE switch available on all of those so that you can flip an input to CUE to check tuning or other on-the-fly stuff. And the MASTER section of this gives you your main fader, plus two stereo AUX returns. Now, remember what I mentioned about that Purrtronics reverb? The TexMix is set up to deal with that quite nicely, with two mono AUX sends and a pair of stereo AUX returns...BUT...you can also use a stereo AUX return to inject another stereo synth-level signal for a final total of 6 ins. The MASTER also has your headphone amp. Then at the end, there's a quad level shifter from synth to line level, as requested.

Now THIS is a serious rig. True, it's still got some space limitations, but I think I've managed to show here where this COULD go with the Subharmonicon removal and a few additional pokes at the original module complement.

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 03:18

OMG - I'm blown away by your PDF reviews! Incredibly detailed, descriptive & thorough - I'll be sure to pass on some links. Thanks for the comments!

I'm going to mention (because they haven't been already) the one filter I started with (Bastl Ikarie, dual stereo), and the one I just ordered (WMD C4rbn, multimode mono with wavefolding).

Hi Steve,

Interesting module indeed, the way you explain it... oh dear... yet another module added to my long wish list ;-)

Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Fastus,

Oh wow! Those are fantastic effects with a serious beautiful sound to it, each of those effects. I had a look here in Germany what that module costs... it's a fortune here at almost 900 bucks, 900 Euro-bucks... :-(

Time to win the lottery and get one! ;-) Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Thank you @farkas, I've been listening to Richie for a long time so that's quite the compliment!

@GarfieldModular, both the bass and the lead here come from the Akemie's Castle. The lead is going through the VCF303 and the bass is going through the Takaab LPG. Speaking for myself, I find the AC one of the most enjoyable modules out there. It's easy to get crazy stuff out of it, and it's not tooooo hard to get really great beautiful sounds out of it either, and when you think about it as 4 different oscillators, or 2 complex oscillators, with a chord mode!, that 38HP feels quite worth it.

Well, you have officially become my second favorite acid artist (behind Richie Hawtin, of course). Well done, my friend.
And yeah, the 2LPG v2 finds its way into every patch I make. Ridiculous value.

Hi Steve,

Those nice sounds (main voice(s)) do they come from the Akemie's Castle module? 38 HP is quite a bit and wondering if this module is worth it, is it?

Nice work here and thank you very much, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Cmb_ and Sacguy71,

Thank you both!

Cmb_: Ha, ha, that's a good one! :-) So the "you can never have enough effects" is the new slogan then ;-)

Sacguy71: He, he, fair enough (regarding a video), it's just that I am still busy with fine tuning my new studio setup, struggling at the moment with absorbers and diffusers to fine tune the sound in my studio. Since it's in the basement it isn't that easy, the ceiling is, I am afraid, too low and I might need to do something about the ceiling. Another thing bothering me is the bass sound, I set the bass config on the monitors already to the lowest value (the monitors are standing very close to the wall, no choice because there isn't enough space) and I still feel it sounds too heavy or am I being over-sensitive here? Well, I have to admit that those low frequencies sounds (those below, let's say 60 Hz) from the here above Doepfer Meets Dixie jam sounded pretty cool on my monitors (till 35 Hz), better than on my HiFi speakers (till about 50 Hz).

Once I am totally happy with my studio setup (will that ever by the case? ;-) ) and get used to what is exactly where, then I might slowly think about how to position a few cameras to see if it makes sense to start YouTube films but till then, I think this will take a long time if I am going to do videos at all, still not sure about that.

By the way, glad to hear from you again, long time didn't see any posts from you. Having said that, I also didn't see for some time any stuff coming from you, Cmb_ :-)

So I hope, you both will release soon some cool jams, can't wait to listen at them and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Igor,

Thanks for the hint, I didn't know Juno yet. I need to check regarding Brexit what the import taxes and consequences are, it looks like Juno's website already indicates that so it seems pretty transparent to me, which is great. Kind regards, Garfield.

Still messing around with Akemie and the VCF303, this is an excerpt from a jam that I think turned out pretty well, hope you enjoy!

Made with:

Notice I swapped out the Links and the Rnd Step for a Scales letting me generate better bass lines using the Turing Machine. And worth noting (again) : the Takaab 2LPG V2 is pretty incredible 🕺

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 00:02

I would probably arrange it like this, if it were mine. That's sort of how I have my rack anyway.
Sequencing and mixing at the bottom, modulation and FX just above that, then filters and voices on top. I got rid of the 2hp ADSR to fit all of your filters in. You'll just have to experiment with placement to figure out what works best for you.
Have fun and good luck.

I just get paralyzed ! just optimizing pathways . I like to run to 3 stereo outs. hence the3 mixers

What problem are you having now that requires a reorganization?

Very cool @GarfieldModular! Would love to see a video live performance of you jamming on your modular setup.

I would welcome some help in re-organizing this.

the top 2 rows are slightly smaller hence the 1hp spacers

thanks all!

I really love my Rossum Morpheus filter a lot! Also the IME Harvestman Bionic Lester MK2 and Erica Synths Dual VCF are superb filters. The Richter Dual Borg filter kicks modular butt as well. I am a sucker for cool filters! Saving up for the Intellijel Morgasmatron and other filters.

Nicely done Garfield.

Forget about VCA's, for me you can never have too many Delays or Reverbs!

Lugia thank you for your time and effort, putting all this together.
I've read some useful threads in this forum, and you're constantly helping people by sharing your knowledge.
I'm not interested in modulating my bass really, but I guess if I was a guitarist I would be delighted. A nice amp and good pickups is all I ever needed...
I can understand that this rack option is way better than mine, but unfortunately it is twice the price of what I can afford/willing to spend at the moment.
I also think that I would be more comfortable with the simpler Doepfer modules, that can do that one thing and speak my language. It's what I'm used to, after all.

Not offended at all, I agree with you. I contacted the admins to ask about the "best pratice", they also suggested to include the price in the description (although I prefer not to, in this case) and told me "the price (field) should reflect what is needed to build the whole module". So, yeah, I guess we all kinda agree here, given I don't have kits available (at least, not at the moment), I preferred to just clear the field. Thanks for the feedback!

EDITED Sep 2nd 2021, 14:01

Hey Joe,

agreed, estimating the costs for parts is not trivial. Yes, one approach would be to remove the price from the overview (as you already have done), but include it in the description.

I actually hoped that any of the Modulargrid admins would see this post in order to start a discussion about how to deal with the topic of DYI module pricing, since it's an unsolved issue as far as I know. On the other hand, I might be one of the very few who has a problem with imprecise quotation of prices. So please, accept my apologies if I offended you with my quite harsh words!

Keep up the good work!
MAB

This is beautiful. Well done. Perfect mix of field and studio.
If you live in Indy, I'm not too far from you. Three cheers for the midwest! :)

Sounds great. There's just something magical about the Moog sound.

Hi, author here. I agree with you, but the fact is I don't offer assembled builds at all, so there's no other price I can enter. An estimated parts cost would be equally misleading, since it can vary a lot and be too small anyway. Maybe I should remove the price altogether?

Am I the only one who thinks that the price information of DYI modules is often totally unreasonable, as it is the case here? 15 € is only for the panel and the PCB. Saying that this whole module costs only so much means totally misrepresenting the actual cost.

Thank you very much @GarfieldModular !
You can order it on Juno if you want - https://www.juno.co.uk/products/igor-yalivec-still-life/841990-01/

Great sound design and some groovy beats here @Gworn, well done!

Wow @TumeniKnobs, fantastic track, super human and with a nice nostalgic feel. Looking forward to the album!

Thanks, everybody. I took some of the advice in the planning, swapping out the wave folder and the passive mults. As far as substituting the BBD with a digital effects unit… I just like the uncouth sound of BBDs. Some digital effects sound good to me, but my most urgent reason for starting the eurorack was to get some analog effects.

As far as leaving the Subharmonicon in its case goes… this is definitely sound advice. I’m going to mount it in the case for now, however, and probably swap it out for modules when the time comes. My reasoning is pretty simple: I don’t have desk space for the two racks to be placed side by side where I can get to all the controls. Also, the 80 Euros the rack space is costing me is not very significant when you’re buying 3500 euros worth of gear. Putting it in now costs me absolutely nothing except the price of the power cord. Plus, for gigging, I don’t want to carry the two cases!

Edit: oh, ya, and the two Erica Synths Outs were not an oversight. I want four channels out for mixing in my DAW after recording…

EDITED Sep 2nd 2021, 02:52

Here we go...I not only aimed to make this build modulation-centric, but I added a Doepfer A-119 so that you can pick that bass up again, plug it in there, and have both the audio from the bass PLUS envelope extraction for another modulation CV.

No, I didn't stick with Doepfer, but the overall cost seems to be about right for a 1-row device. Lots of stuff got switched around, in some cases in deference to other similar modules that do these things better, and in others just to build up a good, versatile modulation skiff. I did remove everything involving clocking, as there's no sequencer in the build. But this gave me room to seriously punch the modulation capabilities up. Here's what's there...

First up is the A-119. Then the Doepfer Noise/S&H, then an Intellijel Bifold, which can work either on the bass input signal, or it can be used to mess with modulation signals. Quad LFO after that, then the Mixer got repurposed so that you can create composite LFO signals.

Then Maths. By putting that in, I was able to remove the ADSR/LFO and the Delayed LFO because Maths can do that...and buttloads more! And it even comes in at a lower price than those two Doepfers. After that, you have a Happy Nerding 3xVCA to control modulation amplitudes, and a Frap 321 for mixing, attenuversion, and a few other tricks for creating complex modulation curves. Plus I added a Quadrax/Qx so that you can have four EGs there which can also be used as looping EGs for extra LFOs, and with the Qx you can cascade EGs in various ways based on whether you choose the EOR or EOF triggers to fire the next Quadrax stage. And last, I put in a Happy Nerding FX Aid XL so that you've got an extra stereo FX processor for signals coming off of the Nyx, or you could use it for your bass audio.

Now, I'm assuming that this is for a powered cab, since I didn't see any P/S in the module complement. If you DO need to add a power supply, my suggestion would be to pull the FX Aid XL then add a 4ms Row 25, leaving 2 hp open for something else. The 4ms supply is more than adequate for this, if necessary.

The big reason for not having important TRS connections is that, more than likely, you'll accidentally use a TRS cable that you need elsewhere, and then you'll have to hunt that down from inside the patch. Not fun!

Anyway, row three:

Without the EML Fuzz in place, this now lets me add a decent logic section which can be VERY useful for altering clock signals, as well as CV level "pick-offs" via the Derivator (reads CV and outputs gates based on CV movement) and the Min/Max. The Boolean voodoo happens in the Frequency Central Deep Thought, plus I dropped in a dual pulse delay so that you can "lag" a clock or two for the Boolean module to chew on as well. Given that there's a bunch of clocking and sequencers in the fourth row, this makes loads of sense.

I think Behringer has one in the works.
-- Ronin1973

And I have two of them, actually. They operate pretty much like the genuine article...which is why I have two, allowing me to eventually replicate a drum machine setup I was using back in the mid-1990s. And in case anyone's wondering, the RD-6's kick through a Rohde & Schwarz UBM (I've got two of these Stockhausen-endorsed slab-crackers!) will crack your wallboards! In short, pretty much as I remember the original, but with a few tweaks that actually make them a tad more versatile than the OG.

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 03:30

mog00 has the right idea here. Losing the Subby is a must, frankly, but we'll actually break this down so that you can see how it works...

Rackbrute 6U = $359 street w/ 171 hp available (you lose 5 hp due to the P/S).
Subharmonicon = $699 street, takes 60 hp.

359/171 = $2.10 per hp.
$2.10 x 60 = $126, so...

The Subharmonicon, if it stays in the Rackbrute, now costs $825 because of having to figure in the 60 hp it takes up when it uses this cab.

Eurorack cases really are intended for modules that have no power and no cab of their own. Yes, I know that some synthesists like the convenience of that "all-in-1" idea, but this rig is also too small to allow for something like the Subby to take up nearly 30% of the cab. Plus, if you "take apart" the Subharmonicon down to its "primitives", the resulting list of modules would probably not take up that same 60 hp space.

If you're interested in the sound of the E520, this track explores a variety of FX algos

Hi Igor,

Oh this is fantastic! Congratulations on your first solo album! Hopefully many will follow in the future :-)

Pity that I live in Germany, I am not daring to take the risk of shipping a vinyl over such large distance. Let's hope you are able soon to sell via Amazon.de too ;-)

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

Hi TumeniKnobs and Gworn,

Thank you both! Ha, ha, yeah, with this track I just couldn't control myself and used tons of effects. Being subtle is sometimes nice but doing the opposite is nice too! ;-) Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

Indeed beautifully done, how that sound of those cicadas fit so nicely into your music, weaved together as if they are one! Even that squadron of planes is really subtle and nicely merged into your track. When did you said your next concert is going to be here in Germany? ;-)

Can't wait for your next track, this is a real great treat, you made my Wednesday wonderful! Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.

Get a guitar tuner app for your iPhone/smartphone. Place it by a speaker or headphones. I can't think of anything cheaper than that.

I think Behringer has one in the works.

Well, the Mother-32 only has saw and pulse outputs on its oscillator as far as I have read. Also... it only has one oscillator. So you might consider integrating two stand-alone oscillators that can generate those as well as triangle and maybe sine. If you do that, you will probably want a small mixer to sum them as well. I'd want FULL oscillators capable of sync. There are so many choices out there that you'll have to decide what's the priority.

Eurorack effects that can be modulated might be nice. Again, there are so many..

I feel like a broken record... but a multi-function module might also be great if you're looking to explore new functionality. An Expert Sleepers Disting EX has a nice selection of functionality. If you find a function that you constantly use, then it might be prudent to buy a module dedicated to that functionality. For example if you're constantly using the quantizer, then you might want to buy a dedicated quantizer.

I would like to use my own color scheme for my patches - one colour per voice. I can achive this by clicking often to get some cables and take only the color I need at this time and erase the others. Picking up from your color palette would make this easier. But
making a screenshot seems to use allways the stackcable logic – color by lenght. It would be nice, if the same colors I see in the patch were used for the screenshot.

And finaly it would be great to have a text function similar to the knob marker, where you can write a text at any place. You can use this for example for documenting the channels of a mixer or a sequencer.

Those features plus the ability to update the firmware via SD card would be great. And yes, so raw, such power!

Hey I'm really a beginner, but I also started with semi-modular stuff then expanded their abilities with new module. Does the M32 have a sub oscillator? You could add one like this: take the square wave out and put it down in a clock divider (a cheap one). It's outputs will be sub octaves, they can then go through a Filter ( with two inputs even better) and a VCA. You'll also need Envelopes to control the VCA and Filter. For maximum fun just trigger your envelope with a different sequence to the M32's main voice. That way the pitch of your sub voice will be the same but the rhythm different. It might slide between notes or 'trill', but if you don't like that use a Sample and hold module.
Hope that's clear, good luck.

EDITED Sep 1st 2021, 19:04

Hi, there is a user contacted me for a module, he wanted me to make him a certain price, I did not accept and he put me a negative vote, I think it is not correct to be able to vote if you have not completed the transaction, thanks

EDITED Sep 1st 2021, 18:58

If you compute the cost/hp for any given case it just doesn't make sense (especially in a small system) to re-rack anything that already has a case and power (lots of discussions on here about that). I would consider swapping the two passive mults with a mutable links, you get a 1:3, 1:2 (sum or mult), and a 3:1 mixer in 4hp. If you need more passive mults consider getting stackable or those knuckle splitters.

There are many i/o modules, I happen to use the 4ms i/0 has both an input and output section (that supports headphones). I am assuming the two pico outputs is an oversight.

I also use the Joranalogue Fold 6 (great wave folder in 4hp). I am not familiar with the uTune, or the BBD, but I would consider replacing the BBD with an FX aid XL you get a lot more effects for the money and when you settle on which effect you use the most you can get a dedicated replacement for that algo and try more of the available options (once you expand to a bigger case and you will expand if you keep at it).

Hi Snarky. Considering the Subharmonicon already has a case and power, you could make space for the Morphagene (and more utilities, etc.) by leaving the Moog in its own case. That’s what I would recommend first.
Have fun and good luck!
-- farkas

Hi, thanks for the answer. I actually hadn’t even thought about that, maybe cause I’m so excited about getting new equipment without getting new wall warts. I was thinking of getting a DFAM eventually, so it would be cool to get a two tier Moog kit and use the existing rack and power supply.

A couple substitutions I’m considering: the Xaoc Zadar instead of the Quadrax, which saves some space and is actually less expensive. Or getting the Sarajewo instead of the BBD.

I guess when the time comes, I might also get a second RackBrute as a substitute for the MiniBrute… but I can shove these plans in the future. I can only afford one or two modules per month, so actually running out of space won’t happen all that soon.

I really love modular… it’s just a lot more hands-on than digital or software… It’s also annoying that, when buying the non-modular stuff, you always end up getting another sequencer you don’t need.

Cheers

Bought a Noise Engineering BIA & Erica Black Hole DSP 2 from @NSOTB, originally found his offers via eBay-k.

He ships fast, really nice & timely in communication!
I definitely recommend to purchase things from him and highly likely will do so myself as well.

Serge from Berlin

Thanks,

Looks sold out tho.

Thanks for the suggestions anyway

Hi Snarky. Considering the Subharmonicon already has a case and power, you could make space for the Morphagene (and more utilities, etc.) by leaving the Moog in its own case. That’s what I would recommend first.
Have fun and good luck!