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It'll work as a mixer... but then you give up the ability to use it as VCAs. You could press the Maths module into mixing duty if need be.
-- Ronin1973

Thanks, that's good to know. Is it a case of jumpers at the back to switch between VCA/Mix modes, or is it dependent on how it's patched? If it's the former, I'd maybe be able to live with it, as that's kind of versatile.

Good point about the smaller clones. I'd envisaged the bottom row as a bit more spacious for ease of use and playability, but maybe there can be some compromise.

Well... the A-135-2 is a yes AND no answer. It's more of a quad VCA. It'll work as a mixer... but then you give up the ability to use it as VCAs. You could press the Maths module into mixing duty if need be.

I'd go with clones of the Mutable stuff in less HP to make room for a dedicated submixer... else consider replacing something like the Intellijel sequencer with something smaller or a stand-alone sequencer. If you have your heart set on the configuration I would go for the smaller clones.

My $0.02.

The dual envelope? The Doepfer website says the LED is for the output so it should light up once you send a gate into it.
-- catwavez
Can you send me a link that you looked at...i went to http://www.doepfer.de/home.htm and didn't find anything on the a-140-2...saw something for a-140, but they look quite different.

The dual envelope? The Doepfer website says the LED is for the output so it should light up once you send a gate into it.

Hi all,
I'm a couple of months into my modular journey and having a lot of fun. I've been making electronic music for about 25 years, and going modular has really changed up how I'm approaching it. Much more tactile than a mouse!

This is my RackBrute plan, which I'm 8 modules into completing. Currently have Knit, Pluck, Euclid, Clep, Disting, Penrose, Quant Gemi, and the C4rbn. It's paired with a Minibrute 2s which is a godsend with it's switchable sequencer tracks, and I have an external Mackie mixer that's seeming to be doing ok padding the high gain from the direct outs of Plaits and Pluck. It also has 2 sends, which I have a Zoom studio delay, and EXH Cathedral reverb on. All this comes into Ableton Live for recording and layering, and also adding drums until the BIA fills that space.

Some really nice experiments so far include using Disting as an adder, and taking Clep's randomness, adding to a main sequence from the Minibrute, quantizing it with Penrose, sending to Pluck with the Euclid as a gate (also have combined this with gate from Penrose as notes change). Creates nice random shifting melodic top lines.

I was thinking 3 sound sources was not many for the HP, but then realised today that Tides can be an oscillator. The C4RBN has self-oscillation and v/o. Also there's the Minibrute voice (and the Disting can also be a sampler or oscillator, too!), so I guess it's 6 which is enough if I want to push it.

A question I have is: is the A-135-2 a reasonable solution for sub-mixing? The Mackie mixer has lots of ins, but I'm wondering if I can for example, sum Pluck and Plaits, and get them coming through a single out, to feed to Arhbar, or the C4rbn filter, perhaps modulating this level with CV? Or am I completely off the mark as to what that module is for?

I've also noted that it's quite nice to have a little space between modules, which I've totally not accounted for in my plan. What, if anything, could go to create some wiggle-room?

Any other feedback much welcome!

Cheers! Happy patching :)

EDITED Aug 27th 2021, 15:02

Looking for anybody that might be using the Doepfer A-140-2. I just received the module and connected in to my Rackbrute 6U and am wondering if there should be any light come one when I power things up. I've tried a couple different open locations on my Rackbrute 6U and made sure my ribbon cable was correctly aligned. I guess its possible it doesn't light up until something else is connected...not finding much information on Doepfer website (they only have a manual for the A-140 which is quite a bit different).

thanks mate. this one took about 10h

Thanks you two!

@TumeniKnobs, the rhythms here are driven by three modules. Firstly uGrids is doing its thing without much modulation going on, so it's pretty 4/4. Crow is running a custom Euclidean script with its Euclidean note count modulated by the Tirana, which is actually triggered by one of the Crow's own outputs. So I'm not sure I could say what time signature it's in because it's constantly shifting and having the Euclidean note count adjusted on the fly! Lastly, the Metropolis is set to have one extra step in its sequence while its VCA envelope is triggered from the Crow, so the pitch values are constantly rotating one step at a time while the rhythm is following the logic I laid out above.

@farkas I was having a lot of trouble getting Akemie + VCF303 to work, I ended up setting the Akemie's voice to some simple wave forms (after all a square wave plus a VCF303 is close to a TB303) and then added in the FM as triggered or hand adjusted modulation here and there. Starting simple and then tweaking made it a lot easier.

Great Work. I had a big smile on my Face when listening.

How long did you work on this?

Sounds great as always! That's cool that you were able to incorporate FM and still keep the acid vibe. I tried some similar experiments with the 2-op FM and wavetables from the E352 and wasn't getting anything I really liked. May have to give it another try.

Great sounds in this. Am I wrong that you have a 4/4 and a 5/4 overlapping time signature thing going on here? I've been trying to tap out the different rhythms and would like to know more about how this patch is working.

Good to see you back on MG Jim.

Hi,

Addac 506 is a good one.
Quad random enveloppe generator.

Beast tek double dragon is fun.
It's not a random generator but it can produces very weird waveforms.

Synthesis technology E352 gives good results too.

Cheers

or go very low cost diy - beg/borrow/steal tools and an off cut of wood - there are some cheap ok diy psus out there too (frequency central for example)
and build up modules slowly over time - either diy or used or 'budget'
if you want to keep costs down don't go for expensive trendy modules (unless you can find a used bargain) go for simple building blocks - eg ladik and doepfer modules or similar in diy

initial thoughts:

2 sound sources is 1 too many for this size rack, imo

steppy is a trigger sequencer - which is great if you want to trigger percussion etc, however not great for sequencing melodies, admittedly you could use the scales as I believe that has a small v/oct sequencer in it - but - pams will do random quantized sequences that you can loop and do most of the trigger sequencing that steppy would provide

so I would initially at least drop one of the sound sources and both steppy and scales

if you are planning on using this with other instruments how are you connecting them? keeping them in sync etc? would a midi or dc-coupled audio interface make sense?

advice:
a rough guide to building a decent modular in terms of ratio of modules:

sound sources < sound modifiers < modulation sources < utilities (including anything else like sequencers, output modules, vcas, mixers, switches, logic)

it scales from tiny cases right up to 1000s of hp

why? because a single sound source can be copied and processed differently, a few simple modulation sources can be mixed and modified to become more modulation sources that are more complex

Personally I don't think that this rack is good from the point of learning modular synthesis

a good starting point for learning modular synthesis is a sound source (anything - a cheap used analog vco will do, as will plaits), a sound modifier (a low pass filter - if you want to spend more get a multi effect like fx aid too), a modulation source (I like maths as a starter modulation source - see below), a way to listen (I always suggest a quad cascading vca like veils 1st, but you have the outs) and a way to play it (pams will do fine but is a bit of a pita to program and I can't see the screen in certain lighting conditions) - really useful additions are a utility starter set (mults, unity mixers, basic logic sample and hold, a dc-coupled vca)

why maths? google the maths illustratted supplement - it is a guide to self-patching maths in 32 different ways to get it to do differnt things other than it's most basic and obvious functions - working your way through this multiple times is a fantastic primer for modular synthesis - as all the principles/thought processes learnt will transfer to bigger systems - other modules can be sustituted, but they don't have the same level of

why veils? better bet than the mixer/vca you have - it has more channels, it is dc-coupled so you can use it for cv as well as audio (which is a fundamental technique of modular synthesis) it can be split so that you can use a couple of channels as a vc mixer and still use other channels for other things, it has enough gain to be used as an input module for external instruments if needed

what starter utilities? I usually recommend links, kinks, shades and veils - but kinks is now discontinued - if you can find one buy it! wmd/ssf toolbox is a very capable replacment as it has a lot of the same functions plus a few more - the modules themselves are not important - it is what they do so substituting other modules that cover the same ground is a great idea - just do you research - read manuals etc etc

btw I wouldn't recommend stages as a first modulation source - it's great but complicated and a lot of people find it a bit confusing to use for anything other than simple envelopes despite it's myriad of other functions - including sample and hold - simpler single mode modules are probably better to start with

NB sample and hold is not random - you need to feed it a noise source or random cv signal or any other signal to get anything out of it

You're definitely right. I haven't been able to locate all modules anyway!

I've bought the case and all the 1U modules except the stereo out (couldn't find it) already :)
I'll leave with the JF and the RE because swapping them is out of my price range for now.

This leaves me with 10HP that's supposed to be filled with a 3x VCA (6hp) and a filter or a stereo effect (4hp).

EDITED Aug 27th 2021, 11:52

Hi, I'm in the process of building a small modular system to accompany my music production. Will be mainly used in a studio setting as an extra source of sounds for my music production. I'm not sure what kind of sounds I want to get out of it. I want to see it as playground for learning modular and experimenting.

I already own the PSU, the plonk and the befaco output. All the rest is open for discussion. I tried to assemble something that makes sense, but except for using VCV Rack, I don't have much experience and might have overlooked some things.

As I see it now, I have:
2 sound sources (plaits + plonk)
a small mixer/vca (joranalogue mix 3)
a complex clock source (pamela)
a quantizer (intellijel scales)
a sequencer (intellijes steppy)
a mutifunction module (disting ex)

I still feel there's maybe some things missing for generating some randomness (s&h?). Also maybe some of the modules here could be combined/compacted with another module (steppy and scales maybe?).

Let me know what you think,

Cheers!

I was just going to suggest the 2HP RND, cos it just sits there taking up so little space but you can get Random gates out of it so can be used as an On/Off switch on things like the Freeze button on Clouds etc. Plus Smooth and Quantasized (stepped) random outputs you can use to Modulate your Modulators etc.

But @eexee's suggestion of the 4MS sounds like loads of fun.

BTW, if you happen to own a Disting it has a Chaos mode.

EDITED Aug 19th 2021, 06:55

Great patch! I’ve been on micro since the start, but I have this struggle> It offers a good lot but sometimes overtakes needing much else in a patch, or too like daw, just immersed in that screen! and less hands on….
So I’m placing it on hold till I choose to sell..
-- Floa

I also use this sampler from the very beginning. I was probably among the very first buyers of the very first model, when they did not have a website yet.
Well, the bigger models MKI and II are, of course, larger and the screen is more convenient to use. But I have small fingers and therefore a small screen is convenient for me :)
Otherwise, it seems to me that this is the most intuitive and simpler sampler to use without a lot of menu diving. It also does a great job with midi and daw.
I don't even know what could be simpler and more convenient. Love it very much. I think it is just a matter of personal preference.

>

Oh wow, that's nice and so nice relaxing, so beautiful to listen at. How do you manage to make your music on one hand so nice subtle yet so intriguing? :-)
This is a great piece of work as well as this is a nice demo of the BitBox Micro, thanks a lot for that and kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular

Thank you very much for your kind words and permanent interest! :)
I finally have my first solo album in September. Hope you will like it.

EDITED Aug 19th 2021, 05:37

I've only been at it for a half year or so, but the most useful to me for this purpose has been my 4MS PEG (similar to a Make Noise Maths or a Befaco Rampage). Really anything that can create multiple and CV-controllable envelopes and slews I'd think would be useful for a kind of controlled chaos aspect, when used creatively.

The Hypster sounds pretty cool, wouldn't mind trying it myself......

A thing I've been experimenting with a bit in what may be a semi-related way has been the 4MS Percussion Interface w/ Expander. The name is kind of misleadingly narrow though. It converts an incoming audio signal into a realtime CV envelope, with a sensitivity/threshold setting, sustain/decay, an optional envelope follower switch, independent amp levels for both the envelope and an inverted copy of the envelope, and has a couple other little tricks up its sleeve to boot. When you think about that creatively it offers some really interesting possibilities. For example you could feed in audio from a TV or a radio or a pre-recorded field recording or whatever, fine tune the threshold and release to be either very liberal or very conservative, and thereby have a continual incoming stream of random little CV triggers and spikes and modulations, both positive and negative, to modulate whatever other sonic parameters in your system you wish. It also wasn't terribly expensive as I recall, I think under $200 with the expander included.

EDITED Aug 19th 2021, 02:26

Hi folks,

I am thinking about adding some chaos modules to my setup in the near future.

My interest is to add some signal that is less strictly repeating than traditional LFOs / envelopes but more patterned than random. I would generally mix that in with other signal to add some musical “slop” “wandering” etc.

Top of mind are NLC Triple Sloths and Hypster.

Are there any other related modules you love and would recommend? If so what are they, why do you like them, and how are you generally using them?

A lot of the NLC modules look interesting to me but they are also rather baffling. So I thought this is a good point to ask for some suggestions on.

Thanks!!

Nicholas

EDITED Aug 19th 2021, 01:47

Wanted to see how my Akemie's Castle sounded running through the VCF303, turned out ok!

Made with:

Thoughts: sometimes the DUSG is great in this rack, sometimes it doesn't get used, uGrids seems neat, custom euclidean script in Crow helps add a lot of action, Akemie's Castle rules so hard, and Metropolis still kicks ass even with the Metropolix around.

Anyway, hope you all enjoy!

EDITED Aug 19th 2021, 01:24

Meanwhile today in a private sale posted by USPS "click-n-ship", the package arrived before noon on the second day after posting, a day ahead of their original estimate.

Thanks guys!

Good to see you back on MG Jim. I have PNW so the synch setup you mentioned is something I could do. I’ll try that when my new stuff arrives!

Ronin, ES-9 would be my go to choice if i weren’t for the “it will become your interface in Windows” issue. As I want to keep my interface setup as is, using ES-3&6 via ADAT seems like a great option. That is what I’m going for! I’m also adding CV Thing to do more basic MIDI so for example I can go modular to other hardware without having to involve a DAW.

All of this is very exciting, I hope it works well (eg stable and synched). I’m very excited at the prospect of having my control signals and scoring more networked. “Studio as instrument”…. Very very excited as this should help me get more use / joy out of some less used hardware I’ve had. Networking more of it to make “one big howling thing” should be a blast.

Really enjoyed that @TumeniKnobs...very nice!
All the sounds play well with each other...are you running into a DAW at all with the laptop in the background? Care to share what you're doing sequence-wise with this?
-- jb61264

Thanks JB! The audio recording itself is through an iRig into the iPhone directly out of the WMD PM headphone jack. It's not horrible and I can avoid messing around with video/audio sync later when doing a touch of mastering. For this track the laptop is there to provide a midi clock to the Intellijel Midi 1U into PNW, and the KeyStep Pro (I have been struggling to get reliable syncing between PNW and KSP). When I am not doing video I do use that laptop to record audio with Studio One through a Presonus Audiobox USB96 interface.

There are four sequences/arpeggios in this track. Since it started as just an experiment with Bloom, I just tuned the first eight steps in Cm and adjusted its Branches and Path knobs until it was doing something I liked. I think it ended up with three branches with right path bias, playing in forward order. That's the first sequence that you hear. PNW is feeding an 11/16 euclidian rhythm to the Bloom Clock in to give it something more interesting than a straight pulse. That same clock is feeding input 2 of the Disting EX to drive the hi-hat type sound so they line up.

Rene 2 is providing the simple bass line. It's 16 steps that I broke out into four separate four note sections with the first two notes of each section being the same and the last two notes different for each section. Nothing crazy, but just varied enough to not be super repetitive. Originally I had a ton of modulation on the osc and filter, but dropped it all to just get a consistent low end foundation going with the very plain kick/hi-hat beat.

Marbles is providing the third sequence feeding Rings set to that guitar pluck sound that I love (cliche perhaps, but still a lovely sound). PNW is feeding a steady clock to Marbles and I am using the t3 gate and x3 cv to provide irregular timing. I tuned Marbles to Cm with the KSP so it stays within the scale but it still does its Marbley thing with note selection and rhythm.

There's a very subtle track with the Piston Honda that just a pulsing C panning around with some filter freq modulation and some delay being mixed in from an LFO to give it a double-time feel rhythmically. But it's not exactly a sequence since it's just one note.

And finally I am using the KSP in arpeggio mode to manually play constantly changing arps into Plaits. I just improvised on the keyboard within Cm. The arp octave control is set to +1. I used "Order" mode so I could control the direction of the arp up or down or jumping around based on what order I pressed the keys. I did manually change the clock division from 1/8 to 1/16 and back to break it up a bit.

Cheers and thanks for listening.

Hi Igor,

Oh wow, that's nice and so nice relaxing, so beautiful to listen at. How do you manage to make your music on one hand so nice subtle yet so intriguing? :-)

This is a great piece of work as well as this is a nice demo of the BitBox Micro, thanks a lot for that and kind regards, Garfield.

I would check out Expert Sleepers ES-9 (as stated above) for CV and audio in and out of Ableton. But it will become your audio interface in Windows.

Befaco's CV Thing or VCMC both look nice for converting CV to MIDI.

Hi TuminiKnobs,

Ha, ha, how did you know that I love the combination of French (preferable a good Bordeaux) red wine with strong French cheese? :-) But no, I didn't had that for a long time :-( Instead I enjoyed your lovely music ;-)

Kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular

Ohhh! Who doesn't love that combination? I lived for over 40 years just outside of New York City and I could get any French wine or cheese you can imagine, even the Mont D'Or. It's not so easy here in Indiana...

Hi TuminiKnobs,

Ha, ha, how did you know that I love the combination of French (preferable a good Bordeaux) red wine with strong French cheese? :-) But no, I didn't had that for a long time :-( Instead I enjoyed your lovely music ;-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

You could very likely also pick up a used Arturia Minibrute 2S for $400. I'm very happy with mine, which I got for $475 USD new in Canada. Several YouTube videos of people doing (admittedly minimal) jams with these.

Really enjoyed that @TumeniKnobs...very nice!
All the sounds play well with each other...are you running into a DAW at all with the laptop in the background? Care to share what you're doing sequence-wise with this?

Yeah Tumeni.. I think there is a name for that phenomenon, where people assign extra value to something because “x” owned/wore/touched/sneezed on it.

Me personally, I could care less if Jesus Christ rose from the grave and farted eternal love onto the thing.

(And speaking of supposedly Christian values, unless any extra money accrued via the “owned by so and so” factor is going to some kind of legitimate charity, my gut feeling is that it’s a sleazily narcissistic thing to mention, at least to the extent of branding every listing with it).

EDITED Aug 18th 2021, 18:59

do you have one??

i do but I've never tried using the gates before - it definitely does something - there is audio output when both gates are low - but there is too on both gates high which is undocumented

00 does make sense to me - based on reading the manual and understanding a bit about how the underlying circuit probably works - I am playing with this now - I'd say both high and both low are LPF+VCA

think about how switches work - 3 position switches are on/off/on... and low/low is off

Again, I renew my objections to trying to do this with modules from only one manufacturer. That might've been the routine back in the 1960s and 70s, but back then you didn't have the current plethora of module choices. And part of why I'm objecting is actually right here in this case: the Quad VCA.

OK, so that module is based on the original Veils VCA topology, and it's 12 hp...like the original Veils. But at this point, Mutable's moved on to a v.2 of that, which fits in 10 hp. And anywhere you can save space means that you have more space for functions. And with just one VCO, you need more functionality in that one point at least, since you have no way to detune between 2-3 VCOs to generate a bigger/fatter sound.

Another problem with this plan is that you're forcing yourself to use modules that, in this build size, are on the edge of taking up too much space, and the Rainmaker and Metropolix are definitely too big for this case size. In fact, those two modules alone take up 70 hp on their own...and you only have 208 hp of 3U slots, meaning that nearly 30% of the cab's main rows are covered by just two modules. That's not a good way to proceed.
-- Lugia

thank you again :)
i think that the rainmaiker is a beautifull, mighty modul what allone should a live time fun. correct me but isnt there at least three VCA modules =quad VCAx2 and the Planar... isnt that enough for shapeshifter and Plonk? + with mixup is there a mixer too.
yeah the Metropolix dosent fit so well apart from the fact the in/outputs are above, i will replace it. but with what. should i put more LFO´s or a third VCO?
it makes fun to puzzle :3

after a little bit revision it has now 4VCO´s and seven(7)!!! VCA or Mixmodules. i should be able to control everey modul and at the end the OScis audible... or not?

EDITED Aug 18th 2021, 18:43

Great patch! I’ve been on micro since the start, but I have this struggle> It offers a good lot but sometimes overtakes needing much else in a patch, or too like daw, just immersed in that screen! and less hands on….
So I’m placing it on hold till I choose to sell..
-- Floa

I have the full-sized BitBox. I find it very nice for looping in real time... especially if you're driving it with a sequencer with MIDI clock connected to the BitBox's MIDI in.

The palette case has jacks for line level inputs and outputs. You have to BUY the modules to make this functionality work. Your modular gear works at SYNTH level, which is a lot higher than line level (your Octatrack). You're also going to need a MIDI to gate/CV converter. Again, the Intellijel case has the facilities for MIDI, but you have to BUY the modules to connect to it.

So you have a Palette and two 1U modules for MIDI and audio IN/OUT and you still haven't put in anything synth or percussion related yet.

You'll probably find that buying a drum machine and plugging it into the Octatrack is probably a much better option in terms of set-up and price.

It looks nice. But any group of modules from the same maker using the same aesthetics will look nice placed together. You'll see this in marketing videos as well as sponsored videos.

Some manufacturers DO make turn-key (ready to play when assembled) kits like Make Noise and Roland. If you're new, they are viable options for general synthesis and exploration. They aren't bad kits at all.

But you'll find as you LEARN the functionality of module types and key-in on how all of this "patching by wires" works in its own unique way... you'll find that a mixed kit is usually much stronger than a run of modules all from the same place.

The Behringer Neutron is probably going to be the only thing under $400US that is highly patchable and Eurorack compatible.
Erica Synths Pico System III is just under $500. But that's $100 above your price range.

For Eurorack I would budget $1000 to $2000 to get in the door.

Great patch! I’ve been on micro since the start, but I have this struggle> It offers a good lot but sometimes overtakes needing much else in a patch, or too like daw, just immersed in that screen! and less hands on….
So I’m placing it on hold till I choose to sell..

So I’m still relatively new to this as a hobby and this might be a really stupid question, but after spending a lot of time scouring Reverb listings, I have to ask … who exactly is JunkieXL and why would I care that something was owned by him?
-- eexee

Haha! I asked that same question when I saw those listings. I didn't ask it when Rick Wakeman liquidated a load of warehoused items. I'm just glad I had the sense to let my brain make the decisions when browsing those listings. It would have been cool to have a Rick Wakeman Prophet 5 in the studio, but "cool" isn't enough justification for me to blow the extra bucks.

There seems to be an interesting mistake on the panel. It says that if gates 1 and 2 are LOW it will be in LPG (LPF + VCA) mode, which makes no sense.
When both gates are low nothing will happen. :-)

EDITED Aug 18th 2021, 12:11

Thanks Garfield. Maybe you were having a bit too much wine and some really strong cheese when you were listening? ;-) You’re definitely right about one thing - those Hollywood folks certainly are nuts! Cheers and thanks for checking it out.

EDITED Aug 18th 2021, 13:01

Just shot a video of semi-generative patch based on 1010music Bitbox Micro sampler.
Exploring the possibilities of this sampler and I should say it's amazing for complex layers.
Here Bitbox is playing previously created samples, triggered and modulated by Batumi and Zadar.
Music inspired by Lars Von Trier's Melancholia movie. More information on YT under the video.

EDITED Aug 18th 2021, 09:00

Not sure how I missed this thread, but these aqua drum tracks are fantastic! I’ve never seen that instrument before and you’re making it sound great. Thanks for sharing.

That’s sick! I’m definitely sold now. One last thought I had is if I wanted to incorporate a percussion based module, would it pair well with the 2600? What inexpensive options are there for a more aggressive percussion voice? I’ll do some research myself, but if you have any ideas in terms of pairing I’d love to hear them. And thank you!

That looks like a great option. I also might be able to wait on the KSP for now, and use my current midi controller/sequencer?

Thoughts on the 2600 in terms of versatility in sound? After buying the 2600, what eurorack modules would be best to create more sound/timbre possibilities?
-- ethanlawrence

The ARP 2600 may actually be...even today...the BEST synth for learning the basics of analog synthesis. It's what I learned on, many years ago. There's no surprises, it doesn't do anything particularly quirky, it's just a hella solid patchable monosynth (or paraphonic...it all depends on how you configure/control it). It's also what the roots of Eurorack go back to, as ARP designed this with what we now consider standards: 1v/8va CV tracking, positive 5v gate/triggers...exactly what you'd expect in a present-day Eurorack setup.

As for what one sounds like, gives you perhaps one of the most iconic ARP 2600 tracks of all time. And yes, that's an ARP 3604 controller he's wearing!

Really, all one of these needs is a skiff with an extra HPF, some extra modulation, maybe a matrix mixer and a few other widgets...but not a whole lot else in "must-haves". Plus, the Behringer has the 3620 keyboard's "extras" on the main panel, so it's got the extra LFO, clocking, latching, all that; Korg did have those on the "nobody's gonna get one of these" 2600FS, but their "2600 for everyone else, ie. the 2600M" is crippleware next to the BARP, as the 2600M doesn't have the 3620 circuits, period. And having played 2600s with both the 3604 and 3620 controllers, there's really no comparison.

Sadly, I am not the right person to give you tips on this, I am on the same boat as you. But, I recommend you to start using the Finder Module option by category and read all about the modules and make some investigation on them, manuals and stuff. Then, you put together your own creation, don't worry, the people on modulargrid are awesome and will guide you and help you on all you doubts. I did that and they treated me really well and still do, and you can learn really fast after all their ideas and suggestions.
Just decide what kind of case you will need at first, make your rack public on the forum and the vast ocean of knowledge will come to you.

Hi TumeniKnobs,

Oh my goodness! What is this? Is this for real? This is so beautifully done, so... so... much the real thing, I hear here a professional modern mixture between J.M. Jarre and Tangerine Dream. So nicely composed, at one stage I was thinking (well at least trying to think) that I was missing something, and indeed when my face went blue I realised I was missing oxygen, I totally forgot to breath, so tense I was (and I still am) listening to your beautiful track!

One thing is for sure after this. Hans Zimmerman can pack his stuff and you can take over seamlessly and do even a much better job than he does ;-) There is still one thing left, I don't understand... why didn't offer any hotshot from Hollywood you a soundtrack contract yet? They must be nuts to leave you unused here! :-)

For me this sounds professional and top notch material you got here, thank you so much for sharing this with a peasant like me ;-) Keep coming with this serious stuff but if I would be you, I would look around if they indeed all lost their mind in Hollywood or if you indeed can manage to get a serious contract there any soon! Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

P.S.: Nice video too. It's great to see your two racks together with your sequencer running. Lovely! :-) I am going to listen for the third time, I still can't believe this :-)