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I will have a look at it and think what I want to incorporate. Nevertheless, this gives me tons of ideas. While I kind of desparately want the X0X Drum-Sequencer (I know it has a lot of disadvantages), the Rene/Tempi combo looks interesting. Also the split up into two cases, is actually a great move and will probably be the way to go for me. Thanks for that! Will give an update later once I had enough time to go through everything in detail.
Think I've got that, I'll have to give that a go, thanks
Enjoy your spare HP, don't rush to fill every last space, this is not like filling sticker books. Resist the urge to 'complete' your rack, its never complete so just relax.
Went nuts:
Oh, holy crap...what all did I do to this build? Well...lessee...
First up, I reset the cases. Since it was clear that the desired cabs were Intellijel format on the one tile row, I simply opted to put an Intellijel 7U up top, then a Palette 104 down below. Not only did this make the build a bit easier, it added a SECOND tile row, plus the Palette utility 1/2U row. Once those were chosen, I could then eliminate the 1/4" I/O tile since the Intellijel cabs have 1/4" jacks (four, actually). The extra row also allowed me to put a pair of the mono send/return modules on the lower tile row, above the WMD mixer...which means you can use some rather complex outboard processing in stereo if you like. Plus you get some extra buffered mults and a couple of precision adders on that 1/2U row on the Palette.
Then I really dug in and tried to shrink some things. First of those were the sequencers...which although the new ones fit into a smaller space, they actually have MORE in the way of features than the Ericas. For example, there's a Rene/Tempi combo on the bottom (flat, so that it'll work better as a mixing/controller row) cab that not only gives you loads of clock modulation, you get six channels of clocking AND the Tempi still connects directly to the Rene, keeping all six of those clock outs free. And the Rene can also double as a manual controller, too. The drum sequencer got switched to WMD's very potent Metron, with sixteen output channels and a whole lot of other tricks behind its little aluminum panel. And THAT move then allowed me to revamp the entire drum section, with solid kick, snare, and hats...and also Delptronics' electro pairing for another several analog percussives (with CV!) AND a 4-channel sampler/sample playback module that also takes SDs to swap out the audio files. But let's go into this thing row by row...
TOP TILE ROW: This thing's got some new CV trickery, so first up is a buffered mult because that just might be useful in this, with the several VCOs and what-not. Next is Intellijel's Noise Tools tile, which has a potential master clock, sample and hold, and slewing. QuadrATT and the VCAs are next, then there's that first Pedal I/O so that you can add a basic mono effect such as flanging, etc.
FIRST ROW: Konstant Labs PWRchekr, because while you can "see" the DC rails in the Palette via its indicators, the 7U doesn't have that amenity in clear view. But now it does. Four LFOs and four EGs next, via the excellent Xaoc Batumi and Zadar, which both have their expanders here. Then the Hel expander gives you more CV ins for the Odessa, making it also quite useful as a chordal pad source. After the Odessa, there's some real fun from LA 67 with two VCOs that offer variable waveforms under CV, using a circuit like that found on the RSF Kobol VCOs. A Veils clone deals with level control/mixing for the VCOs as desired, and note also that you can "break" the mixbus on there so that if you wanted two VCAs for the Odessa and one each for the LA 67 VCOs, that's as easy as plugging in some patchcords. Then the Morgasmatron (good pick!) and the FX Aid XL. This row is basically the "voice" row, with a potential of up to...get this!...SIX separate voices (4 CV ins for the Odessa via the Hel, one each for the LA 67s).
SECOND ROW: This is mainly drums. The Disting is first up, then the Metron. Two Frequency Central modules handle the kick and snare (with some useful CV ins), then the Tiptop 909 hats...and then there's the Delptronics modules. The left one is the "voices" and the right has various CV ins for controlling the circuits in the left. All of these point back toward the fine electro sound of the early Roland stuff...CR-78, TR-606 and 808...that sort of thing. Then, not satisfied with just one sample playback module...now there's FOUR via Squarp's Rample. The drum submixer is by Paratek, giving eight ins with stereo panning over all channels. Then next, there's WMD's stereo take on a resonant EQ, with morphing capabilities...perfect for timbral tampering with the percussion! At the end, another Frequency Central module offers mono-to-stereo capabilities with chorus, tap delay, and reverb.
LOWER TILE ROW: That first thing is derived from Mutable's Peaks, but with some extra potential modulation mayhem. Another QuadrATT next, then another FX unit...this one's the Intellijel tile with some similar capabilities to the FC Stasis Leak in the second 3U row, but this also lets you time the delay from your clock. And then the pair of Pedal I/Os which connect directly to the Palette's 1/4" jacks.
THIRD ROW: Nope, no joystick! But...see that silver and blue thing with the D-sub? That's the module for Monde's RIBBON CONTROLLER! Yeah, baybee...put a big ol' long 9-pin D-sub on that and wade out onto the floor while sending the modular lots of possible craziness. It worked for Keith Emerson, after all. Then there's the Tempi/Rene combo, which you can use all sorts of ways. You can kill the clock and use the Rene as a 16-plate controller, or clock it and get one quantized and one unquantized channel, also with a pair of gate/trig channels. And you can have that AND interfere with it while it runs, too. This is quite different from the earlier Erica sequencer in that you have many more control possibilities with the Rene. After that, I put in the WMD's mute expander (now you have touch-mutes on ALL of those channels) to get some more mileage out of the Performance Mixer. And at the end are your D-sub send/returns.
Now, you could theoretically toss the buffered mult tile (and that 2 hp blank next to it) and replace it with a 10 hp tile of some sort, since the Palette's utility bar has three of those in addition to your adders (from which you can derive some of those extra CVs the Odessa wants with a little DC offset magic). I sort of left that open. But as for the rest of this, it's LIKE your version...but pumped up on lots of 'roids!
As for portability, what I'd suggest is to get over to your local outdoor sports big box and look into some deeper, cube-foamed ATA-type gun cases, sort of like the expensive SKB keyboard ones without as much of that expense. Futz around with the foam, and you should be able to fit BOTH cabs, power bricks, a few pedals, and some patchcables into that one case. You could even get one that's carry-on sized and much of this will STILL fit, although that might necessitate putting the pedals in a separate gigbag. Either way, this should travel very well in something like that...even if you're traveling out of the country and schlepping everything yourself.
Had it for about 2 hours and I'm already prepared to say it's not a replacement for Clouds (Typhoon). It's different. It's probably "better". And you can easily justify having both. Having said that I plan to replace Typhoon with a uCell or some micro HP clone. I need the space back. Beads is super awesome, and I barely know how to use it yet. I do sort of wonder how it compares to my Mimeophon if you fully master both modules. The granular "genre" has a lot of variety and crossover. Beads has been very approachable for me.
It depends. If you intend to use the modular for a lot of live work, the ES-8 makes far more sense as it eliminates extra gear that you'll have to deal with if you went with an outboard interface. But in a studio environment, I'm finding that using an "old, obsolete" interface like my MOTU 828 mkii is better as it's not specifically "assigned" to one piece of equipment. For example, the 828 mkii I use needs to be able to feed or use outputs from:
A 22 module Digisound 80
The 180-space AE modular (via a Soundmachines Nanobridge)
A Landscape Stereo Field
Bastl bitRanger and Softpop
A B.2600
A Keystep and Keystep Pro
Two Beatstep Pros
Korg SQ-1
Electro-Harmonix 8-step
Koma Field Kit and Field Kit FX
Two Korg MS-20 minis
Moog Subharmonicon
4-channel Symetrix gate
4-channel Frederick Haer window comparator
Arturia Microfreak
...and probably anything else in the studio that uses typical analog control signals via the network of tie lines in here. So, with an external converter, it's simple to just use a 1/4" patchbay to route the I/O from the back to the front, then patching to anything is a snap!
And don't EVEN ask me about how the MIDI routing in here works!
Thanks for the advice. The Motu choice was a happy accident, used them in the past, and recently bought the 8pre-es before looking at getting into modular, so lucked out with the whole DC thing :)
-- TheSoundGardxn
Another nice thing about those older MOTU interfaces is that most pro audio types these days consider them to be "obsolete", so they turn up for cheap. That makes it relatively easy and definitely inexpensive to slap new I/O in in banks of 8 via either another interface or the ADAT lightpipe. Plus, add an outboard patchbay to the mix, route your I/O through that, and then it becomes a snap to change your CV/gate/trig routings. All you need are 1/4" to whatever's needed for the synth's format cables, and you're set.
@Lugia Sounds pretty interesting that. So you can use a VCA prior to the filter as an accent (etc) control with the post-Filter VCA shaping the sound.
-- wishbonebrewery
You could do that, sure...it would involve adding in an extra bit of CV on top of whatever modulation source's output is already controlling the pre-VCF VCA, but that's easily set up with a linear, DC-coupled mixer in that control path.
Far more interesting, though, is using a multi-VCA module which mixes to a breakable mixbus (think Veils here) to "strum" different waveform outputs on one or two VCOs. You could have a triangle wave come up on a hard attack via one VCA, then have the second VCA add a square wave to that gradually by using different EG settings for those VCAs, with the result being a very marked timbral change without using anything more than a second VCA and EG. With a complex oscillator, this can get even crazier...and you STILL wouldn't be making changes via other modules to get at that craziness!
Hi, I've been struggling about buying an Expert Sleepers ES-8 or a DC-coupled audio interface in order to send voltage to my modular. I want to buy an RME Fireface UCX-II (https://www.rme-audio.de/fireface-ucx-ii.html) as I think it's a solid interface and has DC-coupled outputs and I will use it for more things besides modular. I want to send DC signals from Max/MSP to my modular through the RME interface and get the sound out of my modular. I have 6 outputs from the RME interface but I will expand through ADAT in the near future for more DC-coupled outputs. Does that make any sense? If I have a DC-coupled audio interface does it have any sense to buy an ES-8?
I haven't seen this requested yet, but I apologize if this is a duplicate (or if it already exists and I'm too bad at computer to find it)
(Edit: I see something similar to this is actually a fairly popular request, and I just missed a few pages of the thread on my first read. Whoops!)
I would love, love, LOVE some more advanced search filtering options for modules. For example...
I want to be able to get a list of modules where (Function CONTAINS "Oscillator"; AND Width IS "12 HP (Max)"; AND Manufacturer IS NOT "Mutable Instruments"; AND Manufacturer IS NOT "Instruo";)
or
modules where (Function(s) CONTAINS "Oscillator"; AND Function(s) DOES NOT CONTAIN "Synth Voice";) AND (Manufacturer IS "Intellijel"; OR Manufacturer IS "Mutable Instruments";)
That sort of thing would be extremely useful, to me. If that sort of full-fledged advanced search isn't practical, even just the ability to exclude a manufacturer or a function from the list of search results would help a ton.
Farkas: Interesting description of the Erica Synths' Polivok filter but I do think I can agree here with you how you described it. For myself I still need to more understand this filter, it seems I can't get the max out of it, or perhaps I put my expectations too high and want to get more out of it than it's possible ;-)
-- GarfieldModular
The Polivoks just fit in perfectly with the sound I was working on this week. My AJH was too "warm" sounding, Ripples was a bit too clean, the Gristleizer was too aggressive, and QPAS was too... well, it was too QPAS. Haha.
The Polivoks fit right in the middle of all of them. I love that weird sort of overdriven resonance right on the edge. I'm sure it won't be the right tool for everything, but I have really enjoyed experimenting with it over the past few days.
And yes, the Doepfer SEM seems to be among the best of the best.
Enjoy your day!
Thank you @GarfieldModular! Everyday I understand more things about modular haha, thank you for the long reply. I'll read about some filters en generators, I was hoping to generate these from the 1uO_c and Disting mk4. Also, I was thinking that Quadrax would work as an LFO and a second voice, I saw some videos where you can control the oscillators at audio rate. A second VCA is very tempting and the Doepfer A-124 looks veeeery good for the price. I will rethink the case with these things and I will let you know ;)
Eexee: Other than the already mentioned filters by Farkas and Toodee, the Doepfer A-124 Wasp filter is one I love, it can go quite bananas without becoming irritating like a TouellSkouarn filter that mainly just screams. So if you are looking for a screaming filter go for a TouellSkouarn filter, they have a few, the Kala Goañv isn't actually that bad and kind of okay-ish.
Patching Panda, the Vibrazum comes to mind, still discovering that one myself, not sure what to think of it but good enough to consider it. If you like more something smooth then I can recommend the Instruō - Tràigh filter, pretty decent and not rough at all, rather the opposite more like to smoothen your sound or to give it just that extra touch. A bit like the Polivok filter that Farkas mentioned I guess.
If you look more for a Roland style of filter then go shopping at Frequency Central, the State 700 Mk 2 filter for example. Not an exact 100% filter as such however if you are interested in a resonator then the Mutable Instruments - Rings is actually a quite fun "filter" (resonator is a better description) and is recommendable.
Naturally Doepfer has about a half thousand of filters or something like that, not going to name them all here however one or two that might be a bit special and to be considered are the A-108 is a transistor Moog ladder filter with 6, 12, 24 and 48 dB/octave steep slopes that can provide you interesting options. The other less obvious one is the A-128 fixed bank filter. I use that one sometimes to get rid of certain irritating sounds in my music that I can't get rid of in another way (or too lazy too figure out what's causing the irritation). It doesn't do wonders but it can make irritating sounds more smooth or less harsh and of course it can be used for many other purposes as well.
Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Good luck with the search for another nice filter :-) As Toodee mentioned, I indeed can seriously recommend the Erica Synths - Black Dual VCF, it's a great filter with some really nice features and possibilities, check out my demo here: https://www.modulargrid.net/e/forum/posts/index/8963
Farkas: Interesting description of the Erica Synths' Polivok filter but I do think I can agree here with you how you described it. For myself I still need to more understand this filter, it seems I can't get the max out of it, or perhaps I put my expectations too high and want to get more out of it than it's possible ;-)
Toodee: He, he, yes that Black Dual VCF is still a fantastic filter, thanks for recommending it :-) I still love this filter a lot, together with my Doepfer A-124 Wasp filter and Doepfer A-106 SEM filter the best ones I have!
All: Enjoy the pleasure of playing around with filters and kind regards, Garfield.
For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads
Ha! Well, here's an amazing one that directly relates to this conversation. It's your creativity and brain that matters, not your filters, or utilities, or oscillators. :)
Been sidetracked moving (absolutely awful, but sold my house in an incredibly market now renting until I find a new place), but settling in and bought a new 420 HP case. Should be back to making music soon.
I have the Instruo I-o47, XAOC Belgrad, just picked up the SSF Dipole (soon to be delivered) and LxD (don't forget about the low pass gates).
I also have my eye on the Doepher Wasp filter (will likely make an entrance soon).
Some people can never have enough VCA's, and while I agree, I love filters all of them.
Others I have on my radar:
System80 Jove
Filter8
Polaris
Three Sisters
The Filter 8 is nice. It has a lot of features for a filter module. All outputs are available simultaneously, there's a make-up switch to "fix" the low end cutting out when the resonance is cranked (a common issue among filters). The modulation section is well thought-out.
I also like the Morgasmatron as it's two independent multi-mode filters. One filter has a phase reverse, the other overdrive. Both can be switched in or out. I have a Roland 505 dual filter... but it's not as snappy or as "Rolandy" as I would like. Roland doesn't even make their own modular gear... so going with another company wouldn't hurt... as Roland did... lol. But the 505 does come with VCAs controlling the output stage. Which is a nice addition if you are crunched for space.
Looking good! I checked out the rack itself because, like you say, the picture didn't update (which I think is because you created a new rack rather than modifying the old). For some reason it just feels better, dunno why.
EDIT: Ope, you fixed it, great.
You might reorganize that 1u row to move the attenuators closer to the other attenuverters, but I like it either way. Also, if you get the PM DB25 you might look into buying a longer cable on WMD's site. It might work as it stands though. Great work either way.
Posting again while it's on mind, I would just straight up lose the extra channel expansion for the Performance Mixer. The mixer already has 12 mono ins and 2 stereo, which if I'm seeing straight more than covers your voice count. That would put you that much closer to something like the AI008 Eurorack Matrix Mixer or whatever else you'd like to add.
Also if you're going to have a mult in your case it might be wise to make sure it's a buffered mult for pitch cv. It's really easy to buy cables that already mult for you, personally I don't see much point in having a passive mult in a tiny case (unless you want to send one modulation to 3 other sources, that's harder with cables).
I like the matrix mixer idea for stretching modulation sources even further. On the other hand, I would probably keep the Taiko as a melodic percussive voice. Mult a trigger to that and fade in/out from your drum voices to the FM sounds. That's how I would use it anyway.
I'd lose the Akemie's Taiko personally; you've already got four of the base drum elements (kick, snare, hi-hat, and clap), what you could use instead of the Taiko if you were going to add something is something fun like claves, marakas, or (dare I even suggest) more cowbell.
I'd replace it with a matrix mixer. Matrix mixers are great because you don't have to repatch to send a modulation source to some input; with that joystick, I think you'd find you like being able to send it to something like a filter cutoff, then reroute to send it to something on one of your primary voices. The other thing matrix mixers are really good at is combining modulation. Take an LFO, add an envelope (triggered from your drum sequencer), and you've got a really interesting waveform that's particularly playable. If you're thinking you'd like to instead keep more than four drum elements, instead of a matrix mixer I'd suggest a sampler. Some sampler would likely be more useful than the Taiko, maybe Squarp Instrument's Rample or Erica Synth's Drum Sample. You could even net a vocal sample or two this way, which is fun.
Also, having a filter for every voice is proving to be so very very tasty. Filtering down a voice is the simplest way I've found to keep that voice interesting while simultaneously giving your audience's ears a temporary break. Might consider adding a tiny filter like WMD's C4RBN for your drums, but you do already have the Morgasmatron so dunno.
Loving the VCA and attenuverter additions, that ALM O/A/x2 should in-particular be useful. One suggestion I might add is to move the ochd up to where it's modulators and attenuaters will be, should make patching much easier. While you're at it, you might move the WMD Performance Mixer expansion up one row and bring the joystick down one, basically swap them (might have to move that mult up too, but that's good because it also likes being with the other modules it will mult).
The joystick is particularly playable, so it would make sense to put it closer at hand. The other consideration I've found is that WMD expansion module cables aren't as long as you'd expect; pretty much they're long enough to put the expansions right next to the master device, but not much longer.
Haha, that is indeed true. Did not want to make any attempt to compare myself to the skills of Surgeon. However, I still find his approach very interesting and kind of a goal state. But yes, you are right. In the end, I have to try it. Anyway, thanks a lot for all the feedback and time.
I think Surgeon's sound comes down to Surgeon's brain... which I don't have. Haha. Same with Richie Hawtin. Those guys can make incredible music with incredibly minimal setups. I have to supplement my dull-witted brain with extra knobs and utilities.
Everyone will do this differently. I don't take any of the advice given as gospel, so I try something and if it doesn't work for me, I search for what will help me solve the problem and move on to that. My rack, and MylarMelodies' rack, and Surgeon's rack are wrong for YOU. So, at some point you just have to dive in and try your ideas. Don't expect them to work every time. You may find at some point that a Behringer 303 and 909 is all you really need to make amazing live techno, and modular just gets in the way. Or you may find that you don't need VCAs or LFOs for your approach. Only one way to find out! :)
Thanks @farkas !
I basically watched most of his videos before coming up with the first version. While I agree that I needed a bit more modulation and utility, it’s interesting that he also does most modulation by hand and does not have too much utility. Of course he has quantizers, precision adders and so on and over all uses a more elaborate sequencer setup than I would do. But the Black Sequencer does a lot of this in-house. He also does not have a lot of attenuverters or similar.
Interestingly enough, he mentions the system Surgeon uses, which is even simpler. Both Surgeon and Blawan do not have a lot of modulation or too many utilities besides their sequencer lines and both very small live racks.
Or did I miss something? I find this discussion super helpful because it makes me rethink my approach. Also thought of switching to 12u/94hp but actually want to have a rather small system with the approach of less is more. I know that this is more difficult but otherwise it would be boring.
I suppose the best value filter I have is the Erica Synths Black Dual VCF - thanks to @GarfieldModular for recommending it :)
It's got all the filters type outputs available at once which is something I wanted on at least one of my filters, the feature set is more than enough for the synthesist in me to have fun and most importantly, it sounds just right when pushing resonance right below the self-oscillation point, lovely. It may be discontinued now but prices on Reverb make it a great value, around 250-300 euros.
For the very particular sound and an amazingly plethoric feature set, one could look at the IME Bionic Lester MK3. Sounds crazy and then some, it's got presets, different link modes, you name it. The price may be high, but it's worth it IMO.
Finally, I should mention XAOC's Belgrad, plenty of filter types, and combinations thereof (it's a dual filter). Again, it sounds great and each filter type sounds different enough to offer a lot of sonic variety to the operator. Sounds great as a voice too !
I've found the MylarMelodies video series about building a live performance rack valuable as a resource in my own journey. I stumbled upon his videos about a year ago and found some solutions to the exact problems I was having in building a similar setup. The key is to keep things moving forward and avoid a stagnant groove. Just a few inexpensive utilities and modulation tools can really help with that. Here's a video about sample and hold that helped me achieve what I was trying to do. His videos on switched multiples and VCAs were helpful too. I shared a longer one on CardiacTasty's post a week or so ago that covered the broader philosophy and design of a live techno rack. Helpful stuff.
Have fun and good luck.
I just got the Erica Polivoks VCF II and can’t believe how great it is. It’s a fairly straightforward filter, but I’ve had so much fun with it already. With filters, the old adage “use your ears” really applies, and the Polivoks sounds perfect to my ears. It sits somewhere between an acidic Roland-ish sound and the MS20. It doesn’t have a crazy feature set or anything (like the QPAS, Dipole, Morgasmatron, or Filter 8), just a great sound and can be found for $200 or less.
The Doepfer SEM and Morgasmatron (or Dual Borg) are still on my shopping list, but I’m pretty happy with what I have for a while.
If you typed something into the search form every post in the post view was hidden that did not contain the search string. That was confusing. Now the search term is just highlighted.
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Thanks a lot for the feedback so far. That was very helpful. I reworked the rack a bit and integrated some of the feedback.
I removed the Jomox Bassdrum and switched to the WMD Crater - thanks @farkas for the tip.
I added a Erica Synths Joystick 2. It seems that it is very versatile and can also record which I imagine might lead to fun modulation
I removed one FX Aid XL and replaced it by a ALM O/A/x2 and a 2hp Trim to add more Attenuverters.
I removed the Intellijel 1u VCA and added two Mosaic 1u Dual VCA
Looking forward to your feedback. What is still missing from a utility perspective? Thanks @CardiacTasty for the feedback regarding the modulation of modulation. Do you think modulating the Ochd is enough? The Acid Rain Maestro takes a lot of space and I am still unsure of keeping the Taiko. Also though of somehow switching in an Industrial Music Electronics KERMIT for more modulation and functions.
If one publishes something on BandCamp, is that "something" then exclusively to be used with BandCamp only or is one allowed to publish it parallel elsewhere as well?
I am actually not very familiar with bandcamp. I created an account just to test the MG embed feature :)
Nice album by the way, my favourite is Ankylosaurus, fantastic track. Nice vocoder effects you are using there :-) If I may ask, which vocoder are you using there?
Thanks, I used the Waldorf Lector Plugin as vocoder in this track but nowadays I love my Roland VP330 and just use that for everything vocoderish.
Thanks a lot for this great functionality within Modulargrid and thank you very much for sharing your great work here with us! Kind regards, Garfield.
Looking into more filters and curious for some of your favorites you've owned/used, some you consider the most underrated, the most unique, best value, etc. etc. Any all recommendations welcome.
I wouldn't do that. While you definitely get two balanced outs from that Erica mixer, if you're sending to that interface directly, you're far better off going 1/4" TRS - XLR-M. That ensures that your signals stay in a balanced circuit from the modular to the 8pre, which should help with noise and maintaining the same level at the 8pre's inputs.
Good interface choice, also...it's a snap to go from 8 channels to 24 via the ADAT lightpipe connections. Just make sure your lightpipe-connected interfaces are ALSO DC-coupled.
-- Lugia
Thanks for the advice. The Motu choice was a happy accident, used them in the past, and recently bought the 8pre-es before looking at getting into modular, so lucked out with the whole DC thing :)
@Lugia Sounds pretty interesting that. So you can use a VCA prior to the filter as an accent (etc) control with the post-Filter VCA shaping the sound.
Enjoy your spare HP, don't rush to fill every last space, this is not like filling sticker books. Resist the urge to 'complete' your rack, its never complete so just relax.
If you have to put the attack up to 5-6 then I am afraid you might have another issue going on, that shouldn't be the case. I don't know which Doepfer ADSR you have, if it's just the A-140, the one I am using too, then make sure that how often you trigger your ADSR should be roughly in the rhythm of the ADSR itself as well, that's how I call that for myself, not sure how to put this properly under words.
What I mean with that is that if you offer very fast gates to a (Doepfer) ADSR/EG then make sure you put the ADSR in fast mode, i.e. put that time range switch to L (low time, so high speed) or M (medium time/speed) but not H (high time thus low speed) and visa versa so if you provide a slow trigger set the ADSR to H (high time, thus slow speed). Once that's corresponding to each other than I don't think there is a need to put the attack so high to avoid clicks.
Let me know if that works out for you and good luck. Kind regards, Garfield.
-- GarfieldModular
I have the A-141-2 VCADSR/LFO unit. That's the worst case scenario, I suppose. This has three modes, x1, x10, and x100. Those seem to be like S/M/L on my other ADSR (Soundforce Dual). Patching a basic sine through a VCA and using this module to attenuate the amplitude, at x1 I need at least 3-4 to crop out the clickies, at x10 I need 2-3, and at x100 I only need 1-2 -- though all these require at least equivalent delay times. I guess that's really not so bad, though some signals fare better than others it seems to me, and in fairness, I think I do confuse the x1/x10/x100 setting at times, and haven't always chosen the most appropriate one.
That said, with my Soundforce Dual ADSR I barely have to have any attack to elimate clickies on the same wave, no more than 1 in some cases, regardless of the setting (S/M/L - Lin/Exp). I feel like I generally have more problems with clicks/pops from the Doepfer one.
I'd actually thought about selling off the Doepfer one, since I mainly use the Soundforce now, but the A-141-2 does have CV ins for each stage of the envelope with -5 to +5 attenuverters for each (which I quite like), EOA and EOR triggers, and can be patched in ways that turn it into a crazy sound source. If it could get a couple hundred for it I'd probably list it, but you can get them new for like $180-190, so I'd probably have to settle for $150 or so before shipping/fees. It's handy enough to keep around for now, though I might eventually sell/replace with a different type of envelope generator.
My experience so far in building a live techno setup is that without proper modulation (particularly modulation of the modulation) it's proving to be super hard to keep the music from getting stale. I feel like I don't have enough hands to twiddle knobs quickly enough to keep things sufficiently interesting to play a 30-60 minute set, or to transition from one musical space to another sufficiently different space.
I think it's absolutely true that with practice this will get easier for myself, but I'm definitely looking into how to jam more modulation into my own case (which is requiring sacrifices; smaller drum setup, fewer voices, etc). As I look over this proposed case I can't help but feel it would be mighty difficult to keep the music interesting without more (playable) modulation.
I really like Acid Rain Technology's Maestro, but honestly others here will have better suggestions for playable modulation that can itself be modulated.
I wouldn't do that. While you definitely get two balanced outs from that Erica mixer, if you're sending to that interface directly, you're far better off going 1/4" TRS - XLR-M. That ensures that your signals stay in a balanced circuit from the modular to the 8pre, which should help with noise and maintaining the same level at the 8pre's inputs.
Good interface choice, also...it's a snap to go from 8 channels to 24 via the ADAT lightpipe connections. Just make sure your lightpipe-connected interfaces are ALSO DC-coupled.
Ronin: Yep. And that just shows that if you're not set up for method #1, there's almost certainly a "method #2" hiding in the rig somewhere! Just requires ingenuity and necessity...
For me, it's VCO - VCA - VCF - VCA, especially if there's more than one VCO. By putting your source VCOs on VCAs, you can then cause some initial timbral changes prior to the VCF by using different waveforms and bringing them in and out of the signal path via different modulation schemes. Case in point: on my AE system, I have six banks that can be configured as complex VCOs, since they have two VCOs, two DCOs for modulation, and a dual VCA plus a mixer for the VCO outs. With that, I can then use LFOs, EGs, whatever to ping around "inside" that module structure and generate wild timbral changes simply with modulation sources. The VCAs function to control the FM signal from each DCO to its complimentary VCO in the more "basic" patching, but that configuration can get really nuts really quick with a few extra pinwires.
Oh, it's definitely not a 100% substitute for the Real Thing, to be sure! I aim beginners toward VCV when it's clear that someone's in a position where they have ZERO idea about modular synthesis, with the intent that once you know what should be in a proper modular, you should THEN start building. A few stick with VCV, and I'll also note that VCV + its VST extension does make for a good sequencing/clocking environment, but in the end, VCV is only a "model" of something that works so much better in actual hardware.
I do have it, but I still find it to be somewhat untrustworthy when larger setups are in use, especially if there's a lot in the audio paths. Those audio modules are often "bad actors" as far as CPU load is concerned. And that makes perfect sense; it's harder to accurately emulate the behavior of an analog audio device than it is to be "inaccurate" and fudge the results. It's very much related to the fact that digital computers don't like chaotic systems...and as far as gobs of waveforms and such being generated and modified in a hardware modular patch, you ARE working with a system that has some inherent chaos, and the various flavors of "chaos" actually factor into what things sound like.
Let me try to reply from your point of view, because if I would reply from my point of view as a user then I want everything ;-) But let's try to be realistic and it needs to be doable for you too :-)
From that latter point of view, I would not expect to see an archived (or exported) rack visible in our command centre. To keep things simple for you as well as for the user, I think once a rack has been archived it should become a private rack... though... just having thought/said that...
What would happen if a user makes a rack for another user and displays/uses that in one of the (Rack) posts and that particular rack would then be archived... hmm... then perhaps it shouldn't become a private rack and the user who checks then that post should see, for example, a reference to an archive file or whatever way you would like to implement it.
So coming back on my own above comment once a rack is going to be archived... if somehow possible, perhaps ask the user if it should be private or public? So asking that for every rack that's going to be archived? Or if one does a bundle of racks into an archive the entire bundle will then be either private or public, depending on the choice of the user?
It gets quite complicated, right? :-) Exporting a rack to avoid issues with archiving a rack, is not an option for you? To be honest, I would rather have the option to export a rack then to have it archived.
Thank you very much and kind regards, Garfield.
For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads
That's indeed a great way of integrating Bandcamp here into Modulargrid, thank you very much! That causes me to consider to take a BandCamp account. If one publishes something on BandCamp, is that "something" then exclusively to be used with BandCamp only or is one allowed to publish it parallel elsewhere as well?
Nice album by the way, my favourite is Ankylosaurus, fantastic track. Nice vocoder effects you are using there :-) If I may ask, which vocoder are you using there?
Thanks a lot for this great functionality within Modulargrid and thank you very much for sharing your great work here with us! Kind regards, Garfield.
For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads
The Dipole looks outstanding, but I haven't used it yet. I have QPAS and on occasion it completely blows my mind with beautiful sounds. It really is unlimited and perfect for the "pretty" and ambient side of things. I still have not mastered it so I just haphazardly stumble into interesting sounds.
I've been really impressed with everything I have heard from the criminally inexpensive Doepfer SEM filter. That one is next on my list. I know some of the members here like the Filter 8. It seems very useful in a small case due to the range of duties it can fill. The demos I've seen have failed to interest me much though.
Have fun and good luck.
