...Any suggestions for making this more usable in general would be great...
-- dform98
I also have a rather large case. I can’t really give you a concrete recommendation, but I can share some of my personal learnings from the last few years.
Some of these points may not apply to you, since my setup has a few special characteristics:
- In most situations, the case is used by two people simultaneously.
- The case sits on a wheeled, height-adjustable desk, so it can be used sitting or standing.
- I designed a custom, internal “signal bus” inside the case that supplies most clock- and reset-capable modules from the back with clock and reset signals by default.
This default routing can be overridden (“overpatched”) via a dedicated module if needed. - The horizontal part of my case is 6U. It mainly holds a Keystep Pro and a Launchpad for drum sequencing.
First approach: Top to bottom (by rough function)
I initially organized the case from top to bottom with a coarse functional grouping:
- VCOs
- Filters + envelopes
- Envelopes + VCAs + utilities
- Drum section + utilities
- Mixer + effects
- Sequencers
What bothered me most with this setup was that, once patches were already in place, I constantly had to look closely to understand what was currently doing what and how things were connected.
Second approach: Outside to inside
Next, I tried an “outside to inside” layout. In most rows it looked roughly like this:
VCO | Filter | Envelope | VCA | FX || Modulation / Utilities || FX | VCA | Envelope | Filter | VCO
Pros
- In many cases, the signal flow was easier to remember and visually more intuitive.
Cons
- I tended to patch the same or very similar signal flows over and over again, instead of exploring new routing ideas.
Current approach: Relevance-based (pretending the case is smaller)
My current strategy is to pretend that I have a much smaller case and to arrange modules primarily by relevance — a softened form of “decluttering”.
- Modules I use rarely or that have little interaction go into the upper half (top 9U).
- Modules that should live in my fictional “small case” go into the lower half (everything below those top 9U).
The lower half now again starts from the top with VCOs.
With this setup, I can reach basically everything while sitting down, without having to stand up. Cable runs also tend to be a bit shorter.
If it turns out that I start using a module from the upper half a lot, something from the lower half has to make room — and that module moves down.
General principles that apply to all approaches
Same brand grouped together?
Absolutely not — and completely irrelevant anyway. My case is not a beauty salon.
Quite the opposite: duplicate modules or modules with similar functionality are deliberately spread left and right across the case to keep cable runs shorter.The drum section is always grouped together as a “drum island”, with its own mixer, and is largely permanently patched.
The final mixer sits in the center of the lowest vertical row.
At the very front of the horizontal part of the rack (which is fairly small in my case due to the Keystep Pro and Launchpad), I keep performance-oriented modules:
- Master FX over the full audio sum (Oxi Meta)
- Control for a DJ-style filter over the full drum sum (Disting mk4)
- Manual triggers
- Joystick
Maybe one or two of these thought processes are useful to you.
Happy patching with your impressive setup!