Dual VCO+VCA+ADSR

After spending some time on VCV, I would like to "jump" into real modular/eurorack with the following target:

1. duophonic (2 voices)
2. mainly experimental/algorithmic/ambient music ( perhaps Math or Marbles)
3. no external MIDI controller (onboard sequencer ... I thought of Varigate 4+)
4. some delay/reverb (monsoon o morphagene?!?)

Perhaps a Make Noise 0-coast (or Pittsburg LifeForms SV-1) + a sequencer could be fine but it has only one voice.

What are some best value modules (or combos) to get 2 full voices (VCO+VCA+ADSR)?
Something like 2 Braids (or 1 braids + 1 palits), but possibly smaller (and cheaper?)

Do you have other advices?

EDITED Nov 8th 2020, 00:39

I would recommend maybe re-thinking the value of Plaits. 2 Plaits would be kind of non-helpful. I recently made a new Eurorack friend and we correspond enough to have agreed upon the fact that modules that do 1 thing great are better than modules that do multiple things great. But not to digress, Plaits is a digital, and quite limited in its capabilities, and IMHO kind of junk. They sound thin. That being, here's some great modules to start building

• 2 AJH MiniMod VCOs or 2 Erica Synths VCOs. No, they don't have 20 settings, and no, they don't have a LFO mode, but they sound great.

• Intellijel Dual ADSR (Intuitive and stellar performance)

• Intellijel Quad VCA (You will need more VCAs than you think)

• DivKid Ochd (8 independent organic sounding LFO's)

• Maths

• Either Intellijel Metropolis or Make Noise Rene 2 for a sequencer

• Expert sleepers Disting MK4 can do all the effects you'll need for starting out.

First up, if you're trying to build a proper two-voice setup, you need to be thinking NOW about a larger case. The build you're showing isn't close to this, and it only has 19 hp total for your utility modules, etc even at this stage. Also, I'm not aware of anything that's 2 x 62 hp. There are 62 hp Palettes from Intellijel, but they have a 3U and a tile row, and 4ms has one, but it's a single row. Either way, though, this isn't sufficient.

Also, in order to get a PROPER two-voice setup, you're looking at FOUR oscillators...not two. You need two VCOs per voice to do things like detuning, VCO sync, etc etc...things that beef up the sound from square 1 before you even get to the VCFs. Yeah, plural...unless you're thinking of two-voice paraphonic, where you can feed your two pitches through a single VCF. There's a lot of synths that DO do this, but real duophony requires separate VCFs for each voice.

Yes, I know you see a lot of these tiny builds on YouTube right now. They're NOT typical of what's considered a proper modular, though...they're more "bespoke" tiny systems designed by and for ONE person's use, and for anyone else, they're a wrong move...especially when starting to work with modular synthesis, because you'll be forced by the limitations of someone else, and though THEY might feel comfortable in that sort of build, the odds are that anyone else would NOT be.

rabbitfighter and Lugia, thank you for your suggestions!!!!
I switched to a Tip-Top Mantis Blue case; and added more modules WITHOUT looking at the price (it's so easy to add modules here on modulargrid or on VCV :-).

Other suggestions?

• 2 AJH MiniMod VCOs or 2 Erica Synths VCOs. No, they don't have 20 settings, and no, they don't have a LFO mode, but they sound great.

-- rabbitfighter

I would agree with most of the above (though I am a Plaits fan). Just a correction for anyone in the future who is interested, the AJH Minimod VCOs do have an LFO mode (marked "Lo" on the panel). They are by far the best and most used modules in my rack. I can't say enough good things about AJH.

I would agree with most of the above (though I am a Plaits fan). Just a correction for anyone in the future who is interested, the AJH Minimod VCOs do have an LFO mode (marked "Lo" on the panel). They are by far the best and most used modules in my rack. I can't say enough good things about AJH.

-- farkas

Yeah, I'm a fan too of Plaits, it's a so handy and versatile module, overall in small systems. I think it's a good compromise in terms of size, price, and characteristics IMHO.

EDITED Nov 9th 2020, 14:05

I would plan less (other than the mantis) buy a minimum viable synthesizer

a sound source, a sound modifier, a modulation source, a way to play and a way to listen (quad cascading vca is good for this - but will be mono only)

and then start patching it - exhaust everything you can do and you will work out what you need - then add one (or maybe 2) module at a time repeating patch until all possible patches are exhausted and repeat

NB whilst I can see why people don't like plaits so much, it's fine as part of a mix - not everything has to be phat as phuck!! - in fact it's easier to mix when this is not the case - as the thinner sound takes up less space

I love Plaits! Not sure why the hate? It can be a drum machine, formant oscillator/filter, LPG, so much more and with many patch points can be heavily modulated to sound incredible. I love using mine with Mimeophon a great combo. But yeah larger case, more support modules and logic will help you go far.