All Posts

What happens, when you click on the link in the email notification?

No unfortunately it's still as described. Only getting the email-notifications, but no message in the inbox. Also tried chrome instead of safari.

One audio mixer that people often tend to overlook is Intellijel's Mixup. Nothing special really apart from the mute switches maybe, but an interesting choice for those rocking Intellijel cases: they can serve as output module as the small ribbon at the back can be used to connect Mixups together but also to the output jacks, removing the need for an output module. No headphone out, cue mix or VCA's are included here, so if you need that you're probably looking for a bigger mixer.

Among my mixers I really like the WORNG Soundstage and despite being ergonomically challenging the 2hp ones are super useful.
Regarding utilities i love Ladik Gatsby, Probability Skipper and Gate Delay. Also I just got a Twiigs because lately most of my patches involved my O_C with Hemispheres running the Brancher app on both sides.

I am afraid that sharing my personal opinion that I don't see that much use in this feature seems not to be very helpful at first glance as people have different needs and wants and views and so on. Though I'd like to say it anyway for some reasons.

One is, that I find that planing a modular system is way more complicated than planing a 19" rack due to the lack of standards for module sizes, the sometimes cumbersometopic of power consumption and the complextiy of modular systems, like how many VCA's one would need and if there are enough modulation sources than. Ups, no room for oscillators anymore...

A second thought is that I am not sure if people really plan their 19" rack in that way? At least it is easier because devices usually only differ in a minor amount of Heigth Units and mostly are designed as independent entities.

So why do I bother about something I am not interesting in? Basically because I am a bit afraid that it will consume a lot of work that would be better invested in maintaining the current state and my personal impression in other situations was, that when an idea is worded in a community and just a few people love it, things get momentum, things get more and more complicated, like troublesome and expensive to maintain and only a few people are actually using it but of course the majority of people would not participates with their views to prevent sounding negative.

As long as I open racks and suddenly modules are missing which I might find beneath other modules later, I would prefer prioritizing maintance over extension.

Yes, I am sorry about that - I meant silly just in the sense of an unusual development of the price curve.

It just feels so normal to trade and somehow live with folks from the UK that all the changes now have something absurd to them. Even without a political attitude towards the whole topic.

Today I read that Belgium custom officers have confiscated home made meat sandwiches from lorry drivers because meat can not be easily imported anymore. Don't know if that is right or wrong but it surly is a bit absurd.

Just a reminder that ModularGrid is not the place to discuss politics. The new UK Option is not a political statement.

But this is two ways, right? Not only sales from UK to EU but also if somebody in the EU wants to sell something to someone in the UK? So it works both ways I am afraid :-(

-- GarfieldModular

I don't know how exactly taxes are handled within the Kingdom. But I guess so. Maybe @Kel_ can help out here and clarify that. It still feels a bit silly how trading modules back and forth now would make them become more and more expensive with every new owner in the chain, instead of less.

I'm 100% down with the idea of CVable performance mixers, actually. Not only does this give you a proper set of amplitude VCAs for the end of your patch's signal chain, you can automate a lot more with many of them...panning, AUX sends, and so forth. Plus, having CUE outputs to headphones is nothing short of a godsend; if your tuning goes spooey mid-set, just route the problem to the cue and fix it while everything else is going on, and the audience is none the wiser.

Case in point: for my B-day, my partner got me the HUGE TD Virgin Years box, with a bunch of unreleased stuff, and much of that is live. During the Royal Albert Hall set, someone's VCOs went bonkers...and while they were able to snap into a mode that allowed that to be corrected and sort of sound like it was part of the set, had they had something that had that CUE function, there would've been no need for that to wind up on the live master.

My B.2600 is paid for at this point. While Sweetwater has a listing for it, it's marked as "Check with your Sales Engineer" since it's going to be a bit before N.Am shipments. But if you DO check with them, you can set up and prepay an order. It's also worth noting that Thomann is saying "6 to 8 weeks" at present for the next B.2600 batch, which probably is the date it'll finally drop worldwide.

As for the BCR32 (that's the name of the new sequencer), it also seems a bit aimed at Korg as well. After all, they also dropped a 4-channel sequencer in the past few weeks...but it's not the Zaquencer, which already has a devoted following and a sizable user base. And while the Korg SQ-64 has some sizable differences, there's a lot of similarities between the two of them. But if you were to just view the situation in terms of sequencers that're appropriate for an ARP 2600, the BCR32 much more resembles a synth's step sequencer than the SQ-64. You've got the knob controls per step, for one thing...plus the Zaquencer firmware was more performance-oriented than most sequencers of that sort.

Not sure just yet, but Behringer may have whomped them twice. And with Korg's vague stumbling-around in the past couple of years (which seems to be getting worse...$1400 green MS-20, anyone? Anyone? Buehler?), maybe it'll take a few head-shots from Shenzhen to get them to snap out of that.

Besides new modular sequencers, I am fixated on modular mixers and utilities the bread and butter of modular.

So far have enjoyed XAOC Devices Praga but need Hrad expander as well as Befaco Hexmixer/Hexvca combo and plan to add the expander module. WMD Performance mixer looks ace as well.

Utilities- like Mutable Instruments Shades with Kinks and Links, Erogeneous Tones Levit8, WMD 4ATTEN, Doepfer sequential switch

Logic: Intellijel Plog is fun. I also have WMD/SSF Toolbox that has lots of goodies in small HP sized module.

Hi Zuggamasta,

Wow what a nice track is that?! Some real nice and fun sounds you got in there.

I love your video too, nice "night" view with a clear view on your Disting module :-)

I will be honest with you, first I thought: "9 minutes???" now I think: "Why not 19 minutes please!" :-) You keep the tension, enough surprises to keep the listener engaged, that's just my kind of track. Experimental? Yes certainly but all worth it, every second of it :-)

Nicely done and thanks a lot for sharing this! Kind regards, Garfield.

Ha, ha, okay fair enough, then the 4 Mutes it is ;-)

Hi Lugia,

That indeed looks very interesting! Since there is no announcement/release date yet we have to be patience...

Talking about that, shouldn't be the Behringer 2600 coming out any moment from now? Oh... I just check at my local dealer's website... end of April... I thought it would have been somewhere this month or so...

Anyway patience seems to be a main ingredient required for synthesizers ;-)

Thanks for letting us know, interesting and let's see how that goes. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Zucker,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. This one here:

It does not cover trading single used devices between private persons.

That really sucks that it isn't covered by this "Christmas eve" deal...

But this is two ways, right? Not only sales from UK to EU but also if somebody in the EU wants to sell something to someone in the UK? So it works both ways I am afraid :-(

Sorry to hear this but thank you very much for the explanation. Kind regards, Garfield.

United Kingdom is now a new option in the marketplace selector. All existing UK offers are moved to the new option.
I hope it will work with the Reverb offers too, that needs a couple of hours.
-- modulargrid

Thank you very much!

I know it's not a good thing at all really, but it will help until we can sort this mess out - thank you!!

Users can only rate each other if they have had contact via the ModularGrid messager

You cannot rate random people anymore by accident, you have to send them a message or have received a message from them.

Added United Kingdom as a separate region

UK is not part of EU anymore.

Nah, Divkid mutes is four independent mutes, whereas the dirty secret of the Mute4 is that it is four mutes summed to a single output which is essential to my intended use here (and might screw you if you actually want 4 mutes!)

My teeny weeny 2hp VCO was already a non DIY module, haha!

More noise from the cave. This little skiff keeps on giving and is a lot of fun. I'm currently planning how to bring in another voice, additional sequencer and vca and and will show you the planning later this week ;)

Anyways here is my jam from last night:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2021/01/09/behringer-bringing-back-bcr2000-midi-controller-as-the-bcr32-with-built-in-zaquencer-sequencer/

Not that I approve of Uli's behavior, mind you...but in THIS case B. collaborated with the original Zaquencer firmware developer for the BCR2000 to arrive at THIS. There's several things that will make your head explode here...four channels of CV/g/t, MIDI I/O, all of the Zaquencer magic...

...and a price tag of $150-ish.

Pretty cool, pretty neat...and I have to say that it's refreshing as hell to see Uli doing this RIGHT after the Behringer Keystep or Arturia Swing or whatever the hell it is' intro (and its probably subsequent funeral).

As long as you don't exceed the DC rails' current potential, you can stick whatever you like in there. But second busboards are a bit much...

Instead, what I'd suggest is to use a flying bus cable that has the proper 16-pin connectors across the board, such as https://schneidersladen.de/en/eowave-flying-bus Just plug it into an open busboard connector, and there you are.

The only time you'll have too many modules is when you've exceeded the potential load of the P/S itself. If you've got a max capacity on your 12+ rail of, say, 1.2A, but your module complement only draws 750 mA, you're fine. But if you're beyond 3/4ths of the way to the rail's maximum current, then things will start to get a little tricky because you DON'T want to have a 1.2A supply dealing with an 1.2A load, and your inrush current at power-up can momentarily EXCEED the current capacity of the P/S and this can harm the supply. But since that's the only ACTIVE power component, and things like busboards and cables are passive, you only need to worry about the P/S load overall.

Well, that's the idea...but what XODES seems to have figured out here is how to mount a Pulplogic-format tile into an Intellijel tile row without further modifications. Now, if we could just get the Intellijel format guys to have a look at these and sort out how to do universal mounting slots like that (to put Intellijel format tiles in a Pulplogic row), the whole "tile format war" would effectively be OVER. And I'd be 110% down with that!

EDITED Jan 12th 2021, 08:04

Unfortuntaley that is not correct. If you buy something from a UK shop that is shipped to the EU you will either not pay VAT but pay a net price to the shop and VAT is applied when the device gets delivered or picked up by you. Or the shop has a EU VAT regristration and you pay VAT directly on purchase which then is passed on to the EU by the shop (usually once a year or quarterly).

If you now buy a used module from the UK the seller most certainly has no VAT regristrtaion and you will have to pay VAT on import. The custom authorities do not care if anyone has already payed any taxes on the item in any country before and the price is now a net price. Though there might be the opportunity to claim an exception if you can prove that this very device has been imported to the UK when it still was under the authority of Europe and VAT has already been payed. But I don't think so as it would open a can of worms. I guess that with the segregation all british things count as exported now and are britisch again.

You can also apply for a VAT regristration if you are doing any business you get payed for. Then the VAT you are adding on your invoices will be substracted from the VAT you have payed on your (business related) purchases and you are allowed to pay net prices in shops who are ofering this like Schneidersladen. By the way that would also be the price Brits would pay now on european goods because they also have to pay VAT to their own sovereign now.

The Christmess deal is about trade and "real" business. It does not cover trading single used devices between private persons. Therefore it might have passages on how VAT regristations are handled but it does not cover your duty as a citizen to pay VAT to your state on all goods imported by you. Having all that centrally regulated was the main point of the EU and what made the british people feel uncomfortable.

On a side note this also applies when you fly to London for vacancies and come back wearing a tweet jacket that you did not wear before. It is just more difficult to control than it is when your tweat jacket comes in a parcel and DHL can inform the autorities that you will get somethine fromthe UK that probably is a good as it is sent in a parcel.

20 EUR is the threshold then for import VAT. Below that you don't have to pay it. There is also a threshold for custom duties. I think it is 120 EUR.

To sum it up the main point is that VAT is a tax you pay to your country for financing your infrastructure. They won't abandon it in favor of a foreign country.

So far I have been learning and enjoying my new sequencers: Eloquencer, WMD Metron, Stillson Hammer MK2, and Euclidian Circles.

Metron is great for programming lot of drum and bass modules and amazing patterns that can be saved and recalled at light speed and with Voltera can sequence 1v/oct and Axxent for adding drum flourishes.

Eloquencer a great sequencer with random, probability, ratcheting and easy to program and fun to use with live record mode.

Stillson Hammer- what Metropolis should have been a fun live sequencer with quantizer, reverse, pendulum, random modes and 4 channels of CV and 4 gates. Love using it for melodic and bass lines.

Euclidian Circles- wacky fun colorful sequencer best used with external clock source.

Varigate 4+ a good random CV generator but not very precise and pain to program.

For me 2021 is the year of mastering sequencers to create songs in live and record session on modular and deepen my knowledge of modular synthesis.

EDITED Jan 12th 2021, 15:15

Super ace sounding and very plucky!

Garfield, Sisters of Mercy might be it. It definitely reminded me of something from the early industrial, post-punk, or goth era. Good ear.

Hi Mowse,

Oh my goodness, this is superb! What a track!

Ha, ha, that dog bark actually fits perfectly well in this track, it gives it just that extra unexpected touch that nobody else would do or come up with, that kind of "your own stamp" on this beautiful track. Well done doggy! ;-)

Next time your dog is around, keep that mic switched on and put a few "kilos" of echo on it, would be fantastic :-)

For me the old, inventive Mowse is back in full glory! Well done Mowse and thank you very much for sharing this! Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Brunomolteni, and Farkas,

Yes, great track! Nice pluck instrument you are playing there :-) The video is nice clear and lovely to watch to see you at work too!

Farkas: The melody line reminds me a bit of The Sisters Of Mercy, is that what you meant? :-) Or This Mortal Coil, also a bit like that :-)

Bruno: Beautifully done, keep coming with tracks to surprise us! Thank you very much for sharing this and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi The-Erc,

Ah, okay :-) Now got it, how about DivKids - Mutes?

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

That's interesting indeed, quite small modules, might be indeed useful for one's 1U row :-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Homeslice1479,

Any update on this matter?

Happy New Year and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Zucker,

Yes, fair enough and I meant indeed the import tax, which is usually equal to the VAT rate, but yes of course, if I am in the EU and buy something in the UK, I pay the VAT in the UK on the product I bought. Important for me (and I guess for many others) that there will be no additional import tax (or duty or whatever it is called) applied and as far as I understood it, that will be the case (as it was till 2020). Correct?

Still don't understand your "above Euro 20" explanation that import duty needs to be paid on that, that would be not confirm the agreement that I understood (and you just explained here above).

Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

I'm running out of superlatives @mowse, well done as usual and it seems like your mastery of the synth is only progressing!

Thanks @Exposure!

Really nice track troux! I'm enjoying it a lot, thanks for sharing!

thanks guys! yeah the Ts-l was one of the first ones I got... it's really powerful for the hp it takes... and the stages panel is from magpie panels, one of the best :)

here is what I'm planning towards... I change some modules almost every day but the main idea is there already, having a "harmony" voice, a "melody" voice and a "bassline" voice plus some drums/perc, some fx, a mixer and stuff to control everything :)

EDITED Jan 11th 2021, 20:05

This is a great track mowse, I've tried many times to do something like that and it seems like something impossible, I'm not sure how are you doing it but it's fantastic, and I love that dog too!!

Great - thanks a lot! Or, not great, but thank you for implementing it!

Thanks for sharing brunomolteni!
I'm considering getting the Instruo Ts-l, it sounds really nice and its waveshaper seems very versatile.
Also, that stages with the black panel is rad, cool setup!

United Kingdom is now a new option in the marketplace selector. All existing UK offers are moved to the new option.
I hope it will work with the Reverb offers too, that needs a couple of hours.

Welcome brunomolteni!
This is awesome. You have a great handle on melody and song development. Your song reminds me of something from the late 70s or early 80s but I can't quite put my finger on which artist. Keep up the great work.

A short segment from a live streaming session on 01/10/2021. Main voices are Moogs, Trident, and Telharmonic.

Pro tip: Don't run a hot mic with a dog in the room.

Here's the video, open to hearing what you guys think :)

Patch notes:
Instruo Ts-l as oscillator
Calsynth Rangoon as simulated strings
Erica Pico Drums as kickdrum
Doboz XIIO as arpegiator
Robaux LL8 as gate sequencer
Super Vcas as vca and mixer
ST Rocinante's Gate as LFO and Env. for sidechain.
Music Thing Startup as mixer, clock generator and clock divider.

Hair metal acid? Why not?? 🤣

Good info @farkas, I'd love a Stereomix

Sweet

Thanks for the suggestion Wavescape!
I also thought about that, but actually I'm having a lot of fun while exploring harmonics and I just love letting my sequencers play some melodies while turning some knobs here and there.
But I get your point, its just two different things I guess. And as far I can see the Sinfonion really gets me in the direction I want to go, even though I'm still open for alternative ideas/modules :-)

@Lugia, I'm listening to "Beneath Puget" now. This totally captures the atmosphere of the PNW. Excellent work.
I also see that one of your recommended albums on Bandcamp is "Black One" by Sunn 0))). Underrated album! I love "Kannon" as well.