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Traxams right - I think too much modulation as well!

Pams is a great shout and you should defintely get it. It's actually got built in sample and hold via its cross-ops functions, alongside a variety of other tricks like min/max, logic, euclidean functions, random etc. Great for creating accent variations! I think thats a good place to start, along with a single ochd+expander. 3x Mia is also a great a shout but again I think you should get one and see how you go.

You'll find you wont stick to this plan anyway and your needs will change :)

Recomendations of modulators would be Tides, Batumi+expander, quadrax or a nekiya obsidian (havent got one of those but its feature set looks hyper useful).

Function generators you cant really beat Maths. Schlappi boundary is great as well but only one channel (although built in envelope following, and bound which makes bouncing ball effects easy to patch). I have a boundary and currently have a delta-v in my case which is great, but i would get maths again in my next case.

Utilties aside from pam's and 3x mia which would have been my suggestions anyway, arkan, veils v2 and what the hell i'd suggest manic (gives your drums an extra sparkle, although you might not find its wavefolder useful). I'd look up monotrails on videos to get ideas on utilities which suit you- i basically learned everything from this guy. He covers modules like utilities you might not find useful in short term, but will maximise your rack in the long run. A lot of eurorack principles may not apply to a drum rack in first instance, but its good broader knowledge.

Another utility to research is matrix mixing. Can't beat the doepfer a138m. I personally have fewer modulation sources, however I derive variations through min/max or mixing them together them so they relate. Invetering an lfo for instance, and sending the inverted along side the postive to different sources makes your sounds dance along together. Its more clean and subtley brings your sounds together than having a billion different unrelated resources. The matrix mixer is good for this. Samara II is a good shout to look into as a mixer. Has built in sample and hold and also min/max features and its only 10hp.

I run my drums through a cosmotronic messor which is an amazing compressor. It uses the same chip as some boutique compressors, but comes in at half the price. I'd recommend that or something similar to glue everything together.

Of course a lot of these suggestions wont work for you, which is fine! Thats the beauty of modular- highly customisable. I love this hobby and happily fall down a eurorack rabbit hole everyday.

Start slow, work out your needs, and plot your course as you go. The thing you want now, might not necessarily be the thing you need later :)

EDIT:
Oo sorry forgot to mention your sequencer plan. I think that sounds sensible. Personally I'd stick with the Oxi One still due to the four sequencers. You could have one set up for each rack and use the Oxi Split to seperate out the different channels, with an additional one going to the pipe. For me it would mean everything is in one place and would be one less thing for my brain to handle. Although admittedly its more buttons to press and pages to keep track of, so it has its downsides!

EDITED Today, 08:07

I'm going to add some 1U switches also so I can distribute modulation to different drums.

-- Traxam

+1000

Switches including sequential, switched multiples, gated switches are all super powerful. Boring but a fantastic thing to add. Doepfer sequential switch is a good place to start. Couple it witch a simple clock divider, or trigger from a sequencer.

Hello megoth, ive been doing this a couple of years now, thought i'd stick my head above the parapet :)

The main advice you'll get from other users is to not do drums in rack as its too much cost for little gain. I'd recommend looking into something like the Pulsar-23 for a good drum machine that can interface with eurorack. It only handles 0-10v instead of -5 to +5 so you'll need additional modules to offset/attenuate as necessary. But, it'll still be a lot cheaper than whats proposed here.

That being said drums in eurorack is fun! And even better when paired with modulation, so I think it would be good to know what other modulation your planning on getting in your other case. The key to good drum sounds is decent modulation and utilities otherwise your voices will sound static and boring. Things like sample and holds, clock dividers, shift registers can spice up velocities and gate sequencies. Random CV is also great for sound design- you can get this from a sample and hold and noise source. Noise in particular is very useful- it can also be used to create percussion!

And with modulation you'd need VCAs. Super useful for modulating modulation. And also accent creation. In conjunction with sample and hold and you can extract velocities from modulation! if you attenuate and rectify before hand you can get it to play nicely. And rectifiers open up a world of possibilities - when combined with slew you can get an envelope follower which is great for sidechain effects. I'd look into function generators like schlappi boundary or make noise maths. The ultra kick/perc has this built in but doing it in other modules has its benefits.

You'd surprised at how much mileage you'd get from an Oxi One. I had one for ages before I sold it for a Hermod+, which is an insanely powerful sequencer. I would question why you would need 3 sequencers, and just stick with the Oxi for now. See how you go with that and properly get to grips with its functions. It's a mini modulation centre in itself!

Havent even touched on ringmod, effects, mixers, clock dividers, more utilities etc. There will come a point when you wish to do something but can't because you dont have the right utilities. Also a good way to save money instead of having dedicated modules (already touched on building random generators and envelope followers, there is a ton more).

Finally you may wish to consider to get something not behringer. Eurorack is a boutique business, and a massive company stealing designs from much smaller companies, is not a good thing.

Enjoy the build!

TLDR/EDIT:

Essentially do drums outside of rack unless you suplement with all the things that makes modular, modular. If you do them in a rack where your only modulation sources is just a sequencer, youve just spent a ton of a money on essentially a very limited drum machine. Manually drawing accents and swings is fine, but in the modular world you can automate to get far more inspiring patterns with a turn of a knob. Drums only becomes killer when you pair it with modulation :)

EDIT 2:
I know youve got 2 ochds, but you may need something which syncs. And mixers, analog logic functions like min/max to make the wave forms more interesting than triangless.

EDITED Yesterday, 07:17

@farkas @JimHowell1970 @sweelinck yeah for sure getting this piecemeal is the way to go! I'll see how I get on with with whats there at the moment. Disting, the timberal sculptor and a eurorack external input module sounds like a good starting point for kick processing. Pams to follow shortly. I can start with loading samples in the Octatrack as per @obscuremachines (thanks by the way! some cool modules/great advice there) suggestion. I think you're right ahout disting ex - the extra power and slot you get seems like a no brainer

Fantastic advice and arguments here. Wish I knew more to contribute, but i'm sure that knowledge will come! I've always loved hardware synths but the modular world is an entirely different beast, and hey i'm in the market for a new hobby. For me, having the versatility to patch modules in unexpected ways to create something is the allure of modular

Thanks so much again guys, really appreciate the feedback. Yep I fell into the classic camp of wanting to cram as much stuff in, and even with my tiny hands I can definitely see fruststion arising with the wirey mess to come. Love all the suggestions and i'm in the process of modifying @farkas plan to something tuned to my workflow, eg still would like a dedicated delay so will probably chuck that in. Thanks for taking the time out to put something together, completely unexpected and a lovely thing to do. Obviously this plan will change as my needs grow and i start experimenting but in this for long haul

Right then, thanks again @JimHowell1970 and @farkas for all your wonderful advice. I've rejigged and made a few changes below.

• Removed oscillator/optamix to make space for changes. These can come later
• Reverted to using Maths. At the very least it'll help me learn modular concepts, plus further down the line, if I find i'm consistently not getting the most out of it THEN I can start thinking of alternatives instead of relying on reddit
• Add a Quadrax for linear/exponential envelopes plus extra lfos if i need to and also burst duties. Feel less unsure of the amount of modulators now
• Changed to a more traditional matrix mixer, which is actually less hp than the lion. Small knobs a concern, but at the very least i can learn on it
• Removed ghost- initially wanted to it for extra duties outside of kick when im not using, but replacing it has meant I can squeeze in more modules
• Added a 2hp simple panning thing which i'm planning to autopan using logic, more below...
• Added an extra mixer to the drum channel
• Added another attenuator
• Added an fxaid for filtering/reverb followong mimeophon
• Spruced up the logic by adding an eas, and a 1u flip module
• Replaced 1u ornament and crime with Disting for quantising/plus additional support modules
• Added a vca and cheapo low pass gate in the 1u section
• Removed all compressors as these can come later

Feels like i'm getting somewhere, what do you guys think?

I guess you know this reference video...

-- Sweelinck

Thanks! I've seen his rack he was referring to on here and did pinch a few of his ideas. Good video though, didnt realise this exsisted

@JimHowell1970

Thanks so much for taking the time out to reply and for your suggestions. A lot to unpack there- I'll rejig and come back.

@farkas

Thanks as well! I'm aware of the invert envelope trick for VCA. Yes three compressors is excessive- the thinking behind was to use Ghost for rumble kicks and then messor to glue drums together then MSCL to glue the mix together. Thinking about it, i could replace Messor with one of Jim's suggestions as i'm just being greedy lol

Hi all, after spending the past few years admiring modular from distance, I feel like its time to take the plunge with my own. Before I pull the trigger on a few modules to start myself off (already have the case, the intellijel one) I'd like some advice please if this is a sensible rack set up and if I need to add more modules to eke out the most functionality from a small space?

Idea here is a techno focused drum machine plus one monosynth (which doubles up as a percussion generator). I'm interested in drones and textures as well, so hoping to use the mimeophon to get some pads going.

I'm concerned I dont have enough modulation sources and VCAs, however im thinking as the monosynth will be the main thing to modulate should be ok? I'm also worried about having zadar as my main envelope generator, and if that's limiting?

I also wonder if i need a logic module in there, but dont know if that will be useful for this setup

i've gone for contour 1 + compare 2 instead of Maths. Would like to add another contour and select further down the line. However i'm ondering if these replacements will be ok or should i rejig the whole set up.

Thanks! Excited to start my journey

Edit: sequencing with octatrack via midi

EDITED Jul 19th 2023, 08:38