Roast my Rack!! - Looking for advice

Can everyone roast my rack? Jokes aside I'm looking for some advice. This is the first Eurorack case I'm building for myself for Songwriting/recording and Sound Design. Right now I own a DFAM, Subharmonicon, a few volcas and a bunch of Mutable Instruments modules and I'm ready to go deeper into modular. Please advise!! Thanks!!!

I'm no expert as I have only been doing the modular thing for a few years, but I would say it needs more VCAs.

Yes, absolutely. You have a lot of sound sources but what are you going to do with them? I don't know what those Moogs are capable of, but vcas are always good. Mixers, lfos, envelopes,... And watch out with the 2hp modules - they are extremely small! I have one module with such a small knob and it's very difficult to use. And on mine, there's plenty of space around it! You have two next to each other...

I would lose one or two of the sound sources and opt for a powerful sequencer like metropolix or ornament & crime. And more VCAs.

EDITED Feb 27th 2023, 07:03

Roast: Its too Black!
Roast: And the usual, Put the Moogs back in their cases!

I agree about the 2hp modules, I leave 1hp between all 2hp modules if they are next to each other, or near a line of Befaco Hexmix inputs as they'll be almost unusable.

and damn it.... while i was thinking about it @Vow3ll beat me to it!

Definitely take those Moogs out of the rack! You can put them together in separate Moog small rack and place next to larger case.

Also you need a lot more utility modules- besides VCAs, attenuator/attenueverters, cv matrix mixer, logic and sequential switch.

I'll be the voice of dissent.
If you are going to use the Moogs more often or more effectively by incorporating them into your eurorack, then leave them there, regardless of the $$$-per-hp algebra.

See @Vow3ll above. I generally don't advocate putting devices in an Eurorack cab if they've already got a cab and power of their own. Plus, you're taking up a TON of space doing this...with three Moogs in there, you're using nearly half of the cabs' panel space for just those three. Save that space for devices that have NO cab and NO power of their own. Then, as @sacguy71 notes, the "helper" modules you need will have space in the build, which will then benefit both the Eurorack build AND the Moogs once they're out of there.

And that's without even going into the cost-per-hp thing.

I love this community! - All great ideas/advice. One of the things I've been struggling with has been deciding to put the moogs into the eurorack or not. The thing is that I've been using these DFAM and Subharmonicon soooo much as starting points for music and sound design that I keep feeling that they are such a huge part of my process right now, why keep them separate? The other thing I just wanted to explain is that I'm working with a really limited amount of studio space and was putting the moogs into the rack in an effort to conserve all desk space and keep all Modules together in one rack. I'm going to keep thinking about if I should take them out or not, I really appreciate the advice. I have them both in a tiered rack right now and they're great of course I just thought if I need to conserve studio space why not put them all together into a larger Eurorack...

Thanks for the info about the 2hp modules, makes a lot of sense!

I'm also considering putting the Mutable Instruments modules into a separate rack which would live below the Eurorack on my desk (close by) - I know, I know, seems really weird but, I'm almost starting to think about the MI modules as their own set of utilities and functions.

Can anyone recommend their favorite VCA's and Utilities? Thanks again

veils for vcas - 4 vcas in 10hp - and actual amplifiers...

matrix mixers - Ive got a couple of DIY ones, but if I was going to get just one now I'd go for the doepfer due to ergonomics - if you want voltage control, then the 4ms VCAM

sequential switch - again the doepfer one is inexpensive and does what it says it does

logic - joranalogue compare2

also can't go wrong with happy nerding 3MIA (or their 3VCA), mutable kinks and links (or clones now they've been discontinued) or the WMD/SSF toolbox (if you can find one, again discontinued)

EDITED Apr 23rd 2022, 15:25

In my current rack, which is a half full Intellijel 7U, I have an enormous amount of VCAs and mixers. Take a look below. A summary:

• Veils. It's just a great and very flexible VCA. You get control over linear/exponential and the offset. In exponential mode, it can give you lots and lots of gain. It also acts as a mixer.
• Doepfer octuple VCA. Just linear, no relative volumes, but for sheer VCA per HP, it's unbeatable. Works great e.g. for stereo (same envelope via multiple to two channels) or beats made out of noise (summed into one).
• Quadratt. I sometimes feel like I need a second one of these. It can do bipolar, e.g. inverse an envelope for ducking, and it acts as a mixer.
• Ladik stereo mixer. I used to use this a lot before I got the ES-9. Output went to the Befaco out and then to my speakers. Nowadays, I mix in my iPad and the mix goes back to the ES-9, then out to the speakers. Still, I don’t regret having this extra mixer.

Other utilities? On my shortlist are the Divkid Rnd step, Intellijel Shifty, an FSR, Pamela's, Joranalogue's Select 2 and Compare 2, etc. Pamela+Rnd Step for S&H for randomisation, but also to reduce the sample rate of something. I'm actually also considering the Joranalogue Orbit 3 as a source of chaos. Even though it's not really a utility, it can serve as a many things: VCO, LFO or modulation source, …

VCAs...well, if you want versatile, Veils has that. The ability to sweep between linear and logarithmic responses is a huge plus, and the design itself is so good that...well, lookit all the clones! But at 10 hp for a quad VCA mixer, how can you go wrong? But if we're talking about only linear VCAs, a big fave is Happy Nerding's 3XVCA. Unfortunately, some butthurt jackass decided it would be a good idea to start a war with Ukraine, so if/when we get more of HN's stuff is very up in the air.

If you have a cab or power supply that has no indicators for the DC rails, I STRONGLY recommend keeping 1 hp open for a KonstantLabs PWRchekr. It's small, it's cheap, and it lets you know if you're having DC rail issues.

Mixing utilities: there's two mixers that I like for altering/mangling modulation signals, depending on how much space I'm dealing with. And those are the Tiptop MISO and Frap's 321. These give the best ratio of usefulness to cost on something that many users unfortunately ignore, that being a way to get a lot more mod signals out of just a couple of modulation modules. Paired with a couple of linear VCAs, this is the quick and simple (and if you use a dual Veils clone VCA to pair with the 321, also very SMALL) way to get at that.

And of course, one of the best purveyors of useful utes has got to be Ladik. 4 (or multiples thereof) hp form factors, cheap prices...that's a win. Especially their voltage "reading" modules, which output a gate depending on the input and module behavior. If you're doing heavy sequencing, or especially generative, their stuff has plenty of the "tricks" needed.

well to begin with, take all those moogs out and put them back in their own cases.

boom, 180hp freed up.

Yes, absolutely. You have a lot of sound sources but what are you going to do with them? I don't know what those Moogs are capable of, but vcas are always good. Mixers, lfos, envelopes,... And watch out with the 2hp modules - they are extremely small! I have one module with such a small knob and it's very difficult to use. And on mine, there's plenty of space around it! You have two next to each other...
-- Arrandan

and some are very deep. not good for shallow skiffs. beware