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2hp Tetris :)

What a lovely piece. Gorgeous.

Hmmm... I duplicated your rack to have some fun tweaking later today or tomorrow. The number of 2hp/small modules creates an interesting puzzle to solve.

Hi,

I'm Mudi from BinaryNights. I have been working on a eurorack module and an iOS app that would really fit my sequencer needs.
I have a crude prototype and a very basic working app which you can see here:
The module and the app is connected by WIFI and changes to the sequence are transmitted realtime.
I think it has endless possibilities. Would you use something like this? Please share your thoughts.

Thank you again, Lugia! I have ordered the Quadrax, Zadar, and the Ladik modules. I am excited for all the modulation and envelope possibilities now. I appreciate you putting some time into helping me. That Timiszoara looks incredible, can't wait for them to release it. This is the current state of the rack, with everything either in it or on order laid out.

Sounding good :)

These are all the modules I have, 3 of which are freshly ordered DIY kits; Drive, Prok BD & Moon-Phase.

Could I organise my modules better?
Is there anything to excess, maybe something you'd ditch?
Missing something (other than Talent) Another VCA (a different Stereo VCA might be on the cards as the ST Modular seems to be over-driven from the word Go and distorts a simple sine wave)?

Plans are to split off the percussion row into a separate case, probably with one of the uZeus for power. Then I'll finish the KonstantLab Power upgrade for the main case and sell the spare uZeus.

Gone are the days when I thought 2 rows for 84hp would be all I'd ever want! Things are getting interesting now with a 'potential' 5 rows of 84hp

Cheers :)

@Farkas - yeah I live in Carmel. Where are you?

-- TumeniKnobs

I’m in Yellow Springs, Ohio, just outside of Dayton.

Thank you all for the very kind responses. It's much appreciated. I've said this before in other threads, but modular has really prompted me to do so much more recording than I have done in decades. It's the combination of pushing me to different types of music than I have ever made before (like ambient) with less formal "song" structures, and the fact that there's no "save" button. What a fantastic hobby!

I did do a new cicada recording the other day - this time with some great thunder claps accompanying them from a storm that passed by. Now I just have to re-arrange my racks then see if I can put something together for that.

@Farkas - yeah I live in Carmel. Where are you?

Cheers

I posted that rack, in order to learn the flaws (other than it's already pricey lol),
and find out what's missing. What else I might need or what I should replace..
For example, you said there's no seq on the rack, so you excluded the clocking modules.
Well, what about my external gear? Can't they work with that A160/161 combination?
I was hoping those random and logic devices would work with that too.

PS. Maths can't be the only answer to every task. What about physics or chemistry?
Just kidding, of course... Thanks again.

I really like the sound of the new Ashlight from Native Instruments.
i Love Ambient,Especially Dark Ambient.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/cinematic/ashlight/

if you should build a eurorack version of the Ashlight,what would it be??

Now THIS is a serious rig. True, it's still got some space limitations, but I think I've managed to show here where this COULD go with the Subharmonicon removal and a few additional pokes at the original module complement.
-- Lugia

That’s cool, thanks. I already made some changes that are similar to what you suggest. I will definitely consider some of these modules as soon as I have enough cash to substitute the Subharmonicon for them. A good noise source is on my list, but since I can’t find room at the moment, I will make do with the noise source of the Minibrute. The trap 321 looks super cool I ditched all of the line level outs, figuring I can just turn down the volume of my VCAs and feed them to my audio interface. I had considered the Pittsburgh BBD, but it has a much shorter maximum delay time than the Erica Synths Black or Xaoc. There is an Erica Synths Pico BBD, also with a short delay, if I wanted to go that way.

Anyway, I plan to eventually swap the Minibrute 2s for another case (either a second rackbrute or intellijel palette), probably in summer… at that point, I should have room for a bunch of the modules you mention…

Went ahead and made another version of this track tonight, similar but a different vibe for sure, for those interested check it out:

oh thanks Farkas , this is really useful to see things arranged differently. I hadn't thought of the vertical approach

Anyone used Arcaico Warhorse? Never heard of Arcaico before, someone on Modwiggler turned me onto them. Took a gander at their website, their modules look pretty badass. Warhorse is sold out at the moment, but I bookmarked their site.

Still waiting on my Phase Rotator. Disappointed to hear it's expensive for what it does, but then, looking through Xaoc's modules, I suspect they're all a little bit like that. Not dinging Xaoc, they're just one of those brands that tends to be on the pricey side. I got a good enough deal that if it doesn't take, it should be relatively easy to pawn off without much of a loss, if any. I still don't know quite why I grabbed it -- I don't even typically like phaser effects all that much -- but, I dunno ... the demo made it seem cool and at the time I felt like I'd find a good use for it.

In the non-filter arena I did get my Instruo Lubadh and NLC Multi-Band Distortion. The Lubdah I've barely touched yet, it's going to take a bit for me to sit down and deep dive on it. The NLC is already back up on Reverb ... it's just not what I assumed it would be (a distortion unit). That's what I get for impulse buying. It's actually pretty cool for what it is, certainly not exactly like anything else I've owned ... basically a ring modulator meets a quad VCA meets an EQ/band separator, with some noise/feedback generation and saturation built in. I don't mind having an extra ringmod, and while the EQ control isn't as specific or robust as I'd hoped, it could be a very useful module for things like controlling problem frequencies, saturating and adding color/sizzle, as a random noise source, and being able to CV trigger the gain of each band region independently is sort of cool, too, allowing you to create rhythms "within" a signal, if that makes sense. It also has both summed audio out and individual audio outs per band region, so ... while I'm relisting it (bc it eats up a chunk of space and wasn't what I was actually after when I bought it) I've come to find it useful enough that if it doesn't sell, I'm happy enough to keep it. I suspect there are some potential ways to use it that I haven't thought of yet that could make it uniquely valuable. I guess we'll see.

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 03:35

I do a bit of module-sleuthing from time to time, and when I add DIY modules, I tend to put the "worst case" price in...because while people HATE surprises like modules they thought were one price but they ACTUALLY come in at something higher, they do like it when things come in LOWER. It's sort of like "free money", psychologically. So if there's just a board and panel, I'll drop that price in, but I try to also note in the description that the price is for "PCB and panel only". However, getting users to all do the same sort of thing on that is like herding cats, so I just do what I do and hope it filters down somewhere.

Did a fill-out of this, minus the Subby. Now THIS is a decent 6U rig...

OK, what happened here? Some of the larger modules were downsized in order to get more functionality into the rig. However, if you take a close look, pretty much all of the original functions are there, along with a few tweaks.

TOP: There's a 1 hp spacer between the P/S and the MIDI interface. This is to get a tad more distance between the P/S and the rest of the top row, but moreso to provide a little bit more airflow to keep the P/S temp down a little. After that is the Tubbutech MIDI interface, then a Doepfer noise/sample and hold. The Rample follows that, then there's four VCAs and a Doepfer Mini Stereo Mixer. This is set up like this so that you can have basic VCA level control over the Rampler channels, then you can do your final level tweaks and panning (yep...I set it up for stereo output!) on the mixer before the audio hits the stereo VCF. And in this case, I opted for a very cool Patching Panda one that has several filter topologies...and, of course, a stereo thruput. Then this signal path ends at the Morphagene...but after that is one of Purrtronics' spring emulators, the Purrvrrb. This has a mono input and stereo outs, and we'll see why that's important in a bit...

BOTTOM: A Ladik dual line input (with metering and individual level controls) feeds a pair of Erica envelope followers. This way, you can not only inject a stereo signal into the modular, but you can also use the signal thru the EFs to provide modulation extracted from the incoming amplitude curves. LFOs are dealt with with a 4ms QPLFO, which is a quad LFO that has cycle times that range from the low end of audio down to 71 minutes...plus, you can 'ping' these with a trigger to reset the cycle AND to define new LFO times. After that is a fave modulation scrambler, Frap's 321, which I paired with an After Later dual VCA, which is a clone of 1/2 of a Veils so that you can amplitude-control your modulation signals. Then there's the Quadrax and the Qx expander. Remember that bit about the 'pings' for the QPLFO? The Qx sends end-of-rise and end-of-fall triggers based on the Quadrax's activity, and those triggers can be fed to the "ping" input on the QPLFO for LFO cycle resets or new timing values. But you can also turn the Qx on itself and this makes the Quadrax function in "cascade" fashion. For example, let's say you want a new envelope to start when another peaks...all you'd do is to send the EOR from one section to the next EG trigger. Send an EOR from that back to the first EG, and then you've got the two of them pinging off of each other. Quite nuts, really...and VERY useful.

Your mono effects are next. I swapped out the Erica bucket-brigade for a smaller Pittsburgh one, then the Frequency Shifter is after that. And then we're into the final mix/output, where I put in a Tesseract TexMix setup with four mono ins (sort of...vide infra) that all have VCA control, but you get panning, dual AUX sends, and a CUE switch available on all of those so that you can flip an input to CUE to check tuning or other on-the-fly stuff. And the MASTER section of this gives you your main fader, plus two stereo AUX returns. Now, remember what I mentioned about that Purrtronics reverb? The TexMix is set up to deal with that quite nicely, with two mono AUX sends and a pair of stereo AUX returns...BUT...you can also use a stereo AUX return to inject another stereo synth-level signal for a final total of 6 ins. The MASTER also has your headphone amp. Then at the end, there's a quad level shifter from synth to line level, as requested.

Now THIS is a serious rig. True, it's still got some space limitations, but I think I've managed to show here where this COULD go with the Subharmonicon removal and a few additional pokes at the original module complement.

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 03:18

OMG - I'm blown away by your PDF reviews! Incredibly detailed, descriptive & thorough - I'll be sure to pass on some links. Thanks for the comments!

I'm going to mention (because they haven't been already) the one filter I started with (Bastl Ikarie, dual stereo), and the one I just ordered (WMD C4rbn, multimode mono with wavefolding).

Hi Steve,

Interesting module indeed, the way you explain it... oh dear... yet another module added to my long wish list ;-)

Thank you and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Fastus,

Oh wow! Those are fantastic effects with a serious beautiful sound to it, each of those effects. I had a look here in Germany what that module costs... it's a fortune here at almost 900 bucks, 900 Euro-bucks... :-(

Time to win the lottery and get one! ;-) Thanks a lot for sharing this with us and kind regards, Garfield.

Thank you @farkas, I've been listening to Richie for a long time so that's quite the compliment!

@GarfieldModular, both the bass and the lead here come from the Akemie's Castle. The lead is going through the VCF303 and the bass is going through the Takaab LPG. Speaking for myself, I find the AC one of the most enjoyable modules out there. It's easy to get crazy stuff out of it, and it's not tooooo hard to get really great beautiful sounds out of it either, and when you think about it as 4 different oscillators, or 2 complex oscillators, with a chord mode!, that 38HP feels quite worth it.

Well, you have officially become my second favorite acid artist (behind Richie Hawtin, of course). Well done, my friend.
And yeah, the 2LPG v2 finds its way into every patch I make. Ridiculous value.

Hi Steve,

Those nice sounds (main voice(s)) do they come from the Akemie's Castle module? 38 HP is quite a bit and wondering if this module is worth it, is it?

Nice work here and thank you very much, kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Cmb_ and Sacguy71,

Thank you both!

Cmb_: Ha, ha, that's a good one! :-) So the "you can never have enough effects" is the new slogan then ;-)

Sacguy71: He, he, fair enough (regarding a video), it's just that I am still busy with fine tuning my new studio setup, struggling at the moment with absorbers and diffusers to fine tune the sound in my studio. Since it's in the basement it isn't that easy, the ceiling is, I am afraid, too low and I might need to do something about the ceiling. Another thing bothering me is the bass sound, I set the bass config on the monitors already to the lowest value (the monitors are standing very close to the wall, no choice because there isn't enough space) and I still feel it sounds too heavy or am I being over-sensitive here? Well, I have to admit that those low frequencies sounds (those below, let's say 60 Hz) from the here above Doepfer Meets Dixie jam sounded pretty cool on my monitors (till 35 Hz), better than on my HiFi speakers (till about 50 Hz).

Once I am totally happy with my studio setup (will that ever by the case? ;-) ) and get used to what is exactly where, then I might slowly think about how to position a few cameras to see if it makes sense to start YouTube films but till then, I think this will take a long time if I am going to do videos at all, still not sure about that.

By the way, glad to hear from you again, long time didn't see any posts from you. Having said that, I also didn't see for some time any stuff coming from you, Cmb_ :-)

So I hope, you both will release soon some cool jams, can't wait to listen at them and kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Igor,

Thanks for the hint, I didn't know Juno yet. I need to check regarding Brexit what the import taxes and consequences are, it looks like Juno's website already indicates that so it seems pretty transparent to me, which is great. Kind regards, Garfield.

Still messing around with Akemie and the VCF303, this is an excerpt from a jam that I think turned out pretty well, hope you enjoy!

Made with:

Notice I swapped out the Links and the Rnd Step for a Scales letting me generate better bass lines using the Turing Machine. And worth noting (again) : the Takaab 2LPG V2 is pretty incredible 🕺

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 00:02

I would probably arrange it like this, if it were mine. That's sort of how I have my rack anyway.
Sequencing and mixing at the bottom, modulation and FX just above that, then filters and voices on top. I got rid of the 2hp ADSR to fit all of your filters in. You'll just have to experiment with placement to figure out what works best for you.
Have fun and good luck.

I just get paralyzed ! just optimizing pathways . I like to run to 3 stereo outs. hence the3 mixers

What problem are you having now that requires a reorganization?

Very cool @GarfieldModular! Would love to see a video live performance of you jamming on your modular setup.

I would welcome some help in re-organizing this.

the top 2 rows are slightly smaller hence the 1hp spacers

thanks all!

I really love my Rossum Morpheus filter a lot! Also the IME Harvestman Bionic Lester MK2 and Erica Synths Dual VCF are superb filters. The Richter Dual Borg filter kicks modular butt as well. I am a sucker for cool filters! Saving up for the Intellijel Morgasmatron and other filters.

Nicely done Garfield.

Forget about VCA's, for me you can never have too many Delays or Reverbs!

Lugia thank you for your time and effort, putting all this together.
I've read some useful threads in this forum, and you're constantly helping people by sharing your knowledge.
I'm not interested in modulating my bass really, but I guess if I was a guitarist I would be delighted. A nice amp and good pickups is all I ever needed...
I can understand that this rack option is way better than mine, but unfortunately it is twice the price of what I can afford/willing to spend at the moment.
I also think that I would be more comfortable with the simpler Doepfer modules, that can do that one thing and speak my language. It's what I'm used to, after all.

Not offended at all, I agree with you. I contacted the admins to ask about the "best pratice", they also suggested to include the price in the description (although I prefer not to, in this case) and told me "the price (field) should reflect what is needed to build the whole module". So, yeah, I guess we all kinda agree here, given I don't have kits available (at least, not at the moment), I preferred to just clear the field. Thanks for the feedback!

EDITED Sep 2nd 2021, 14:01

Hey Joe,

agreed, estimating the costs for parts is not trivial. Yes, one approach would be to remove the price from the overview (as you already have done), but include it in the description.

I actually hoped that any of the Modulargrid admins would see this post in order to start a discussion about how to deal with the topic of DYI module pricing, since it's an unsolved issue as far as I know. On the other hand, I might be one of the very few who has a problem with imprecise quotation of prices. So please, accept my apologies if I offended you with my quite harsh words!

Keep up the good work!
MAB

This is beautiful. Well done. Perfect mix of field and studio.
If you live in Indy, I'm not too far from you. Three cheers for the midwest! :)

Sounds great. There's just something magical about the Moog sound.

Hi, author here. I agree with you, but the fact is I don't offer assembled builds at all, so there's no other price I can enter. An estimated parts cost would be equally misleading, since it can vary a lot and be too small anyway. Maybe I should remove the price altogether?

Am I the only one who thinks that the price information of DYI modules is often totally unreasonable, as it is the case here? 15 € is only for the panel and the PCB. Saying that this whole module costs only so much means totally misrepresenting the actual cost.

Thank you very much @GarfieldModular !
You can order it on Juno if you want - https://www.juno.co.uk/products/igor-yalivec-still-life/841990-01/

Great sound design and some groovy beats here @Gworn, well done!

Wow @TumeniKnobs, fantastic track, super human and with a nice nostalgic feel. Looking forward to the album!

Thanks, everybody. I took some of the advice in the planning, swapping out the wave folder and the passive mults. As far as substituting the BBD with a digital effects unit… I just like the uncouth sound of BBDs. Some digital effects sound good to me, but my most urgent reason for starting the eurorack was to get some analog effects.

As far as leaving the Subharmonicon in its case goes… this is definitely sound advice. I’m going to mount it in the case for now, however, and probably swap it out for modules when the time comes. My reasoning is pretty simple: I don’t have desk space for the two racks to be placed side by side where I can get to all the controls. Also, the 80 Euros the rack space is costing me is not very significant when you’re buying 3500 euros worth of gear. Putting it in now costs me absolutely nothing except the price of the power cord. Plus, for gigging, I don’t want to carry the two cases!

Edit: oh, ya, and the two Erica Synths Outs were not an oversight. I want four channels out for mixing in my DAW after recording…

EDITED Sep 2nd 2021, 02:52

Here we go...I not only aimed to make this build modulation-centric, but I added a Doepfer A-119 so that you can pick that bass up again, plug it in there, and have both the audio from the bass PLUS envelope extraction for another modulation CV.

No, I didn't stick with Doepfer, but the overall cost seems to be about right for a 1-row device. Lots of stuff got switched around, in some cases in deference to other similar modules that do these things better, and in others just to build up a good, versatile modulation skiff. I did remove everything involving clocking, as there's no sequencer in the build. But this gave me room to seriously punch the modulation capabilities up. Here's what's there...

First up is the A-119. Then the Doepfer Noise/S&H, then an Intellijel Bifold, which can work either on the bass input signal, or it can be used to mess with modulation signals. Quad LFO after that, then the Mixer got repurposed so that you can create composite LFO signals.

Then Maths. By putting that in, I was able to remove the ADSR/LFO and the Delayed LFO because Maths can do that...and buttloads more! And it even comes in at a lower price than those two Doepfers. After that, you have a Happy Nerding 3xVCA to control modulation amplitudes, and a Frap 321 for mixing, attenuversion, and a few other tricks for creating complex modulation curves. Plus I added a Quadrax/Qx so that you can have four EGs there which can also be used as looping EGs for extra LFOs, and with the Qx you can cascade EGs in various ways based on whether you choose the EOR or EOF triggers to fire the next Quadrax stage. And last, I put in a Happy Nerding FX Aid XL so that you've got an extra stereo FX processor for signals coming off of the Nyx, or you could use it for your bass audio.

Now, I'm assuming that this is for a powered cab, since I didn't see any P/S in the module complement. If you DO need to add a power supply, my suggestion would be to pull the FX Aid XL then add a 4ms Row 25, leaving 2 hp open for something else. The 4ms supply is more than adequate for this, if necessary.

The big reason for not having important TRS connections is that, more than likely, you'll accidentally use a TRS cable that you need elsewhere, and then you'll have to hunt that down from inside the patch. Not fun!

Anyway, row three:

Without the EML Fuzz in place, this now lets me add a decent logic section which can be VERY useful for altering clock signals, as well as CV level "pick-offs" via the Derivator (reads CV and outputs gates based on CV movement) and the Min/Max. The Boolean voodoo happens in the Frequency Central Deep Thought, plus I dropped in a dual pulse delay so that you can "lag" a clock or two for the Boolean module to chew on as well. Given that there's a bunch of clocking and sequencers in the fourth row, this makes loads of sense.

I think Behringer has one in the works.
-- Ronin1973

And I have two of them, actually. They operate pretty much like the genuine article...which is why I have two, allowing me to eventually replicate a drum machine setup I was using back in the mid-1990s. And in case anyone's wondering, the RD-6's kick through a Rohde & Schwarz UBM (I've got two of these Stockhausen-endorsed slab-crackers!) will crack your wallboards! In short, pretty much as I remember the original, but with a few tweaks that actually make them a tad more versatile than the OG.

EDITED Sep 3rd 2021, 03:30

mog00 has the right idea here. Losing the Subby is a must, frankly, but we'll actually break this down so that you can see how it works...

Rackbrute 6U = $359 street w/ 171 hp available (you lose 5 hp due to the P/S).
Subharmonicon = $699 street, takes 60 hp.

359/171 = $2.10 per hp.
$2.10 x 60 = $126, so...

The Subharmonicon, if it stays in the Rackbrute, now costs $825 because of having to figure in the 60 hp it takes up when it uses this cab.

Eurorack cases really are intended for modules that have no power and no cab of their own. Yes, I know that some synthesists like the convenience of that "all-in-1" idea, but this rig is also too small to allow for something like the Subby to take up nearly 30% of the cab. Plus, if you "take apart" the Subharmonicon down to its "primitives", the resulting list of modules would probably not take up that same 60 hp space.