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My Cuvave Fuzz turned up, a very nice solid little box, both physically and what it does to audio!

Smashing - thanks again :)

Going from memory... Is there meant to be a cable connecting the two mini pin ports on the back?

That thread was missing bits, so here's a new version:

This is my largest modular build, a Pittsburgh Modular EP-420 with three rows of 140HP. This is often supplemented by a 104HP skiff and some other semi-modular synthesizers, but this is my main rig. Now, this is how I approach module placement and overall layout. Your mileage may vary.

Top row, red: Oscillators. Main sound sources. Other oscillators (Plaits, Dixie, BIA) get dropped into that 104HP skiff when I need them. Simple.

Middle row, yellow: Primary modulation sources and utilities. At eye level where I can find them quickly. Arranged by where they sit within my workflow.

Middle row, pink: VCA's. Leftmost VCA is often used to bring in outside signals from my Moog stack or that 104HP skiff.

Middle row, green: Effects and sound sculpting. Reverbs, delays, compression and EQ. End of chain stuff.

Bottom row, blue: Filters. I like to ping and play my filters, so they are where I can reach them easily.

Bottom row, orange: Popular stuff. Interactive things. Modules I reach for often or that want a lot of hands-on attention.

Once oscillators are chosen, overall movement is from lower left to top right, ending with Make Noise XOH to a sound interface. This layout really works for me. I know where everything is at. I can reach things that are most important to me. Developing muscle memory is easier when the landscape makes sense.

Hope this helps!

Nice!!

Definitely worth the little extra time it takes to get a delivery from Exploding Shed here in the UK!

Once UK leaves the EU, it would be an absolute no brainer to support Exploding Shed for anyone living in the EU. Depending on import charges (from what I hear they are not too bad) I will probably continue to support them, some things have hidden costs that are not always financial and I don't get that sense from these guys in the slightest. I sincerely hope this brexit is a huge boon for them! It would be great to see them stocking more kits and stepping up again :)

A lovely company with actual real life musicians I believe hehe :D

I very much appreciate you taking a shot at the rack. It makes so much sense. I've got something to work towards. Thanks a lot!!!!

Wasnt sure if 2 plaits would be necessary so fit in the Basimilus and a Milky Way FX instead of the Spring (I know I said I didn't want that lol)

This was getting close, so I opted to throw down on it. Vide:

The layout is still the same, although I put the audio out on the bottom row so that all cables to/from the rig will be on the lower tier. Otherwise, this retains the "audio up/mod down" layout.

I reworked the audio row considerably. The Morphing Terrarium and Mangroves now are set to submix (or not) through the Optomix LPGs, and I replaced the Plaits with two 3rd-party builds of it. But these now are set to feed through the Samara, and the LPGs can ALSO go through this for various mixing + waveshaping transformations. Filters next, then I tossed in one of Doepfer's new micro series dual VCAs (one per VCF) before the stereo performance mixer. And "spring" reverb got added, with the Purrtronics Purrvrrb spring emulator; you'll likely feed this through the mixer's AUX out and then return it to one of the non-AUXed stereo channels. Once the audio mix is set, this then feeds down to the transformer-isolated stereo out.

Modulation row starts with a little 1 hp sliver...that's a Konstant Labs PWR Checker, gives you visual feedback on your power rail status. VERY useful as an early warning if something might be going awry with your P/S. Then starting with the Poti (the expander for the Batumi), things get entertaining. I put the Roti next to this so that you have it handy as an inverting mixer for the Batumi specifically, and anything else in general that you might mix with it. This allows fast programming of weird, nonrepeating LFO curves. I then paired the Maths and Quadrax by putting the Qx between them so that they can actually play off of each other if desired. A dual ADSR follows for your audio VCF/VCA purposes, and there's one of Mutable's new 10 hp Veils revisions there so that if you need any of it for audio, it's perfectly situated...and if you need them for modulation level control, they're convenient for that, too.

What's nice about this is that it's turned out that you have a solid audio path and a solid modulation complement...but in both of those paths, you can get VERY complicated with your patching and turn each row into its own gigantic "composite module" if you felt like it. In the end, this now seems to be a solid instrument...in a very real sense!
-- Lugia

I stumbled upon Exploding Shed when I was looking for black panels for my MATHS and Erbe-Verb and I found some panels by Chora, a maker/designer I'd never heard of. Not a single panel Chora makes was (and is) in stock, but then I found the guy online and now some esoteric MATHS & Erbe black panels are in the making (and also one for MI Yarns). Guess I owe ES a big thank you.

definitely can recommend ExplodingShed, their support and shipment are super fast. Also great super friendly guys working in the shop. I just wished they had a larger catalogue but for their size it's understandable that the risk of overstocking and having a large catalogue is too high. Regarding Brexit it's unfortunately a reality now and I don't think we can "undo" it, but I think there could be a few options specifically for Thonk. I think it would be great if they opened a store in mainland Europe to provide for their customers outside of UK. This would mean a split in terms of management and a lot of coordination but anything can be achieved with the right motivation and proper planning. Maybe my view is too simplistic and I'm not taking a lot of "buts" into account.

I'd recommend to use Arduino as a platform to practice and understand the basics but at some point the processing power and limitations of an 8-bit processor will make you hit a roadblock depending on what your goals are. On the other hand the ARM-environment is great and cheap, check out the blue pill/black pill boards. No wonder why so many digital modules have M3s and M4s inside. (Varigate, QuadLFO have ARM processors, Mutable Instuments uses them in a lot of modules, list is endless...). You can get ARM boards for 1-3$ from China (check out AliExpress).

Hi there-

I'm looking to pick up a Razmasynth (Telewizor / Vector / Du-NTSC) if anyone wants to sell one. Just getting into modular but I do animation as well and want to try going down THAT path and see what happens.....

Fingers crossed!

Be safe everyone.

Yea sorry cannot find it, I will mess about with placement. Waiting on some more gear to arrive- mixers and sequencers. I scored a deal on Stillson Hammer MK2 and Hertz Donut MK3 to complete my orange knobs rule Harvestman setup and waiting for Befaco Hexmixer and WMD Metron sequencer. I am also planning to move to larger studio space soon so I can put all my modular gear in one spot for easier access and patching. That will be my wall of modular.

Thanks Garfield,

Indeed and boy is that sucker heavy and bigger than expected! Love it and trying to figure out how to use 1u tiles but don't have any so not an issue. I had fun messing about with Rings and Marbles tonite

It does have a VCA off/on mode that allows for a continuous tone. It's only one oscillator but one could run any amount of FM and effects to create interesting sounds. Maybe a project for tomorrow while I'm not allowed in the kitchen.

@GarfieldModular, great idea with this 17 minutes thing, I'll chime in and second that 🧘‍♂️🧘‍♂️

@mowse, nice one again, good intensity too, looking forward to the next one.

Hi i thought of this as mi first Eurorack. (The MFOS is just for the space of the Westlicht Per FORMER witch isnt in modulargrid)
The idea is to pair it with a minibrute 2s, i already have the DFAM as well.
I mostly like techno and i ve been jamming at home with roland tr8s, tb03, sh01, se-02, monologue and minilogue xd, microbrute, microfreak, korg arp oddysey and an organelle where ive been exploring mutable instrument parches. I also have some effect pedals
I thought of it as a complement for some perc and melodyc voices, also drones and the sequencer for random variations.
I think i may expand in the future as i sell my old stuff while trying to keep using the cv capable synths
Any advice will be aprecciated.

EDITED Nov 26th 2020, 13:22

Hi there,

Got my hands on Drezno but as far as I can tell I'm either missing something or it's defective. I've fed several different Eurorack level signals to the ADC input (Plaits, Sample Drum, Subharmonicon), and the bit LEDs and the faders will all light up when adjusted. I believe that means they should be loud enough to clip. I've turned the link On, turned up the gain and offset of the DAC in several configurations, but the DAC output will only give me a very quiet version of the input signal at best, giving only noise if I turn the gain up enough past a point.

By default with nothing else patched but the audio in and out, I believe it should just do 8-bit resampling, creating a subtle audio effect as stated in the manual. I don't expect it to attenuate the input by a ton. Any ideas?

Hi Mowse,

Oh yes, very nice! Thank you very much for mentioning the Moog - Werkstatt-1 kit set, I wasn't aware of that one.

I just read that it has a drone mode, so tomorrow a drone with this one and 17+ minutes long? ;-)

Thank you very much for sharing this and kind regards, Garfield.

This was getting close, so I opted to throw down on it. Vide:

The layout is still the same, although I put the audio out on the bottom row so that all cables to/from the rig will be on the lower tier. Otherwise, this retains the "audio up/mod down" layout.

I reworked the audio row considerably. The Morphing Terrarium and Mangroves now are set to submix (or not) through the Optomix LPGs, and I replaced the Plaits with two 3rd-party builds of it. But these now are set to feed through the Samara, and the LPGs can ALSO go through this for various mixing + waveshaping transformations. Filters next, then I tossed in one of Doepfer's new micro series dual VCAs (one per VCF) before the stereo performance mixer. And "spring" reverb got added, with the Purrtronics Purrvrrb spring emulator; you'll likely feed this through the mixer's AUX out and then return it to one of the non-AUXed stereo channels. Once the audio mix is set, this then feeds down to the transformer-isolated stereo out.

Modulation row starts with a little 1 hp sliver...that's a Konstant Labs PWR Checker, gives you visual feedback on your power rail status. VERY useful as an early warning if something might be going awry with your P/S. Then starting with the Poti (the expander for the Batumi), things get entertaining. I put the Roti next to this so that you have it handy as an inverting mixer for the Batumi specifically, and anything else in general that you might mix with it. This allows fast programming of weird, nonrepeating LFO curves. I then paired the Maths and Quadrax by putting the Qx between them so that they can actually play off of each other if desired. A dual ADSR follows for your audio VCF/VCA purposes, and there's one of Mutable's new 10 hp Veils revisions there so that if you need any of it for audio, it's perfectly situated...and if you need them for modulation level control, they're convenient for that, too.

What's nice about this is that it's turned out that you have a solid audio path and a solid modulation complement...but in both of those paths, you can get VERY complicated with your patching and turn each row into its own gigantic "composite module" if you felt like it. In the end, this now seems to be a solid instrument...in a very real sense!

Hi Sacguy71,

Wow yes, you got your MDLR case! :-) Lots of free space now, I am glad for you that you have enough space for the moment. Looks like you like the Trident a lot!

Thank you very much for this demo and kind regards, Garfield.

Thanks Lugia!

I appreciate the feedback and your advice is welcome to make sure I build a monster powerful system. Love Tetrapad especially with the Tete extender that gives you gesture CV record and playback sequencer features. Still learning it as it is complex.

I will save up for the Serge TKB and a good joystick. Really loving my new gear- the Rossum Trident triple oscillator is superb.

Tetrapad + Serge TKB? That would sound like the win of all wins! Handle the pitch signals with the TKB, then employ the Tetrapad as a left-hand "expression" control with all the user definition you can stand!

I've changed things up a bit with this rack, but I think its starting to come together, also will be getting the Mantis case to get some more HP.

Would appreciate any input on if it makes sense on first glance and if there might be some other important things to add in there.

The Plaits is in there because it'll be the first module I get, but when the case gets to this point it is very possible that it won't make it in there, though the extra full synth voice could be nice to have. Was thinking of maybe adding a small Doepfer spring reverb to make the Plaits shine a bit more.

Other than that, the idea I'm going for is something like this:
- E350 can be used as a growly wavetable, or an LFO for the Mangrove
- Could potentially try to add another filter in there to make the E350 and the Mangrove their own separate voices (though the Dual Borg might be enough)
- Bottom row is obviously the modulation and envelopes, I wanted to add some random in there as well as just a solid amount of modulation for my sound sources
- Something that I'm excited by is taking these sound sources a step further in the processing direction, but need something more focused/special than a 2hp DSP effects module... though I'm sure they're great... I just want to have as much control over the processing as possible... Filters are a great example, which reminds me that a waveshaping module might be a good addition. Mimeophon, Clouds, etc could be interesting additions as well, but not totally sold just yet.
- Admittedly, I kind of threw in the Optomix and Quad VCA just because I know I'll need them but haven't had the chance to fully think it through to see if they might be repetitive, or if some other utility modules would be a better option.

Again - sequencing from my Squarp Pyramid, and drums are handled from 2 external drum machines. All going into my Apollo audio interface.

Thank you for the input!

EDITED Nov 25th 2020, 21:06

I'm gonna be a contrarian and chime in to say, not recording can be its own boon too, just let things flow, have fun, keep the patch changing. I personally like to wait to record til I really think I'm ready which incentivizes me not to get stuck on something that * sounds good * but that's really just ok or not where I'm trying to go. This also pushes me a bit to keep improving until I'm really happy with the tune rather than a "ok, got some good sections in there." Anyway, YMMV but my 2 cents.

@Garfield, thanks. Yeah I am saving up for another complex analog oscillator and filter maybe Verbos CO and Verbos Amp and tone! After being blown away by the analog power of my newly installed Rossum Trident triple oscillator yesterday, I love these things! Best basslines and crazy 80s sounds new wave.

@Lugia, yeah that would be super awesome to get the ARC touchplate sequencer for the Doepfer monster base case. I did get a Tetrapad with Tete extender yesterday for my MDLR case and had fun with it testing it out after I hooked it up. I am a sucker for touch biofeedback modules. I also want a joystick! Waiting for Intellijel Planar 2 ones.

yes hopefully they will change this

I agree with Ftpyd, I think it should be at least like eBay, only buyer can put negative. Because this way the sellers will try to be good and respect the marketplace, not scamming here. if they do it quickly becomes obvious. Retaliatory feedback is no good, also if you avoid leaving negative because don't want a retaliation it doesn't work all the time. It is 98% of time the buyer that gets screwed so they should have the right for negative or no feedback, plus a short feedback description is good idea too.

Another thing to practice often and early is pressing the red record button.

Sounds easy right, you just press the red record button...

Nope... all kinds of weird things happen in your brain, that wicked lick you practiced to death and get right 100% of the time, not just technically, but with aplomb and verve becomes the most amateurish rendition of the worst musical idea you ever had... the moment you press the red button!

Seriously, really weird sh!t happens... so start practicing now, it can take just as long, if not longer, to master the red button as it does to master the whole of the rest of your instrument ;)

I am not joking! :D

First few minutes with my new Moog Werkstatt-01, played with Make Noise Rene and through Mimeophon. Modulation by Pamela's New Workout. BIA provides the bass kick. Assembling this little synth was fun. Playing it is even better.

Clearly, I need to tune it across multiple octaves. A quick project for tomorrow morning.

EDITED Nov 25th 2020, 20:01

A lot of my work starts as various levels of screwing around...sitting down at a keyboard synth and poking around with various parameters until a sound pops out and says "OK...here I am, you bastard...USE ME!" At that point, I'll start looking around the studio and sorting out where complementary sound spectra can be cooked up...both reinforcing and conflicting. Eventually, there's a tipping point of sorts that appears, where the "uphill" of the messing around turns into the "downhill" of a new work coming together.

Where it gets dicey again is when I start to mix down and construct the mix's processing, gain structure, and so on....so there's another shorter "uphill" that happens as I transition the process from the synths to the desk and processors, but just like before, there's yet another tipping point and the mix just starts gelling together.

It's worth noting that this is a method I've used for decades, so I'm very accustomed to the workflow it requires as well as the nuances of the process itself. But I shouldn't think that taking the time to get used to one's own workflow patterns should be considered "time wasted". Instead, it needs to be viewed as just another method of musical practice; mixers and processors don't have "performance practice" in of themselves as a rule, so it's up to YOU to sort out that aspect of your work and make it part of your musical "fingerprint". And if it takes a week of hammering away to suss out four measures in a Schubert lied, it shouldn't be all that surprising that electronic music composition/performance/production ALSO has similar requirements.

What you need is LESS. And less attempts to put too many functions into a small case would be a good start. Less sizable modules would also be good. And then, less of the "sexy" modules and more of the boring stuff that actually makes the other expensive stuff WORK.

One thing you DO have less of is modulation sources...and in this case, you need MORE. And as for VCAs, ANY would be a good move at this point, because there's not any now.

Get those drums out of there, for starters. Frankly, unless you've got massive space in your cab, trying to build up a "drum machine section" never works out nicely. The modules wind up being space-hungry, and also require a good trigger sequencer in addition to whatever else sequential you've got. Don't do this...get a proper syncable drum machine instead and lock it and the Hermod up to the same DAW clock. And why have Rings AND Elements when the latter has the former in it? Seriously, get some proper FILTERING...having a good, punchy LPF is key to making bass that wrecks subs, NOT a physical resonator.

There's a lot you might get out of https://vcvrack.com/ before trying this again. You need to understand what attenuverters, VCAs, logic and clock modifiers (ESPECIALLY if you plan on a lot of sequencer work), and so on actually do and how/why other modules NEED what they do. Also, the "go bigger THEN reduce rule applies here", like Garfield mentions; start with a rack that you KNOW is too big...because, in the end, you're going to find out that what you knew about that build size was 100% wrong. If you begin with too much space, you have room to scale back FROM once you have a module complement that you know will work. But right now, that last part is a real stumbling-block. Do some work to actually see for yourself how this should function, then come back to trying to do a hardware build. Your credit card will thank you later.

Thanks, both. Sometimes, it's fun to just sit down and wander into something, especially with the Moogs.

Hey sacguy...have you thought about adding some sort of touchplate controller to the "bottom" row of the base case? While it's not cheap by a long shot, I have to admit that ARC's version of the Serge TKB would make this thing really HOWL. Not only do you get a set of touchplates, you ALSO get a multirow sequencer on top of that, which can be patched to be manipulated in real time. Chuck it in between the Metron and the Befaco stuff, and there you go!

@Lugia -- listening to some SPX90 demo clips.
https://www.vintagedigital.com.au/yamaha-spx90-multi-effects-processor/
You're not selling one are you?
-- the-erc

Oh, HELL no! I've got two at present, and my lab gear rig also has its guitar cousin, the SPX50D. I've been totally nuts over the SPX90 sound ever since they came out and caught everyone's attention in Nashville. That lower bitrate actually works in here, adds a little bit of "grit" that ups the character, especially on the reverb algorithms. But if you can't turn up one, here's some substitutes:

Korg DRV2000 (more or less Korg's answer to the SPX90; I also have two of these, one of them in the lab gear rig as well)
Ibanez SDR1000 (actually made for Ibanez by Sony, hence the lettering: "Sony Digital Reverb"...also has full stereo signal path!)
Boss SE50/SE70 (little halfrack thing...KILLER capabilities, plus there's a VOCODER hiding in it! The 70 is a bit cleaner, fyi)

None of these should cost more than US$ 150, tbh...

I love to try plugging things into different patch points and experiment when I noodle. Helps me learn by osmosis often without even reading a manual or watching a video. I did this tonite with Marbles and figured out how to use it like an LFO and trigger sequencer with Rings, so fun.

Some fun test ambience after getting new MDLR case and modules. Still learning as Marbles is tricky to figure out how to patch

Hi Sweelinck,

Oh that's beautifully done! So subtle!

Thank you very much for sharing this and indeed, Rings does it for me, though you need to get to know & understand it. Kind regards, Garfield.

Hi Lugia,

Okay found it, thank you :-) Kind regards, Garfield.

I like the Mantis because its the perfect travel size for me. Everything gets into my Octatrack from there into my mixer. The Compression in the Octatrack helps to glue the elements live together!

Much Love
Nhii

Hi Redtapenfr,

How about a bigger rack? I think that's what you need most of all. Start slowly (i.e. start simple) with a few modules, build up experience then add a few more, build up experience again, etcetera, but sooner or later you are going to need more space for your modules...

Have fun and kind regards, Garfield Modular.

Hi Sacguy71,

Most of it looks okay to me, perhaps you could add a few "basic" VCOs/DCOs? A few more Doepfer VCOs? Or the STO from Make Noise? Dixie II+ from Intellijel? Adding these more basic VCOs next to your more complex oscillators, I think will make it more complete? I know you have a bit more not displayed here but still.

And filters, can you have ever enough filters? :-)

Once added the VCOs and filters, space left could be filled with... VCAs, you know the saying here on this forum: "You never can have enough VCAs!" ;-)

Joking of course but perhaps one or two more VCAs really wouldn't harm, would it?

Have fun with the planning and testing out the new stuff once it arrives and kind regards, Garfield.

You need support modules like attenuators, VCAs, and modulation sources like LFO and envelope generators!

I just reveived a module I bought from @lleicamun and I am very happy with it, also about how smooth everythink went - nice communication, quick shipping and so, and what a very nice chap he is. Then the very same happened to me again with @kamilkorolczuk

EDITED Nov 30th 2020, 12:57

That reminds me of a track I published this year. Rings is definitely a great module.
I used Batumi (sine) for cv in the Quad Vca. This brought some shades.

Many apologies, I have just realised this is the GOOD trader thread... oops!!

I have removed my original post as it's not really appropriate in this particular thread :)

===

While I am here....

I will take the opportunity to give a shout out for @koshimazaki

I've lost count of the number of good trades, interactions, cooperations, beers and actually, the years too!

Good, honest and thoroughly decent human being - you should buy his stuff :D

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/users/view/31281

EDITED Nov 24th 2020, 21:19

Great, Thank you farkas !
As a beginner I was stuck on "tune" function.
I'll try with disting, and if I want to use it for another function I'll look for a quantizer.
Cheers

You are looking for a quantizer. Yes, there are many available.
It looks like you have a Disting MK4 in your rack. This has both a quantizer and a tuner.

EDITED Nov 24th 2020, 18:54

Hi every one,

I realized that soleo vero is a manual tuner.
What I was looking for, is a module on wich I can select the scale with a switch, in order the synth voices play only the notes in the selected scale, or that reduce easily the amount of the pitch lfo, and his position in the scale.
Is it possible ? lol

It was for a Morphagene. As you say priced decently. He listed a few items. Emailed Me pictures privately too - he was on here for a couple of years so thought it was all above board. Paid and we had a few chasing email exchanges - “sorry busy with work today” “definitely tomorrow” etc and now nothing.

Really a lot of possibilities from this starting point:
* Crow + Clank Chaos
* Chords with Qubit Chord V2 or Instruo Saich and a DPLPG
* Effects/sampling with Qubit Databender or Squarp Rampler or Erica Sample Drum
* Lead voice with Qubit Surface + WMD C4RBN or Black LXD
* Nasty bass shenanigans with Noise Engineering Virt Iter + Bastl Ikarie
* More drums with Sy0.5 + Ochd/RndStep OR Fracture + Axys

EDITED Dec 4th 2020, 17:29

Ableton's 'Making Music' is very good too...

https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/making-music-book-of-creative-strategies/

Heavily focussed on DAWs, but the principles generally translate well and aim to tackle the really difficult points in our music making journeys!

Personally I am a huge fan of 'breaking it all down and starting again', fast and often, picking one, two or even three patch points that I absolutely must NOT use - sub/consciously that can be as excruciatingly difficult or as easy as you want to make it ;)