Generative Rack

I have been using VCV Rack for two, maybe three years now, and I am starting both to make noises I quite like and to wonder what it would be like to do it in hardware. I like to make generative ambient music, leaning heavily towards the dark ambient side of things.

I have read @Lugia's excellent thread on Generative Music, which lead me to this thread and their rather large rack suggestion. Unfortunately, while the image still appears in the thread, the link to the rack is broken (I imagine they have to delete racks now and then to cope with the amount of advice given in the Rack forum!)

Luckily, combined with the image and @Lugia's excellent breakdown of what they did to put the rack together, I have managed to faithfully recreate it with just one issue. On the top row, far right, there is a 2HP gap between the Overseer module and the Katowice module. In the original rack, this is filled with a module I just cannot find either through the image or text description. I thought it might be an expander module for the Overseer, but this doesn't seem to be the case. The module also looks to be bigger than the gap left in my recreation, I'd say 4HP.

What module am I missing, it's driving me mad?!

I don't have €1300 for the case, let alone the €10,600 for the modules, so this is merely a pipe dream at the moment, something to think about should I win the lottery. But it's nice to dream, isn't it?!

Too much GAS imho.

VCV rack is fun because you can add everything but in modular, either you are rich and don't care or you have to be really careful. Module resell most of the time at 75% but really slowly. Even in second hand, it 'll cost a lot.
You can do generative ambiant with really small setting.

Personally,
Sequencing, LFO and quantizer : Pamela and Mimetic Digitalis or Harlequin's Context
Two Voice : Basimilus Iteritas, Telharmonic, Rings or Plaits
Some delay and reverb : noise engineering versio , 4ms tapographic delay, strymon, make noise mimeophon, MI Beads/Clouds, Instruo Arbhar
A VCA
A uzeus as power
A output module if you need.

First, you get Pam, a voice, a delay/reverb, practice a year, then bring carefully the rest of your first 84hp. And after, you bring a filter then more modulation, VCA, offset, logic, switch, clock modulator in the second 84hp...

Too much GAS imho.

VCV rack is fun because you can add everything but in modular, either you are rich and don't care or you have to be really careful. Module resell most of the time at 75% but really slowly. Even in second hand, it 'll cost a lot.
You can do generative ambiant with really small setting.

Personally,
Sequencing, LFO and quantizer : Pamela and Mimetic Digitalis or Harlequin's Context
Two Voice : Basimilus Iteritas, Telharmonic, Rings or Plaits
Some delay and reverb : noise engineering versio , 4ms tapographic delay, strymon, make noise mimeophon, MI Beads/Clouds, Instruo Arbhar
A VCA
A uzeus as power
A output module if you need.

First, you get Pam, a voice, a delay/reverb, practice a year, then bring carefully the rest of your first 84hp. And after, you bring a filter then more modulation, VCA, offset, logic, switch, clock modulator in the second 84hp...
-- SamuelGeai

Oh, it absolutely is, I agree! It was mostly an exercise to recreate the rack @Lugia made as it was no longer available, and the missing module I couldn't figure out on the top row was driving me crazy!

Thank you for your far more sensible suggestions, I will definitely have a good look at these and see what sort of price range I might be looking at.

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/antumbra-dvca
You'll have 4HP if you use the Cara marbles module, which is 2HP less than one you have in the top left.

EDITED Apr 13th 2022, 01:12

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/antumbra-dvca
You'll have 4HP if you use the Cara marbles module, which is 2HP less than one you have in the top left.

-- Manbearpignick

but then you get into shitty ergonomics territory...

For one module in that monster generative rack? It’s ruined!

I’m just pointing it out so he can recreate the original layout :)

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/antumbra-dvca
You'll have 4HP if you use the Cara marbles module, which is 2HP less than one you have in the top left.

-- Manbearpignick

Thank you!

It is done!!

I can rest easy now and think about a more sensible introduction to hardware eurorack

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/antumbra-dvca
You'll have 4HP if you use the Cara marbles module, which is 2HP less than one you have in the top left.

-- Manbearpignick

but then you get into shitty ergonomics territory...

-- JimHowell1970

On the very long odds I could ever afford to build this, I've found a place that makes custom racks, and I'd be able to go bigger and use the proper-sized Mutable modules throughout. I've lurked in the Racks forums for quite some time now, so definitely appreciate the importance of ergonomics.

Thanks, @JimHowell1970.

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/antumbra-dvca
You'll have 4HP if you use the Cara marbles module, which is 2HP less than one you have in the top left.

-- Manbearpignick

Thank you!

It is done!!

I can rest easy now and think about a more sensible introduction to hardware eurorack
-- static10

To be fair, that rack was never supposed to be an introduction to Eurorack. It was an example of what’s required for a ‘serious’ generative system - I still refer to it today. It’s not really module prescriptive either because in its original thread/context, Lugia explains what each module contributes to a generative workflow: some manipulate clocks, others extract gates from waveforms, others create random CV to manipulate those waveforms, and it goes on in an ever cycling, non-repeating fashion. What I like about the rack is that there are no ‘do it all’ modules (save for maybe the Marbles or Time’s Arrow), so you really have to think through what you’re trying to do - which for me is the fun part.

EDITED Apr 13th 2022, 12:18

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/antumbra-dvca
You'll have 4HP if you use the Cara marbles module, which is 2HP less than one you have in the top left.

-- Manbearpignick

Thank you!

It is done!!

I can rest easy now and think about a more sensible introduction to hardware eurorack
-- static10

To be fair, that rack was never supposed to be an introduction to Eurorack. It was an example of what’s required for a ‘serious’ generative system - I still refer to it today. It’s not really module prescriptive either because in its original thread/context, Lugia explains what each module contributes to a generative workflow: some manipulate clocks, others extract gates from waveforms, others create random CV to manipulate those waveforms, and it goes on in an ever cycling, non-repeating fashion. What I like about the rack is that there are no ‘do it all’ modules (save for maybe the Marbles or Time’s Arrow), so you really have to think through what you’re trying to do - which for me is the fun part.

-- Manbearpignick

@Lugia's explanation of the rack is excellent and very helpful, even outside the thread's context, and I have it bookmarked for reference. I knew it was never meant to be an introduction, and it was never really in my thoughts for a first rack, but oh boy, that last module!