Additional rack towards Octatrack live set

This is my live rack which I use in my current live setup, I have an Octatrack for drums and samples (audio goes into the wmd) which is sending a clock to the hermod, the hermod sends a clock to the metropolis. The metropolis goes into the hermod so I can record into the hermod CV/gate and send it to my different OSCs, through an octaver and a vc rotator, so that I can change the melody lines between the Oscillators but keep the gate the same, this can bring some variety especially for breaks or something.
The overseer is the master filter. What I kind of miss is another adsr/vca cause at the moment I just have one inside the rack the cloud generator goes straight into the wmd pm and the gate signal as well which can be quiet hard some times and a bit noisy..
The disting I use as a reverb, I have additionally an external delay (polymoon ) and a compressor to glue everything together.
I also connect a midi keyboard towards the hermod.

Of course I would love to also get rid of the octatrack and have everything inside my case, but I guess therefore I need another case for drums and probably a sampler which can play longer tracks.

So my question, how do you guys see I can improve the case. I would love to have another adsrvca inside, but also thinking about exchanging maybe the furtherr to two ajh vcos and a acidrainm chainsaw for chords and maybe take the bassilus out as I mainly use the sys.05

Feedback is welcome :)

Well, you have two sequencers. Were it me, I'd get rid of the Metropolis and buy a 1010 Music BitBox. That will give you your drums... up to 16 samples of playback and any loops you might want. The BitBox has four outputs. So you can have a stereo mix, four individual outs, two stereo outs, or whatever you like (such as kick on 1, snare on 2, everything else on 3-4).

The BitBox will also sync to your master clock. So you could sample a loop... like a kick from the Basimilus and then reuse that module for something else.

Also, I only see one VCA. That's going to bite you. It's a combo ADSR and VCA, so that's really going to bite you.

I'd want at least two dedicated ADSRs (like an Intellijel dual ADSR), an LFO module (like a Batumi with Poti expander), as well as at least one Befaco attenuverter, and one 3-4 channel sub-mixer that's DC compatible. If you pull the Metropolis, I'm not sure that you'd have enough space for all of that. Perhaps a smaller main mixer?

@Ronin1973
Thanks for your feedback. The Bitbox sounds quiet interesting will definitely have a look at it. There is also the ASSIMIL8OR and the ER-301: Sound Computer, which are quiet tempting and also have a sample option. Do you have any experience with it?

"Also, I only see one VCA. That's going to bite you. It's a combo ADSR and VCA, so that's really going to bite you."

I use for one VCA the level input of my WMD PM, this somehow works, but its not the cleanest, when I trigger it straight from the hermod so another ADSR would be good. I agree with you.

LFO I send at the moment from Hermod, which can be quiet nice. I still have two doepfer lfos in my other rack but the case is too thin so they don't fit :).

"If you pull the Metropolis, I'm not sure that you'd have enough space for all of that. Perhaps a smaller main mixer?"

I will have a thought but this sounds kind of logical, the other option would be a second case :)

I have the BitBox. I also like that it has two alternative firmwares that allow it to be a wavetable synth or a multi-effects box.

The ER-301 and Assimil8or are good choices if price and rackspace aren't an issue.

How fast do the LFOs on the Hermod go and can they be reset or sync'ed?

A second case seems more logical as this rack is pretty much full. I'd find a big-o-rack and keep the Intellijel as maybe a core rack or your performance rack aka the rack where you sequence and control the rest of your system.

I have the BitBox. I also like that it has two alternative firmwares that allow it to be a wavetable synth or a multi-effects box.

The ER-301 and Assimil8or are good choices if price and rackspace aren't an issue.

How fast do the LFOs on the Hermod go and can they be reset or sync'ed?

A second case seems more logical as this rack is pretty much full. I'd find a big-o-rack and keep the Intellijel as maybe a core rack or your performance rack aka the rack where you sequence and control the rest of your system.
-- Ronin1973

Bitbox sounds quiet interesting will definitely check some videos!

You can sync but don't need to the lfo has SINE TRIANGLE RAMP SQUARE S AND H so its pretty nice, it can go quiet fast in sync 128/1 and without sync from 0-200% about reset I am not 100% sure but I think you can do it.

Second case could be an option but I have a wooden case but for live I would prefer that it all kind of stays in one box, so I have to adjust a little bit.

Thanks for your feedback!

Hello Babel,

Feedback: Are you nuts? ;-) I mean regarding your comment to get rid of your Octatrack. Keep your Octatrack! That's a fantastic device and that can do so many things so easily (if you know how to use it, which I don't, but I know somebody who does) that if you want to get that kind of functionality in modular, I guess you need to reserve a pretty big part of your wall to make that full with modular then...

You could use the MIDI output on the Octatrack to a MIDI-in module in modular (unless your case got already a MIDI-in of course) and extract from that one the clock to keep everything in sync. The output of the modular back into the Octatrack and your Octatrack has such fantastic sample possibilities, I would use the Octatrack for sampling and not kind of in a forced way looking for a sample module in modular unless you really found the sample module that all does what the Octatrack can and more (and I doubt if it exists).

Other than that I think you are good on your way into modular and with keeping the advice of Ronin in mind, I think you should be all right.

Enjoy your system setup and don't you dare to sell that Octatrack ;-) Kind regards,

Garfield Modular.

I'm not familiar with the Octatrack capabilities. When it comes to sample playback and looping, the majority of in-rack sampling modules do not offer time compression/expansion of samples.

So if you have a drum beat at 120BPM and want to use it in your 125BPM session then you're probably going to have to take it to some software like Ableton to get it to time expand correctly. A lot of Eurorack modules support slicing. But that might make your loop feel janky.

It probably would be a lot cheaper to keep her. If the Octatrack supports sequencing as well, then you might find a MIDI to Eurorack interface and a line to Eurorack level converter (for audio) to be more to your liking. Depending on your interface you could also convert MIDI CC to Eurorack CV and MIDI clock to Eurorack clocks (short gates). MIDI to Eurorack interfaces come in a broad range of capabilities. They can be brutally simple to having a boatload of features and outputs.

But if you want to keep everything in the rack (your decision) then one of the above mentioned Eurorack solutions would work albeit not as well as stand-alone sampler workstation.

Hello Babel,

Feedback: Are you nuts? ;-) I mean regarding your comment to get rid of your Octatrack. Keep your Octatrack! That's a fantastic device and that can do so many things so easily (if you know how to use it, which I don't, but I know somebody who does) that if you want to get that kind of functionality in modular, I guess you need to reserve a pretty big part of your wall to make that full with modular then...

You could use the MIDI output on the Octatrack to a MIDI-in module in modular (unless your case got already a MIDI-in of course) and extract from that one the clock to keep everything in sync. The output of the modular back into the Octatrack and your Octatrack has such fantastic sample possibilities, I would use the Octatrack for sampling and not kind of in a forced way looking for a sample module in modular unless you really found the sample module that all does what the Octatrack can and more (and I doubt if it exists).

Other than that I think you are good on your way into modular and with keeping the advice of Ronin in mind, I think you should be all right.

Enjoy your system setup and don't you dare to sell that Octatrack ;-) Kind regards,

Garfield Modular.

-- GarfieldModular

Hi Garfield, don't worry I don't want to sell the Octatrack, for my one live act I will of course still keep and use it.

I have the hermod and I also have the shuttle control from endorphines, which I sometimes trigger from OT over a MIDI USB cable, but in general I can trigger everything from hermod, so shuttle control is soon getting out of my case.

I think for this case I could imagine that the ER-301 would be a nice fit but also like what Ronin suggested! So will have a deeper thought.

I know replaced some modules with the ones from my a100 and it changed a bit but I kind of like that work flow at the moment, thanks again for the tips.

One quick question I have now the shakmat hipass and somehow I always get strange noises on it. Is it cause my whole rack takes to much power?

Having the sub modular case with the make noise board on it. Can someone help me out?

Hi Babel,

I can't help you much there only that my HiPass has no problems. So yes, perhaps you either use too much power and/or next or close to your HiPass module is another module that's interfering your signal perhaps?

Good luck with the troubleshooting and kind regards, Garfield.