Thank you for your reply @farkas.
I'm not very good at sticking to a genre but in general glitchy beats, dark atmospheres, samples with some warble.
Inspired by artists like Murcof, Amon Tobin, Burial, Fever Ray for some tonal examples.
I'm interested more in the generative possibilities that in sequencing but I'd like a bit of both as it's nice to have some steady elements to root things while the generative aspects dance around.
Gear wise: I played in live bands from the mid 80's to early 90's and collected the basics of a studio with gear at that time. Then transitioned to making music on the PC for the remained of the 90's.
After that family and career (I'm a software engineer) cut more and more into my music time. I was planning to move internationally in 2020 before the pandemic hit and so sold all of my old gear over the last couple years in preparation. So as of right now, it will be this modular and some headphones. If things go well I will eventually need some additional gear and an interface with my computer but I'm in no rush.
My intention for the modular system is a creative outlet away from the computer screen that I can nerd out on. In the past I mostly worked alone but I see there is a modular store that seems to have fostered a local community that I would like to get to know. Pandemic has this introvert missing humans.
Budget-wise I have enough resources to go really nuts but considering this is a hobby and not my career there is an upper bound to what is reasonable. Of course when GAS kicks in I'm sure my idea of what is reasonable will slide upwards. But as a starting point I think $5k is a reasonable place to be. I have spent a lot of time looking at the Make Noise shared system. I like a lot of what is included in the shared system but I know I'd almost immediately want to get all the modules above that are from other companies.
Also as a noob that knows he is a noob I realize that I have a learning curve to climb and taking the the time to do so slowly gives me time to explore each module and how it can interact with its neighbors. Too many shiny things all at once can be counter productive.
Let me know if I can answer further questions and thank you for the help.