Digitakt controlled Monosynth

Hello,

I have been trying to design the perfect rack now for about two years. It has gone through many renditions, both in reality and in what I want to get out of it. I have a minibrute 2, along with the rack brute 6u, a digitakt, and a handful of the modules in this rack. I had a rene at one point, but never really clicked with it, and decided that sequencing within my rack took up too much space and wasn't really worth it. I am really comfortable with the Electron UI and sequencing, but I don't have a Midi to CV. I was wondering if anyone could speak on the FH-2? I've found a few videos about it, but none that pair it with the Digitakt.

At this point what I want out of my rack, is a complex monosynth with interesting modulation capabilities. I want the ability to sonically explore and have a device capable of working in any electronic music context. Drums I can handle with my digitakt, and I have a minilogue XD for polyphony/ pad sounds, so neither of those things are a concern. All I want is a robust mono synth that can inspire me and surprise me.

Sorry for this being rambling and all over the place. Would love any opinions. Please let me know if there are any gaping holes in this, or if you think I should switch out any modules. Looking to seriously invest in the next couple of weeks. Really appreciate any advice. Thanks!

EDITED Jul 4th 2020, 22:31

I have been using a Digitakt => FH-2 setup for a while and think it works very well. My thinking is very similar: free up rack space for modulation sources, etc. if the sequencing and drums can be done externally.

The things I would recommend keeping in mind about FH-2: it is deep literally and figuratively. On the literal side, the module doesn't fit in the part of my case that is above the power board. So do keep that one logistical bit in mind.

But also, there is a lot of functionality in the module beyond just MIDI/CV conversion. There is the clock source and corresponding gates. There is CV/MIDI. And there are LFOs, which can be sync'd to the clock as beat divisions or set to Hz. But that means the menu system is also deep. Expert Sleepers provides a GUI to help with configuration, but there is a ton of stuff to wrap your head around and do to get a configuration dialed in just right.

Personally, I really like the LFO option because that way I can just use 2-4 outputs for 1 or 2 pitch/gate combos and dedicate the remaining outputs for a few commonly used, tempo-sync'd LFOs. I even have a preset saved in which all 8 outputs are LFOs. That said, these LFOs are not something I think you can change quickly like using ALM's Pam's New Workout. I don't think of them as tweakable in performance.

I also really like that the outputs can be configured for the common output ranges (+/-5V, 0-5V, 0-10V), so the pitch ranges and LFOs can be setup to match the input ranges on their destinations. This one took me a while to realize ("why does MIDI C1 sound so high???").

So a great setup with the Elektron sequencing workflow and if you are already comfortable with their deep workflow, just know you'd need to similarly devote a little learning and experimentation time to dialing the FH-2 to your needs.