88HP Eurorack Beginner Ambient

Hello all!

I’m new to eurorack, I’m a vocalist looking for ethereal vocal and piano cascades as background tracks for my songs. Basically looking for a rack manipulate my voice. It won’t be my main instrument, rather to accompany my vocal loops.

I’m new to the eurorack world, I have a lot of great guitar pedals (reverb, delay, midi murf, pitch shifters), that I hope to integrate with the eurorack, so I guess I don’t really need more EFx modules.

I already have an Arturia rackbrute 88HP 3U with a Doepfer A119 (audio in my voice with some pre-amp) and a morphogene. I would upload a photo but not sure how!

To fill up the rest I was thinking of the verbos harmonic ocillator, strymon aa.1 (to integrate with my pedals), mimeophon.....

I’m looking for a small solid set up that I can experiment and learn with and build from there.

Am I missing something important?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Hello and welcome, fuzzylogic.
As far as a functional modular system goes, you are missing almost everything important. Without utilities, VCAs, LFOs, envelopes, a sequencer, etc., your oscillator will just make a single tone that you can tweak by hand. A single (huge) oscillator in isolation will not add anything to your setup. What you seem to want are modulation sources for the Morphagene.
Can you give us a little more detail about the sounds you are hoping to synthesize from your rack? As you mention, you have plenty of effects for your vocals, so what do you envision a small eurorack synth to add to your setup?
Have fun and good luck!

hello Farkas!

Regarding small set ups. I was inspired by loopop’s video, where his audio in is a midi keyboard (connected to computer) into morphogene and out from morphogene to mixer. I would add to mine audio out from the MG to pedal chain and then to mixer. You can see it here.
https://m.

His HP seems a lot smaller than mine, I have 88. So looking for complimentary morphogen modules (that don’t need to be delay or reverb as I already have those in pedals).

Another example.
Here is Thom York using a simple morphed piano loop with the Make Noise Black and Gold shared system. I believe the morphogene is making that loop with some ecophon in the mix.

https://m.

This is a similar effect I’m interested in. Not using the eurorack as my main instrument but part of a set up.

Do I need a sequencer and LFO? What would the VCO’s add to this?

Thanks again for taking the time to answer!

I can't tell from your posts how much you have experimented with synths or modular in the past, but the general idea of a modular rack is that each module is an individual circuit (or collection of circuits) that suit a very specific function. What's cool about it is that you can re-route those circuits to do interesting things that can't necessarily be done with a hardwired synthesizer or pedal.
So, you probably want to control pitch, speed, volume, number of delay repeats, reverb swells, etc. over time without having to turn a knob every time you want to adjust something. This is where your choice of modules is very important (especially in a small 88hp rack). A huge harmonic oscillator will be almost worthless without many other modules to make it sing. There will be no way to modulate volume without a VCA. There will be no way to modulate pitch/play notes without a sequencer and envelopes/LFOs of some sort.
If you are just hoping to modulate piano samples and vocals through the Morphagene, something like Make Noise Maths, the Expert Sleepers Disting EX, XAOC Batumi, or something of that sort may come in handy. Clouds or Arbhar are interesting granular synths that you could use for vocals to maybe get the "cascade" effect you mention. But you will still want VCAs and other utilities to control the levels of your modulation.
Basically, modular allows you to build a completely unique and personalized synth or effects unit one circuit at a time and rewire it as you please to do different things. It will be difficult to build a versatile instrument in 88hp. It can be done, but it will require a considerable amount of research, and perhaps a sizable financial investment. You may receive some good module suggestions from the other folks here.
Have fun and good luck!

First up, it's a pretty bad idea, when starting in modular, to copy the rig of an experienced user. I would STRONGLY advise against doing this! You would probably find that you didn't understand how the system was meant to be used, resulting in wasting money and effort. BUILD YOUR OWN RIG. And don't try and make some miniskiff, either...putting something like that together and making it function nicely is a very tall order, and requires considerable experience with modular synthesizers to arrive at a useful result. In short, farkas is dead-on when he's saying that it'll be difficult to build something versatile in (actually) 75 hp...because that's what you REALLY have, as the P/S takes up 5 hp right off and your A-119 occupies 8.

Next up: there are not a bunch of different Morphogenes. There's THE Morphogene, and then its sibling the Phonogene, both from MakeNoise, and both initially derived from analog tape devices created by Pierre Schaefer. There ARE other sampling modules similar to the Morphgene...but there really is only ONE of those specific things.

You seem poised to make a bunch of huge mistakes here, most notably by jamming big modules into a tiny cab. Again, if you don't leave space for the various "boring" modules, you'll be left with an expensive and rather unsatisfying noisemaker...NOT a synthesizer. I would suggest two things...

1) Get a copy of VCV Rack. Use it. A lot. This will give you some experience regarding what modules do...and not individually, but in groups and subsystems, which is how you REALLY unleash the power in a modular. Plus, it's free, which is always a good thing.

2) Spend a lot more time doing builds, rejecting them, honing down the ones that work until you arrive at THE SYSTEM. Remember: this is NOT a video game, there is NO score, and there is NO time limit. Plus, absolutely NO ONE gets their initial build right...hell, most of the time, users still don't quite have it on build #10! Polishing your skills at building modular systems is one useful thing you get out of rerererererereREREworking these...and as that skillset improves, you get closer to that perfect build that says "pull out the Magic Plastic". And GO BIGGER...like I've noted, you really DON'T want to do this in a 1-row cab that only has 75 hp remaining. farkas says you can, with considerable effort, and this is true...but from my 40-ish years in electronic music, I can tell you right off that you do not want to do this.

As for what to do with the Rackbrute 3U you've got already...I'd suggest using it with a MiniBrute 2s, then using the Rackbrute to expand that device's functionality. That would then give you a proper sequencer, plus you can use the space (after removing the A-119, which would be useless here) to build up a subsystem to screw with timing, add perhaps a trigger sequencer, put in some logic, etc. That sort of thing...which would be a GOOD use of that Rackbrute. The other build, though...nah. Go with something that's got some ROOM...a Mantis, one of Erica's 126 hp-ers, etc etc. In the long run, it WILL wind up costing more...but then, you'll wind up with something to keep, instead of sticking it on eBay (which is what happens with a lot of users who think they can cook up something usable in a small cab, then they realize they'd basically conned themselves into a waste of time, effort, and ca$h).

And GO BIGGER...like I've noted, you really DON'T want to do this in a 1-row cab that only has 75 hp remaining. farkas says you can, with considerable effort, and this is true...but from my 40-ish years in electronic music, I can tell you right off that you do not want to do this.
-- Lugia

Yes, I should have said that while this is POSSIBLE, it's not advisable.