Post

Hey Jim! Thank you for your input on this!

NP

I added Cara into the rack as a last minute attempt to save space BUT originally, I planned (& will ultimately end up with) to have the actual Marbles in there! I hate how cramped the panel on Cara is. I really love the possibilities of random & probabilistic gates/triggers & voltages that Marbles provides & I would use it, for example, to trigger an Optomix or one of the Doepfer ADSR’s!

I use mine every patch - often these days through a sinfonion and branches (for hihat slip/open/close)

I’m actually so far VERY 50/50 on Clouds or any of its variations. Something about me likes it & wants to LOVE it, but I just can’t fully commit.

I know what you mean - I use mine a lot (mostly as a delay though) but right now I would wait to buy anything like this until after hearing clouds2

As for VCV Rack, in all honesty, I haven’t used it for quite some time now — a few months since I last opened it up.

I'm not a big fan either to be honest - maybe once or twice this year on flights in January - I think it's a great introduction though

As for the buffered mult, I totally agree. It was another thing I was thinking about ditching & since I probably won’t be doubling up on 1 pitch sequence to 2 different oscillators, it can definitely get the boot. Will definitely look into Links/Kinks & all their functions! I have read many posts on here recently & you’ve recommended this combo time & time again, so it must be for a good reason!

yeah but that is something that you may well want to do in the future - 2 vcos -> filter
which is why I recommend replacing it with links which has a buffered mult - just not 3

As for VCA’s, do you think there could be such thing as TOO MANY in this situation?
yes - 15 is too many, definitely not too many in some modular synths but it is in 6u - I'd be happy with a quad cascading vca (veils) and a dual lpg in 6u tbh

I just counted and I have 15 vcas including lpgs and vcas built into other modules like filters or vcos in about 24u - I need more vcas! well yes and no - I keep looking at the wmd performance mixer - and that has a load built in - which would free up the 6 standalone vcas nicely - which would be enough and would add voltage controlled panning - but it's expensive, a power hog and big - which all means I need another case and envelope generators for the vcas

Also, what do you say about Levit8? I like the ability that it can do more than attenuate & it also provides the possibility to create sub mixes before sending out to an external mixer.

but to what point? you probably won't need all that many channels of attenuation (some yes 8 probably not) and you won't need to sub mix before an external mixer if you buy the right external mixer!! which if you are going to buy one it makes sense to do!! if you already had a mixer and needed attenuators for each channel and/or wanted to just record stereo tracks then maybe

if you want sub-mixes before hitting a filter - great get something small - if you want some vc panning get a small module for that - if you want to mix some modulation (do this it is great) get a matrix mixer - but you are just taking up space that could be used for other things and negating the point of getting an external mixer

And as for tracking equipment that I have now into the DAW, I have a Scarlett 8i6 BUT all of its inputs are taken up by the 3 Elektrons so I am running Plaits to an external input on the Analog 4 which allows me to records my experiments & noodles for the moment!

I hate making multiple passes to record multitracks of the same piece on modular - so I would consider upgrading this (or extending with adat, if possible) - maybe with a mixer with proper usb multitrack capabilities and enough channels for everything you have now plus however many voices there are in this rack plus 1/2 as much again - so at least 12 channels, but 16-24 if at all possible, in total (for the

PNW is a module I have been watching very closely with googly eyes since its release & I really love how each of its 8 outputs can be freely assignable & I love that it has LFO’s & Euclidean options. I will definitely look more into Batumi & have a look at Zadar as well! They are both modules I have come across many times in my search, but for some reason, I never gave them much thought beyond a glance. I sincerely appreciate your feedback! It cleared up some things I was flip flopping back & forth about!

Yeah I have none of these modules - they are all very popular - and all have their pros and cons - and I think I want them all - and at the same time I want none of them - more vcas means more envelope generators and these 3 are kind of the top contenders - but then I might just go for a selection of diy envelopes - or a mix

Edit: Also, which matrix mixers would you recommend having a look at? I know Doepfer has one which seems to be popular. Matrix mixers are something I still have to wrap my head around as well but there’s plenty of time for that!
-- cameliamusic

AI Synthesis, doepfer (big), nonlinearcircuits - there aren't really that many to look at - not sure about the instruo one though - if I was even considering it I would also have to consider the 4ms vcamatrix - which is even bigger and more expensive - but I think I would like it more than the pin matrix - I'd loose the pins for starters!!!

they are pretty simple really - and really useful for feedback patching - self modulating modulation!!!