@JimHowell1970 is very kind in responding so often to requests for advice. Really. He's one of the mainstays here now.

Thanks...

However, I'm going to take the liberty of contradicting him on one point in particular: this case thing, that... Mantis.

discourse is good... but I'm not sure you're actually contradicting me! you just seem to be saying there are other cases out there... which is also good in itself!

Yes, there's the price of the case and the relationship with the number of HPs available. But a case isn't just that: there's also its overall size, its materials, its solidity, the power supply, whether or not it has 1U rows, whether or not it can be linked, the general style, etc. And it's the same as with the modules, with the way they're chosen. As with modules, there are the technical features, there's also the emotional connection with the whole object, or even a brand.

all this is correct... btw the power on the mantis is really very good - I use mine for gen2 lzx modules which are particularly susceptible to noise - you can literally see the noise in the output... and there is none - so these power supplies are clean up into the MHz, not just the KHz that audio uses...

also pretty solid - I've taken mine all over on buses, trains and planes - it's been dropped a couple of times and it's still in oone piece as are all the modules that it's housed...

all I'm saying about the mantis is that it's by far the best bang for buck case based on the combination of price/hp/decent power/manufacturer reputation

no it doesn't have 1u - but please someone show me something in 1u that can't be had in 3u...

and yes they can be linked and by the time you patch the it up you can barely see the case!!! which isn't that bad - and you can always get black these days!

4 years ago, I hesitated between several models of cases and the Mantis quickly became my first choice, but in the end I opted for Arturia's RackBrutes.

yup - I think they're fugly... and they waste space with the rack wart...

This is a personal choice. The most important thing is to feel good about it.

Absolutely... my opinion is mine alone and other people have theirs - obviously at least some of them are wrong - but that's beside the point!!! hehehe

And there's nothing chauvinistic, I'm French and I prefer London to Paris. Ah... Wardour Street, Leicester Square, Baker Street, Hyde park, Speakers' Corner, and the best hot dogs in the world (there should be a thread about this)!

I'm British and I dislike both... Paris kind of wins as at least there's ModularSquare... But then I'm a Northener and intensely dislike the capital-centric attitude of visitors ("I've been to London, so I've been to Britain" ), as I'm sure most people do, who live outside their respective capitals - which is usually the majority of the population

"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia

Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!

sound sources < sound modifiers < modulation sources < utilities