Can we talk about modular synths?

[D.o.S.]

No prob! That's what my 3U is in process of being built into, and it plays nicely with my 0-Coast and other gear.

Here's a clip
https://m.soundcloud.com/escapecraft/0- ... rell-patch

[behndy]

i dunno meng. that's a sexy solution but. i'm almost full up on my 9u case, and need a 104 skiff just to round it out with drum loots.

so. i mean. like.

I DUNNO MENG.

[PeteeBee]

No prob! That's what my 3U is in process of being built into, and it plays nicely with my 0-Coast and other gear.

Here's a clip
https://m.soundcloud.com/escapecraft/0- ... rell-patch

That clip is great! How did you know I've spent the last few hours listening to krell patches on people's 0-Coast's haha.

I think that's what i'll do. Mostly just because the 0-Coast eliminates a ton of work making sure I have every basic element covered, leaving me plenty of room (theoretically) for Clouds, maybe maths, a mixer of some sort, and a little room for something else I don't even know about

[oscillateur]

The HEK uses flying busboard (i.e one cable that you connect to several modules in a row). From my experience, these can be a pain in the ass, especially when you want to move modules around.
The power supply is also better on the Mantis and it's closed, which makes it easier to move around/avoid pets/children getting in there .

If you want to stay at around 3U, then maybe consider the Intellijel 4U/84HP or 104HP case or the Makenoise 3U/104HP skiff. A bit more expensive than the HEK but with a proper busboard and nicely closed. You can put 1U modules in the Intellijel cases (not pulplogic 1U though, different format) and these can be super useful to round up a small system.

[MrNovember]

I agree with oscillateur. The Intellijel cases are expensive, but totally worth it. I love my 4U 42hp Intellijel case. The Make Noise case looks nice, but it might be too shallow for some modules
I also absolutely hate having my power taking up hp in the front of my rack.

[PeteeBee]

The HEK uses flying busboard (i.e one cable that you connect to several modules in a row). From my experience, these can be a pain in the ass, especially when you want to move modules around.
The power supply is also better on the Mantis and it's closed, which makes it easier to move around/avoid pets/children getting in there .

If you want to stay at around 3U, then maybe consider the Intellijel 4U/84HP or 104HP case or the Makenoise 3U/104HP skiff. A bit more expensive than the HEK but with a proper busboard and nicely closed. You can put 1U modules in the Intellijel cases (not pulplogic 1U though, different format) and these can be super useful to round up a small system.

I agree with oscillateur. The Intellijel cases are expensive, but totally worth it. I love my 4U 42hp Intellijel case. The Make Noise case looks nice, but it might be too shallow for some modules
I also absolutely hate having my power taking up hp in the front of my rack.

Well shoot that's some great info. That 4U 42hp case looks awesome and does buy me a little more space. As much as I want to keep this all painfully simple, I know there is stuff that is going to be completely necessary that I don't even know what it is yet.

[BoatRich]

So I'm considering a D.C.-2 with expander, Maths, and a microbrute as a live drone rig with some random capabilities. I'll be pairing it all with pedals and probably tape loops, what else do I need to make this useable?

[Dark Barn]

Where's the random coming from, is it on the microbrute or DC2? Sorry I don't know the specs on either. If not then you'll need a random module or a sample & hold if you have a noise source somewhere. If you are using maths as a an envelope generator you'll want at least one or two VCAs. Things that affect timbre are nice for drones imo, so maybe a filter or wave folder could be useful. Maybe also a LFO, attenuator and or offset generator. I often say Disting because it handles a lot of utilities that you might not know you want, then one day you suddenly realize you want, then you realize oh wait my Disting does that.

[BoatRich]

Where's the random coming from, is it on the microbrute or DC2? Sorry I don't know the specs on either. If not then you'll need a random module or a sample & hold if you have a noise source somewhere. If you are using maths as a an envelope generator you'll want at least one or two VCAs. Things that affect timbre are nice for drones imo, so maybe a filter or wave folder could be useful. Maybe also a LFO, attenuator and or offset generator. I often say Disting because it handles a lot of utilities that you might not know you want, then one day you suddenly realize you want, then you realize oh wait my Disting does that.

I was thinking the Maths does random in the CT5 sense of things unless I'm confusing it with the Warps? The Disting was on my list of stuff to look into as were some filters.

The microbrute is for a sequencer and a key based synth that I can take to more stripped down shows or somewhere I don't have a long enough set to drag out a full modular rig.

Edit: was also considering that Sloth module? It seems like it would add a ton of interesting slow texture to stuff. I want to keep all of this small so I can use it live

[Dark Barn]

the Sloth is great! but it's technically a chaos module, not random. meaning it behaves in somewhat predictable patterns until once in a while it doesn't. I have the Super sloth version, the 15 minute one and i think its great for droning!

Maths does a lot but it doesn't do random, you can kind of kludge a pseudo random from it if you have a Sample & Hold module like so: a really fast LFO from maths in cycle mode fed into a sample & hold triggered at a different frequency than the LFO will generate a pseudo random voltage, meaning it won't be random, but the pattern might be too complicated to distinguish from random for all intents and purposes.

But the Disting does random, among other things. I also like Mutable Kinks, which has inverters, rectifiers, min/max, noise, and sample & hold in 4 hp, a great little CV fuckery utility module. But the Disting does all of those things and more (one at a time though), but requires menu diving and manual reading sometimes to get there.

[oscillateur]

The HEK uses flying busboard (i.e one cable that you connect to several modules in a row). From my experience, these can be a pain in the ass, especially when you want to move modules around.
The power supply is also better on the Mantis and it's closed, which makes it easier to move around/avoid pets/children getting in there .

If you want to stay at around 3U, then maybe consider the Intellijel 4U/84HP or 104HP case or the Makenoise 3U/104HP skiff. A bit more expensive than the HEK but with a proper busboard and nicely closed. You can put 1U modules in the Intellijel cases (not pulplogic 1U though, different format) and these can be super useful to round up a small system.

I agree with oscillateur. The Intellijel cases are expensive, but totally worth it. I love my 4U 42hp Intellijel case. The Make Noise case looks nice, but it might be too shallow for some modules
I also absolutely hate having my power taking up hp in the front of my rack.

Well shoot that's some great info. That 4U 42hp case looks awesome and does buy me a little more space. As much as I want to keep this all painfully simple, I know there is stuff that is going to be completely necessary that I don't even know what it is yet.

The 4U cases are one row of normal 3U modules + one row of special 1U modules. If you want something similar to the HEK you should target the 84/104HP ones.

[behndy]

yesssssssss got a Metropolis coming in. FINALLY.

AND IT'S NOT RUINER'S.

[PeteeBee]

The 4U cases are one row of normal 3U modules + one row of special 1U modules. If you want something similar to the HEK you should target the 84/104HP ones.

yeah I was just playing on modular grid and figured out that 42hp fills up ridiculously fast. I mean, I still don't know what all I want other than clouds and some of those special 1U ones seem helpful, like the output ones, but that's only big enough for clouds and like two other things. Might be enough for a while since it will hopefully be paired with the No Coast and the Folktek Mescaline... but still. That's tiny.

[oscillateur]

If you get a 4U Intellijel case, I recommend the noise tools module. Clock / random pulses generator, white/pink noise generator, sample & hold or track & hold, slew limiter. All normalled so that you can get cool random voltages easily and can break it down into individual functions whenever needed. Really nice and super useful module.

The Quadratt is also great as a multipurpose attenuverter/mixer. And I'm probably going to get the reverb soon, I'll give my opinion on this one when I get it .

[MrNovember]

Yeah, I'm using the 42hp rack along with a few external things: SQ1, QuNexus, Field Kit, and a few pedals. I also have another 84hp of modules in a HEK