Post

Thread: Polyphonic / generative / drone maker

Feedback request

I already have a small system. I’ve been planning out my future purchases…but I’ve been changing the plan every day as I find better modules. The plan is very different than even 2 days ago. So this plan is thought out, but it's lightly held based on how fast its been evolving.

https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/3208119

My Vision:

  • Polyphonic chords accompanying live subtractive synth playing or solo
  • Keyboard-directed and generative melodies
  • Ambient drone backdrops
  • Sonic exploration, making weird and microtonal sounds I’m not getting from my other synth.
  • I want to play it. knobs/faders have value if put in a place that can be used in performance.

Inspirations would be Moog Labyrinth, SOMA Lyra-8, and Queen Elmyra benjolin a little bit.
So why not get one of those? Maybe I should this costs 4x what those do. maybe its useful for other things though?

What it should NOT do:

  • Dawless: I have ableton and don’t plan on doing dawless. I have the optx and plan on sending 8 channels or cv/gate/or audio in/out of the rack
  • Mixing: As long as I’m under 8 channels I don’t need complex mixing. That said, we can assume I’ll use almost all of these channels immediately.
  • Drums: I don’t really think I need a drum rack specifically. Ableton does this well. Even I can't do it in Ableton I suspect I would buy a drum machine.
  • Sequencing: Standard sequencing Ableton can do. This might change if it's something I want to tweak and perform on.
  • Subtractive voice: I have a great subtractive synth already..but it makes one or two sounds at time. maybe this becomes useful at some point for a 3rd or 4th sound.
  • End of chain effects: Unless very interactive, Ableton can do this too.

Already have

  • Boredbrain Music Optx v2 — 8 HP Main Ableton/Max for Live ↔ Eurorack bridge for audio, CV and gates.
  • Euterpe Itinera — 18 HP Squealing overdriven mother-filter.
  • Happy Nerding 3x VCA — 6 HP Three compact VCAs. maybe this will not be needed at the end of the day though.
  • Mordax DATA — 16 HP Visual analysis - Most of the time i dont need this. I just hated not being able to see what was going on when figuring out a patch. But once I know it, this isn’t needed.
  • Qu-Bit Surface — 10 HP Physical-modeling / Percussive voice
  • Rabid Elephant Natural Gate — 20 HP Dual LPG

Purchase plan

  • I plan to break purchases into 1-2 modules at a time and not buy more till I really know what I’ve got.
  • I plan to use vcvrack to play with modules similar to those in my plan before purchasing.
  • Befaco Rampage — 18 HP — Dual function generator: envelopes, slew, LFOs and complex CV.
    • Clank → Rampage → Saïch/Itinera/Fold 6/Natural Gate.
    • Chosen for tactile control. Alternative was quadrax, maths and more.
  • Clank Chaos — 12 HP — System heart. provides gates, triggers, pitch and probability.
    • Wired to Saïch, Surface, Rampage and disting NT.
    • Chosen over a traditional sequencer for evolving, non-grid patterns, repeatable savable randomness.
  • Expert Sleepers disting NT — 4 HP — Planned uses: supersaw, FM, wavetable, quantization, shift registers, Poly Resonator, chaos and utilities. This replaced potential individual modules for each of the planned uses.
  • Expert Sleepers Tiny MIDI Breakout — 2 HP — FREE with disting NT Included with the disting NT purchase; no additional cost.
  • Happy Nerding 3xMIA 1U — 10 HP — CV attenuation, inversion, offset and mixing.
    • Wiring plan: Clank/Rampage/disting → 3xMIA → synthesis/filter/modulation destinations. Chosen for 1u placement
  • Instruō Saïch — 12 HP — Four-voice analog oscillator/chord platform. I wanted polyphonic
    • Wiring plan: Pitch CV → Buff Mult → Saïch; voices → Itinera/Fold 6/Natural Gate.
    • Alternatives for main voice: ripsaw, mindphaser, odessa+hel
  • Intellijel Buff Mult 1U — 14 HP — 1u utility
  • Joranalogue Fold 6 — 6 HP — \~ Wavefolder for complexity.
    • Wiring plan: Audio → Fold 6 → Itinera/Natural Gate; CV → fold amount.
  • SOMA Lyra8-FX — 10 HP — Mid chain effects. Lyra was inspiration, so i picked this.
  • Alternatives include conventional delay/reverb/chorus and granular effects ie fx/pro, Morphagene, Mimeophon, delay

Rack space left
46 3U and 46 1U

What didn't make it:
I want this stuff but can't quite justify it

  • Orbit 3 chaotic CV modulation, but disting has chaos as well.
  • Oscillators -> Mindphaser, Ripsaw
  • Mod Medusa/Wogglebug → dedicated modulation/random control
  • Poly Quantizer -> (ie Bard's Quartet/Harmonaig) disting is already doing quantization
  • ANALOG LOGIC ie BABEL→ logic/event processing
  • PanMix Jr/xPan → no dedicated voltage-controlled stereo panning
  • Dual Dagger/double bubble → stereo filtering
  • Resonator (tiptop or haible vs poly resonator)
  • Persephone/WMD DVCA → dedicated zero-crossing/character VCA
  • Generative switching -> ie SW3 splice
  • ADSR envelopes -> ie quadrax