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

generative melodies

• Qu-Bit Bloom - soft sweet kind evolving melodies
• Some sort of rungler - more random, a bit more aggressive usually, you can lock it in.
• A random source and a quantiser.

Polyphonic chords

Because of the nature of eurorack it doesn't handle polyphony well.

For example I have the Mutable Instrument Yarns, that I can use to control four voices polyphonically. But then I need four voices, four filters, four envelopes and four VCA. Quite a big and expensive case. And every time I want to change a sound I have to change all of those options. That doesn't allow for very immediate live playing because I don't have enough hands to change four filters at once. There's ways around it, with more modules that would send the same CV to multiple modules. But what do you really gain here that is not better in polyphonic instruments.

If you just want chords to play from one 1v/oct, there's a couple of options like a sample player with chords in it, or I also like the Intellijel Shapeshifter which is a double wavetable oscillator with a chord mode. Keep in mind that you'll usually only be playing one chord variation (Cm, Dm, Em, etc) which usually sounds a bit primitive and not unlike early gabber. I also find that these are never as full or lush as real chords played with multiple oscillators or a regular instrument.

Ambient drone backdrops + Sonic exploration
- Befaco Oneiroi is very hands-on and playable, great for big washes or screeches from hell itself.

What didn't make it: ADSR envelopes

You'll really want at least ASR when working with a keyboard so that it keeps playing when you hold down the key. I really prefer an ADSR where you can set the sustain level for keyboard playing.

I didn't touch on everything you asked, but I hope this will give you some new insights!

EDIT: One more tip about hands-on playability. If you can get your drums out of Ableton through an OUT on your audio interface and into an Eurorack filter, that already gives a lot of sculpting options and live playability for build-ups and breakdowns etc.

EDIT2: You can see the waves in Ableton using an oscilloscope. I use this one https://maxforlive.com/library/device/1918/jo-floating-oscilloscope . There's also a tuner in Ableton. DATA feels a bit useless to me, but maybe you have better uses for it then just looking at waves.

EDITED Sep 3rd, 14:51

Thanks for the feedback.
The oscilloscope is super helpful!
I'll play more in Vcvrack to if I can really do without ADSR or not.

Saich is quad oscillator I was hoping to drive it from the disting, but you point out gap..I only have one filter here. I haven't played with this enough to know if need a real analog filter on each voice or if something digital is enough.

One big thing I have to figure out for myself is if its really better to do this by buying a lyra or elmyra directly. It does seem that if polyphony is the requirement it might push this more toward a desktop synth instead.

This is how I did a 4 note analog poly voice section. Kind of big, but does a lot in the space.
I arranged it this way to get all of the connections and controls closer together.
The A-180-9 connects with two ribbon cables in the back to another A-180-9 in the note clock section.
This avoids having up to 14 wires draping across the front. That's how this section is usually fed notes, gates, and modulation.
The Ethernet-looking-but-not connectors also still work to talk to other systems with a single cable. Really handy.

Four LFOs for independant wobble or PWM. The Synthrotek active mult is perfect for this config.
The Precision Adder shares the bus with the VCO, so I can switch inputs, modulate, or change octaves without needing extra cables.

Nothing exotic or boutique, but it stays in tune, is readable, plays sweet and soft, or it can knock your head off.
In compariison, it makes Saïch, and most of those supersaw all-in-ones, end up sounding like wheezy arcade chiptune music.
Here's what this poly quad sounds like by itself: https://noodlehut.bandcamp.com/track/lamp-of-lament

EDITED Sep 4th, 18:08