Hey Craig, from what I know of you through the forum, I think you sometimes like to switch things up. With hardware / semimodulars that can give you an inspiring new platform to explore. With Eurorack though, that tendency can for a lot of us take over in a never ending unproductive way that feels shit.
It’s given me lots, my modular, but I’m currently working very hard to keep the constant expansion at bay; and am thinking about selling it all at some point.
I might at some point sell part of my modular and add one or two semi’s in my 6U rack, towards live performing. Because like you say semi’s are more value per function; plus give some focus/clarity through their pre-routed normalings. I do like the tidy organization of multiple voices in one rack instead of multiple separate boxes. But…. That route does open the door a little towards Eurocrack again.
With its cost and addictiveness, I don’t think I would ever actively recommend Eurorack to anyone, to be honest.
There’s no universal answer to this question. It all depends on your musical style. For me, I enjoy deep & obsessive sound design so I love full modular. (I guess I also love not having $$$ in my bank account…) With eurorack you have to be comfortable not knowing the end result in advance and just playing around until you find something serendipitous. It’s an alien workflow at first, so I agree with the recommendation to try a plugin modular system to start with. However, I’ll buck the trend here and say that I vastly prefer Reaktor Blocks to VCV! (I don’t like that VCV has become the de facto plugin modular and I think it’s extremely unfriendly to beginners as compared to the well-curated selection in Reaktor, but I’ll save that rant for another time.)
It’s really important to keep in mind that full modular doesn’t work for everyone and that’s ok! It seems like Eurorack has become the final boss of music-making, in that it’s often positioned as the ultimate test/goal of a Srs Music Producer. This is, of course, false. It’s the end result for one specific kind of music nerd but everyone is different! The benefit of semi-modular is that it’s much friendlier, not to mention cheaper.
SIDE NOTE: If you decide to dip your toes into modular, I recommend starting with a palette case and mostly Doepfer modules, with maybe one or two non-Doepfer modules at most! The danger when starting out – and I definitely did this – is to go for the fancy fun-looking stuff. However, I’ve come to love Doepfer: great functionality at excellent prices (best function-to-cost ratio in Euro bar none), and eurorack shines when you have plenty of the seemingly boring utility stuff!
I think you’ve just proven with your new EP that more is not more. Or in the very least that you don’t need a full modular to make great music. Of course a ”proper” modular might be fun and give you more flexibility with what you can do live (more layers, more realtime mangling) but it’ll probably also give you more headache.
I’ve said it several times that I pretty much hated modular when I had some, albeit it was way too early on my synth ”journey”, and I probably made all the bad choices one can make when starting with modular. If I ever decided to go back, I’m pretty sure I’d go for a single-manufacturer system, probably Make Noise. Then again there’s no fucking way I’d pay 5k€ for one or even 4k on the 2nd hand market, I just know it wouldn’t be cost effective for me (no HW synth is for a hobbyist, I suppose) cos I’d mostly use it for textures and sound fx which are achievable and doable (in different ways) on my existing gear already.
I got into modular over the last few years, and I’m so torn on it. I started with a minibrute 2s and subharmonicon, sold the SubH, and filled a Rackbtute 3u. The MB2s paired well with some modules, worse with others.
The Rackbrute changed pretty drastically over the last year - from a crappy limited monosynth to a collection of utilities for my MB2s, to a wavetable synth with a spastic drum machine to just a drum machine. Each time it changed, I thought I had a plan and heavily researched the modules I bought. Each time, I felt the constraints of my module selection and ran into hard limits on what I can do. I really only have a small handful of viable, musical patches available to me and little room to experiment. I’d need to dump another $3,000 into it to have something I’m happy with… to still likely have a more limited system than even a couple pieces of my fixed-architecture gear.
At this point, I haven’t touched it in two months, and have considered selling it all. I’m honestly holding onto it mostly because selling it all would be a pain at this point.
I don’t want to be a GAS-fire fueler but the Erbe-Verb is incredible. Funnily enough I rarely use it as a reverb. At full wet with snappy envelopes it becomes a great snare generator
I like the single manufacturer approach too, but it isn’t for everyone, for some people modular is all about mixing and matching, whatever works.
Semi modular is a lot of fun too, for about the same price as a typical eurorack setup you can probably get more value for money, and probably a bit more long term ownership as there is often less need to swap things out. But maybe at the cost of flexibility - if that is important.
Fully modular can be a ball ache if wanting to work on new stuff before being finished with the existing patch, something to consider.
I’m sorry that modular has given you such difficulties. You’re by no means alone. Spurred by a thread on this forum, I once did a thought experiment to see what I would put in 84hp (for reference for other readers, the Rackbrute 3u is 88hp with a 5hp power module needed). The result is modest and kind of fun. It can do some things that my other devices can’t. But ModularGrid says it costs $2300, case not included. One can get a lot of cool fixed-architecture stuff for that much money.
If you don’t mind small interfaces there is the AE Modular system which is always churning out new modules. 3rd party modules too like bastle kastl and drum clones. Much cheaper than eurorack and probably less addictive due to a less broad selection of modules so you won’t necessarily be constantly searching for the next best new thing. (Although they do have a eurorack module adapter…could be a good or bad thing for you)
This. I would go the Doepfer route if I had my modular time again, their modules are hands on and direct and therefore easy to patch/understand , I think a small skiff with some well chosen utilities along with a semi modular could be an affordable/rewarding way to go. If you mix and match semi-modulars from different manufacturers then you may possibly end up with overlapping functionality. If you like the Moog sound then the Sound Studio is a great way to go, the functionality of the 3 synths has been carefully thought out. (I think you would have fun with the sound studio and a Landscape Stereo Field…) but this is just my perspective…!
Another thing I thought of: is polyphony important to you? If so, full modular may not be a good plan. I don’t use much polyphony in my music – not to be a contrarian but I think it’s grossly overrated (as is most 12-tet centered music theory… sorry to be a typical bleep-blooper) – so I like the monophonic thinking that eurorack entails. But if you want large chord stacks then steer clear!
It is. I prize harmony over melody. And I’m bored of 12tet. Hence why I went with Subharmonicon back in the day or the dual 0-Coast (being fed Just Intonation or other scales from Bitwig) setup. However, I’m looking forward to testing out Lyra-8 for my non-standard-tuning harmony needs. Let’s see!
Ah! Then I regret to inform you that full modular may not be off the table! If you get a few inexpensive Doepfer voices and an Ornament and Crime then you can explore all kinds of awesome non-12-tet stuff. O_c also has generative capabilities if you don’t want a separate sequencer. I’ve been having loads of fun with it:
Thanks for that. It isn’t all bad. It’s been a fun journey, and I’ve gotten to make some cool weird stuff I wouldn’t otherwise have done. I learned a lot of technical details about how synths work and what I really want out of an instrument, and better-appreciate the things I have now.
I think at the end of the day if a semi-modular or a few of them do what you want then that is the way to go, but if you end up wanting something more specific then ultimately a full modular rig will serve you right. I am currently rocking a system coupe with a few changes and find it super productive.
