Replacing Eurorack with Elektron

I’ve gotten pretty deep into eurorack over the last year, but I’ve come to the realisation that I’ve basically just created a (very limited) poly synth.

Over the last few months I’ve bought an Analog Four, Digitakt, and Digitone to test the idea that they could replace all of my modular gear, and they definitely can.

Anyone else start out with modular then sell it after finding Elektron gear? Any regrets?

Interested to hear others experiences.

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i sold all my modular n went back to purely elektron. it suits me much better personally. I’ve built a small modular rig twice n went back to elektron both times.

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I did the opposite: start into modular after having bought some Elektron boxes. But I tried to not duplicate what I already had, going for complex oscillators with wavefolding, sequencers not so grid-based, filters and FX with distinctive characters.

The fact that one can buy an A4mk1 for around $600 USD is a very compelling argument to avoid getting into Eurorack.

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I had an elektron OT and Analog Four before dipping into elektron. Decided to sell the analog four to fund the journey and learned really quickly I made a mistake because there were things I used to do easily with the a4 that took entirely too many modules in modular. Re-bought the analog four. I’ve been more happy using modular as a synthesis playground and focused it on doing things I cant really do with my other gear like granular synthesis, external samples into analog filters, external synths into modular for additional processing via more filters, wavefolder, waveshapers, effects etc. Basically, I started off trying to replace my gear but my conclusion is that I really love my current gear (vermona perfourmer, analogfour mk2, ot mk2) so I’m focusing my modular (capping at 6u 104hp) on enhancing or filling in gaps.

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I reduced my modular to 84he, filled with a 4op fm module and a small analog synth voice, so basically two monos, and sequence that and my digitone with a digitakt.
very small footprint, and enough for me :smiley:

so… why not both?

I got into Elektrons shortly after and in parallel with Eurorack. My Euro was more setup for noise than beatmaking, so when I discovered the Lyra-8 and Syntrx it was easy to sell off the modular stuff in favor of those two.

I still have some vague ideas about generative sequencing with clocks and logic - something that Serge may be good for. For now, I’m enjoying my Elektrons and other gear.

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I started modular building racks and modules the diy way and filled some gaps with pre made modules. I just can’t and won’t sell my diy modules just because i feel sort of proud buidling them and all the effort there put in (i mean buying blank pcb’s, transfering etching, drilling and gathering components from al places). Besides that no one would buy them because the first modules aren’t exactly skiff friendly (all wired on developers pcb’s, so very fragile too) . I still like to sit down and spend a evening patching because it’s a very different experience.
I also like to run other hardware thru modulated filters. My elektrons have become the centre pieces and send clock to my eurorack. If you don’t need the money and space keep it, it’s fun.

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In case you really have a “basic polysynth” as modular, you will not miss to sell it, if you didn’t the one or other “no-basic” patch.

I’am in modular since my first synth days and would never sell my modular staff … at least not without regret. But in my case Eurorack is for all those sounds and patches, which would not be possible with “standard” or “basic” mainstream instruments.

I think it depends a bit on workflow. I started my elektron journey on a digitakt and will likely never sell it, but I traded away my A4 for something more unique as I got more into eurorack. I find I work faster on my eurorack set up and dont find myself endlessly running in circles tweaking the mix like I tend to on elektrons. A4 is amazing but ultimately I found I wanted more surface level control than the encoders offered and pretty much always reached for whatever knobby synth I had over the A4. A4 mk1 still seems to be one of the best deals around though.

I am probably the opposite of most though, I find eurorack to offer so many fun interesting processing and preformance tools and just enough ways to bring recallability into a system, my elektrons have mostly become studio and sound design tools.

Your post brings up a good point, I also tend to program on the analog four via parameter locks and lfos, then do some manual tweaking (I always forget to setup performance macros). Its really nice during a performance to have all the knobs basically laid out on the modular (with some good patch cable management)

would actually like to build a small modular set. but I’m totally scared of getting addicted to it, so I’ll definitely leave it alone.

you sold everything and switched to elektron or went back, would you say that you can make similar sounds? I think digitone can definitely be very similar. most of the modular stuff is digital as far as i know.

I had ot,A4, digitone and virus ti2 combo sold all and jumped in modular journey. Am super happy… 9u 104hp case I have 6 drum tracks and 3 synth tracks where I have chords/fm/ wave table/ analog. Super fun and fast workflow if you are aiming for live performances because you have hands on all parameters and sound is fantastic. I planed my setup 2 years before got into and I knew what sound I was after.

Building modular to replicate what you have in hardware can be an an exercise in spending money.

Building modular to explore areas where your hardware struggles or doesn’t reach can be an exercise in bliss.

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Yeah I think before I got into eurorack, I didn’t know what it was capable of or excelled at, and projected a bunch of possibilities onto it. Ultimately each has its strengths. But now I treat eurorack more as an abstract, atonal, percussive, sound fx, fx processor way instead of expecting to make long interesting changey compositions. You can modulate the clock and do a lot of interesting routing. If your needs are more basic with regard to routing and clocking though, and you prefer having presets, Elektron is all you need. And with something like an octatrack, the routing is more flexible and not totally different in terms of sound possibilities.

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Building only basic mono / poly synths in modular is easy to do when you first get into it, and I think I did myself to begin with.

After maybe 3 years, I started learning about and buying modules that enable more creative patching. Clock dividers, switches, shift registers, etc, and I found it really opened my eyes to the possibilities in modular and now I could never do without it.

For example as a fairly basic example, you can have a Euclidean pattern, clocking a switch which is firing gates to 4 wildly different envelope shapes which are opening vcas and filters on 4 different oscillators. I’m not sure how you’d achieve that on an Elektron box.

My Elektron stuff lives alongside my modular stuff in harmony, they work so well together, but if you don’t ever learn the more weird / deep side of modular patching, then I can understand why one might just be happy with a Digitone or an A4.

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That sounds interesting. Do you have a recording of that process?

I haven’t actually sold anything yet, but strongly considering selling a significant portion of my modular gear.

I think I will put aside my basic synth modular setup for a few weeks and see if I miss it while I focus on the elektron gear.

It’s been really interesting reading everyone’s replies.

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