This has already happened. It’s called Eurorack. There are enough cases out there that are rack mountable and the modules itself are as small as possible (when you still want to lay hands on).
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But it’s not the same. I don’t want to spend 400 euros on an oscillator or a filter and still need all the other parts to get some sound out of it, not even mentioning the associated cablespaghetti etc. On top of that, I’m first and foremost a melody-guy. Judging from the local modular-scene, people don’t usually do melodies or chords on their modulars. Mostly they go into modular and next they tell me that now they’re only making experimental music and their modulars sound like car alarms.
I don’t want musical Lego. I’d like to buy a readymade modern synth (eg Modal Argon 8, ASM Hydra etc.) that needs nothing else to produce great sound and be able to fit it in my rack.
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I don’t see this saving any space either… how big is a eight voice poly with multiple lfos, arp, effects and so on? Don’t think that is smaller than a rack unit…
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Well, it can be quite small. There are modules out there which are “complete” and don’t require multiple other modules.
Example, which fulfills your “specs” and has everything on board (requires just a power supply):
https://vandaal-electronics.com/product/preenfm-eurorack-module-diy-kit/
Specs (8-14 voices):
Btw, don’t take this post and my previous one too seriously. Of course, there are all kind of differences.
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just out of curiosity. how would one ever make use of 600 notes polyphony?
even though i am already in that modular traphole, and also i am more than anything an experimental artist, i totally feel you here…
i have even focussed on mostly digital modules with preset managment etc., but it is one hell of a pain to keep track on everything that happens by menu-diving through a million tiny screens. also patching, repatching and annoying cables everywhere are not really a charm to work with…
i could manage to live with it by adding an analogue mixer and planing on getting an EC4 oder ElectraOne soon (through ES FH2).
nowadays modularity has taken over every concept or innovation; even Lenovo are issuing gaming notebooks without a dedicated GPU soon, but added an eGPU-module to boost the station to the same power of the former model. only difference: you pay nearly thrice the price for an unsignificant boost in performance…
TLDR:
i totally miss having an instrument that inspires me. Vlad Kreimer is doing brilliant work there with SOMA, but people often call him a “weirdo”. i indeed think that he is doing a great job with making us think outside of our comfort zones and reward us with really innovative happy accidents.
also Flame did a great job with the Mäander: it only needs more of these machines to push creativity, modular is definitely more like a laboratory for learning synthesis the raw and hard way to me…
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Arctor023 beat me to it mentioning the Maander. Some of the few examples sound excellent. But as far as I can see there’s no control over resonance, not even on the hp filter. But it also looks like a very powerful sequencer. For me it’s the most interesting desktop synth of the passed year.
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Attempting to imitate an orchestra springs to mind.
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