All I’ll say is try and pick everything up second hand, you’ll save so much coin and never lose on your investment once you start trading, selling and swapping out modules.
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For Wavetables type of sounds, I recommend Loquelic Iteritas Percido, it’s a full voice with lots of timbers and balls, I think it would suits nice with your Analog 4 since you won’t need any extra modules to make it works. There are VCA and modulations implementation.
For FM, I have lots of fun with Hertz Donuts mk3 but it would need extra module to make it shines and as you seem on budget I would recommend to start with fully features modules first. Still worth mentioning certain great ones.
Maybe let us know how much you would spend and how many HP do you have in your case for better advice 
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That’s exactly where I am right now. Bought a NiftyCase and some Modules (Morphagene, Mum M8, Pip Slope, 4ms IO, Doepfer ADSR).
But now I need a lot more utility and modulation modules. I briefly had The PNW, but going modular for me was about having a hands-on instrument, not more menu-diving.
I recently replaced my old OT with a MPC Live 2 as the main sequencer as well, but now after half a year having the OT in the closet, I wonder if the OT fits more my needs than a Morphagene. Maybe I swap it for a Squid Salmple, but if this potential change wouldn’t satisfy my modular needs, I probably will sell the whole rack.
Edit: The music I make is melodical Deep House, BoomBap, LoFi, or 90’s Liquid Drum’n’Bass. The problem is that I almost never find modular videos on YT that cover those genres, so I’m almost sure I should ditch modular for my music.
People seem to favor the Assimil8or much more than the squid sample… not sure as I have neither
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Great vid on the ALM Squid salmple and sonic wise in the ballpark.
I would fancy one myself, but just like the morphagene it’s not my modular priority especially with an OT it the rig and also the sampler in Bitwig I can manipulate with the ES-9 inputs.
It’s about making the choices that fit both the bill and the focus of what each part play in the personal workflow. For me the ES-9 is important, if what I jam out is not going to be into a DAW, I will never finish a track in my life. And I want to do that in 2021.
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Also great for a small modular rig is the classic BSP.
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I had several semimodulars and a little modular rack, and if you’re after synth sounds i would highly recommend the 0 coast from my experience. I think it’s one of the most modular feeling semimodulars. It has the best balance of soundsculpting, modulation, utilities etc that makes a great patching experience and countless tricks and options to explore. Only downside is the midi menu system… Otherwise it sounds great and feels very eurorack imo. It’s hard to design a small beginner rack yourself that is that well balanced. I know one of the main attraction to eurorack is the open choice to combine all the fancy modules available but modular patching is only great fun if the rack is well balanced and that’s hard to achieve.
If I would go modular again I’d probably get a system from one company cause modules are designed to complement each other.
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Plaits with Quadrax would keep you busy for a long time. Then expand as you feel. Right now I know i would get filter faster than I did. I would avoid small MI clones, small packed modules in general. Mimeophone could be great in the beginning its super hands on and you can go so many places with it.
I started out wiht 0-Coast, while it’s great now I know I would be better with Mother32, check what kind of sounds you like.
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this.
I went this route, many small packed multifunction modules, and it takes the fun out of it, since it takes away the advantages of hardware
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Totally agree, it’s just a big bite in the budget for a lot of people with a min. of +2000EUR cash drop.
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true. But for 84hp plus rack you usually pay about 2000 as well. And most people don’t stop there.
Endorphines Shuttle System or ALM System Coupe could be great options for around that price.
But for a beginner I would recommend the semimodular route. A4 plus 0 coast (or similar) is a great combo with many patching options
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Totally something to keep in mind with every eurorack purchase.
I’d pick up a 2nd hand Nord Modular before moving into Eurorack. The micro modular can be bought for the same price as a module.
+1 vote for the 0-coast, also one for the Voltage Research Laboratory and semi-modulars more broadly.
These small synth really have a lot of advantages, they’re much cheaper than what they would cost made from multiple modules, you don’t have to buy a lot of stuff to have a cool instrument right away and most importantly, they are designed, calibrated and assembled as a whole thing, which means all the elements are working towards a same goal. For example, VCOs and VCFs are picked to work well together and CV inputs and outputs’ ranges match.
The 0-coast seems like the best to me because it gets away from the really classic synth architecture and works with concepts that are unusual in traditional synth world but are more common in modular. For instance: wavefolding oscillators, function generators and loopable envelopes, end of cycle and end of attack triggers, clock division and subharmonies, mults and attenuverters. It has a midi connection, which is handy, but what’s even better is to combine it with a 0-ctrl (its related sequencer/control surface) which opens the world of modular sequencers, microtonal melodies as well as tactile controls. It really becomes an instrument you can play or synchronize to others, for a relatively cheap price compared to full on modular.
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Check the YT channel of the vid that TonyDS posted, Ali the Architect, style will be relevant to your interests:
I found his channel through a really nice vid he did on the Strymon Magneto.
I whole heartedly agree with this too. It’s easy to think you’re just saving HP and getting the same functionality (technically you are). In reality it’s totally different.
Some of those micro versions are so cramped you can barely turn the knobs once some cables are plugged in. It gets annoying enough or even impossible to turn knobs that it’s almost useless. It’s not fun at the very least. uO_c is an exception though IMO.
I’d rather have big spacious modules that are fun to tweak. I might even put empty panels in spots to make it more playable in the future. If I run out of room I’ll just expand the case or buy another one.
This older thread often suggests the 0 Coast as the beginning semi-modular, but the Taiga is probably the better 2023 version of that.
Also a trimmed down less expensive version of that would be the related Cre8audio West Pest ( or East Beast if you prefer ) which is ready for other parts to be added.
Flipping things around, another approach for those who like keyboards, would be to start off with the cost effective Cre8audio NiftyKEYZ controller, which gives you 112 HP of powered rack space, 4 CV gate controls, 48 keys, arpegiator, etc, and then add some modules to that. You can also still use the NiftyKEYZ as a plain MIDI controller, or use it as a MIDI to CV converter.
If regular keyboards are not your thing, but still starting with a control first approach, the new Crosspatch Triggerpad module with an inexpensive Launchpad looks promising.
I don’t know that there’s a good way of starting small with modular. Perhaps the one unit that seems to have gotten it right is the Intellijel Cascadia, but its cost is daunting for a newcomer. Anyone interested in the Taiga should probably spend the time to read the whole ModWiggler thread on it.
https://www.modwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=270264
People had various issues with getting going on it, and there seem to be complaints about the response curves on some of the knobs, notably tuning and envelopes. I have no personal experience with it, though.
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Really glad you posted that link! I’m not reading anything apart from Elektronauts, you know… 
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I was briefly tempted to try the Taiga during the day today. That thread over there was an instant cure.
Edit: I’m sure there’s a lot of different views and positive happy experience as well to be found. Like the excellent demo by @nilsec
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Yeah, it’s really too bad. I don’t need one personally, but I was happy to hear of the Taiga’s release, and sad to hear of the issues. Someday someone will put out a solid, decent, sub-$1000 test-the-waters unit.
[Edit: in the referenced video, there is 1000€ worth of downstream FX modules, and most of the time is spent tweaking those, not the Taiga…]
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