It’s your choice and your money, but it doesn’t feel very modular to me. It feels like things that are done better outside a rack (polysynth, sampler, drums, FX) jammed together with some “must-haves according to most people”. But it’ll make pleasant noises, maybe that’s all that matters.
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As a newbie I’m also still a bit afraid for the big spaghetti monster.
Back on the knob swap duty on the Buchla & Tiptop 281t.
For those other here who want to do the same here is a little advice. Place a coin or any other thin thing between the panel and the knob, otherwise those will “scratch” the panel when you turn them.
Other than that it does look lovely with those “original” Rogan knobs !
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The cure for that is to understand how patches are constructed and to anticipate what you will do with any given module in relation to others. That could be difficult with a brand-new full case. You shouldn’t feel compelled to fill it right away. You can take your time, starting with a few select modules and working with them. That will almost certainly have an impact on what you choose to add to them.
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Ya I can’t believe they’d have the rail supports stick out so far. You lose some space because of it. They MUST know some modules boards are close to the edge of the faceplate.
I’ve always made sure there was space on the sides 
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I think you’ll find it quite difficult to utilise many of the voices there at once in a single patch (and you’ll probably find it hard to use the poly voice full stop). Voices are expensive in eurorack - for one voice you typically want pitch CV, gates, at least one VCA (probably more), one filter, at least one envelope and whatever other modulation sources to get the sound to be alive (and this can add a few more VCAs to your patch and other kinds of utilities). Oscillators are definitely initially the exciting part when you start looking at Eurorack, but once you discover how much auxiliary stuff you need to utilise one well, you’ll realise that pulling back the number in your case is a necessity: a case comprised of a few monosynths, a polysynth, a sampler, drums and FX really needs to be many times the size of your mock up to be able to really use it all. This will only really be a problem for you if you buy all of these at once - if you build up slowly with one of these oscillators and some supporting stuff, you’ll start to see what you need and what you like, and you’ll probably begin to diverge from your initial design before you buy it all.
Alternatively, you can have them all in there as options, and utilise 1 or 2 of them in a patch at a time, but it might not be very satisfying, and if you’re planning the case to have the general coverage of a DAW or groovebox (say) you might find it disappointing. Small cases are much stronger/playable when they have a very specific focus.
On individual modules, I’d say that Disting (Ex) can be a bit of a trap at the start - it’s probably my most under-utilised module. You have to really know what functionality you want out of it (the significance of which might not be super obvious as a newbie), and now all of a sudden you’re looking up the documentation to find which bank that function’s in, finding it, beginning to patch, trying to remember which of the inputs/outputs does what in that function, looking at the documentation again etc etc. It’s not fun. You might have more fun if you look into what the utilities are on the Disting, consider three or four you think sound fun/useful, and get a nice function-per-knob version of them. Utilities are where modular gets really interesting and you might find it hard to unlock that if the ones in your case are all trapped inside the Disting.
If I was to make a case built from this blueprint (eg. I am not you, YMMV, this is just how I’d approach it) I’d probably either get rid of the Black Corporation stuff and put more CV sources/utilities and a mixer in its place, or I’d build a case entirely around the Black Corporation stuff and remove some of the other voices (definitely the poly voice) to make space for those same things. I’d also purposefully not plan modules for a decent chunk of the case to give some wiggle room for when I realise I’d like a particular gadget or my workflow is compromised because I don’t have a particular widget.
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You’ve already got some good feedback here — scale back the number of voices overall for a case this size, start with a smaller amount of modules and leave room for yourself to add more once you have a better idea about what you want.
I just want to double down on the point about adding modulation and utilities. Those kinds of things (VCAs, switches, mults, LFOs, etc.) are what unlock the potential of the more exciting modules you have in here (Starlab, BIA, Deckard’s, etc.). If you don’t have that infrastructure of seemingly boring stuff, you’ll never get to see how cool the exciting stuff can be.
I think a lot of folks make this mistake when they get into modular, so I just wanted to spell it out. It’s easy to get distracted by the light of the shiniest, coolest modules, but just know when you’re battling the cable spaghetti monster, you’ll need to be equipped with plenty of boring stuff to see it through.
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Here’s a little audio from the (roughly Syrinx inspired) triple filter “FlexFilter”.
I’m using the TD-3-MO to send pitches to the VCO. I only had one VCO in the system at the time, so I wasn’t able to quite get some of the formant sounds that it’s capable of. I’m in the process of building another VCO though, so I’ll be able to post more audio soon.
So this is just a VCO into the filter(s) the filters routed in a part series, part parallel config, two envelopes for FM, sine out of the VCO for FM, and some knob twiddling, a few route changes mid-recording, etc.
Raw sound (a bit of software limiter though):
Sound with more FX added for fun:
Filter:
Setup for patch + sleeping dog:
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I like how three of us chimed in right away with the same feedback. This is a good community with good advice <3
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Thanks, It’s beginning to make a bit more sense in my head now. 
I’m back to the drawing board and already ditched a few modules.
So what about those ultilities… what are your favorites and why?
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Lots of discussion of each of my modules, the reasons I chose them, and some alternatives, here.
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I think Doepfer is the right starting point for utilities. The design/functions are straightforward, the gear is reliable and affordable.
I have a few of Instruo’s 4hp utilities — Ochd (8 LFOs), Tain (dual switch), Vinca (dual VCA) and Eas (cascading logic). They’re a little more pricey but I love their designs and how playable they are. They give you lots of nice visual feedback and often have small but important features to make them a bit more hands-on.
I’m sure other folks here can give you many more great recommendations in this category. I’ll just add one more — be sure to grab a mult! Multiplying signals around your system is really useful for making a complicated patch feel more cohesive (e.g. if you’re sending the same pitch sequence to two different voices, or using the same envelope in two different places, or sending the same gate pattern around, etc. etc.). A mult is probably the simplest, cheapest, easiest-to-overlook module and I use one in every patch without question.
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you could get a CV/OI audio module, a la ES-9 or ES-8, then go thru everything in VCV rack and test all the utilities there. find stuff you like then start shopping for similar physical utilities OR get another CV/OI…as you get unlimited options that way
also doubles as OI for euro to computer so you can record.
there are also MIDI to CV modules that would let you take stuff from say a Digitakt like LFOs and pipe that to your rack.
edit done
Since Cold Mac is unobtanium, Mystic Circuits Ana is my recommendation
I can also confirm. Most large modules seemed to have enough clearance and I didn’t notice the potential issue, but I ran into a mystery problem with an Erica Output module acting unreliably in an EP-208 but not having the same issue when testing it in another case. At first I thought it might be a power supply issue, but no other modules were having problems and the power supply was way over spec for what I was running. Then I noticed the module board bumping the inner case edge when re-mounting it and discovered the actual issue.
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I’m going to contradict this advice. I happen to know that @your_lamp’s mults form most of the middle 1u row on his Make Noise Shared System, and since they’re part of the design, it makes sense for him to use them. I have a powered mult that does other things also (Xaoc Warna II) but most of the time I go for stackcables (I have a few) or passive star-shaped mults, both of which are much cheaper and take up zero rack space. The only worry with these is voltage droop affecting V/oct pitch CV, but I have yet to encounter that. I don’t think one needs a mult module right away.
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ES-8 comes close enough to the edge and the rail support in the PM rack is SO thick, that they would touch. and that would be a speedy module to fry.
I had some Sputnik modules that were right up to the edge, and I believe the DLD ride close. there were some others I had, I just cant seem, to remember right now.
anyways…not good.
I also got really bad 
SHOCKS from my Cell 48 case. metal enclosure, wires musta been touching metal somewhere. freakin crazy.
- Mults for distributing copies of signals (for just CV that doesn’t need to be precise 1v/Oct you can get away with stack cables though)
- Something that can attenuvert, offset and mix CV like Happy Nerding 3xMIA or Befaco A*B+C. You will find some modules want -5v to +5v, some want 0-8v, some want 0-10v. Being able to scale your CV into the right ranges is critical, and you can also mix signals for complex modulation or simply squeeze some modulation down so it’s less prominent
- Lots of VCAs. You can use them to shape voices, to control the amount of modulation going somewhere using some other modulation, as mute switches to quickly turn off a bunch of modulation and change the feel of a patch instantly, for all kinds of things. Doepfer make modules which cram 8 of them into a small amount of HP, very useful. Nice video on the topic here: Why you can never have too many VCAs - YouTube
- Oscilloscopes are useful for troubleshooting and generally learning your system. Data is the rolls royce of eurorack oscilloscopes - quite large, but also can be used as a tuner, spit out LFOs or clock divide. O’Tool is much slimmer but without the extras.
- Clock dividers can be used to do lots of fun stuff rhythmically - you are probably covered with Pam’s, but ones which don’t calculate from a digital master bpm can be used to do more fun, experimental things
- I personally love having some hands-on mute switches so I can really play a patch. I’ve got the Befaco/Div Kid mutes module (4 mute switches, normalled cascading downwards so you can use it to send a voice to 4 different bits of processing/CV to four different locations and choose when each routing is live) and I’ve also got an expander for one of my mixer modules that gives me 7 more hands on mutes, I find it makes a big difference because I like to play and record my system live.
- Sequential switches are super fun - signal goes in, and there are 2, 3, 4, etc locations it can end up, and where it ends up is voltage controlled. Nice to construct complicated rhythms or choose between different processing for a voice. Nice video on the topic here Eurorack Drumming Tutorial with Mutable Grids, Circadian Rhythms & Switched Multiples - YouTube
- Sources of randomness and sample & hold have many many uses - at the very basic, just inserting some continually evolving movement into a patch. Some modules, if you like what was randomly spit out, you can hit a control to lock in that sequence and make your randomness non-random. Add a quantiser that squeezes incoming CV down to a scale and you can do the whole generative melody thing.
- Modules to bring MIDI into your case and turn it into CV if you have good sources of MIDI messages; modules to turn CV in your case into MIDI if you want all that modulation goodness to hit your MIDI controllable hardware
Lots and lots and lots of options. Some of these things will have particular affinity with other kinds of modules, some will just be generally useful. Best to explore, watch videos, read up on them and take the plunge on things you think will be fun/play nice with other stuff in your case. Good luck!
Edit: One more that I find really valuable and forgot to mention
- Joystick controllers! You can use these to insert some humanity into your patches, they’ll typically send CV along the X and Y axis, so you plug the X and Y outputs to some things you’d like to modulate, and wiggle the joystick to get some nice, human-made related modulation going. Something like the Planar2 lets you record the joystick movements so you can use it either as a way of inserting some of yourself into a patch or as a way of recording an interesting envelope/modulation and looping it
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Pitching in with a utility here: Some kind of scope to see what the heck your cv and waveforms looks like 
This has been and is very helpful to me just to visualise and troubleshoot various patches. This particular one also serves as a tuner 
I have the Dave Jones Design O-Tool+ and I think it’s a sweet spot on hp and functionality.
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Thanks, you all gave me a lot of homework and It’s clear I need to take a step back and go easy.
I’ll start with a few basic modules and than go visit people I can bother for hours. 
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