Spent the last month re-doing most of my rack. Sold tons of stuff I wasn’t touching and replaced with things I felt I’d use more.
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I guess you can create whatever sound with it!
Nice1
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This poor Rackbrute…I think I’ve taken it as far as it can possibly go. I need a case upgrade and looking at the above post from crevice has got me drooling.
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The maker of my case (needham) has been showing off a new case that’s supposed to be budget friendly and you assemble it yourself like an IKEA piece of furniture in 10 minutes. Which means it can ship broken down in a regular box.
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Are the more efficient for QD, that’s the way i do.
A little preference for Grids, just 3 voices, but with Branches on 2 QD trigs, you can play rythm that are very hand on for variations.
But Euclidean, is a really nice one, so much possibilities.
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These look amazing but all the different coloured modules would crack me up lol I’m a bit OCD hence why when I decided to go modular I chose Black.
So everything in my case must be black, crazy I know but all my life Iv’e had to match colours with stuff I’m buying. If all developers made Black or Silver versions of all their modules I’d be a happy but broke shopper by now 
Lovely modular you have there, love it 
@rob_lee Take a look at Acid Rain Constellation. Takes euclidean rhythms to a whole new level.
Each of the 8 channels can stack up to 8 euclidean rhythms and apply logic to them, plus a bunch of other craziness. Sounds complicated, but it’s super easy to just punch in random settings and getting usable results, but also get total control if you wan to dig in.
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I’ve had a bunch of modules back in their boxes for a while (chief among them the Morphagene) and my Octatrack has been usurped by Hapax and Assimil8or on its old sequencing n sampling duties inside my main set up. So I’ve got really into the idea of getting a 62HP palette case to put together a focused Morphagene-machine out of my odds and ends and pair it with the Octatrack in a corner away from my overwhelming monster setup.
This is where I got to so far: everything except the 1U modules and Pip Slope is stuff I already have lying around.
Thing is, I don’t really know what’s going on in the 1U world at all, so not sure if I’m unaware of some really cool things there. I’m going to rely on the Octatrack for FX, filters and audio VCA-ing (and maybe my Big Sky in a send loop), so not bothering with that stuff in the case.
- Pams: just ordered the Pro Workout, so this guy is free to go here
- Voltage Block: kinda overkill here, but surplus to requirements in main case because of FH-2 + Hapax. Will be useful, but taking up 1/3rd of a row with it is maybe a little nutty…
- Disting Ex: if I was buying fresh no way I’d put this in here - two screens in a small case is too much. But I’ve got it, it can do all kinds of useful stuff. Will probably have one channel on permanent sample & hold with the other one a wildcard
- Pip Slope: Not 100% on this, any better AD envelope generators in 6HP?
- FSR: add some performability
- MIDI 1U: add some control from Octatrack
- Dual VCA: for modulating CV
- Kracht: noise source for Morphagene modulatin’
- Guillotine: Octatrack distortion is a bit naff, though I could drop this if there are compelling alternatives.
- Stereo Line Out: interface with the case’s jacks and saves me from putting a stereo attenuator in the 3U row. Morphagene can take line level input so all good there.
Interested if people have any suggestions on what else I might do here. Big downside of this setup is that I’ve got 99% unipolar modulation, though I can attenuvert on a bunch of the Morphagene’s inputs. Pip Slope also feels a bit…boring? Anything better I can do there with the space? Esp given I’ve got a few free HP blanked out in both rows atm. Is there anything absolutely essential/mindblowing available in the 1U world that I’m not aware of? Given how much CV capability I have, CV mixer might be useful… 3xMIA could jump in here, but then I lose the space for an envelope…
Looks great just been having a listen… below is all the modules I have so far here… might be overkill with how many sound sources I have tho. I might replace some with modulation sources as I’m mostly in to Techno
Loving my QD with custom Erica knobs next to my other drum modules too
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It’s an interesting situation and one that I think many of us have found ourselves in. We are similar, as I use a FH-2 with 3 of its CV expanders along with hapax and assimil8or and friends. I am just playing devils advocate here, so please don’t take this as me persuading you in one direction vs the other. But, will use this small setup? I have done something similar in the past, same case even, and I never touched it.
Now, in my situation it was a few feet from my main case which meant it truly was on its own, I couldn’t realistically patch it with my main kit and because it was now separated my focus became even less on it since it was away from my “main” modules. On top of that, when I tallied how much the small setup cost compared to what I got out of it, I realized I was just trying to keep things around more out of nostalgia and guilt. So my suggestion would be to not spend too much money on this until you really feel it’s something you’ll need and use.
Everyone is different though, maybe you’ll use yours more in this case. Who knows, but modular takes up so much time to get anything going that now separating modules will require more focus.
On a side note - hapax and fh2 are so good that now I’m contemplating if I need to keep around vector sequencer and Metropolix. Very different sequencers, but I think one of them goes in the future.
Yeah I definitely see where you’re coming from. My thinking is that my main case is kind of an ‘everything machine’ depending how I patch it, and I feel like it would be productive to have a more focused alternative case that functions more like a purpose built instrument for when I’m in a less exploratory headspace or don’t want to mess with a patch I’ve got going. I’d also like to carve off a little no-pressure area in my studio that doesn’t interact with my other gear - stuff might get exchanged between the areas every so often but in general it would help compartmentalise various activities without getting distracted by device x being at my fingertips. Probably won’t be pulling the trigger for a while anyway (can’t get half the 1U modules I’d like anyway!) so I’m going to mull it over.
And yeah, the Hapax x FH-2 + expanders combo is truly incredible, it (and before that OT + FH-2) has really blown open the possibilities with my case. Having all my CV go through banks of VCAs and then being able to set up loads of different states of a patch by opening or closing them from Hapax automation lanes is superb. That, combined with Hapax’s per-track pattern model means I can explore so many more dimensions of a patch so much more easily now.
Thanks for the heads-up, I’ll keep an eye out for that.
Get the 2hp midi expander for Pam’s… that way you can sync the rack via midi as well…
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Building live techno (and not only) setup, got Tiptop 84hp “case” for beginning (plans 84hp 6u or 84hp 12u) and sq1 for cheap sequencer/clock/midi interface (in my opinion everyone needs sq1)
But oh boy… for example Xaoc Warna II module is just 6 hp but in big picture it is alot…
And Doepfer a-111-5 (aka module of dark energy) it can sound like simple east coast synth and it can be complex, am, fm… I love it’s character.
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That sounds awesome. Haven’t even explored that yet with the automation lanes. Would love to here more specifics on how you pull that off (patch notes, setup etc)
This is the first iteration of my MiniBrute 2S + RackBrute 6U draft. Overall, the purpose of this setup is to expand the oscillator options, modulation capabilities, and filter types of the MiniBrute 2S.
As modules are added and experience is gained, the present plan will surely change. Not sweating over the details too much at this time. That said, an ALM Busy Circuits Pamela’s PRO Workout was ordered this weekend to kick things off.
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Preoccupied with moving issues for a few days, just catching up. I see there is a new version of Pam’s. There are two things, either of which would convince me to get an updated version: a back button, and bipolar CV. Nope. Guess I saved myself $300.
(Modular cases, modules, cables, and screws all in the same room now. Just have to put it back together… but I also have to make the kitchen functional…)
The lack of bipolar CV baffled me, it’s the first thing I looked for and expected to see. Seems such an obvious upgrade. Then discovered it doesn’t accept the current expanders…think I’ll stick for now. Hopefully they’ll add bipolar in a FW update, assuming the hardware can support it.
It’s pretty simple: I use Doepfer A-130-8 (8 VCAs in 6HP) as a series of voltage controllable mute states. I take one FH-2 expander and set each output to receive a CC, and have an instrument definition on Hapax which has all of them as automation lanes. So then with a patch, I’ll route 8 things in the case through the A-130-8 on the way to their destination. Then set up a bunch of patterns on Hapax where the CC opening the VCA is in various states (fully closed, fully open, modulating the VCA open and closed). Then switching between those patterns gives me a bunch of different ‘states’. of the patch I can choose between. The most basic example is to route all the triggers going to Assimill8or channels through the VCAs so I can dynamically switch channels ‘on’ and ‘off’. Since I can also change up other stuff in the modular with other Hapax tracks going to the FH-2, and I can select patterns on each track independently of each other, suddenly I can morph a patch into all kinds of different directions. Then I can arrange all these states of the patch into an actual track and record it. I’ve found it a really productive workflow.
That’s a pretty ingenious way to use up that last 2HP actually. Maybe Pam should clock Octa instead of the other way around… then I don’t really need that unobtainium 1U Intellijel MIDI tile 
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Do people know if the old New Pam’s (so before the Pro) is by now stable when slaved to external midi clock? I know there’s a lot of messages online of Pam’s not being nice as slaved, but I don’t know if that is old news or still true?
And when it’s slaved via cv clock instead of midi?
(I might try the Pro Pam at some point, but my modular is never master clock, so if Pam’s are still tricky when not master, I’ll wait to see if the Pro Pam is better than the New Pam in that regard)