Your modulars (Part 1)

I tried making a proper groove box out of my rack and getting a digitakt 2 was the most liberating thing ever since drums in eurorack has so many drawbacks. The groove box worked but it was incredibly space inefficient, confusing and limiting. Go for it if you think it will be fun but I’d prioritize other things in the rack.

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Is there a lot of menu diving? I would like to be able to quickly access tune, decay pitch and volume is the mixer in it or I would need to get a module for it?

I also checked endorphin.es queen of pentacles which sounds really good to me but not many parameters to play with… :slightly_smiling_face:

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I agree here. A Syntakt or DT2 next to a 6U is such an added value instead of trying to fit it all into a 6U modular rack.

Just alone the amount of gate, pitch and velocity cables you’d need for a handful of drum modules is a hassle and asks for additional midi>cv expanders.

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How much space do you have left?
Do you plan to sequence the drums externally?

Modular drums can easily occupy an entire case :expressionless:

Also try to answer the question for yourself, what you expect from your modular drums:

  • Unique composition of individual drum voices that do not exist in any other groove box? (Of course, you can re-built a 909 for a lot of money)
  • One knob per function tweakability (LXR sounds great, but you have a lot of menu diving - and not optimal for performing live).
  • Do you want to use samples as well?

If your space is limited, the Endorphines Queen of Pentacles could be interesting :slightly_smiling_face:

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LXR-02 is available standalone. What would QoP offer over the TR-6S? There’s not a lot of modulation in the pictured case, and not much room for more after QoP is added.

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One module that really helped minimize the cable mess and mind clutter was VPME’s QD Quad Drum which takes a gate and trig per channel and can be either drums or wavetable voices. Nice one, I kept it after trading most of the drum modules,

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QD is one of the two percussion-oriented modules I have, the other being Intellijel Plonk, which I got in a trade. I keep forgetting things about its UI, but it isn’t cramped and is nicely playable. In addition to synthesized drums and wavetables, it can play samples (pretty good factory content) and has some digital VCO models (Mutable code) as well.

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If I had to go only modular in limited space I would go for something like that ja, or Bitbox; and add only a few more full specced drum modules

Never tried that one though, might at some point :))

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QD is great for getting stuff done but it is definitely a voice oriented module. It’s not the same as patching up your own snare using 85% of the rack.

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I would dissent slightly and say that while modular drums are hard, one modular drum can really help a rack. A single module like a BIA could play really well with the Black Sequencer and Grids.

The truth is that most drums don’t need much modulation most of the time, but one modular drum is really fun to play and modulate, and helps break you out of standard rhythms.

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Fully agree:)

I have a 6U rack with a Syntakt for drums. But I also have an Ultra-Perc in my rack and since recently a Battering Ram and an Archers Rig for specialty drums. And then always an Elektron for bread and butter drum stuff.

PS been a while that I shared my rack, latest iteration:

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Maybe it sounds one sided but I agree and figured that if one drum is good, four in a module would be better. After getting the DT2 I now would rather have 1 drum than none in the rack, it is nice to make use of all the funky signals produced in a modular system. I expected too much of my system at first which was frustrating and was relieved when the DT2 took over rhythm duties.

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I also love using fx sends. So if basic drum duties are all coming in on the same mixer channel (say from a DT2 or ST), it’s nice to have one or two more drum voices on their own mixer channels, to individually eq and use sends to fx.

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Really nice choices of modules!

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Ok - I think, I am done with my midlife modular project :laughing:
Upper case for video synthesis.

Lower two cases for synth voices and drums.

I am excited to test the digital invaders:

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Thanks! I’m really really liking it. My case has been slowly evolving since like three or four years, so some of the modules are since me with the beginning; and every iteration feels like a nice finetune instead of uprooting everything.

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Glad to see some discussions on drums in modular, I’m approaching a decision point on that myself too.

Have 2 drums in rack so far, and can already see how much extra I’d need to really get all I want out of it (e.g. adding something for clap/hat sounds, more filters, FX processing, etc.).

I’ve got a Digitone which I’ll probably experiment with for drums (I guess midi to CV would be needed to sync it up first), though it sounds like DT/ST are more suited for that duty.

I’d love to see more drum bus oriented modules that act a bit like a channel strip with compression and distortion. Any good ideas?

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Cosmotronic Aphelion and Messor. Love those Modules

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I have both and really like them too!

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