I’m going to Superbooth next year as a birthday present! Hopefully they are not having a fallow year (like Glastonbury).
Long press is indeed used for that, so my proposal it’s not an obvious fix, there would be needed to add an extra interaction like click and hold or so, I haven’t fleshed out a feature request.
But so far that’s the only grip I’ve found (att spacing). But it definitely packs a lot to be an alternative for the compact modulators category you’ve mentioned and probably the most performative of them all, thing in which I fixate a lot.
You are right there’s still no manual which is odd at this point.
The manual is linked now on the Befaco page for the module, and there is a long video by Mylar Melodies, and another by DivKid. The manual is written by Mylar in the persona of his YT videos (which I assume is his real personality), so it is much fun, but also tries to be sensitive, inclusive, and informative.
Has anyone seen a case like this?
3u or 3u + 1u and around 104hp powered with vesa mount and midi to CV (no extra modules required). Audio out is not a priority but a bonus.
4ms pods don’t have midi, intellijel and befaco require additional 1u modules for the I/O to work. The Nano Modules - CAIXA 104 would have been right on the money if it just had midi.
Pretty sure the Intellijel and Befaco cases require additional modules for MIDI-to-CV. I think they just do USB MIDI ↔ TRS MIDI. When you think about it, there’s a lot of potential configuring needed for MIDI-to-CV, plus a lot of TR jacks. (Though 99% of what I use it for is clocks.)
That’s an issue, thanks.
I found the nifty case from cre8audio which looks nice and has midi but no vesa mount. No dice.
But supposing it did have a VESA mount… look at the MIDI it has. Gate and CV (pitch) from MIDI channels 1 and 2, modwheel, and clock. Period. There is some flexibility on channels, and a few more specific configurations (biphonic, drum) but, for example, no velocity or aftertouch (if you’re not using a keyboard, those may not be as important). You get a lot more flexibility with a proper MIDI-to-CV solution, either in or out of case.
It’s possible to rig VESA mounts. It is more of a pain, for sure.
The grand plan is to supplement my DT2/TV with FX so my needs are simple. I have a Hydrasynth with CV outs next to it so I have manual access but I’d like to send something from the Elektrons.
Do you have the FX modules already? See discussion above… Eurorack is an expensive way to do FX.
I’m a lurker, traded tons of modules some years ago and sold off a bunch. The ones in the pic passed the crucible and have stayed. Fx are top right. There are others that don’t fit.
Okay, I won’t try to talk you out of that, then. After Later Audio has a 104hp case with VESA mount. They recommend their Ornate Criminal (Ornaments and Crime, but running Quadrants on a Teensy 4.1, so all sorts of bells and whistles) for MIDI duties, but it delivers so much more than that, it’s hard to argue. But the case is 7U, and you may not care for that, even though the price is pretty reasonable, considering.
I would not personally attempt to sequence modular FX from Elektron boxes despite having all the necessary bits and pieces. But that’s the beauty of modular, it allows for all sorts of individual flexibility.
I can only find an After Later 7u case but it looks nice. I do have O_c but didn’t consider it for midi. It eats hp and that’s why I was hoping to have an integrated midi solution but it’s not an actual problem as such. Here are bits in storage or those I’m considering selling. The Five12 sequencer is fantastic but now I have 2 Elektron boxes so it feels redundant. I should perhaps mention that I have not been successful at flashing the midi module in that pic but the build went well.
You have a MIDI to CV module! Get the ALA 7U case. You can leave the 1U row empty and put up blank panels as necessary. Unless you are one of those whose OCD compels them to fill every last bit of a case.
I know what you are saying about the Five12. Modular sequencing is way more of a pain than Elektron boxes. But MIDI into a modular case is like keyhole surgery. You can’t push through all the information you want. When I use MIDI to CV, it’s for a keyboard. I hooked the A4 up and sent CV from it once or twice, mostly as proof of concept. I have sent clock from DT and DN, via Pam’s and a special cable from ALM. There’s just too much conceptual distance between the two worlds for me.
I couldn’t agree more. The integration of sequencer and synth is Elektron’s strength and it is where the curse of the euro cables begins to show itself in full force. The use case is send FX for TV with clock and the rest is gravy. I can also add modulation modules.
You really have nearly all you need already, then. The big gap is something VESA-mountable to fit into your setup. Yes, 7U hanging in the air is more awkward, and you may want to consider a shelf above your existing modular (the alternative is rethinking the main desk, which is a bigger deal, but you might lift the monitor to allow for a vertical modular case behind the Hydrasynth).
I say “nearly” because, anticipating Overbridge for Tonverk eventually, you might want more than the two stereo outputs, to be able to process individual channels (a wider “send”, so to speak). This would mean something like an ES-9 to allow for more audio channels from TV into the modular.
Just curious: A keyboard but also with stuff like Modwheel and/or Vel patched so it actualy do something (filter fm, lfo speed for vibrato, or whatever)?
And if not sequenced by Midi (Elektron) to CV, you use sequencers like Usta f.e.? Or are you more like the guy who just use triggers of all sorts of origins to do sounds, and sample that or so?
I wonder, why on earth dont you use the cv/gate seq on the A4? Seems to be a perfect concept. This i try to emulate by a Midi-CV module and iam very interested in the Outbox8 cause i imagine this way its more implented in the Elektron device and one less corner around the corner.
A 7u case is too big for me, I want to squeeze it into a specific space. Shelves wouldn’t work this time.
Tonverk will probably get overbridge at some point but there is no way to know if the USB midi cases will be able to understand them. The euro send audio will head back into TV or straight into the audio interface, no breakout needed. I don’t see the appeal in the new breakout box but maybe I’m biased as I don’t need it.
When I patch velocity, it is for the typical use, namely amp volume. I might also patch it in parallel to filter cutoff, or some other parameter. I have some piano training, so this is what I gravitate towards. My keyboards don’t have really good aftertouch (yet), and I am not used to using modwheel, so that is mostly reserved for local use (e.g. to affect the patch on my Digitone Keys, which is also a really good MIDI controller, but there I don’t use the modwheel as much).
I do have Usta, in a case with a 6u x 90hp block of Frap Tools modules, but I mostly use it in very simple ways, almost like a Metropolix or Voltage Block but with more scope. I once programmed a full “song” on it, and that convinced me that I never want to do it again. (I don’t even want to do it on DN2, but that has so much capability I don’t have elsewhere, that it is inevitable that I will go back to its song mode for some things.)
In modular, I have a number of generative sources of various qualities, as well as a small keyboard (QuNexus, now Muse Kinetics Galaxy). Marbles (a clone), Clank Chaos, the more complex Stochastic Inspiration Generator and Strange-R, and the elaborations on “Turing Machines” and sequencers in the Quadrants firmware for Ornaments & Crime. The just-released Random8 is another in this vein. Here I am not composing full songs, but doing sound design and animating it in various ways, and pitch becomes another CV, albeit with a particular set of demands that, say, filter cutoff or FM index does not make.
Why do I not use the A4 for cv/gate? In part because I do not use it much in general. It was an early purchase, a mk1 from @your_lamp, which started our long and fruitful synth friendship. I have various other synths that overshadow it sonically, especially now that I have a substantial collection of modular. But it remains the best drum machine I have experienced, and that is what I primarily use it for. If I were programming songs, as opposed to free-form sonic environments, on the modular, I might use A4’s CV capabilities more.
What in particular do you imagine doing with the Outbox8?
Is there even a 3U x 104hp with VESA? You might need to look for an intermediate step, some sort of clamping system with a VESA mount that can hold a case without it.
My idea for when TV gets Overbridge was to be able to send several channels into the modular for parallel processing and then mix them there. Something like ES-9 is going to be needed for this. Latency is also going to start to be an issue, unless you are mixing modular output and Elektron output with an analog mixer, which currently you are not.
Hey hey ! Random8 anyone ?
This thing is immensly fun and usefull.

