It is certainly easy to let gaps develop between intention and practice, with gear as with a lot of other things. Also, with modular, the modules that have gradually been sidelined or that frustrate me the most were fairly early purchases. As my collection grew, I understood more about how to research things and how to assess their worth in a system. Main lesson is to go slow, get as much information as you can.
If you want to use your pedals, yes, some send/return capability will be handy. There are smaller modules that have a lot of jacks but not much flexibility, and larger ones that can do more for you (balanced outs, cue, etc.).
[Edit: I currently have Planar 2 in a rack like yours, where there is one main audio stereo pair, and so I am not using its audio mixing capability, but that also works for CV. I have used it as an audio mixer in a different case, and it is fun.]
Ok, just some ideas, recommendations and hard lessons I can share from my side. There are already some good recommendations here, but in the end: everybody is on their own journey, and thatâs the beauty of it.
This means: like many of us, youâll probably find that no matter how much you plan and how much you research, most things wonât work out right away. Youâll change things because you imagined them sounding different, or because of usability, or because of the results. I donât want to spoil the party, itâs just how it is. Itâs part of the journey, and for me it was always fun too.
So:
Try to buy used if possible, especially in the beginning. That way, if a module or even a whole concept doesnât work out for you, you donât lose much money.
You donât need the newest, hippest module. There are 18k+ modules on ModularGrid, and many of them were the newest, hippest module at some point! Most of them are still amazing. So you save money.
Have a concept! I see you already have a purpose for your system with the granular stuff. Thatâs very good!
Donât go cheap on power! I had so many problems with power supplies, it can be the biggest pain. If youâre serious about your journey, invest in a really good power solution to avoid bleeding, noise or even misbehaving modules. But even then itâs not guaranteed to always be clean when you mix module brands, especially digital and analogue ones. I know the Lubadh from Instruo is notorious for being noisy if it doesnât like its âhomeâ!
Beware of CV/audio ranges. Nope, there is no definitive standard. Some modules use 0-5V, some -5V to +5V, others 7V, 8V or 10V. Trigger lengths can be too short or too long (Step8âŚ), audio can be too loud, and so onâŚ
For a while I tried mixing MIDI and CV and also using the computer. It wasnât for me. With Ableton CV Tools, for example, the audio interface latency couldnât be fully compensated, so I always had an offset. Even with MIDI outside the computer, the conversion takes time. Then you also get stepped CV values and so on. From my point of view: stay in the modular world, CV/audio to CV/audio. Thatâs the fun! For me, mixing it always broke that world.
Which modules would I recommend? Not a specific module, but to have fun, avoid most of the challenges newcomers go through, and since you have a specific use case (granular) built around a really, really good module, the Arbhar, from a very nice company: I would build a first system with Instruo. Not the cheapest, but really quality stuff, and a complete ecosystem. Start with the Arbhar, modulation and tools. You can be sure the modules play nicely together. They have good long videos of complete systems in use, which can help you get ideas and figure out which modules to buy first to complement it. Then build on that. Youâll learn a ton, and you can still be open to introducing other brands later, but you will have a solid foundation of a system that works, so you skip a lot of challenges that can break your plans doing the first steps.
Thatâs what I would recommend from my experience and your plan.
Squarp have released a pretty neat MIDI-to-CV (+generative stuff) module: Core | Squarp instruments.
Honestly, this looks close to the ideal interface for me, I even wanted to create a similar one myself (didnât get much further than a working PCB prototype and a basic FW to set DC voltage on any output).
I wonder if Hapax is getting any extra features to configure it from the box itself? Would be awesome.