Your modulars

new show idea, wife / husband swap but instead its for modular

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I think Iā€™d watch it but wouldnā€™t want to participate. Would be some great fun and could maddening swapping either direction from a monster setup to a minimal one. On brand to complete DIY.

Sounds entertaining!

Iā€™d put my editing hat back on if needed to make this happen

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More mixing module choices, new after later audio

Nice prices too. I think Iā€™m still holding out for boredbrainā€™s optx v2 to record each channel, but ALAā€™s 2 channel USB module might a perfect Jamuary option.

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If I were going to go this route, it would be with Frap Tools CGM series. Bound to be more expensive, though.

Can you recommend some podcasts on modular synthesis? Iā€™m working a lot these days and I think Iā€™ve finished what I started (esoteric modulation, source of uncertainty, podular modcast, modular podcast and why we bleep) I would be more interested in interviews with playing techniques or focus on specific modules but everything goes well, also podcasts about music in general

Divkid videos contain some nice patching tips

https://www.youtube.com/@mylarmelodies

https://www.youtube.com/@LearningModular

thereā€™s plenty more but loved all 3, HOWA is def more broadly based but jamie lidell has a killer euro setup

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Sysex Dumpster is great.

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SSF vortices (Standard or hifi, depends on ones taste) is imo the MVP of Euro Mixers.
Sounds great, has plenty of Mono and stereo ins, Group Outputsā€¦

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Am I weird in wanting faders and some basic EQ when mixing audio sources?

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I was waiting for this.

I think they would honestly sell of a bunch of those as non-euro, standalone mixers. People always seem to want all stereo channels as well as full stereo send and returns.

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Im still tempted by that noise engineering mixer, Xer mixaā€¦ havenā€™t heard much from actual users of it but it seems super powerful and controllable by midi or the CV expander. I might have to pull the trigger on it and find out.

I love that the bartender has 2 stereo sends and 2 stereo returns. I had the ALM Mega Tang with one send and return but always wanted more. Once I add another 3U 104 to my current 3U 104, I will jump on this. $360, not bad.

I just recently dedicated a bunch of hp to the Boredbrain mixer with expander and Monitr.
Very pleased with my decision. Iā€™m using it for all mixing, both eurorack and line level instruments.

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You wonā€™t be disappointed itā€™s such a great mixer module. Canā€™t wait for the DB25 expander too

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I own the Xer Mixa with its expander. Before, I relied on the OG Vortices for a while, and before that, I used smaller modules like Buddy, Mixup, and a few others to get audio from my rack.

Hereā€™s my take: Overall, Iā€™m really pleased with the Xer Mixa. Despite its small size, it offers a lot. In just 32hp, you get 10 stereo inputs and 3 stereo outputs. Iā€™m quite particular about noise in my rack, and the Xer Mixa is silent. It includes a built-in compressor, which can enhance the final output, although you only control the amount, and it doesnā€™t add any distinctive character.

Surprisingly, considering itā€™s a Noise Engineering module, the mixer lacks distinctive character overall. Levels only reach unity, so you canā€™t push the audio within the mixer (although it handles hot signals well). Thereā€™s no EQ, saturation, or characteristic ā€œNoise Engineeringā€ vibe. My attempts at feedback patching have been underwhelming compared to what I experienced with Vortices. Instead, it is very clean sounding so if you want to push things you need to do that outside of the mixer.

The interface can be a bit awkward at times, but itā€™s not a dealbreaker and is easy to learn. Most functions beyond volume and muting are just a button press away. There are some cool features made possible by the screen and UI, like adjusting multiple channel parameters simultaneously. You can save configurations as scenes, which can be recalled manually or via Midi. It can be set up for stereo/quad or hex speaker configurations, which is pretty wild.

The killer feature though is full CV control. With the 4hp expander, you can route and stack up to 8 CV signals to control every parameter of every channel. For example, a single LFO could manipulate the volume, pan, and sends of different channels simultaneously and with different values and offsets. You can achieve complex movements that would be challenging to do with any other mixer, even with a bunch of mults, offsets, attenuverters, and VCAs.

If you have a comprehensive Midi setup, you can control it similarly via Midi. Mmmmmm parameter locking :sunglasses: It also sends out Midi.

Overall, itā€™s incredibly powerful. Put it in a 4MS Pod, and you have a solid desktop mixer too.

Highly recommended.

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Thanks for the write up, yeah my recent cirklon acquisition rekindled my interest in itā€¦ seems like a lot can can be done with it.

i use one of these over dsub from my wmd performance mixer for final mixing, through the WMD dsub expander

the eurorack offerings are simply too fiddly for my liking size wise, i havent tried the NE or bored brain
if you want to make big quick moves, i think the euro format is just cursed by being far too cramped

and yea, it would cost quite a lot to outfit 4 stereo filters, a master filter, filter on FX return, and overdrive per channel in euro land. As expensive as model 1.4 is its probably still cheaper than doing all that

*some small solutions or work arounds:
Invest in something like the ACL faders, intellijel tetra, or anything with a wide spacious simple fader layout as a cv controller for your VCAs. Planar can work too. Iā€™m also fairly certain thereā€™s several stripped down big knob vca modules that can do the same thing. This might actually suit your needs and be more ergonomic than buying a standalone mixer module. So some attenuators + a vca bank or a bunch of simple VCAs with a big layout might work better

itā€™s also more in the spirit of modular, although you will have to be smart about placement when you break everything up into individual pieces which i think is why itā€™s just easier to go the route of buying one giant mixer module with all the vcaā€™s/pans/sends all in one pre-designed panel layout

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