Your modulars

Here’s some Clouds with Elements and more…

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Just my 2 cents:

The voltage-controllable envelope generator is one of the most fun and powerful things you can use for sound and “event” design in modular synthesis. You really owe it to yourself to get at least one if you’re going to dip into Eurorack. My recommendation is the SSF/WMD Mini-Slew, which is like “half a Maths” plus much more (integrated bipolar VCA, VC over linearity of the slope, time compensation across log/lin/exp, and a panel that’s much more in the Doepfer tradition of design than the Bad Brains t-shirt tradition of design).

I’d also recommend the WMD Triple Bipolar VCA for ring mod, VCA, attenuversion, offsetting, and crossfading (if interested, write to WMD asking to buy one modded to crossfade between its two input channels) functions. Extremely useful and versatile module for its size.

You also don’t need to buy a dedicated multiple unless you need to send 1V/oct pitch CV to multiple sources (in which case you need a buffered multiple). TipTop Stackcables, Intellijel Hubs, and Black Market Modular Monomults function as passive multiples without taking up rack space, and if you’re limiting yourself to a minicase, you will very quickly regret not being space-frugal.

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I second the mini slew recommendation. A very neat take on the voltage controlled integrator concept.

Would love to be able to demo some WMD triple bipolar VCA, as I don’t really get my head around it just by reading about it.

The illustrated manual supplement for the PDO goes into some standalone patch ideas for TBVCA: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?0msl2ltc6rj94ul

And maybe this will help, or maybe not:

  • (A) If you patch a +10V signal into “+ IN”: OUT will be +10V when BIAS is fully clockwise, 0V when BIAS is at exactly 12 o’clock, and -10V when BIAS is fully counter-clockwise.
    • If you then patch something into the CV input, it will “move the BIAS knob for you” and you can attenuvert the CV input signal with the “CV” knob. This is the standard bipolar VCA / DC-coupled ring mod patch you can do with each of its 3 channels.
  • (B) if you just patch a signal directly into the CV input, you can attenuvert it with the CV knob and also positively or negatively offset it with the BIAS knob – using just one channel (whereas on Maths you would need to use Channels 2 & 3 & the SUM bus to do simultaneous attenuversion and offsetting of a signal).
  • © If you patch a +3V signal into “- IN” and a +8V signal into “+ IN” on an un-modded TBVCA (i.e., has the factory default design): OUT will be +8V when BIAS is fully clockwise, 0V when BIAS is at exactly 12 o’clock, and +3V when BIAS is fully counter-clockwise. The CV input then “sweeps the BIAS knob for you” from +3V to 0V to 8V.
    • (Likewise, if you patch a -7V signal into “- IN” and a +8V signal into “+ IN” on an un-modded TBVCA, OUT will be +8V when BIAS is fully clockwise, 0V when BIAS is at exactly 12 o’clock, and -7V when BIAS is fully counter-clockwise.)
    • But if you get a TBVCA modded so that BIAS and the CV input allow you to crossfade between “- IN” and “+ IN”, OUT will not necessarily be 0V when the CV input and BIAS knob sum to 0 – it will be the crossfaded midpoint between the two signals. So, with such a TBVCA you have 3 channels of VC crossfading + an attenuverter on the CV input, and the other patch examples above still work as usual.

The ER101 is pretty cool, though to be honest I’ve never made any music with it yet! It’s quite complex and without using it on a day to day basis it’s easy to forget how everything works so it involves a lot of time sitting with the manual. Definitely can get some very powerful sequencing going, even just for modulation etc.

I don’t have a ton of recordings of the Rainmaker (which I actually helped design…), but I did use it extensively in one live performance I played back in April: https://soundcloud.com/syntheticreality/modularsystm-april-28-rg-synthetic-reality?in=syntheticreality/sets/modular-systm-a-loving-knob-story-april-28-rg

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okay I start with clouds, simple because this will adds most new cool features to my setup. But I´m wondering how to connect clouds to my soundcard, because it has modular level out only. So do I have to connect it to a mixer or attanuator bevor runing in to a soundcard? What do you use for connection from your modular to soundcard or mixing desk?

If you’re feeding Clouds with line-level signals (which you can), you won’t need to attenuate it before it goes into your soundcard – you can just run it directly in via 1/8"-to-1/4" cables (for example, if your soundcard has 1/4" I/O). If you’re feeding Clouds with modular-level signals (e.g., from an oscillator in your system), you’ll want to attenuate the output from Clouds before it goes into your soundcard to avoid unwanted clipping. You don’t really need a fancy “output module” for this - you can just use an outboard mixer (any powered mixer that isn’t built from garbage can easily handle and attenuate modular-level signals), or you can use any sort of active attenuating module or passive attenuator (like the RYO Airtenuators or the Koma attenuator cables).

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Well, it was fun for a few weeks, but ultimately my workflow just requires patch memory too much, so I’ve got to let it go.
Long live the :3lektron: workflow, eh?

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In 2014 I bought my first small Doepfer case pre-installed but it went wrong when I noticed there are more then a hundred other modules to be explored from this German modular company.
So, the big collecting, combining has begun… one VCO becomes eight… one filter? No, all of them… and the clocking? Dividers, multipliers, triggers,sequencers…
So much fun.

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Kinda like this: https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/344674

…and a video of the making of the case.

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Awesome Carl.
See some Erica modules in there.
How do you like the Wavetable VCO?
Think that may be my next euro module.
Sounds really good in demos

I think it sounds really good. And also the tactile feeling of interacting with the module is great. Really do like Erica Synth’s work.

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Hello. I hope you don’t mind I write my question in this thread. I badly want to have a 3U rack. Still scratching my head and bugging people in various threads. Sorry… :worried:
Just assuming I want these three modules the most… What modules do you think could fill the empty space, so that these three could work together with the A4 in a useful way? I know the Metropolis would take a lot of space and isn’t necessary, but it looks so fun.
Appreciate any help.

How would you compare this to A4 in terms of sound design aspect? Why did you get that in the first place?

At first I’d say that get at least two row case. You’d need quite many basic modules to get the most out of eurorack.

If you really want to have just this setup, I’d say that you’ll need at least one multiple to get A4 modulations around. Small mixer module(s) to mix the signals, if you don’t have other means to mix it. Mutable Peaks could be cool for such small set, it is pretty slim and multiuse module for various modulation duties.

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Umm mixed metropolis to atlantis… I’d say that metropolis is definitely an overkill on such small setup. Get an Make Noise 0-coast or Moog Mother 32 for same amount and you’d get superb fun starter set which is modular.

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I prefer the A4.
The Atlantis has a crazy wild filter. But at the end of the day, crazy and wild doesn’t turn into the music I want to make.

I was really fixated on making use of the CV track, but I am over that now. It was a bit of an impulse buy. I’m glad I got out before things went any deeper, though. :quirky:

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Thanks for your comments. Thought a lot about the mother as well as the 0-coast. I’d like both, as well as the atlantis. They look all great :wink: It’s just, Rings impresses me, I never heard that kind of sounds out of a synthesizer. They sound like samples of acoustic instruments, but in a very special unique way. The metropolis is overkill I know, but I’m pretty sure this kind of sequencer would give me a lot of inspiration. I use similar sequencers all the time in reaktor or max for live.
It’s crazy difficult :slight_smile: I have the fear 3U is rather impossible for what I’d like to have.

Do you have a link to those sounds?

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Yes, many links. I post some of my favourites.




And you should fly through this thread. There are awesome demos as well. https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=151238

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