I’m about to take the red pill and start a Eurorack modular setup, god help me.
The decision has been made, I’m going to start off with a small 3u system and order as much as I can tomorrow so that I can still eat for the next week- which puts me at about a $1600 budget tops including shipping. Eventually I will expand to 6u and get another set of z-ears and put it in a $15 Ikea converted 6u rack space for a budget case.
Still debating what to order and how to get in budget, I’m just under $1800 now, $1500 would be ideal. Selling a pair of 1200s last night was what I needed.
All modules are multifunctional and it’s pretty much frequency modulation and routing madness in a small package. Forget a traditional setup I’m going for more wild.
The expert sleepers module is an alternative to midi/cv and is supposedly much tighter, allows using the expert sleepers software for additional modulation in your DAW but mostly looking at it for better timing through digital connection (they make a bigger optical version instead of spdif but I don’t have a card with optical out) since I don’t really want to use the software at first but then it is tied to my daw.
I may just get a cheaper midi/cv interface so I can get in budget just not sure yet. Also looking for used modules but stuff on the muffwiggler forum flies. The good stuff gets snatched up in hours it’s crazy.
I’m nuts for considering this, but it’s what I’ve wanted for a long time and I can’t wait to see what this does for my workflow and experimentation.
Also those fancy stackable patch cables are expensive, $100+ on cables.
one of the osc doing some FM
The PEG
I guess I’ll keep this thread updated on my adventures.
It’s a Eurorack modular setup, more like a “starter” kit to get you heading in the right direction. When I decide to take the plunge (sooner than later hopefully) this is most likely where I’ll be starting.
Yeah- I’m leaning more towards building a mismatched modular setup since I want to do some weird stuff and have some unique modules up front which is why I’m leaning towards the PEG. The oscillators also act as LFOs, the filter is also a gate, the VCA also has a built in 2 channel mixer- the z3000 does crazy waveshaping and FM, and the PEG does a whole lot of weird stuff.
Of course I want a Makenoise Maths but they are sold out everywhere
I’m thinking about getting the pittburgh MIDI/CV interface since it is $140 and I don’t really want to use silentway but I hear most midi/cv interfaces have bad timing.
edit: actually looks like the pittburgh midi is being replaced and I hear it is buggy
^man I would love to. octatrack or machinedrum seems cool- I really want a linear 16 step sequencer on a drum machine but not for a while.
What do you know, I’m already learning there are probably more modules I will want relatively sooner.
I haven’t decided whether I want to cram as much stuff as efficiently as possible into 3u and work within the confines of that happy ending kit tabletop or expand to another rack already. I figure it may be healthy to work with only 3u in those confines but a lot of the fun is filling up space.
I am going to need a more standard ADSR- then probably a dedicated more suitable LFO (the dixie is an lfo/VCO) and some attenuators. This would fill it perfectly plus add a buffered multi.
Honestly vintage gear doesn’t really interest me too much- I’ll probably get a x0xb0x at some point. If you’re unfamiliar the x0xb0x is an identical clone of the 303 with some improvements and literally uses identical circuit paths and transistors, but has improvements like USB and MIDI, better case, etc. and can be picked up for cheap. It sounds as close to a 303 as two different 303s do from each other. There is someone selling one for $325 shipped right now.
Maybe at some point in the distant future- I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to get first but looks pretty nice. I would have to have a lot of studio gear to make something like that useful or at least 12u of eurorack with a bunch of drum modules to hook up to it (tiptop audio is making the individual 808 modules).
Tiptiop happy ending kit tabletop 3u rack and power supply system
Doepfer A-190-1 MIDI/CV io
2x bubblesound VCOb triangle core oscillators
Doepfer A-140 ADSR
4ms Pingable Envelope Generator
Maleko Borg Filter
Pittsburgh Modular Dual Index (dual amplifier with built in mixer)
12x stackable cables
10x regular cables
I think the modular planner only has the old tiptiop zeus PSU panel that is 6hp and the new ones I will get are 4hp. Which leaves me 8hp of space in this rack. Only thing I think I will want pretty quickly is a little mixer or attenuator for cv and audio signals, then a better dedicated LFO is on the list since not sure how using one of the VCObs will work so I will be expanding soon.
That looks fun. the cyclebox looks cool I just think I would want analog oscillators until I had a bigger system before I add some VA modules. The PEG looks awesome too I just realized at the last minute it would probably be smart to have a regular ADSR too since the PEG is pretty much just AD- you can get sustain out of it but it is kind of a workaround.
would you just sequence from the ustep or would you get a MIDI/CV interface too?
I pretty much just need an attenuator and mixer module now and then it’s time to expand to another 3u- I might go to ikea to get a rast table to build a rack today.
I have a Kenton Pro2000 as I have a couple of old analogs (TR-606 sold, TR-808 cold dead hands, TR909 not working 100% sell, and SH101 swapped for an old DJ mixer score!).
I’m going to use the Kenton and numerology to start, i’m actually not 100% on the Ustep because I probably could just use the Numerology at the start.
hopefully there’s no gaping holes in the first 3U, i’ll check with the knowledgable Muffwigglers before final order.
Cyclebox will give a lot more for buck, digital doesn’t scare me that much as that’s what i pretty much use except for my SH-101
