#1891

Yup, that was my concern, but I think I’ll risk it as there really isn’t anything comparable that is easily attainable as you mentioned.

#1892

The benefit of 2x optimix are that Make Noise is likely not going anywhere, will repair their modules quickly in my experience, and can be found cheaply and abundantly on the second hand market.

#1893

Optomix is a great module. Instead of two Optomixes, consider one Optomix and an Lxd.

1 Like
#1894

@kirklandish - if you live in the US that is, I’m not based there and every repair I’ve had to send to US has been nerve recking from the customs delay on arrival, to customs charges again when returned. Hence looking for a local technician who will be able to fix all modules would be key :smiley:

@mdoudoroff - Yes I did consider this but I think I’m going for the Sputnik as I’ve already got an Optomix and like the ability to switch between VCF/LPG/VCA with the Sputnik.

2 Likes
#1895

@theelectricyouth Thank you for pointing that out, a bit of an unfair assumption on my part

1 Like
#1896

MN have arrangements with folk who do repairs this side of the Atlantic. When I blew my MN busboard there was a chap in Sweden who did the repair/upgrade.

#1897

As an update to my questions I now have the Plaits, Clouds, Digitalis, and Zadar. Thinking of Pamela to trigger stuff, then if I lose the Links module I can get in some Pico Drums, allowing 909 style sequences alongside the drones.

And then the baby rack will be full, and I have a reason to build a bigger one.

#1898

I am happy with the Erica cables. They are a little stiff, but at least they’re straight and have enough room around the jacks.

#1899

Thanks for the help/feedback! :heart:

Good questions and observations! It is indeed for live use, so far only at home though, but I might maybe eventually maybe venture out into the world with it :wink:

I definitely watched all of mylar melodies’s videos about his proces/way of working. There is not that much in depth information available about building/designing a live eurorack setup. I especially like that he also shares the reasons behind certain decisions.

There are some modules directly pulled from his setup, but most of it comes from sort of having the same general approach of using sequences that are fully structured and under my control combined with some other stuff as well as trying to limit the amount of things one can/has to do.

Yes, you’re definitely right here. I do have another DVCA which I’ll probably add to the case.
To be honest so far I haven’t really felt the “you can never have enough VCA” thing that everyone always mentions. Maybe my patches are too simple for that? Haven’t really felt the need to change the amount a modulation is applied over time for example.

Envelopes is a bit more of a problem. I have to say I really like Maths’s envelopes, they just work very well for me. In theory if I move the drum modules I could fit in another Maths, but that seems like a bit much. I’ve been considering a Zadar but I don’t think it’s direct/hands-on enough.
Alternatively maybe 2x a Pip Slope: a lot smaller and still offers CV control of the attack and decay (not both at the same time though, but could be multed of course) or 1x Pip Slope and 1x Function. Do you have any suggestions/ideas for this?

Regarding your Ornament and Crime question: I’ve been mainly using it for Quantermain/2 Turing machines, but use some other modes as well from time to time (mainly CopierMaschine, Harrington 1200 and Piqued) . I recently flashed Hemisphere on it, still have to explore it a bit more to become comfortable with it. But the fact that one can run 2 apps at the same time makes it functionally a lot better, especially in a smaller case.
Do you have specific apps in mind that would work well?

Yeah, good point, they might not really be necessary. There’s only 1 buffered mult actually, it’s there mainly to split pitch. Might not even be necessary in practice, I’ll have to try.
The other mult can probably go and be replaces by some form of stacking cables or splitters and see if I like that.

I added a compressor for the sidechain since I’ve been having some issues with the kick and bass (and sometimes the “lead”) causing distortion/clipping and I haven’t been able to get rid of it with just changing volumes. So I figured it would probably be a good idea to create some space for the kick.

I guess I could use another (inverted) envelope + some way to combine the envelope of the bass and potentially the lead with the inverted envelope to control their VCAs but I figured a compressor is probably easier and less HP. And some compression might be nice? Not sure.

I live in Europe, looking at Schneidersladen for ordering and there’s not really a significant price difference between MSCL and Autodyne.
Assuming having a compressor with sidechain is useful: Would there, apart from price, be a reason to pick one over the other?

#1900

Mutable Instruments Stages might be good for this. You can get 3 AD envelopes from its six stages (or 6 decay, or 2 ASR, etc) in additional to LFOs and a bunch of other stuff. Ergonomically it’s very different from Maths but it performs many of the same functions and a few that Maths doesn’t.

1 Like
#1901

I’m running exactly this combination and am happy with the choice. However, a few caveats:

_Pip operates in a 5V range, Function in 8V — if you have modules that need i high modulation depth, this will lead to an inconsistent behaviour.
_Pip has a different retrigger behaviour than Function — Function has to complete the rise cycle before accepting retriggers, Pip retriggers at any time.
_Pip interprets CV controll of rise/fall in a different way than Function — Function’s pots will act as offset to the CV sent, Pip’s pots will act as attenuators (thus you’ll likely have to add an offset to CV you send into it).

So, if you need consistency to trigger multiple VCAs, maybe not the best choice.
That said, in my setup I really like the different implementation flavours they bring and use them in different ways (Pip as a more straight forward envelope generator/LFO and Function as, well, function generator with all it’s benefits like slew+hold etc).

1 Like
#1902

Definitely second this for envelopes. Much more hp efficient than maths:)

#1903

Stages is an interesting option, do you use it yourself? If so, how do you find it in practice?
I’m not sure I’ll get along all the well with the different behavior based on which socket has a jack plugged in.

I was considering the still to be released quadrax as env generator. Also 14hp and offers 4 (looping) A(S)D envs.

#1904

Very simple question from me - I have precisely 5hp left in my rack, and I need to fill it with a filter of some kind. Does anyone have a small-form eurorack filter that they love and can recommend? Bonus points if it’ll works as a sine wave VCO tracking v/oct and has an internal VCA.

Currently leaning towards the Bastl Cinammon, but not sure if there’s anything else out there I’ve missed.

#1905

I’m with you there. There are some cool uses for VCA’s (modulating modulation, dynamics) that are “nice to haves” - but it really depends on everything you have. That’s just to say, I’m not generally someone who says just to get them to get them. That said! You do need one per voice if your modules don’t have one built in, which your choices do not! If you end up adding something like Plaits or Rings though, you won’t need one.

re: Envelopes - I’ve not owned a Maths, but if you like how it works, you’re good. It’s obviously a capable module. It is, however, big. You do get those attenuverters though, so that is nice! I had a Zadar, and it is more hands on that you think. You’d want to cherry pick envelopes that have the shapes you want, but otherwise, it’s really flexible! It’s a tremendous value for the HP.

I’ve actually ordered a A-142-2 (combo EG/VCA) from Doepfer. I haven’t used it yet though. I originally wanted to use Erica Pico Mods, which is also a combo EG/VCA, but it can’t play a whole envelope without a gate. I can add I explicitly do not recommend Stages as an EG. I love that module, but I found enelopes extremely finicky to tune; I like pretty much everything else it can do except that. It is a very good set of utilities otherwise though!

Re: Hemisphere - I like the Eclidean mode. I like ShiftGate. But it can do so much! It will really depend on the rest of what you’re wanting to do.

re:MSCL - Yeah, I’m going the envelope follower route myself, but you can certainly use a compressor for sidechaining. Again, Autodyne does the same thing, just in mono and for less money list price. I don’t know if you need to compress your bass though. If anything, mix down your drums and then compress that? This is a scenarior when more VCA’s starts to show it’s benefit! If you’re seeing comperable prices, then go with MSCL (list looks to be $179 vs $249 on MG) if you want a compressor. Before you commit, use Maths and one of your VCA’s and see if you like the result, you can get very similar results if you haven’t tried it.

So if you’re looking to go in the direction of live improvization, I think you might hit a wall faster than you expect? You have no real way to make patch changes on the fly without manual repatching. I’ve found trigger generation to be the biggest element in the “Mylar” school of live rig. Logic modules are nice, but they’re very much dependent on how nicely the modules that produce the triggers sync up? That’s been trickier than not in my experience. It seems like you need to decide how you want to manage your triggers beyond logic. You probably need some kind of switching. I see you have the mutes for Circles in your plan, so that’s useful.

Don’t sweat ergonomics too much untill you have things further along. You’re probably going to make a lot of big changes before you actually start to settle on where you want things to go.

I’m not sure EC and Ansible is enough to build a full system off of, but you’ll start to figure that out as you jam with it. These problems largely solve themselves as you use your system! :+1:

1 Like
#1906

You could go for two modules: one from 2hp and one Erica Pico. Both product ranges offer filters, so you could look for one that appeals and pick something handy or fun from the other product line.

#1907

So, I already have a Pico Voice and while it’s fantastically powerful I’ve never really clicked with it. I’ve had similar experiences with pretty much every other low hp / high functionality module I’ve owned, bar the Disting - they always seem great in theory, but in practice I find using them a bit fiddly. Never bought any 2hp stuff but am relatively confident I’d have the same issues there.

1 Like
#1908

Cinnamon is pretty near the only 5hp filter on the market. If you go 4hp, you have a few more options. SSF MMF, Bubblesound DioD, and Electrosmith 2144 LPF are the ones that jump out at me.

#1909

Yeah, I generally use it for a couple LFOs, an envelope or two, and maybe a sample and hold. But it depends on the patch.

It can be confusing starting out with it, but if you work from right to left when patching up the stages, it generally works out without you having to think too much.

1 Like
#1910

Thanks for the information/sharing your experiences with it!
I guess I should just try a Pip Slope and compare it with Maths to determine if I like it. The fact that they’re not entirely the same can both the nice and annoying I expect :slight_smile:

Plaits is actually a module I’m considering. Mainly for stuff like the chords mode. I’d like to try it somewhere first, in general I don’t really like “polymorphic” modules but maybe it’s intuitive enough to not be an issue in this case.
Do you have any experience with it?

Thanks for the feedback on stages for envelopes, I already had a similar feeling :slight_smile:

Also I’d be interested to hear how you get along with the A-142-2! It’s even got a ducking input!

I still have to work through all the apps, will have a good look at the shiftgate (euclidean should be covered by the rest of my setup :wink: )

:+1: I’ll give an inverted Maths envelope a try, haven’t done so so far. Thanks for the reminder :slight_smile:

With “how nicely the modules that produce the triggers sync up” do you mean clocking wise or if it’s possible to have changes like muting all triggers for a certain track sync up?

To be honest I wanted to try how well the setup as I posted it will work before adding dedicated muting/switching modules. The euclidean circles expander gives easy access to track mutes and it’s also pretty easy to mutes tracks on Ansible/Kria. Doing both both at the same time might be a challenge. That’s the part I’ll just have to figure out by trying :slight_smile: