Kheone
3637
I also have a listen 4 and like it just fine. I had a Rosie before and find the Listen more immediate.
2 Likes
The Knob.farm Hyrlo is a great little stereo mixer in only 4hp. You can chain them and an added hidden bonus is that you can connect its output behind the panel to the jacks of Intellijel cases (or a 1U output module) with a simple two-pin cable.
3 Likes
I had a listen four and it was a pretty great module for what it is. You can’t expect a full featured mixer, but you get four channels, a headphone out, and some panning. I think it’s meant to be more of a set it and forget it mixer to dial in your final mix. It does’t have mutes, which I missed, but if that isn’t a bit deal, it’s a powerful little mixer. In the same vein, the intellijel mixup is pretty great too. It’s really small, has two mono ins and one stereo in, with mutes, and then one unity gain stereo on. For a while, I used a listen four and the mixup, with the output of the listen four into the unity gain of the mixup, and basically had a submixer. I ended up swapping those two for something a bit more featured, but that was a really great setup for a while.
2 Likes
For stereo mixing I use a combination of a Doepfer a-138s and an Intellijel Mixup, with the a-138s running into the aux input of the Mixup, then the main outs of the Mixup go into a Knob Farm Ooots. The a-138s offers panning per channel and the Mixup adds one extra stereo channel to along with two mono channels, plus mutes per channel. So depending on how I run it it can be six mono channels and one stereo, four mono and two stereo, or two mono and three stereo. It’s a really flexible setup plus it’s modular, so if I wanted to use the a-138s for something else, like as a mini matrix mixer, I can do that. I usually just leave the three modules patched together though.
2 Likes
2197
3641
i had no idea! i have a hyrlo (+ ferry) in a small palette case, and it’s permanently turned upside down just to have its output closer to the 1u output module – guess that’s completely unnecessary. thanks for brining this up : )
3 Likes
I’ve got my Hyrlo and Ferry permanently wired together in back. It makes the Hyrlo a 4x stereo mixer with the ability to send and return two mono or one stereo signals out for external processing, in my case to and from an iPad.
6 Likes
I’ve always loved my Q-MIX. 6hp, 4 mono channels, each with level and pan knobs, plus a master level knob. Expandable with additional inputs (Q-MIXI) and outputs (Q-MIXO)
1 Like
2197
3644
ah yes, i also got my hyrlo and ferry wired together in the back, but i did not know the hyrlo could also be wired directly to the palette case output.
2 Likes
I have the CMS clone of the Colin 1047 filter - it’s THE BEST filter I have ever heard. It does something to the signal (beyond filtering it)…it makes it sound like 1972.
It’s a multimode - the HPF it insane, the LPF is terrifying, the botch is intergalacticallysexy.
2 Likes
You have so many answers already! Just throwing in that the Befaco STMix is a straightforward and affordable stereo mixer. It’s a reasonably shallow depth, normals a mono signal left into right, and has a 5th unity gain stereo in so you can chain them or otherwise just have a 5th input to the mix. There’s nothing exotic or unique about it 
just very functional and affordable.
In addition to the output jacks, it outputs audio out of pins on the back. I have these hooked up to the outputs of my IJ Performance case, which is nice, and I’ll be running them through an Exi[s]t (internal RIP DIY) once I figure out how to safely and cleanly drill holes in my case so I can mount it.
My only criticism is that it’s little cramped to be any kind of performance mixer. I do appreciate that they include different color knobs for each channel (white, 2 greys, black) so it’s a little easier to find the channel you want. You certainly can use it during performance but I would only do broad gestures with it.
5 Likes
Totally, very thankful everybody for all the answers!
CaneMan
3649
Oh my. The things I miss when I step away from this forum. My entire summer was devoted to a quadraphonic sound sculpture using the following setup.
If you’re going for budget quadraphonic, all you really need is u-he’s CVilization. It’s quadraphonic mode gives you 4 channels. I added Shakmat’s Aeolus Seeds and Aeolus Mixer for for added tweakability. From the mixer, it’s out through the Quad VCA, which I also use as a global mute. But at the end of the day, a CVilization and 4 attenuators on the inputs is about as budget a quadraphonic mixer as I can come up with.
5 Likes
Zop
3650
What are steps that should be taken to protect against hearing damage when playing with modular?
With the potential to generate frequencies outside the audible spectrum, can these frequencies at high volumes damage hearing? If so, how can we detect/prevent them?
Are there any particular dangers when using headphones? How can I use them safely?
I am concerned more with the effects of long-term exposure to common modular scenarios than the risk of sudden audio spikes, as this information has been harder to find.
3 Likes
Don’t have arbhar yet but wondering on opinions for this. Im interested in making live, somewhat randomized techno/jungle, and am wondering if this looks like a flexible setup or too hard to manage. Debating switching out the swn for something a bit more straightforward and possibly taking marbles out in favor of a more linear sequencer, but also curious about opinions on this.
Appreciate the feedback!
Another question, is there a way to send quantization straight from the midi of norns to a midi CV module? I’m assuming another quantizer is needed between but maybe I’ve missed something in the setup? Always get wacky sequences when I patch it. Thanks for any advice!
1 Like
laerm
3653
Any quick tips on a noise module that is good for the audio aspect? Like not as a CV source but to make different kinds of hissing and rumbling (i.e. tape noise, crackling, etc). Euporie makes one with a lot of neat functions but it’s kinda overkill.
1 Like
gigala
3654
The SSF Qantum Rainbow [MK2] has different flavours of noise.
2 Likes
… uhh… a volume knob of some sort at the end of your chain ?
i don’t get this question at all, are you just asking how do you not blow out your ears?
you monitor at a safe volume?
you could also review this concept : Equal-loudness contour - Wikipedia
and be reminded that hearing loss is cumulative in most cases, and very rarely occurs from isolated events.
2197
3656
i personally really love the noise from sinc iter. it’s digital and might not be what you’re after, but it can go from very soft rumbling to very harsh jittery, with modulation of pitch and morph/fold. underrated vco overall, and absolutely lovely for noise! see 2:15 in this video demo:
1 Like
Most speakers and headphones just barely go beyond human hearing (in fact, most consumer grade stuff doesn’t even really make it up to 20kHz). So even if your modular produces frequencies higher than the human hearing range, they will not be emitted by your listening device.
If you’re going through a computer interface (not just plugging your modular directly into speakers/headphones), then it has to go through a digital-analog converter, many of which run at 44.1kHz or 48kHz. Due to the Nyquist frequency effect, this means that they cannot record frequencies above 22kHz or 24kHz respectively.
And if you’re still worried, putting a low-pass filter at the end of your chain and dialing the cutoff to the maximum (hopefully around 20kHz) should work.
Other than the high-frequency content bit explained above, the only other real risk really is sudden volume spikes. A compressor/limiter at the end of your chain is one easy way to prevent that.
But to go to first principles: the loudest sound modular can produce is limited by the maximum peak-to-peak voltage the power supply can provide. In other words, the device is physically limited to some maximum volume, it’s not like it can suddenly emit some truly massive volume spike. So if you’re worried, and you don’t want to put a compressor/limiter at the end of your chain, then: keep your gain as high as you possibly can throughout your patch. This way even if some error causes your modular to actually emit the maximum possible volume signal, that’s not actually much louder than your intentional signal anyway.
7 Likes
