monochrome's forum posts 46

You made me laugh. I looked into it as a possible source for some neat samples myself. :-D

What I like to do is to record an arp/riff/notes into a looper and effect that with echo/delay/reverb then loop that in another looper and mangle with the pitch. Then I push it through more delay/reverb and record that into a sampler where I further manipulate the pitch of source material. Some overdubs and more echo/delay/flanger/chorus/phaser/pitch shifter on top and you end up with endless soundscapes and caves of echo. How do you create complex soundscapes?

It’s the XL.

Totally. I am a huge fan of analog filters in eurorack as you can get a lot of different flavors... recently started getting duplicates so I can run a lot of it in stereo. Quite great to sculpt the sound a little bit more or when you have a "character" filter - great to add some more vibe to og vintage sounds. Works especially great for drums and vintage drum machines.

Hahaha. You know what I am talking about then. :-)) - I kind of enjoy sending it through a lot of modulation/reverb/delay fx... currently I have about 32 delays both analog and digital in the signal chain. If done right it is quite useful without ending with an output that is overkilled.

Hey mate. Sliding in to put out some info. Enjoying a cold one after a long day of work. Crazy 4 AM - 11 PM today. Listening to some cool Juno-60 arps through my DT-880 headphones. Quite my daily routine for some time now... when I need to recharge some cosmic energy through my ears into my system. Anyway. Let's delve right into it.

A little disclaimer - everything I write here comes from my subjective tastes in music and my alignment to certain types of sounds. Everyone has different tastes and that is great.

I started Eurorack Modular about 2 years ago I assume... I was quite against it since coming from a vintage/software background. I run a hybrid setup these days to combine the best from both worlds - ie - digital for the ease of recording/editing/mixing + quality reverb/delay FX... I quite like the Valhalla DSP stuff. I am one of the early supporters of Sean. His stuff is absolutely mind blowing. Probably my go-to reverb/delay in the box unless I am using Lexicon or Eventide etc... in outboard form. I like running my stuff through reel to reel or tape machines to give it a little bit more vibe but that's me.

My current setup is fairly straight forward. I am running my vintage external synths/drum machines/acoustic instruments with a pick-up and line out through a combination of outboard rack FX, guitar pedals which I like into a modular eurorack environment through a module that converts these signals to suitable levels that can be run through the "very hot" and "strong" modular signal chain. Then it goes through all kinds of things, you name it - delays, reverbs, distortion, VCA's, chorus, modulation fx, etc., etc. into output module that converts eurorack signal to XLR which then hits a small, compact external stereo mix which is then being sent into a mix bus chain - analog EQ's, compressors, enhancers... hard to name it all really. Anyway, I have found that having an external analog compressor to tame the peaks a little bit and do some footwork before it hits your converters (A/D) really helps to smooth out the output from modular and make it more rounded and balanced.

One thing to take into account is that this will be quite an expensive journey and I am not going to advocate for certain brands and manufacturers. If you want to know more about Behringer's stuff in this regard head to muff wiggler and check out the threads for yourself so you have a better understanding of what you are buying into. I personally like some of their offerings. The eurorack case they make is serving me well so far and it is quite compact. For studio use pretty great. Pricepoint was neat. If you want some other case then there are many other options with good PSU solutions that offer a lot of protection, filters, juice to keep you going until you fill the whole case out.

When it comes to ambient music. That is what I do mainly these days because I quite enjoy it... including drones and more. You will need a lot of VCA, utility, analog logic modules which are usually quite overlooked and which can help you maximize what you already have or will have inside your system. There are also a lot of useful accessories that will help you make more out of what you have. So for instance I have this really organic 8x analog LFO module x 4 in my systems which I can use through a simple splitter with some attenuation and multiply 1 of these lfos by 5 for instance. Send it wherever I want in the signal path. Quite handy for control or to make patches more evolving and always fresh as the time flies by your very eyes.

I have some oscillators and sound generation modules as well but mostly I have redesigned my whole eurorack experience into a "stereo fx box" with a lot of modulation options down the line.

At the end of this "post", I will enclose my current racks I am using. Not all but you can get the idea, check what I am using, maybe you will like some of it but I advise you to make your own research into the sound you want so you can achieve it! Got too many modules now so I will be buying another case to fit it all in. Buying constantly. Second hand, from vendors or direct but it can get expensive in time. I do not regret a single purchase though. Better than investing in crack! But yeah this is "euro crack". :-D

I will be writing a long article for my client in the upcoming days about the choice of a good eurorack case/PSU option for starters soon so you can hit me up and once it is up on their website you can check it out for some good, useful info. It will be in detail containing quite useful information that will help many in their journey. Moreover coming from experience and all the issues you can run into. Great to invest a little bit more and get quality!

It is defo cheaper to get an external hw synth to produce the sounds because polyphony and voices can get very expensive if you want to do proper polyphony, not just paraphony or pseudo polyphony. The implementation of all stated has its own benefits, sound, and vibe though. I use all of the methods when I am looking for a particular vibe.

And yes. You will need a lot of VCA modules to keep it all well fed and going!

Racks -

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1211349

https://www.modulargrid.net/p/racks/view/814624

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1081896

https://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/1251693

Not sure if these links will work but they should. There are some duplicates. No time to properly arrange so I am really sorry.

Just my personal input - if there is one module you need to get to really crank up the stereo width to max then it would be - https://feedback-modules.myshopify.com/products/106-chorus. I currently own 1... will be getting like 4 to 8 in time. I kinda like running my Juno-6/60 or other synths with built in chorus on I into one of these through Instant Lofi Junky... the point being... if you enjoy chorus sounds. I never did and once I got Juno-6 everything changed, lol!

Have a blast and wish you that everything will be well!

P.S.

I will be adding more gear to my profile here as well but too little time. I focus on what matters most. Like spreading knowledge. Cheers.