New to Eurorack, what are 'must haves'

[calaverasgrande]

yeah, but I grew up on Space 1999, Buck Rogers and Star Trek.
I love coming home to a living room filled with rack cases and blinking lights.
I live in the future!

Honestly I have never really been into the 'wood sides' look for synths. Though I do own a lot of that in the form of Moogerfoogers, Dark Energy and a T3.
At some point I am going to take all those wood bits off, sand them and stain them black.

The other rack I'm looking at is this
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/5 ... Ready.html
Heavier for sure, but look at that angle rack bit on the top!
Add a laptop extension and I can really get stupid with my gear.

(I should also add that I'm trying to get my whole studio condensed to a few rack units that connect via tascam pattern DB25 cables. I want to be able to tear it down and put it back together in one afternoon, not an entire weekend.)

[analoglsd]

Here's a few modules that are great to start with because they're fun, easy to understand, and may offer some unique functionality. Most of these can be built from kits if you're into that as well.

-4ms Pingable Envelope Generator: two clock synced EG's. You can set the EG to repeat at divisions or multiplications of the clock signal(which can be external or tap-temp internal). Also provided are End of Rise and End of Fall pulse outputs, which basically provide you with a rudimentary clock divider/multiplier. This module is dead simple to understand, extremely useful as an envelope or modulation source, and is FUN.

-Turing Machine Random Looping Sequencer: produces random voltages in sync with an incoming clock signal. The voltage patterns can be locked into loops that repeat every 8, 16 or 32 steps. Also provides a noise output. There are a couple useful expanders for this as well. To really use it musically, you will need a quantizer. I use the Intellijel uScale with it.

-Low Pass Gate: there are several to choose from, from different manufacturers, and while I've only tried two of them, I'm sure they're all fun. Some of them have different modes, so you're getting more functionality than just a LPG.

-MIDI to CV Interface: the Kenton eurorack one is a great one to start with as it offers 2 clock outs, the MIDI out can be used to sync DIN-sync gear, and if offers 2 simultaneous time-synced LFOs. The MIDI2CV module is also great, and the kit is a pretty easy build.

Enjoy!

[calaverasgrande]

Well I spent a few hours going through all the modules on Analogue Haven, Meme Antenna and Big City Music's sites.
I got a little giddy and had a slight GAS attack. Then I recovered and decided to make a list of 'problems' and 'solutions'. I think this will be a better approach than just buying the ones that look cool.

Seems like an awful lot are kind of a 'patch in a box' approach. Replicating stuff that you can do with a few basic synth modules but combined into one panel with less knobs. A few also seem (at least to me) to be kind of useless noisemakers. I suppose they are fun to use, but they seem as if you used them in an actual commercial recording you would be locked into the one trick that that particular pony does. Kind of like a speak-n-spell or a percussionists triangle. Used in moderation I guess they could be okay.

[pflosi]

There are different approaches to integration within modular. Doepfer is the most modular modular, has all the building blocks.

[analoglsd]

@ calaverasgrande: Just noticed that you're in Oakland too. My studio is on 65th St. off of San Pablo if you want to come by and mess around with my euro set-up to get a feel for it. PM me if interested.

[calaverasgrande]

@ calaverasgrande: Just noticed that you're in Oakland too. My studio is on 65th St. off of San Pablo if you want to come by and mess around with my euro set-up to get a feel for it. PM me if interested.

I suppose that is the less dodgy part of San Pablo
I should talk I'm in Fruitvale, well Dimond. But I can hear Fruitvale from here.

I've done some digging and found some DIY kits for modules. I'm working on a Rotating Clock Divider kit right now (Memeantenna ships fast!). I think I need a quantizer next, but the Barton quantizer is supposed to not be very accurate. 10-20% is kind of a big difference between in tune and not!

[sammy123]

Well the simple quantizer is apparently not that accurate. The dual nice quantizer is more accurate.

[calaverasgrande]

Well the simple quantizer is apparently not that accurate. The dual nice quantizer is more accurate.

cool thanks, I'll look that one up. Though honestly I may just get the Doepfer dual quantizer. I suppose everything doesn't HAVE to be DIYed. I just like soldering.

[sammy123]

I am in the middle of working on a Thomas Henry SN Voice. Lots of panel wiring. It's kinda fun to do some of these older kits every once in a while. Component PCBs are so easy I sometimes feel guilty...like it's not even true DIY. I can't wait to finish this one. I had been hoping for a kit for a long time and Synthcube finally re-released it. I am not super into full synth voice modules, but this one is a bit different and doesn't take up as much space as my Doepfer DIY did or an Atlantis or something similar.

[calaverasgrande]

Just thought I'd dig this one up again and update it.
I'm taking it slow with my Eurorack setup. So far I've built about 2/3rds of the stuff Synthrotek and 4Ms offer as kits. The RCD and SCM were kits I bought to solve particular problems with trigger/clock timing and older analogs. However they are very fun! The SEQ-8 from Synthrotek is also very cool. It has most standard features of a step sequencer including random, but is only $140 as a kit? Took me about a day and a half to put together, not rushing.
I've also found this one company Erica synths in Latvia. Pretty cool Polivoks based stuff. I'm finishing up one of their VCOs right now.
Gotta say I am glad I am limiting myself to kits for my modular. It has kind of motivated me to get my bench in order and I am now tackling some other nascent projects (re-building my MG1). It's also good that I have placed limits on myself, especially after the most recent NAMM. There are just stupid amounts of modules out that I could fritter whole paychecks away on.

[calaverasgrande]

Just another update.
I've almost a whole row of Synthrotek now. I really dig how Steve is carving out a niche for himself by putting out basic modules instead of whacky wtf does that even do modules. The MST (Mattson-Synthrotek) stuff is pretty solid too.
I've also been jumping in on a few of the DIY projects in the synth DIY section of Muffs. Got a buffered mult and a CP3 derived mixer that way.
Stuff gets super cheap when you buy panel+PCB then source your own parts. Tayda is DIRT cheap and ships pretty fast.
As things evolved I've pretty much set up an East Coast style rig with sequencing, and a couple 'voices'. One of which is a Polivoks clone. When I start getting into my 3rd row I'll look into some more West Coast styled stuff.
Oh yeah, I've also branched off and started building a modular based electronic drum kit.
Got a couple tip top modules, a synthrotek DS-M and a Makenoise optomix (LPG) plus noise source for a snare.
Fun!

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

Just another update.
I've almost a whole row of Synthrotek now. I really dig how Steve is carving out a niche for himself by putting out basic modules instead of whacky wtf does that even do modules.

Ditto on the line of Synthrotek DIY kits. The ECHO is one of my favorites. I ended up buying two of them. You can't beat the price/value ratio of the DIY kits Harmon and Mattson have designed.

[calaverasgrande]

One thing, if I was going to do my purchases over would be to get something like the 4MS QCD instead of the RCD and SCM. Though I am not sure they even offer the QCD as a kit?
I also kind of broke my rule about 'kits only' a couple weeks ago and picked up a Waldorf NW1. That thing just sounds too sick not to have. There are other wavetabler modules, but I've yet to see any with the Spectrum, Noisy and Brilliance controls in addition to travel, pitch and position.

It is kind of funny how 6RU easily becomes 9RU + skiff.
I'm even thinking about branching out into 4RU stuff for some of that CGS and Blacet goodness.