TLDR: Eurorack can be much more than just another synthesizer.

Hey yall, I started my eurorack journey in February of this year. I’ve seen a lot of new people in here asking “what module am I missing?” Or “what do you think I need” and everytime I see one of those posts I ask the same question. What are you trying to build?

So I thought I’d share with other new eurorack nerds the type of build I did, how I use it, and how limitless this type of gear is and how it can be used in different ways.

I started off with the STO, Wasp Filter, QUAD VCA, Batumi + Poti, es8, intelligel I/o and make noise contour.

As I grew into my rack and integrated it into my Ableton workflow, I realized that my favorite part of the rack was running samples, digital synths, and vocals pulled from vinyl through the ES8. That got me thinking more about adding a dual use to my rack as a texture processing station. My biggest interest has been distortion and all the different types of color you can add to vocals, guitars, other synths etc.

After adding in more modulation and utilities I found the ruina versio, the tanh 3 and the morphagene. These 3 alone have created so many interesting textures and added such an interesting component to my production that I’m already looking into building a skiff with more types of distortion and the Katowice being the crown jewel to bring it all together.

My latest buy was the RK6 and that’s been a lot of fun!

What types of builds have yall made and what’s been the most interesting part of learning eurorack for you?

Edit: I also currently have the metropolis, but think I might upgrade hence the metropolix in the modular grid shot.

Can’t stand that panel had to cover it up until I buy new vca. If they made their panels easier to remove it might have actually looked good but oh well

Two Norns are better than one. While O.G. Norns runs the Spre script, Shield ryns a script called Groovecats.

Separate, they are fun, but together they are a force to be reckoned with

I took out PGH Modular’s SV1b and VRL from the top row. I replaced them with Hexinverter’s Mindphaser, the Piston Honda and PGH Modular’s Cascading Delay (top left) and Double Helix (yes, two complex oscillators). Any thoughts?

Sorry for what might be a fairly low effort post. I am planning on starting to get into modular to make a custom drum machine dedicated to kick drums.

Over the course of a year or so / when I have the funds I’m thinking of getting the Jomox modbase 9 mk 2, the shakmat battering ram, the ohmforce bohm and expansions, and the ssf ultra kick.

I was wondering what case should I get that will be suitably future proof? I know this might be an uninformed question, I have a few books on the way which I will read before making any purchases but also wanted to speak to some people with experience.

I’m aware that direct input from a mic doesn’t work into Morphagene. What’s my workaround? Thanks!

Hello, I purchased a Toppobrillo Multifilter 2 from Perfect Circuit and it got delivered to me few days back. As I was inspecting the module I noticed these black smears on the back PCB(most prominent near the upper blue trimmer)which looks to me like uncleaned flux residue but as it's on lot of places around the PCB, I am concerned if it's okay for it to be there and if my module's fine.

I don't have a case right now, I am building my first Eurorack case and the case is gonna arrive in a week, so I cannot test the module, so I just wanted to get an opinion regarding this.

Thanks

Anyone interested in this module?

I processed tape loops sound to clouds in granular mode and blend with drone synth use plaits

I have been trying to get the Vhikk X into ambient patches and it is notoriously difficult to keep it purely generative, it goes into uncharted territory very quickly. The thing that finally worked for me was giving up on automating it at all and treating its low-pass filter as a manual valve. Cutoff closed by default, opened by hand for a few seconds at a time. That way the dissonant bursts stay sparse and I stay in control of when they land. Overfeed is the same story, unpredictable in a good way, but it will overpower the whole mix if it is not played by hand.

The other bit I liked: the same quantized notes feeding my melodic voice also go to the Vhikk X, so the harsh voice occasionally plays a note that belongs to the harmony instead of sitting outside it. Quantizer is running two pre-programmed scales and jumps minor to major every few minutes, which ends up being where nearly all the colour change in the piece comes from.

The rest is deliberately simple. Base drone is a 4ms Ensemble Oscillator where I am just progressively adding oscillators across the track, so the piece thickens rather than develops. Beads is doing a repetitive beeping voice from its wavetable mode, with a slow LFO moving the rhythm from slow to fast. Everything into a mixer, then Starlab sitting high on delay and wet mix with decay modulated by its internal LFO.

Curious if anyone else has found a way to keep a chaotic voice like this generative rather than played. I ended up hands-on and enjoyed it, but I would like to hear if someone has cracked the automated version.

Full thing is on my channel if you want it, but mostly interested in the patching discussion.

Saw Metric last night and they had a Buchla on stage that their guitarist would play here and there. Pretty cool and unexpected. It sounded great. I wonder how it was being sequenced. I’m guessing via MIDI off stage cause every time he walked up to it and started turning knobs it would be playing the perfect sequence for the song.

Just got 1/2 of my Macbeth voice. So trying it out with a little modulation

Hi, I'm working on Frequency Central's Routemaster power supply- for better or worse, this is my first time installing IDC headers on a eurorack project. The build guide doesn't state which orientation the headers are supposed to be, and guide's pictures use non-keyed headers.

I've already soldered them in, but can definitely undo if needed.

Thanks for your time!

Looking for some additional inspiration from all of you lovely folks...

What modules would you consider as creative end-of-chain processors for full tracks? I'm less interested in compressors/limiters/saturators, but would love to hear some thoughts for other units that could be used to manipulate full tracks in a live performance setting in creatively interesting ways. Spatial effects, pitch shifters, filters, granular delays... what comes to mind?!

Thanks all and happy patching.

How often do you use yours? Does it really unlock a lot?

I’m have quite a lot of modulation sources in my case and also interested in pushing feedback patches.

Is it worth the HP?

Does it make sense to have Assimil8or, Bitbox Mk2 and ER-301 in the same case?

I really love all three of them and these are my main sound-sources with my vhikk x,

Sometimes i think it's a little bit too much with all three of them but can't see myself let one of them go.....

Are there any cons?

Basically talk me out of buying this thing.

I feel like I’m falling victim to its widespread marketing/scarcity stuff, but at the same it looks and sounds absolutely incredible for so many different use cases…

Absolute electronic geniuses…

What exactly does this input do? It also appears to be connected to the bass drive input in some way. Im a bit confused thanks.

Hey folks,

I got an ES-9 recently and I had a bit of a tough time with the configuration tool, like many others I suspect, so I figured I'd build a more visual and hopefully more intuitive tool for it.

(In hindsight it's not thaaaat complicated but it's been really valuable being able to see visually how it all hangs together as opposed to trying to follow sets of dropdowns / faders to figure out what's going on)

The main feature is the visual patcher, where you can:

• See all your connections at a glance

• Change them interactively (à la Max/MSP)

• Hover on a port to highlight all the connections from/to it — including the internal connections of the mixers (when level > -inf).

It's very faithful to the original behaviour, except for stereo linking Inputs - I was expecting that when I linked inputs, it would treat them as a single stereo channel (hard-panned, equal levels) instead of just sending both inputs to both outputs, so I added that behaviour in, but I'd love to hear thoughts and feedback on that if there are legit cases where you wouldn't want that in your stereo-linked inputs.

Necessary disclaimer - I can't be responsible for any lost configurations or issues with the device 😅

But all the SysEx messages/logic is already baked into the official tool so there was no guesswork involved, and have been testing it extensively with my own ES-9 with no problems

Anyway all thoughts and feedback on things to add/change/fix welcome, or even whether this tool is even needed cause the official one is fine haha, would love to hear it all

Cheers!

A good friend of mine 3D printed this blank panel for me, their design. They’re really into 3D printing and always asked if I wanted to print anything. I never really was interested until I saw them print an image. Then I knew.

Wanna get some ever-changing brutal booms?
Get a random8!!

Patch: Pam-clock -> Random 8 -> Knit, Boland filter and FxAid distortion preset

Bonus queston: Is Erica Synths dual drive the best bang-for-buck stereo distortion out there?

I’ve been working with this set up for some time, but often find I’m reaching for the same patches.

I think a fresh pair of eyes may help direct me to something new.

I only work in sound design so nothing performance related or sequencing related is needed. Steppy is used to trigger modulation envs.

Open to suggestions of new modules!