So I’ve finally decided to get a real rack and I’m looking for advice on a couple of areas. I will be making drone/dark ambient and I already have a digitakt, 0-Coast and NTS-1. I want the rack to create slowly evolving drones and textures which I can layer with the 0-Coast for fx/bass and the digitakt to play more textures, glitchy fx, or whatever sounds right. I also plan to use VCV for CV modulation and sent to midi which seems to be nice and easy with the Nifty case.
So far I have decided to get the Nifty case and Morphagene, along with FX Aid XL for big reverbs and probably Befaco Out v3. The areas I am undecided about are modulation, distortion, and perhaps utilities.
For modulation, I would like a few different LFOs that I can use with both the rack and with the 0-Coast. I’ve been thinking about Ochd + some kind of mixer because I love it in VCV and it seems hard to beat in terms of separate LFOs and footprint. But then, perhaps Maths might be better? I would get less choice of outputs from it vs Ochd but I could potentially do more with it?
For distortion, I really have no idea. I want it to be stereo in/out as I plan to use it before or after FX Aid but I don’t know what kind of distortion I need for creating filthy distorted pads/drones. I quite like VCV’s Debriatus’ saturate and fold sections in VCV. I’ve been looking at Erica Synths Pico DSP since it is small, stereo and could be useful to have other fx when I don’t want distortion. I think I also want it to have some kind of tone/filter to tame it and make it dark.
For utilities, I don’t think I need a great deal, at least for this iteration of the rack. It looks like I can attenuate the inputs on Morphagene and I don’t really need to create envelopes for now, nor do I need sample and hold (although this might be handy later on).
So any advice on modules? I’m also thinking that a stereo mixer with a few different inputs might be useful so that I can route the digitakt (which will have the 0-Coast running through it) because I only really have a stereo output to my speakers/computer.
Old thread revival, you’ve probably already came up for a solution so this is for future people most likely.
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Most systems benefit from a function generator. Make Noise Maths is the obvious choice, followed by Befaco Rampage. Both are based on the Serge Dual Slope Generator with some extra utilities. Even if you don’t use it for envelopes, you can make complex LFOs with ease.
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Attenuverters are dope! Intellijel Triplatt gives you three plus cv mixing capability. Even if your modules have built in attenuators or attenuversion, it’s just nice to have. Especially if the can generate an offset voltage.
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Switches are nice to send the same modulation to many sources, or many modulations to one source. I’m partial to ALM Boss Bow Two
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Distortion is a tough one. I liked the Saevitus tube distortion modules but Noise Engineering and Schlappi both make great distortions that are solid state. It’s tough to dial in usable distortion, the cleaner the source the better it will sound.
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Random modulation is pretty spicy, the Make Noise Wogglebug is the patricians choice. The Buchla Source of Uncertainty is the classic though, fucking amazing module. I’m just partial to Wiard, hence my affinity to the Wogglebug.
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A ton of your needs can be fixed with Pam’s Pro Workout, or even a used Pam’s New Workout. Triggers, LFOs, Envelopes, Random/Slewed Random, Logic, euclidian rhythms, humanizing, quantizing. It’s probably the best digital module ever made, atleast the best clock period. A decent choice for a dedicated clock is the make noise tempi. In a pinch, squarewave LFO and a clock divider. Doepfer makes both and they kick ass.
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A filter would do well with your set up. QPAS or SSD Stereo Dipole are incredible, but even a simple State Variable Filter or two will help tame some harsh frequencies at worst and sound shape at best.
Anyways, this is my take.
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How could I forget. VCAs!!!
They aren’t just for audio. You can send an envelope to activate an LFO periodically. Or an LFO to make an envelope have choppy behavior. You can send audio into your audio and do Amplitude Modulation. You can use logic gates to create small pockets of sequence bursts. Intellijel Quad VCA is great. Doepfer octa vca is even better for CV. VCA is required for any generative patching