Two months of GAS, 18u x 84hp full. Seeking advice.

Morning all, so I've somehow accumulated a large amount of modules over the past two months, telling myself to buy whatever looks fun (within "reason"), and trim later. I suspect I'm nearing a good point to trim, but I'd like to make sure I'm not missing anything that might be useful, or have anything too superfluous.

I'm quite new to all this, but so far I'm having great fun making interesting noises and soundscapes. I'm not entirely sure where I want to go production-wise, but over the years (I'm 39) I've spent most of my time listening to Shibuya-Kei and adjacent Japanese artists (Cornelius, Fantastic Plastic Machine, YMO, Pizzicato Five, anything Trattoria/Readymade/Emperor Norton), 90s music like Bjork, Bogdan Raczynski, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, pretty much anything synth-based from the 80s, then some Torley Wong, Clint Mansell, Ulrich Schnauss, Brian Eno, etc. If I'm drawing inspiration from all of that, I'd try to draw out the fun/playfulness of these acts. Polyphony is not a huge goal, as I don't think I could do better than the Summit with modular, so keeping it under 4 voices for the most part.

So, the main questions I have:

1. Do if I have any duplication going on, especially with oscillators (3x A-110-4, E350 & E352, etc)?
2. How much overlap/duplication is there between Beads and the Microcosm? They both sound great, but I'm not sure I could explain their differences very well yet.
3. Are there any utilities I'm obviously missing?

This is three Doepfer A-100-G6 cases, with the top right spot acting as a shelf, currently holding a Roland TR-8S. The Roland 531 mixer is powered by the uZeus so I can use it when the racks are off. The Tiptop Quantizer currently has the arpeggiator firmware, and the uO_c has Hemispheres.

External gear: Roland TR-8S, Moog DFAM, Korg Volca FM/Sample/Keys, Hologram Microcosm, several POs, Synthstrom Deluge, Polyend Tracker, Novation Summit, Korg Minilogue, Arturia Keystep 37, Tektronix 465B (analog scope)

Rack:

EDITED Mar 1st 2022, 08:03

Hi arthabaska. I'm a big fan of a lot of the music you mentioned. Cornelius's Fantasma is a personal favorite.
After taking a quick glance at your rack, I'm thinking you are VERY oscillator heavy. I think I'd be tempted to part with the Drone Bank, E350, and A110 Standard VCO in favor of more mixing, for sure. With so many sound sources I would be looking for creative ways to mix, crossfade, aux send, etc.
As far as utilities, figure out what problem you are running into and add individual utilities as necessary to solve specific problems. Whatever you want to do is probably possible, but I'm not sure what issues you are running into to recommend anything specific at this time.
Have fun and good luck!

looks ok to me

I don't see a lot of duplication - the 3 doepfer vcos can be combined into a 3 osc sound source, beads can also be used as a delay... so I wouldn't worry about that... I imagine you are using plaits for hats - I do this too quite a lot, but I find it needs a - but I'd probably add something for that - to free up plaits for different duties

missing utilities - yes - that's where I would add things, instead of removing things - options are good, more options is better - & it's usually what gets ignored - especially when buying a reasonable number of modules in a short time - they may seem boring, as they don't make or alter sound - but they are essential for plumbing - see my signature!

some more sub-mixers: a couple for the triple doepfers, 1 for the standard doepfer, 1 for tides - to mix waveforms etc, 1 for percussion - so that all percussion is on either a single mono or stereo channel - so maybe a panning mixer, if you want stereo percussion

a matrix mixer or 2: mix 4 copied modulation sources - get 4 more complex, yet related, modulation signals out, send/return, feedback etc

maybe a stereo mixer: mix stereo sources - beads, blades etc - then either send those to the roland mixer - that way you only take up 2 channels for all the stereo sources

more vcas: you can never have too many of these - I'd add more cascading ones - always useful - another veils perhaps...

a sequential switch: so you can switch things about over time - the a-151 is fine and reasonably priced

maybe a stages - very versatile, not only for modulation, which you possibly have enough of, but also sample and hold and trigger/gate delays - but you could always just add these as separate modules (yes I see you have a sample and hold in kinks - excellent module - but more will always be a bonus)

I'd also be tempted to add a fx aid xl - extremely versatile - Igor is a star for adding more and more algorithms... there are now filters and drum algos as well as the plethora of delay and reverb effects & not to forget lofi settings and bit reduction!

I could easily fill another 6u with these - but I'd spread them out...

Sorry for the delayed reply, I forgot I posted this :)

Thanks Jim & farkas for the very useful info. I've since thinned out my herd of oscillators, taking out the A-110-1, E350, and one of the A-110-4s. I've added the Nin expander to Zadar, and have discovered the joys of having an envelope ready to go on-demand. Tempted to add another if not for cost. Will likely add another Veils as well, and maybe a second Plaits if I see a good price locally. I've also moved the DFAM into the rack, and it's integrating well enough with the rest of the system, at least until I need more HP :D

Speaking of HP, I'm wondering if the Erica Black Sequencer is going to stay. On paper it seems to give me more than the Metropolix, but it's (to me) not as intuitive and immediate to use, so I've been using it more for MIDI-to-CV than as a sequencer. If I cut that out, is there an obvious candidate for taking in at least 4 channels of MIDI? Hermod looks like it, but is there something else I don't know about? I've tried the Doepfer A-190-4 and was impressed with how cryptic it was to set up.

I kind of know what you mean about the black sequencer - it's a lot less immediate and demands a lot more effort than the metropolix

I've only played with a metropolis (not metropolix) once, a few years ago, and it was extremely intuitive to use on a basic level - ie I managed to get a sequence going with it in minutes, without the manual etc etc

I've had a black sequencer for a while and it takes a lot more effort to get into ie I still need to consult the manual - but I think that I'll persevere with mine - one thing you could try is creating a sequence on the metropolix and then recording it in the black sequencer - I do agree though it does seem a bit of a waste to just use as a midi->cv converter

you might want to look at cv.ocd, or the module version mutant brain if you decide you want a midi->cv module

Speaking of HP, I'm wondering if the Erica Black Sequencer is going to stay. On paper it seems to give me more than the Metropolix, but it's (to me) not as intuitive and immediate to use, so I've been using it more for MIDI-to-CV than as a sequencer. If I cut that out, is there an obvious candidate for taking in at least 4 channels of MIDI? Hermod looks like it, but is there something else I don't know about? I've tried the Doepfer A-190-4 and was impressed with how cryptic it was to set up.
-- arthabaska

Have not used the Black Sequencer, but have an Erica Drum Sequencer (which has a single pitch/gate channel that operates in a similar way to the Black Sequencer only clunkier/way more tedious to edit) and a Metropolix. Metropolix is loads of fun to use and very immediate (while also having some very very deep probability & self modulation functionality), but it kind of takes you where it wants to go so can be difficult to create a deliberate/specific sequence if you have something in mind. If I have a bassline or melody in my head that I want to capture, I'll go to the Erica Drum Sequencer or Tete+Tetrapad first. Metropolix is a riff generating machine though, so will def be holding on to that for the foreseeable...

Five12 Vector Sequencer might be an option. Only 2 channels without an expensive expander, but it integrates with MIDI well and can sequence both CV & MIDI. Have seen quite a few people rave about it, and its the same HP as the BS. NerdSeq does pretty much everything as well and has a huge fanbase, although personally I can't get around how ugly I think it looks :)

In case you have not already seen it, there's a comprehensive comparison of Euro sequencers here: https://doudoroff.com/sequencers/

EDITED Mar 15th 2022, 16:15

If I cut that out, is there an obvious candidate for taking in at least 4 channels of MIDI? Hermod looks like it, but is there something else I don't know about? I've tried the Doepfer A-190-4 and was impressed with how cryptic it was to set up.
-- arthabaska

The Befaco MIDI Thing has four CV/Gate pairs + clock out and start/stop.
I have a couple of those.
It's not as cumbersome to set up as it may appear by reading the manual.

EDITED Mar 21st 2022, 16:11