What is the purpose of this instrument?
That's actually a really good question. I want to do many different things:
1. Just jamming on my own, make the occasional recording to share with my buddies. Not actual producing.
2. Have something flexible I can bring to jamming weekends with my friends who own a slew of semi-modulars and drum machines.
3. At some point maybe use it as a development platform of my own modules.
What kind of sounds are you hoping to make, and for what style of music? This looks like a basic subtractive synth, and you could accomplish the same thing, with more features and less cost, using a semi-modular. You could integrate it with other cases later.
Mostly acid/techno/breakbeat/electro. Occasionally a whiff of hardcore. I like a gritty analog sound. I realized at some point that this setup shares quite a lot of features with the Behringer semi-mods (D/Pro-1/Neutron), but they are all monophonic so for instance not suitable to reconfigure as a basic drum machine because their OSCs are tied up. Then again, the setup above could not never be enough to make even the most minimal acid, so perhaps it would be a better idea to for instance start out with a second-hand Neutron and spend money well on a decent CV/audio interface like ES-8/9 and build out from there.
Are you buying all behringer just for cost reasons, or do you really love behringer that much? (not hating, I love behringer and don'tcare who knows it) 84hp isnt a lot of space and there are plenty of other low cost alternatives that wont eat up so much hp. It's good to budget, but you get what you pay for. (not a dig at behringers quality) Sure you're paying less but you also end up with less space, whereas you might pay a little more for a smaller module but you'll end up with more space to add things later on when budget isn't an issue and you figure out what you really need. You might want to add some flexibility to your budget to get flexibility in your case.
I started out with the same idea. I know how to wield a soldering iron and with the idea in mind of at some point designing and building my own modules, I figured it would be best to source the basic setup from DIY suppliers. Then I found out that the really cheap DIY supplier basically sell bare PCBs, a basic front-plate and they leave the component sourcing up to you. I know my way around in that area so in that case it would be even cheaper to look for open-hardware modules, source the PCBs from a cheap Chinese PCB service and do the sourcing myself as well. But I had this as a day job for a while and I know it is time consuming and can be frustrating, esp. with component shortage these days. The full DIY kits with parts and front-plates included cannot match the price point of Behringer and if you take a good look, the Behringer modules aren't that space consuming. All their modules are dual/triple function and have mults embedded. Perhaps you could save a few HP with multiple smaller DIY units but certainly at a higher cost. But I guess a 6U case that is half empty makes way more sense.
Do you specifically need a keystep pro for all 4/5 channels, or would a regular keystep work, after multiplying the cv and trig? It would save you money so you can buy more/better suited modules to acheive your goals. If you want to syncopate the osc you could use KS for ½ and the s&h circuit for the other ½.
I want to use it as a sequencer and clock source, so I would need a Pro (or?). There's the Beatstep Pro which is half the price second hand. But it has less channels and pads instead of keys. I'd rather use keys for beat sequencing than pads for bassline and melody.
I wouldn't plug headphones into your VCA for a variety of reasons. Mainly you could destroy the drivers, but also you'd likely only get sound on the left side since it's a mono output. Thats not as much of an issue for feeding your interface, but a dedicated output module will work better and save you a lot of trouble when trying to bridge the gap between eurorack and line level audio, but you need room for it in the case, and in your budget.
Thanks, makes sense. I think in that case an audio interface with at least 4 inputs would make most sense. So I can use the Mac as an end mixer/effect box with VCV filling the module gap for the coming time.
edit: I see you're using € instead of $, so I'm assuming you're in Europe somewhere, which opens up a lot of diy/built diy options to you depending on where you're located. I'm in the states, but have started ordering from pushermanproductions.com and thonk.co.uk for these reasons. Even with shipping, I'm getting more for less.
Thanks, will look at these!
-- yeahivandalizm
Thanks for your reply, it really helped organize my goals!
