My first Eurorack (6U); call for advice, opinions and ideas

Hello everybody,

after beeing very interested in eurorack for some years now I finally put aside a little bit of money to start my first rack. Since I am on a budget I want to make a 6U/104HP.
I made a first concept here and would like to hear your opinions and advice

My idea for this rack is to be a solid studio companion and analog sound design tool for somewhat harder techno. For that I wanted the Mindphaser since I just loved everything I heard about it :) I also liked the sound of the black polivoks and the wasp filter.
But I also just want to have fun with it and be able to jam without to much trouble. So I included some Drums and percussion as well as the bassline module.
Since the size is a bit limiting I decided to use a Beatstep Pro as the main sequencer and record everything directly into an external mixer. The Rack will only be making an manipulating sound.

I wanted to include some effects and use the Ghost mostly for my drum bus and the noise engineering effects for synth voices. But of course thats interchangeable. I like the Quart and ochd and was always amazed of the possibilities of Maths (also I'm a mathematician^^) . The rest of the space, I tried to fill up with as many utility stuff as I could.

So what do you think? Is this a good setup? Am I missing something? Can I improve things? Do I have a decent amount of VCAs?

I also made a bare minimum set with wich I plan to start and expand it over time. So I can get into the workflow and better decide what I really need. And also I don't have to spend so much money at once. I would also love to hear what you think about this setup :)

Thanks so much in advance!

EDITED Nov 17th 2023, 16:28

A few general points:

1) Think of ergonomics and playablity. If it's not easy and fun to play, you won't end up using it. Good on 2hp for doing an amazing job filling a niche, literally, but you really need to think about the playability of lots of little knobs next to each other. Are you really going to be able to comfortably tweak a parameter without knocking a different knob by accident? You should be thinking about spacing and tweakability as you go, so the system doesn't end up being a pain to play.

2) VCAs. I think a cascading VCA has more potential than 4 independent VCAs. Hard to beat 8 VCAs in that footprint, but you're missing out on some interesting functionality.

3) Drums in rack. People often caution against going drums in rack cuz it's not the most price or space effective way of getting drums, but hey, you do you. Personally, I think they're fun. However, you might want to consider a cv controllable sampler like vpme.de's quad drums, a bitbox, or the assimil8or (which is an absolute dream, by the way). They aren't analog, but they will give you a tremendous amount of flexibity in a relatively small footprint. They tend to be pricey, however.

4) Too much hp spent on sound sources. Sorry, but in a rack this size, you should be limiting your oscillators and sound sources so you can spare room for the other types of modules (like utlities) that really help set modular apart.

5) Utilities! You have attenuators and VCAs and mixers, but there are some interesting other options that can play nicely with rhythm based music. Logic modules, comparators, clock modulators, routers/switches, and sample and holds are just a few types of modules that can really help add intricacy and complexity to your sequences and rhythms and give you a ton of flexibilty. Take some time looking through the different utilities listed on here, or watch some videos about the types listed above. You'll probably be getting ideas popping off in no time.

6) Computer connections. Depending on what you're aiming for you might be interested in connecting your system directly to your computer. That way you can record directly to your DAW or, more interestingly, use your rack in conjunction with software modular programs like VCV rack or voltage modular (I think there are a few others now, too). Something like Expert Sleeper's ES-8 or ES-9 (both come in black) do this magically.

Anyways, best of luck!

EDITED Nov 17th 2023, 22:20

If this is studio rack I'd suggest getting a bigger one and not trying to cram 2hp or micro modules in. Eurorack is a really tactile format and there really are diminishing returns from function per hp when it's packed so tight you can't play with it. It won't even cost you more money (well except the bit you'd spend on a bigger case) as 2hp modules usually cost the same as or more than doepfer equivalent

Thank you for the advice :) It makes perfect sense to go for bigger knobs and lose some of the sound sources! And I will probably double the rack size at some point :D
I've been tinkering around with it some more and as I said, I will start with a minimal setup and see what I really need from there.

EDITED Nov 19th 2023, 01:27