ModularGrid Rack

Hi guys! I'm starting to fill my first 6U 88HP eurorack.
The idea is: I want to create "ambient and dreamy" pads and backgrounds for my songs while the main solo voice is either my guitar or my Moog Grandmother. I want this rack to be sequenced by my daw, that's why there's a midi to CV module.
The Main modulation comes from Pam's new Workout: it takes the clock coming from the Mutant Brain and it outputs clocked LFO's, envelopes and random modulation. Batumi is here for its musical quadrature mode and Stages is usefull if I need an ADSR or two ASR envelopes to open the Quad VCA.
If i need more random modulation I can use marbles to make things a bit more unpredictable.
Blinds just does its utility purpose: offsetting and attenuating or inverting modulation or mixing.
The two main voices are Rings and the Chords V2 and they will be processed by Monsoon and Magneto.
The Polaris is used with my moog if i need an "acid" voice.
Finally I have my stereo mixer and outputs in order to interface with my headphones and my audio interface.

Things I am not sure with:
1) I have a lot of trigger outputs. Mutant Brains, Pam's and Marbles can all output triggers which i actually don't know how to use in this build
2) I really can't understand if I have too much modulation or too less. What do you think about it?
3) Do i need a pannable mixer? I honestly choosed Mixup because it is cheap and it has two stereo channels for my Monsoon and Magneto.
4) Is the QuadVCA + Blinds combo redundant?
5) I don't have an active mult. Is this a problem?

Modules I already have:
Blinds, Polaris, Monsoon, Stages and Rings.

What do you think about this setup?
Thanks for your time.

EDIT: For the experienced folks out there: do you think this rack could be "fun" to play with?

Andrea


Hi Andrea,

Welcome to modular synthesizers :-) Did you bought already the rack or not yet? If not yet, I would recommend to go for a bigger case, for example the Intellijel 7U case (2 x 104 HP) or the Doepfer A-100LC9 (3 x 84 HP) as an absolute minimum. So you have some space for extension and you don't have to buy straight away yet another rack (which might come soon enough anyway).

1) Ha, ha, sorry that I have to laugh a little bit here, if you don't really know what to do with it, why you need it then? :-) Perhaps look into this matter a bit more before you decide on it? It's totally okay to start with a half full rack (or even less). Build up experience and then decide if you need a certain module or not.

Or start with one or two of them, if you are happy with it then consider the others you mentioned. Up to you of course but I would take it easy, especially since you notice yourself it might be a bit too much and keep in mind that you planned here a rather small rack so space is (extremely) valuable here to use it as good and as efficient as possible.

2) I feel this is a difficult question to answer. On one hand because I feel one should consider for herself/himself if something is enough or too much on the other hand because... can you ever have enough modulation? :-) The same question goes for oscillators, filters, VCAs, envelopes and LFOs, you usually have too less of them rather than too many of them. Talking about modulation, how about one or two more classical/standard LFOs? I see you planned the Batumi that I guess is certainly not too bad and yes it's a quad LFO, but perhaps a second separate LFO?

Personally, for this rather small setup, I feel the Magneto is perhaps not necessarily? Yes it's a nice to have module but A) it's expensive and B) it consumes a lot of space that you might want to consider to use for other modules.

3) Do you have an external mixer with panning? If yes, you might want to decide for yourself that you don't need panning on your Eurorack mixer. Personally I still would go for a mixer with panning (even if I have externally a mixer with panning too), but as mentioned that's personally, you might think differently about that. That's the nice thing with Eurorack, it's all about flexibility and possibilities but there are no rules that says you must have or you must not have panning. It's at the end totally up to you to decide :-) I feel that's one of the beauties of Eurorack, that kind of freedom to decide for yourself what you are going to do. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't ask here around in the forum for advice though.

4) Ask yourself if a "plain" VCA (that quad VCA for example) is good enough for you or do you really need (straight from the beginning) a polariser? Personally I would start with rather the "normal" VCA first and then later, when build up some experience with Eurorack, decide if you would need a polariser? So if you would want to save some space you might want to let go one of the modules first. On the other hand Blinds has VCA functionality as well, so as long as you don't use the polariser functionality of it, it can be used as a "simple" VCA too. So perhaps start with just the Blinds and then for later consider an additional VCA? Hey this is Eurorack, everything is possible but at the end it's up to you :-)

5) Usually with smaller racks you might not even need a multiple at all. After that (when the small racks becomes bigger or completely filled up) a passive multiple might be for most cases good enough. Only if you know already that straight from the beginning you going to split certain signals into many the same, and that especially for CVs/triggers, then perhaps you could directly start with an active multiple. If you just want to have a multiple for the sake of putting your mind at rest that in case you need one, you got one (that was my approach ;-) ) then go for the passive one. If you then after a while realise you splitting the signal too much then you still can consider an active one. They don't cost the world, money-wise as well as space-wise.

At first sight my above "answers" might not completely been the answers you are looking for. What I however try to accomplish with my replies is that you start thinking about those matters and try to figure out a bit more about those matters and after that you might be able to answer yourself those questions.

You asked what our thoughts about your planned rack is... well to summarise, two things: I feel the biggest issue is that the rack is too small (see already my first comment before point 1). Second... without wanting to remove your enthusiasm here... perhaps you focus a slightly bit less on fancy modules like for example that Magneto and a bit more on some classic/basic stuff?

Since you got already a Grandmother (I mean the device ;-) ) you got there already quite some functionality, so don't worry too much. There is no way that we can plan a Eurorack perfectly without making here and there a "mistake". As long as you are willing to learn from "mistakes" and update/extend your Eurorack accordingly to the gained experience, I think you should be fine and just enjoy the ride :-)

This Grandmother's of yours, I am not hundred percent sure if it's Eurorack compatible, I am afraid it isn't. Perhaps other members can help you there on some details of that. Worst case scenario is that you might need a converter module. So please have that checked.

Good luck, have fun with the planning and for later enjoy modular :-) Kind regards, Garfield Modular.

For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads


Unfortunatley I have already purchased the case since i found it at a super cheap price but i don't think this is a problem since I can sell it or just add a bigger one (bye bye money lol).

1) Oh that's simple: both modules can output triggers which I will struggle to use but i chosed them because they also have other super usefull functions: the Mutan Brain can output up to 4 V/oct channels for polyphony and up to 12 triggers / gates (for sure I'll use two or three triggers in order to output the clock and clock divided triggers) and the Pamela's has its clockd lfos, random modulation and envelopes. If you have other modules to suggest just tell me so i can check them all.

2) I can sacrifice the Magneto in order to add another classic lfo but the problem is that just one dsp module (Monsoon) is not enough to create dreamy and ambient backgrounds. Maybe at this point the right move is to remove the Marbles instead of the Magneto since it is another modules which outputs triggers. But if i do that i lose a random source of modulation .

3) I don't have any type of mixer right now. I also think that a pannable mixer may be better. Any suggestion? I was checking out this one: https://www.modulargrid.net/e/roland-system-500-531. it is really costy but it has a lot of nice features like the two 1/4 inch jack out + headphones in.

4) I'm gonna stick with just the blinds for now.

By the way the Moog Grandmother is 100% eurorack compatible


Hi Andrea,

Oh that's great news that the Moog Grandmother is 100% Eurorack compatible... didn't expect that.

Regarding mixers with panning options, I am using the Doepfer A-138p and A-138o combination and I am really happy with this mixer. The beauty of that is that you can expend it with another A-138p once you need more channels. Only space (and money) is an issue then :-)

Kind regards, Garfield.

For review reports of Eurorack modules, please refer to https://garfieldmodular.net/ for PDF formatted downloads