Realized there's a section to the left of me in my "home studio" that's prime real estate for a rack. It provides a maximum size of 9u x 124hp:

ModularGrid Rack

The modules can be split into three categories:

  • Sound sources: Similar to what I've listed before, but I've switched out Kraken for the Queen of Chaos. I used to have a DFAM (sadly lost in a stupid episode of plugging in wrong power supply), and Queen of Chaos looks like an interesting synth in that regard.
  • Mixers and effects: The idea is that all sounds can be mixed with effects through the aux mono and stereo of the Cosmic Pro. The idea is also to have everything be post-processed with Messor (as glue compressor) and a couple of Steve's M-22 (I enjoy duel filter in the Solar 42f, and thought I might do the same here).
    • I've included a mix for the Hihats, that should take two signals and normalize them both to a stereo out. Without this the drum modules sum up to 7 audio signals, so with this Mutant Hihats will only occupy one stereo audio (and Scrooge will occupy the other).
    • I've also introduced Ghost and Rainmaker as effects. I already own these, and I think they should be good all-round effects for the drum sounds.
  • Utilities: Lots of CV generation and modulation, and a bit of logistics. I've tried to design around a "default patch", where the Oxi One can be used as master sequencer for all (CV to Ultra-Kick, Ultra-Perc, Mutant Hihats and Queen of Chaos; midi to Rample and Scrooge). But I can also use various modules to generate rhythms, and Pam's is a central module for this (and can also be linked to global clock via midi).

Some other considerations: I've positioned Pipe and the WK3 Midi Thru modules to the right so that they connect with the overall layout of my home studio and provide CV and midi for the overall rack.

I've also included ADDAC511 because I believe it can provide some interesting CV signals to introduce a bit of controlled randomness to the rack.

I think the rest of the modules are self-explanatory, but please ask if you have any questions. I'm somewhat new to this, and might forget obvious things. I should also point out that this is probably not where I'll end up, but I hope it brings up some interesting ideas ^_^

(And there are probably a lot cheaper options than this, I know, but I think this could be a fun synth to build, even though it will take me years, so I'm ok with the prices.)


Had some fun with my newest module today, the Rample, and wanted to check out the sample banks that were created by The Flashbulb. It ended up as a song ^_^

https://on.soundcloud.com/XWaXhHJnYCDbncmX6

For those interested in the gear: The Rample is accompanied by the Hats808 and mixed with Ghost for a dash of effects, most importantly delay and reverb. The Ultra-Kick provides, well, kicks, and I make sure to side-chain it to the other instruments.

Solar 42f provides the simple melody in the background, as well as some bassy voices. To help with bass I also used Equator2, a MPE soft synth that I play using a Seaboard. Atop of this are Coral and Pluck, which provide some "bleepy" sounds. I use the M185 as sequencer for the latter modules, but patch the one going to Coral through Penrose Quantizer to make sure only specific notes are hit.

To control all of this I have the Oxi One, which communicate with the various parts using midi and cv. All of the instruments (except the kick) are heavily mixed with a reverb pedal.


Thread: ambient rack

Just in case you haven't found him yourself yet, Omri Cohen has some good videos with tips and tricks for generative music. I think this playlist should be of interest, but I recommend checking out more of his videos.


I can't find it on MG, but reckon the Math Gate should be of interest:


Thread: ambient rack

Maybe something like this?

ModularGrid Rack

  • Pam's give you clock and lots of tools for generating CVs
  • ADDAC506: I think this should provide you with lots of possibilities for generating interesting CV signals for generative music (I don't have any experience with it though, so hopefully someone can correct me if Im wrong); alternatively I think ADDAC112 or ADDAC504 can be a good match
  • QUA: Not sure how much you need this module in this design, but attenuators are usually very handy, and I think you'll appreciate the controls for fine-tuning
  • Coral: You can switch this out with any oscillator you want, but personally I'm very happy with my Coral; it provides lots of interesting sounds and functionality for its size
  • Ghost: You can drop this or switch it out if you want, but again I recommend this based on personal experience: it's a good multi-effect module, providing. stuff like delay, reverb, compression, etc

This is somewhat basic, but I think it should give you a good starting point for producing generative music with eurorack ^_^


@wishbonebrewery thanks for the suggestion. I'm using Ghost in my current drum rack, and a bit of reverb (and delay) can indeed enrich the upper percussions nicely. I've been thinking of how to include Ghost in the concept in this thread, but it haven't been important enough for the space it requires.

I should also note that I have a "global" reverb, i.e. a reverb pedal that I've connected to my mixer's AUX, so I can mix it in with any of the channels. The only drawback with this setup is that I usually need to reroute my kick drum to another channel in the global mixer, so for that reason I might include something like the 2hp Verb. I'll keep it in mind ^_^


After reading up on some of the modules, I've created another iteration:

ModularGrid Rack

Most notably is that I've taken out the Metron sequencer and Mutant Clap, swapped out the Performance Mixer for Cosmix Pro, re-added the Scrooge, and added Scrat and Messor.

The Numeric Repetitor and Traffic (thanks for the suggestion, looks really interesting) will help with rhythm generation. Scrooge can help with sequencing as well (I've added a 4hp blank panel as stand-in for Della next to it), and of course Pam's can help with sequencing as well. The Numeric Repetitor is a module I already own, and I'm glad that it found it's place into this rack. I think it could be a very interesting module to combine with Traffic and DPLPG.

Cosmix Pro "only" has six channels (and only two are stereo), so I had to take out one of the drums. Mutant Clap was the one that I was least interested in, but it "solved" a problem I had: I really want Mutant Hihats, and it's 13hp... those odd numbered modules can be frustrating =P So when I discovered Scrat, which is 9hp, it solved that problem, in addition to sounding really awesome. It might be awkward to have two filters, but I think Steve's and Scrat both bring enough to the table. Also, I agree that the clap can be handled by Rample, so out it went.

And again, thanks for suggesting the Messor, I think it will work very nicely as a glue compressor for the whole rack ^_^


I appreciate all the feedback - there's a lot of modules that I'll read up on, the drum machine will evolve more before it's final state, that's for sure (if there even is such as thing as "complete" with eurorack systems =P )

There's a lot of modulation in the second iteration for sure, and I wouldn't end up with such a beast in the real world, as I would buy it piece by piece over a long time, and would find the soft spot long before something like this. That said, I could probably skip half of the mirrored modules and still have enough. And I do enjoy the use of 1U-modules that was suggested earlier, so I did another iteration, this time with 7u + 104hp:

ModularGrid Rack

I swapped the Performance Mixer mk2 with mk1, as it is much smaller, and should be enough for this set of modules. I like this setup, but just so it's explicitly said: I probably won't end up with this. I plan to buy modules one by one over a long time, and interests will change with experience and research, so who knows where I'll end up. That's part of the fun with modular synth for me ^_^

I might throw out Metron altogether, as it is quite big for such a case, and rely on the Oxi One as sequencer for drums. With the freed up space I could add back Pam's, which could handle the work of handling accents (thanks for the advice, hadn't thought of that), hell, I might even add back Scrooge (I'm fond of the idea of the other drum modules handling "traditional" electro drum sounds, and the Scrooge just adding chaos and cool details) and their new extension, Della, and use Scrooge as the off-load sequencer. But I just saw Cinematic Laboratory's video on it, so I need to understand it better first (hopefully it will be added to MG soon).

All to say - who knows where I'll end up wrt the drum machine. The exploration is part of the fun, and thanks again for the feedback, it gives me even more ideas ^_^


Another iteration done, would love to hear what you think ^_^

ModularGrid Rack

I've removed the Scrooge and introduced a bunch of modules to handle CV generation and modulation. Most notably I've introduced Pamela's Pro Workout, mainly to a) handle clock manipulation, and b) as a LFO module, but there's probably a lot more I can use it for. There are more LFOs, a couple of S+H modules, and a couple of 3x MIA to mix some interesting CV signals. There are probably more things I could add (like switches - I'm not too familiar with them, but I'll research more on their uses), but I think these changes should bring a lot of possibilities.


Hi all, thanks for your replies. You've convinced me that I should add more modulation modules. I'll revise the design and come back when I have an update ^_^

Just wanted to give some more context, to paint a better picture so to say, and to reply more concretely to some of the feedback.

Pulsar-23 it's definitely an interesting choice. I already own the Lyra-8, and in "money's no limit"-land (aka fantasy world) I'd have a Pulsar-23 and Ornament-8 as well. In fact, if money were no limit, I would buy Pulsar-23 and build a drum machine with eurorack modules, just because it sounds like a bunch of fun. Completely overkill, I know, and there are probably other, more efficient ways of producing music, but it sounds like a bunch of fun.

Wrt using only the Oxi One sequencer: I'm planning to have multiple racks covering various functions, and the idea is that the Oxi One can step in as a sequencer in all of them, but for the drum machine I want to have an additional sequencer to offload the "main sequencer". I have this setup in my Suitcase rack, using the M185 sequencer to handle some of my sequencer needs, and the Oxi One for the rest. I've watched some videos of people using the Metron module, and it looks very good for drum modules, and more importantly, it looks like fun ^_^

I do have 1U modules in the suitcase, and I agree they are very handy, so I'll consider switching out the drum machine case for something with 1U modules as well. I chose the Eurorack Go rack because it fits neatly into what space I have available in my home studio, but I'm aware of the problems with Behringer, so I'll take that into consideration as well.

Just to give some ideas of the current setup of my racks:

  • Drums: At some point this will be moved into a larger case, with more functionality (basically what I'm trying to plan for with the rack in this thread). I'm thinking of transforming the smaller case into a pure utility rack, with various modulation sources and ways of manipulation, as it's central to most of the other racks.
  • Bass: For now Elmyra covers most of my bass needs (but can of course use other voices for bass, and Elmyra can be used for other things)
  • CV/IO: Most importantly the ES-9, mostly for recording (I have a patchbay that all of my audio from various sources are going into before being routed to the mixer, and all signals are split so a duplicate signal are sent to the ES-9 for recording), but the Turing Machine is also very useful, especially for my Solar 42F, where I use the outputs from the Pulses module to drive the gates for the four upper voices.
  • Suitcase: This is where most of my modules are currently, but is driven by Coral and Pluck as voices (although cDVCA can also be used as a voice), and sits next to Lyra-8, and which I sometime use as processor to add delay and drive.

In addition, as mentioned, I also have a Solar 42F, which I use mostly for drones, textures, and "background" noises. (I also use Lyra-8 for drones sometimes, especially the bassy, gritty sounds are awesome, but I find it a bit hard to control, so most of the time I use it for the effects.)

I want to add another case at some point, about same size as the planned drum machine, to facilitate a bit more spacious and "out there" modules, such as Deckard's Voice, Collide 4, and Oneiroi (for those interested, you can see the current state of this idea here - but note that it's very much a work in progress, and it will need to offer more modulation features as well).

At some point I'm thinking of buying a big rack, something like the Erica Synths Megarack, but that's waaaaaaay into the future. Who knows, maybe my interest in eurorack will fade before I get there. (All of these expansions are going to take me years, so this is nothing that's going to happen anytime soon.)

Also, in case it's relevant: I'm not a professional musician, I do this on my spare time. The music I make is mostly leaning into ambience, but I also enjoy more "harder" styles from time to time (e.g. techno).

Yeah, it's an expensive hobby, but it's a ton of fun ^_^


I'm thinking of buying a Behringer Eurorack Go (2x140hp), and it's primary function is being a drum machine. Currently I only have two of the modules (Ultra-Kick, Pipe), so I'm very open for suggestions on other modules people might recommend. Also, this is probably waaaaaay overkill, but I think it could be a very fun and powerful system, which is the end goal ^_^

To give a bit more context: the rack will have two adjacent systems, which can provide some functions such as various effects (not sure which), LFOs, VCAs, and mults, but apart from that this system should be mostly self-sufficient.

Some thoughts on the modules:

  • Pipe to connect to Oxi One for global clock and various sequencers
  • Metron + 4x Voltera should cover most of my sequencer needs (realistically I probably won't need to use all at once)
    • 1-4: Ultra-Kick (gate), Ultra-Perc (gate), Kraken (gate + accent),
    • 5-8: Rample (4x gate),
    • 9-12: Mutant Clap (gate + accent), Mutant Hihats (2x gate + accent),
    • 13-16: Scrooge (5x gate)
  • Scrooge has its own sequencer as well
  • Performance Mixer mk2 for mixing needs + extension for returning aux 1 and aux 2.
    • 1: Ultra-Kick
    • 2: Ultra-Perc
    • 3: Kraken
    • 4: Rample
    • 5: Mutant Clap
    • 6: Mutant Hihats (open)
    • 7: Mutant Hihats (closed)
    • 8: Scrooge
    • Stereo out goes to my main mixer, where I also can mix in delay and reverb.
  • The rack doesn't really have space for effects, and it's not that important for me, so I've limited it to MFX and 2x Steve's M-22. I like the idea of two filters in stereo, as I've enjoyed that function in the Solar 42F, and I've heard good things about Steve's M-22.
  • I reckon the rest are self-explanatory, but I'm liking the ADDAC213B modules to ease some of the cable mess.

I know I probably should have more attenuaters and voltage manipulation modules in general. And the Scrooge will probably go in later iterations, as it takes a lot of space. But I really like the sounds it make (from what I've heard on YouTube), and I've grown quite fond of its sibling, the Elmyra 2, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it.

This is my first post in this forum, so apologies if I've forgotten to cover anything vital. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll try to answer ^_^