I'd tackle this build in 3 phases...

  1. Dice(Marbles) + Monsoon(Clouds) + 1 DIY uVCA + Power and Case (TipTop Audio Happy Ending?)
  2. Tryfello LFO + 1 DIY uVCA
  3. Pixie(Plaits) (or another voice) + Add(replace?) Tryfello with Ochd

I'd skip the single VCAs and invest in a quad cascading one such as a veils clone ... you can never have too many vcas!!!

and I'd add some attenuators/attenuverters - clouds really needs them - specifically for reducing modulation from fulll voltage range to 'tiny little bits' - less really is more when modulation sources talk to clouds! Happy nerding 3 * MIA is a good example...

take a look at my signature... spend some (& buy some I mean considerable) time thinking deeply about it!!!!

it's really helpful for steering newbies into good practices...

"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia

Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!

sound sources < sound modifiers < modulation sources < utilities


Thanks for the tip... I thought about the Mutated Veiled that is a Veils 2020 clone but the populated board is out of stock in Pusherman and I don't feel confident soldering 0402 SMD...Might wait a bit if it gets restocked.
When I thought about the 4 VCAs, I thought exactly on using them as attenuators for the Clouds. Will look into the MIA but I understand Veils can do a similar job, right?
I'm trying to not rush into anything so learning as much as I can is the priority now :) Maybe I need an output module too to plug into speaker/headphone/line.


having built a few 0604 smd, I wouldn't consider 0402 smd... far too fiddly... I have some 0604 boards still to build, but increasingly poor eyesight keeps me away from them!!

I'd just buy a clone... they're only about 40-45 per channel, which is quite reasonable...

veils won't do inversion - the combination of vcas and manual attenuators/attenuverters is very complimentary...

as for an output module - in my 8 years or so of having a modular I've never had one - although the first mixer I bought had a headphone out built in... and I still have that and another mixer with headphone out... otherwise I've often just gone straight into an old yamaha mg10 mixer, without any issues... if I needed balanced outputs from the modular (and you only really need those for longer runs - especially if you are in the UK or EU and the power is decent) then I'd get an output module - otherwise as far as I'm concerned they're an unnecessary waste of both rack space and cash!

"some of the best base-level info to remember can be found in Jim's sigfile" @Lugia

Utility modules are the dull polish that makes the shiny modules actually shine!!!

sound sources < sound modifiers < modulation sources < utilities