Totally new to modular, anybody have any advice or anything?Going to have to get a loan out to buy all this stuff…
I think my rack is fairly complete but maybe im missing out on some fundamental modules, i dunno.
Anyways heres what im gonna build
Try vcvrack
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Can you use those specific modules in it?
Whats this setup going to give u that u cant do in the digital realm ?
You must be joking dude, the sound!!
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the virtual modular is a good simulator for understanding what you need from the system. sound quality and sound are individual. but it should be borne in mind that most of the modules are a combination of elements that have long been invented
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I have a nord modular for almost 20 years , digital but amazing .
For software there are lots of options , I am a reaktor head …blocks sounds pretty great
Vcv is also good , but there are a hell of a lot of modules , some are great ( vult stuff ) , some are not etc…there is also an ( official ) vcv rack vst in the making …dunno when it will be released
Lot’s of good stuff available
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In my opinion the sound from all virtual modular is lame in comparison, albeit a great way to learn. I have Reaktor blocks and I’m not really pushed with it, it just doesn’t excite me. Anyone here have a real modular rig? Nothing virtual? Nord modular does seem cool, i had my eye on that years ago…
For sure modular synths are pretty and you can make great youtube videos with them. As for the sound design…
What I heard so far was a combination of simple sounds blended together in various ways, but there wasn’t anything groundbreaking that made me think “omg I need a hardware modular synth to recreate this sound”.
I think really learning a vst inside-out (like surge or vital) will make you create more interesting compositions than spending time building a modular setup. But then of course if you like pretty things or want to take it to the stage etc this can make sense.
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and the “analog sound quality”…
- a lot of famous modules are digital (like the audible instruments ones). If you want you can use the vcvrack version of those modules, the sound will be 100% equivalent
- Even for analog stuff, how will that really affect your mix ? Most of people care about the general rhythm or melody of your tracks, if you used this analog gear or a vst won’t matter at all in my opinion, especially if you don’t only use your analog synth in your tracks.
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Its really weird u see these people spend thousands on racks just to make ambient drones.
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Sorry dudes I just don’t subscribe to virtual gear being able to emulate hardware synths decently.I own a ton of gear and nothing stacks up to them.Yamaha fs1r, clavia lead a1,different
Dat machines, cassette mixers, Waldorf pulse 1, notation super bass station, monologue, boss space echo pedal, boss gt6-b, maCkie vlz pro, focusrite platinum penta, Aphex exciter.Amiga 600 and 1200 electribe esx 1,filter queen, jomox t resonator,behringer td-whatever.Point being the virtual gear can’t even mimic an Amiga sufficiently.Thats not even analog…The bass station I have is amazing, only 100 euros or something but the fuckin sound is really something.In particular what virtual gets the most wrong is filters, especially the resonance, they just all fall flat in comparison.Anywys back to my rig I should explain it’s suited to drums and it is not intended to be a synth by any means.The Hyperion processor takes up a lot of hp,so I might swap that out.
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I’m going to!applying for my loan now haha.gonna be awesome, whoever said I’m lacking in vca is probably right,it was the one aspect I was truly worried about.As for Scale quantisers, I really don’t need them for this rig as it will be almost 100 percent drums, I think I’ll probably build a second rig and dedicate that to vco and the like with plenty of filters and quantisers and all that good stuff.Also the micro tuning module is not needed either so il prob swap that out
Jesus dude i actually have the money!!! im getting a loan to show my bank that im capable of taking one out and paying it back quickly, it increases my chance for a mortgage and bigger loans in the future. If i wanted i could just buy it all right now but that wont help me at all really.I live in Dublin city, the average house price where i live is astronomical, 400,000 plus for an average house,so its actually going to help in the long run in terms of loans. So im not really worried about the money if im honest. Im more excited to build this fuckin thing and seeing where i can take it! I have space for envelope generators now that i will remove some modules so im going to be definitely looking into them.
Please make some videos of your patches once your have it 
The beauty of a modular synth is that everything runs at audio rate , even the modulation signals (dc signals )
In a virtual modular like Nord , audio signals run at 96Khz and most control signals at 24Khz , of course dedicated fm inputs and plain audio modulations is processed at 96khz
In reaktor (blocks ) everything runs at whatever you , altough 88Khz for both signals is good enough for me
You can’t compare this with softsynths like vital .
If your sine wave lfo is running at 500Hz , but the update rate is only 1000 Hz ,your sine lfo will look like a square wave ( since it’s only updated two times per cycle )
Tranzistow , one of the best sounding vst’s out there can have it’s mod matrix to be also processed at audio/sample rate , besides the audio rate connections thar are already there , so can dune 3 and al the other modular vst’s
Few peope seem to understand this is a big thing when doing audio rate modulations
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Yup, if you are into super-fast LFO’s what you say makes sense.
According to the VCV rack docu, the LFOs should have the same “update rate” as the VCOs:
LFO-1 & LFO-2
A low frequency oscillator is a voltage-controlled oscillator that is designed to oscillate at lower frequencies than audio rates. LFO-1 and LFO-2 are nearly identical to VCO-1 and VCO-2, with a few differences.
The range of the frequency knob is much lower than VCO-1/2, ranging from one oscillation roughly every 4 minutes to 1000 Hz.
Which i definitely am.
You ever dip into the hardware realm??asides from the nord.Although I’m interested in the nord modular too, I remember seeing it ages ago when I was first starting or around that time anyways people were always talking about it
Irrelevant really, seems as they perform this function anyway no matter what name they have.The future retro transient plus I’m most excited for, that thing is a beast so is the Hyperion processor I might keep it in my build