[ Hypnos Forum ]

ambient-noisescapes as interpretation of japanese zodiac horology: nezumi. collaboration album by Scott Lawlor and me at Aural Films:

https://auralfilms.bandcamp.com/album/nezumi-hour-of-the-rat

Julio, your post implies that you ended your eurorack journey. I might have missed that explanation in a previous thread. Do you mind sharing?

Yes Chris I did end my Eurorack journey.  I sold all 3 cases of modules......everything about 3 years ago.  The primary reason was that I realized that I was not a very good synth builder and what I strived to create was physically and financially unattainable. What I needed was a wall of modules for the sounds I wanted to create and I wanted polyphony.  Perhaps I was being greedy but I could hear the possibilities and this was leading into "module acquisition syndrome" which is ok as you can really get to fine tune a system as modules go out and come in but after a while you want to keep them all because each on has a special function that adds to the "the sound".

It was a wonderful voyage and one I may go on again with a much better understanding now.

Also the collaboration I did with APK, if you did not hear it.......https://dataobscura.bandcamp.com/album/falling-into-place.... was an interesting experience and I was very happy with how it came out, yet I was happier with Anthony's ambience and pads etc than my own modular contribution.  He did wonders with my sounds.....how he responded to the abstract bleeps and noises was very special but it was something I could not do myself very well.  I had a hard time integrating those modular sounds with my other synths that are the foundation of my music.  Probably a contributing factor to my decision to move away from Eurorack.  I don't think a single eurorack performance  ever made it onto a release of mine other than the Dataobsura release with APK.  Of course I have not been very prolific.

I believe a single case of well chosen module can be more than enough and for myself as I said I would go with a system designed by a maker who I believe knows what they are doing.

Haha, thanks for the input and suggestions, all. Scott: I did end up getting an Arbhar. It is probably my favorite toy right now. And the mono-in doesn't trouble me too much given that it will bounce grains across the stereo field as output. Thus, it sounds rich and lush when all is said and done. I'm tempted to pick up the Nebulae too because I think "my style" is more along the lines of working with textures rather than bleeps and bloops. And, as you noted, the potential for elastic audio options in a rack is very tempting.

Julio, I messed around with VCV Rack for a long time before diving in and was able to figure out fairly well what I would need in order to create the kinds of atmospheres in which I was interested. But, of course, VCV Rack is an approximation to real systems, and there are some key modules (e.g., Arbhar) that don't exist in that space. So there is still a lot to discover, and many experiments in what fits and what doesn't lay ahead.

Having said that, my approach has been to go "all in" rather than to slowly build something over the course of months or years. I don't mind a bit of trial and error, especially since the resell market it excellent. I've already started selling things back that didn't quite work the way I had hoped. Most surprisingly, I ended up selling my MI Beads. It is a cool module, but I wasn't connecting with the sounds I was getting from it. I don't have Clouds either.

My goal is ultimately to settle upon a system that is well-suited to generative, drifting ambient. I want it to be self-contained so I can take it on adventures and use it. Technically, I could take my laptop on adventures too, but there is something special and mysterious about modular that I had to finally stop resisting.

Julio, your post implies that you ended your eurorack journey. I might have missed that explanation in a previous thread. Do you mind sharing?

This is pure electricity transforming into sounds. Enjoy!

Very exciting for you Chris.....it is a bizarre and wonderfully crazy journey that will assist you in making sonic poetry.

I had a lot of eurorack modules during my journey, many more than my three cases could hold so be vigilant about buying and selling as it is gloriously addictive.

Please post modules that interest you and if I / forum members know we might be able to suggest.....naturally there are no bad modules.

I first got a Make Noise system and learnt from there.  12 years back I had a 3 panel Serge Modular system so I was not a stranger when I got into eurorack.

If I was going to get back into it I most likely would get a system.  One system I would look into would be Verbos.  I had a few of his modules and they were special. 

for you Chris a system might be a go place to start......Pittsburgh Modular are doing good things. Mutable Instruments is another I would like to make a system of.  I had quite a few of theirs.