Tips for building a modular?

[Voltor07]

That will be an incredible system. I myself plan on two entry-level boxes completely full of modules...some custom, and the rest .com.

[Lux_Seeker]

Lot's of great advice here and frankly, I would just repeat most of it. I am considering building a modular system myself. I would love to go with .com because it plays well with foogers (I have 4 and a CP-251 - all rack mounted with single power supply). However, I am probably going with a Eurorack system because they have the most modules for this and I am an experimental composer so I tend to want out of the ordinary things from my equipment and I like vactrols (i.e. Buchla), I like them a lot. I almost blew my amp with the foogers the other day (and my eardrums - ouch!).

Anyway, for what its worth I tend to espouse some advice that I have found to be very useful. Most people start with technical stuff. It's like the guy who is building a car engine talking about horse power and spark plugs and timing, ect. Important when you want acceleration but music is different. It's art so start from the music. What do you want to do with the modular? How will it fit into your music. Then, build the system you need to do that. With a modular you can always add on so get what you need first and then add.

As for me, I am gluing speakers to PVC pipes and making my own vactrol gates and am even speaking to an electrical engineer about op amps so what I would do with modules is not a good example given my propensity for soldering irons.

If you ever have the money, the Voyager also sounds like a good match perhaps you could find one on E-Bay for cheap. Just a thought.

[suitandtieguy]

I think I would also get an STG ARP 4072 filter, since they are size and power compatible with the DotCom modules.

i'm always flattered to be considered for someone's cabinet.

it seems there's a couple of people here in this thread who live near me, relatively speaking. if anyone is in the area and needs facetime with a modular, i maintain one here and you just need to get a hold of me and you can drop by and play with it.

I would need a modular to play sick synth leads, because I want to play them via guitar with a pitch-to-voltage converter module eventually. Either that or the ARP avatar & hex pickup, or the EMS converter, both very expensive compared to putting together a modular.

i would _seriously_ consider a Boss WP20G Wave Processor pedal.

run that through the Synthesizers.com Q118 Instrument Interface to extract a gate and get it up to levels, and you've got quite a guitar synth with that modular.

i've got a GR-300 here, and i love it, but if i were a guitarist i'd probably go with that route. probably add an Eventide or something into the mix too. but i can be excessive i guess ...

Carrying around a modular to shows isn't a tough task, with my old keyboard player of the past couple years we'd take his B3 and sometimes 2 leslies, plus a suitcase rhodes.

that's the spirit. i maintain a fleet of Hammonds and Leslies, in addition to my electronic rig. using the real thing is not only rewarding but much simpler than some people make it out to be.