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Be sure to look into MANUFACTURER SUB-FORA as well..
Just belatedly discovered Expert Sleepers Disting (Mk 4) after years of not bothering to find out what those funny little 'stick' modules where all about.
As soon as the penny dropped - it just took a moment - I immediately bought one... cheap (more so if you buy an earlier version) and multi-functional... you could build a whole modular system out of these little shape-shifters!
Intellijel Quad VCA maybe. Fairly inexpensive, probably used in every patch because it's useful for amplifiers, attenuating, mixing, inserting line levels, etc. Not an exciting answer but there ya go.
QuBit Nebulae - worth every penny for just the granular sampler, but on top of that there's like a zillion alternate instruments you can load onto it (which I actually rarely make use of). It's the main sound source in my sampling system.
GuyaGuy wrote: ↑Mon Feb 03, 2020 11:15 pm
Intellijel Quad VCA maybe. Fairly inexpensive, probably used in every patch because it's useful for amplifiers, attenuating, mixing, inserting line levels, etc. Not an exciting answer but there ya go.
Id have to agree on this one. I think my VCAs are the biggest value.
i have one discrete VCA and the rest have their own built in and i have a couple LPGs... how do VCAs compare to LPGs? for mixing i like the cp3 and its saturation although i havent used mine yet, still building it
Klavis Twin Waves for all of the function that it brings in a small space. Clever thing.
Mutable Instruments Plaits for how great it sounds and the fact that it’s a full voice rather than just an oscillator. Also very easy to use, like Twin Waves.
New track! Our first release in a year and a half. Mostly based on the TINRS Fenix IV.
solipsvs wrote: ↑Tue Feb 04, 2020 12:45 am
i have one discrete VCA and the rest have their own built in and i have a couple LPGs... how do VCAs compare to LPGs? for mixing i like the cp3 and its saturation although i havent used mine yet, still building it
People mostly seem to like LPGs because of the natural decay. If you ping it directly with a gate it will pass sound and then have a short decay, whereas if you ping a VCA it will just be on/off like tapping a key on an organ. You an approximate the same thing with a VCA/VCF combo
+1 for Klavis Twin Waves. It can do so much and it's 2 in 1. Incredible value especially in reduzed size racks and for melody use. If, on the other hand, you are looking for most extreme modulation or smoothest fm sounds, it can't beat good analog modules, but it'll take several times the space and money to replace it.
As for other kinds of modules that I use particularly much... I love my DPLR, and the Punch v1 gets a lot of use, too. But I have enough variety in vcas and filters and there isn't the one module that gets used nearly all the time, unlike the twin waves among my vcos.
I have my Expert Sleepers FH-2 doing a LOT simultaneously, unlike Disting which will only do one thing at a time. I have its 8 (16 really because I use it with the 4HP expander) outputs doing generic MIDI-to-CV, MIDI-controlled Euclidean gate patterns, free-running or clock-synced LFOs that range from audio-rate to 1/2032 of the BPM, slewing CV derived from sequences of CC messages, and outputting envelopes with long release times instead of gates so that I can scale their amplitude with MIDI velocity and mult those to scale the amplitude of the actual Euro envelopes I use. I use its two inputs to tune oscillators, quantize CV to microtonal scales, modulate Euclidean or clocking parameters, or record CV into the DAW as MIDI.
I have basically been more than satisfied using it for the clocking, LFO, and Euclidean roles that Pam's New Workout gets used for, simply as bonuses on top of its insanely flexible MIDI-to-CV functionality.
Might be a boring answer but if you want value you have to look at Ladik and Doepfer really. Well-made, flexible modules at a price point I don't think anybody else matches. And, despite reputations, they do offer some weird ones!
in the past it would have been my Fonitronik DIY LPG. Anyway my modified later one with a self drawn PCB.
now, when i look back what i patched the last 12 months:
my not exctly cheap E370 VCO. Yes / Go figure
and probably also my Nebulae2. which is also not excactly light on the pockets.
thats how useful and versatile these modules are
they shine in *supersmall* patches as well as in big blown up ones.
( yes, i can and do use them sometimes without any VCA, Filter and what not..... )
I have some other delightfully inexpensive modules I get a good mileage out of, but I use Maths in nearly every patch—it’s practically a hub of activity.
Both Klavis Mixwitch and Dnipro Metamorph are getting up there. Both are a steal and come in handy all the time.
Funk40 makes a good point, though: some of my most invaluable modules aren’t inexpensive, per se. For me, the Sinfonion would be an example. It costs $1,000, and it’s arguably the single most important module in my rack.
I feel very good about my Hertz Donut mk2, given current prices.
Maths I think is also a good value.
And while I don't particularly enjoy using it, I think Disting mk4 is probably one of the best values in Eurorack. Even if you only ever use it as a delay, it's pretty good at that and costs less than many other delay modules...
(This is all relative to the general cost of Eurorack, which, let's face it, isn't super economical... we pay a premium for the flexibility and to get to sonic and artistic places that cheaper, non-modular synths and software won't go.)
I would like to say Disting Mk4 but I honestly hardly use it. When I do it often gets relegated to the handful of algorithms I know by heart just because I don't want to crack out the manual. It does most everything well and I love it, but the dense UI makes it just something I don't go to that often.
I think I would go with the Intellijel Steppy. The latest update added per-step control over probability, gate length, delay time, and ratchets. It's just a ridiculous amount of capability for the price and size. With independent track lengths and tracks up to 64 steps, plus the cool loopy mode I can' think of a trigger sequencer I'd rather have.
If I were to start over it would be the first module I'd buy.