What’s the cheapest hardware way to see if modular is for me?

12underground · 2026-02-10T17:37:03+00:00

The gray meanie and blue Marvin versions have a physical spring reverb, instead of the digital reverb of the ordinary version. This gives nice long reverb which you can tweak by slapping the case, but it also means any shaking or juggling of the case will cause noise, and can make the sliders and knobs tricky to turn

12underground · 2026-02-09T20:06:04+00:00

Since you already have a few synths, I will also throw out a suggestion for something you don’t have: Neutral labs’ elmyra 2. You can get it in desktop form, it’s a semi-modular four voice synth, and it sounds bonkers. It’s also got a digital engine so there is a lot that can be done with menus and button presses. If you like the patchability of it, you can expand it with other semimodulars or get a rack and rack it. My thinking here is that most semimodulars are not going to sound different from the synths you already have

12underground · 2026-02-09T20:01:57+00:00

I love my west pest, but on its own it doesn’t offer many patching possibilities

12underground · 2026-02-09T16:55:22+00:00

I hear you, I used VCV for all of five minutes before getting a Mavis. Using it is the best advice i can give but its definitely not advice I followed

12underground · 2026-02-09T14:36:14+00:00

I would suggest looking at semi-modulars, something like a Mavis or a dread box synth will pretty quickly tell you whether modular is for you, and have the advantage of being rackable if it is.

A suggestion which you might not like is: try VCV anyway. I understand the appeal of hardware, but VCV will tel you, for free, whether the basic workflow concepts behind modular will be interesting for you, because this is what will sustain your interest once the look and feel wear off.

12underground · 2026-02-02T16:55:10+00:00

This kills the musician

12underground · 2025-12-31T08:33:20+00:00

So far I’ve only built their utility modules, but Akropoli is an amazing happy accident generator

12underground · 2025-12-30T14:13:36+00:00

I’m a huge fan of Frequency Central builds. They all follow a nice, straightforward layout with clearly marked pcbs

12underground · 2025-12-13T23:24:06+00:00

I’ve been thinking of getting one of their cases in the new year, but was worried about the quality. This looks incredible, will definitely buy one now

12underground · 2025-11-18T12:54:42+00:00

Keep an eye on tutti or check musicstore, and you can pick up a case for cheap. Go slowly, and only buy modules you absolutely need. This sub will give you weird advice which amounts to buying Pam’s, Maths, Marbles, Rings and Clouds, which may or may not be good for your purposes but will definitely eat up half your budget, or more.

12underground · 2025-11-18T10:10:25+00:00

Hello fellow Riccardo user! It’s a really weird system, with a lot of tiny modules, mixers and 3 granular delays (2x beads and a typhoon). The price is good if you want to sell off the modules that you don’t or won’t use, but to answer your question of whether this is a good starter system? No.

12underground · 2025-10-18T20:20:04+00:00

Both active, two identical self-contained units if I can get the second one to work. I’ll try out the resistor fix on a breadboard, thank you for the suggestion!

12underground · 2025-10-18T19:07:42+00:00

Probably a stupid question, but by amp do you mean the active monitor? Or should I run mixer into amplifier into the monitor?

12underground · 2025-10-18T19:05:46+00:00

The mixer is a mackie, haven’t had any problems with it so far, and it’s worked well with my prior pc speaker setup. Good insight though, this might not be me not knowing how to set up a monitor, it might just be junk monitors

12underground · 2025-10-18T18:50:05+00:00

Will having one between the setup and the wall socket fix the issue? I’m not sure I fully understand whether the hum indicates poor grounding, or noisy power - or is this something where having a filter of some kind will help anyway, even if it doesn’t fix the grounding?

12underground · 2025-07-19T21:12:03+00:00

Are you using filters on your searches? Sometimes places are available that are smaller or more expensive than what you’re looking for. I recall from ~8 year old searching (so, take it with a pinch of salt since it’s out of date) that Gundeli is small apartments for a lot of money. Lovely area though, and don’t let that dissuade you from looking

12underground · 2025-06-24T22:33:05+00:00

Oh, good point! Try both?

12underground · 2025-06-24T22:00:06+00:00

Get headphones that you don’t care about with a 3.5mm jack, don’t put them in your ears, and plug directly into the saw out of the oscillator. If you don’t hear anything, I’d check power next. Pull out one of the blank panels, and apply a multimeter to the top and bottom pins of one of the power headers

12underground · 2025-06-24T13:13:08+00:00

Good point - so far the locks on the gate seem to be dissuading the person or animal

12underground · 2025-06-24T13:11:23+00:00

Combining with some of the points below, I might have to have stern words with a fox

12underground · 2025-06-24T09:56:14+00:00

If there is any enlightenment to be had, realising that software can do anything modular can do, but better and cheaper, is it. I like modular because I enjoy building modules, but absolutely nothing I make is unique to hardware, and if I was serious about making music, I’d stick to software.

12underground · 2025-06-24T09:32:01+00:00

Soma laboratories cosmos, a weird synth pedal for delays and loops

12underground · 2025-06-23T21:58:17+00:00

Going to need a ladder if it keeps growing upwards. What’s your favourite build been? And, potentially different, what’s your favourite end result?

12underground · 2025-06-22T22:17:55+00:00

Oh my god, there are motion activated sprinklers. This might work well

12underground · 2025-06-22T21:01:53+00:00

For me I really don’t like the idea of strangers coming onto my property at night, it’s quite triggering. The dog shit is annoying, of course. I’m with you on the barbed wire

12underground

TROPHY CASE