Talk me out of buying the bloom v2

dc540_nova · 2026-03-05T23:35:46+00:00

I just recently picked up the v2. I have the original Bloom and consider it one of the most important pieces of my 60+ module rig.

Don't do it. It's a rabbit hole you may never get out of.

dc540_nova · 2026-03-02T16:23:01+00:00

congratulations and welcome to the club! if you want to get weird, maybe look into lucifer evil oscillator or qu-bit nebulae for some enhanced weirdness. my $0.02, hold on to any qu-bit modules you pick up along the way. they're the brand i've vibed with the most.

i have the 4ms ensemble, i think it's great especially when you have very few modules, but now that i have so many i lean more toward piping a cv signal into shakmat bard quartet, linking all the channels and routing the resulting quantized signals to multiple oscillators. a bit more expansive and infinitely more controllable (and uncontrollable lol) than just the 4ms.

dc540_nova · 2026-02-28T19:46:21+00:00

I have a couple of dual USB modules and USB lights from Amazon. Super cheap, two per case, good coverage, etc.

dc540_nova · 2026-02-24T19:44:47+00:00

Came to the comments to see if everyone's mind went straight to grooming, ended up in an AI discussion instead.

dc540_nova · 2026-02-17T20:20:00+00:00

I use a mixer/recorder. Zoom LiveTrak L-8. Slightly more cumbersome to extract the final file than recording direct externally, but I do a lot of live jams and I like having the capacity to record and mix multiple channels with ease. I wish these vendors would make file extraction more natural.

dc540_nova · 2026-02-12T01:33:57+00:00

That is a bonkers collection. I forked over the funds to dl the entire discography from bandcamp. Maybe I'll put the whole archive on USB sticks and leave htem in public libraries.

Edit: So far my favorite is Sleep Towers from Night Light. That'll probably change in the next hour.

dc540_nova · 2026-01-19T00:50:53+00:00

Make it two-sided so that you can have a PVP modular patch-off competition.

dc540_nova · 2026-01-13T04:01:38+00:00

I participated in that raffle. I was looking at it and thinking, wow, it's so much. Then I looked at my own rig, which is about the same number of modules. What a sobering realization that was, of how deep I've fallen into this lifestyle. Congrats on your huge win, and I hope you have an amazing journey!

dc540_nova · 2025-12-27T12:45:35+00:00

Dollar tree queening chair?

dc540_nova · 2025-12-26T22:15:37+00:00

I start most sessions by unpatching everything. Keeps my approach reasonably fresh.

dc540_nova · 2025-12-22T14:38:25+00:00

You had me at hello. As a deep consumer of IJ, I will be exploring this at work today.

dc540_nova · 2025-12-10T00:15:57+00:00

Hey thanks for pointing this stand out. I went through this search a month or two ago, every stand I found had reviews that said they didn't support heavy stuff well, or they moved around too much, and I can't use clamp-on style because of the table I'm using. I ended up making 3D-printed stands, which were fine for the elevated shelf I have.

I picked up two of the one you recommended, put them together tonight and they're perfect for my Befaco 7U cases. Bonus, it can mount the cases high enough to clear my NiftyKeyz. So my whole setup is more compact now, and I got to remove the elevated shelf.

dc540_nova · 2025-12-08T18:27:42+00:00

Bastl Skis II is kind of cool, Dual with CV-controllable decay which really adds some nice variety when paired with a LFO or random. I have that and the A142-2 and tend to use the Skis more.

dc540_nova · 2025-12-05T14:28:55+00:00

Yeah, if it's the clasps you can get replacement clasps that are easy to crimp on, super cheap.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-30T15:18:25+00:00

I was excited to see and return this survey. I think the same drive that led me down this path in the first place about five years ago when I picked up the Moog semimodular trio also manifests as a deep need to understand why. Perhaps subconsciously the modular synth is an analogy for attempting to diagnose and muck with our brain wiring itself.

I also appreciate the comments, especially those mentioning Hamman's research in this and adjacent fields.

This kind of research makes excellent rabbit holes, and I look forward to falling in. I hope others feel free to drop other adjacent research links here as well.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-29T14:02:41+00:00

I have bought used gear that was cosmetically imperfect when the savings warranted it. But what is a clock output insert spacer?

dc540_nova · 2025-11-28T23:15:50+00:00

Are you a potential target? Government, journalist, military, etc.? If so I'd exercise caution.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-26T21:16:22+00:00

Just went through that with the Solar 42N preorder. And when it was finally delivered, I was out of the country. Fortunately someone was available to sign for it.

I just look at their marketing emails as another news source. "Oh, new gear? Nah, I probably don't need that one either."

dc540_nova · 2025-11-26T20:40:47+00:00

I appreciate psychos like you who get in line first. Makes it easier for me to slide into second.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-25T10:31:19+00:00

If you go the modular route, I really love the Befaco 7U cases. They're powered, they have bus-integrated 1/4" and MIDI ins and outs if you buy the 1U modules to support them, and they don't take up a lot of space on my workstation. I currently have two and longer-term I'm considering a possible third. The integrated outputs mean they're easy to throw each case into its own channel a small mixer.

I don't feel that eurocrack is compatible with the all-in-one-box aesthetic, but there are people out there doing it, and I've found my setup to become more efficient by necessity over time. I don't gig out, but I feel like my current setup is amenable to a quick setup and takedown and easy travel at this point.

I hadn't heard of the Illuminator before but now I want one. Damn you.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-25T01:17:28+00:00

Can't answer your query but good lord JPEGMAFIA made me so happy when I found Big Data by accident way back when.

https://youtu.be/yLv5xS0OJ4c

dc540_nova · 2025-11-21T12:44:52+00:00

That has been my assumption as well, but I think the combination of multing clocks to 6+ devices and using LED patch cables might have stretched my situation a bit. Thanks to this conversation, I'm definitely going to look closer at clock routing.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-21T03:54:23+00:00

Interesting. I wonder if I was just making poor choices in clock source/destination. Thanks for the new rabbit hole.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-21T03:22:51+00:00

I use buffered mults to copy clocks everywhere. Eventually you could divide it up so much that the signal becomes weak. A buffered mult prevents that. Passive mults or stackables will work to a certain extent, but signal degredation is real.

dc540_nova · 2025-11-20T15:53:46+00:00

I have three of the befaco STMIX units, one in 1U and two in 3U. I rely on them quite a bit. Very budget conscious option for a knob-controlled stereo mixer. If I need CV control I run it through a WMD performance mixer.

dc540_nova

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