One of the thrills of modular synths is that they never end. Individual modules come and go, patches are found and lost, whole approaches to music can change, and all the while your system—or systems—are in flux.
But when it comes time to perform, you have to decide that your rig is complete, at least for a night. And that presents its own challenges and opportunities. It's also a personal endeavor, packed with questions that are so tied up in what music you want to create that you can really only answer them yourself.
That's why, in our premiere episode of Patch Work, our host Fess Grandiose explains how he built his personal performance rack. We hope that, in hearing why he chose the modules in his current setup, you can learn a little more about what might work for yours.
So what's in Fess' performance rack?
- Case: Make Noise 7U CV Bus Case
- Oscillators: Make Noise STO, Mutable Instruments Rings, Modbap Modular Osiris
- Function generators: ALM/Busy Circuits Pamela's New Workout, Make Noise Maths
- Low pass gates: Make Noise LxD,
- Random voltage generators: Music Thing Modular Turing Machine, Steady State Fate and DivKid RND Step
- Quantizer: ADDAC System Intuitive Quantizer
- Utilities: DivKid Mutes, Mutable Instruments Veils, Noise Engineering Vice Virga, ALM/Busy Circuits Beast's Chalkboard
- LFO: Instruo and DivKid Ochd
- Mixer: 4MS Listen Four
- Effects: Modbap Modular Per4mer, Make Noise Mimeophon
- Filter: Make Noise QPAS
In future episodes of Patch Work, Fess will be interviewing other artists and luminaries across the modular world, asking them to talk through their own current rigs.
Follow along with Fess' rig and find many more options in our "Beginner's Guide to Eurorack: Case Basics, Power Supplies, and Your First Modules."