Beginner: How to start?

[geddy]

Hello,

Quick intro about me. Currently own a Monotribe and a Minibrute synth set up. I have recently been looking for a new synth to buy and stumbled back across the idea of Modular synthesis, which has now caught my attention.

As a person who is predominately new to the whole system, I am looking for a beginner style starter-kit. So my question is, are there any pre-built, or instructions kits of what to buy, and where?

As someone who does not have buckets of money, I need something that allows me to get my teeth into it modular synthesis now, but also offers expansion when needed etc.

I would be very grateful for a nudge into the correct direction.

Kind Regards,
geddy

[elmegil]

Welcome to the rabbit hole

There are questions to be answered: what format do you think you'd prefer? There are 3U (Frac & Eurorack), 4U (Buchla, others), and 5U (Moog, Synthesizers.com, MOTM) formats, each of which have slight differences among them, not the least of which is control and jack layout and spacing. 1U, btw is one Rack Unit in height, 1.75 inches (give or take).

What kind of music do you want to make?

Here are a few comparisons that might help resolve the first one:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr09/articles/goingmodular.htm
http://www.modularsynth.com/chart.html

For Euro specifically:
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/01/31/eurorack-modular-synthesizers/

There are a number of resources here (see the schematics vault on the wiki, and of course the forums generally), and at Muffwiggler.com/forum discussing all the common new to modular questions.

There are DIY resources galore, from kits (synthcube.com, bridechamber.com, thonk.co.uk) to plans and PCBs (musicfromouterspace.com, http://www.modular.fonik.de/, http://birthofasynth.com/) as well as books (Ray Wilson of MusicFromOuterSpace's Make: Analog Synthesizers, Thomas Henry's An Analog Synth for the 21st Century available from Lulu http://www.lulu.com/shop/thomas-henry/an-analog-synthesizer-for-the-21st-century/ebook/product-20192699.html, many many more) and the holy grail: Electronotes http://electronotes.netfirms.com/

There are also tons of module manufacturers. Synthcube sells built modules, you can also get stuff that's not DIY at the core from analoguehaven.com or synthesizers.com or many other places, but you if you are interested in Euro you could spend a long time researching things.

Note that I'm in the states, so some of these resources (aside from Thonk) are over here and likely come with associated shipping and tax markups. Doepfer.de is the German originator of the Eurorack format, and there are many resources on that side of the Atlantic as well, I'm just not as familiar with them. Research via the internet doesn't cost much though .

Welcome aboard, try not to get too obsessed....

[geddy]

Hello and thank you for the info!

[elmegil]

Euro is the compact format, but you won't find the prices are *that* much better than 5U formats, either for manufactured modules or for DIY stuff. In fact some DIY stuff could well be more expensive because one of your biggest expenses for DIY will be pots & jacks, and Euro tends to be pretty dense with them.

For comparison I'd look at prices for VCOs & VCFs at Synthesizers.com and then at AnalogueHaven.com. Synthesizers.com has a full line of all the types of modules you'd want in MU (Moog) format, bread and butter stuff at fair prices. AnalogueHaven.com has a wide range of Eurorack and has everything as well.

You might save a bit of money on a budget Euro case vs a 5U case capable of the same "capacity" in module count, but that's really the only place I think it's very significant.

[geddy]

[elmegil]

I hope I mentioned that I was citing stateside business because those were what I was familiar with, but for Eurorack there are plenty of sellers in the Eurozone (not the least of which is the father of Eurorack, Doepfer), and I believe there are probably sellers for 5U/MU stuff as well. I don't buy synthesizers.com stuff mostly because I'm 95% DIY, so for all I know he has a European distributor....

As for 3U having "a lot more modules" I think that's simply because Euro sizing is not as rigid as 5U sizing. Whether it's a downside depends a lot on your personal preferences. Euro modules can be crazy variable, leading to a rack that looks like a bunch of random stuff, whereas if you buy all synthesizers.com stuff, you will have a very nice, consistent look, and common interface across all your modules. Many 5U modules other than Roger's are also available with compatible panels that also match the typical standards.

In my opinion (but this is only for my own "workflow" such as it might be), Euro offers greater diversity at the cost of inconsistent and sometimes obscure interfaces (unless you only buy Doepfer modules ). It is also much smaller which can make it harder to work with depending on how dexterous you think you are, size of your hands, etc. If you're willing to DIY, 5U has plenty of diversity as well, and if you don't care about all that there are certainly sufficient premade modules to make a good instrument or people who can build for you.

[Antimon]

geddy!

I would like to second this link that elmegil posted:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr09/articles/goingmodular.htm

It is written my a guy who used to hang around here, in the perspective of someone in the UK that wanted to get into modular synths but didn't know much, which seems a bit like your situation.

I'm definitely no modular superexpert (I have a small system that I got from Curetronic a few years back, nice full format modules with really crappy panels that I made myself), but a couple of things:

You indicate that you're not on a big budget, moving from a monotribe/minibrute setup. Know that a modular will cost you. "Low budget" doesn't really rhyme with modular.

Also, you may want to get more than one VCA, that was my mistake.

Good luck!

[BobTheDog]

The mistake I made when first setting mine up was not getting lots of VCAs, lots of active and passive multiples and lots of offset/attenuators

Boring but necessary.