Here is the form without the Insta-wall:
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Anyone get a newsletter?
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Will there be a shared system?! That would be GAS-inducing for sureā¦
I just got an email from Tiptop. They are getting ready to start shipping a couple of modules; 258t Dual Oscillator and 281t Quad Function Generator. Shops can start taking preorders, and I see CONTROL in Brooklyn and Perfect Circuit already have preorders available on their websites.
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Manuals are online for the two.
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Fantastic range of loops in this video by Station 252.
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Todd Bartonās intro to the Series 200 (for regular musos, vs. the USA āfor collectors and connoisseursā) modules
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Toddās great; I had the pleasure to interview him once (by email, rather than in person, sadly) and he is a fascinating character.
These modules also sound fantastic; I do worry that that many stackables cost almost as much as one or more of the modules thoughā¦
When I browse on Sweetwater, the price of one TipTop stackable is about the same as one Hosa Eurorack cable. What am I missing?
If you compare either to the price of Pomona banana cablesā¦ 
I ordered about 50 Pomonas from Mouser, all white, of varying lengths, and I could have put a small Euro system together probably. 
$6 to $8 each.
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For those of us who arenāt familiar with the Buchla/West Coast way, are banana patch cables an absolute necessity for the TipTop, not Buchla USA, 200 modules, or can you save money by using regular 3.5mm cables wherever you donāt need banana cables?
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Hmm, looks like (say) a 50 cm cable is $5.95 at Sweetwater and the same one is 7,90ā¬ at Thomann in the EU (about $8.60). So buying 32 ā which maybe seems a reasonable number to have in your Buchla case ā in the US = $190.40, and the same number of cables would cost the equivalent of ~$275 in the EU.
OK, so not as much as a TipTop / Buchla module, but still an expense to consider.
For reference, 8 x Hosa 45cm patch cables currently cost 20,90ā¬ at Thomann (so 32 = 83,60ā¬ or about ~$91) and $24.13 at Sweetwater (32 = $96.52).
All of which goes to show that shipping cables from one side of the Atlantic to the other does seem to put their prices up.
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I may have mis-read back when these were announced, but I believe they are completely 3.5mm are they not? I thought they didnāt actually use bananas. Iāll need to read up on them again.
For 4U Buchla modules of nearly any era, you need banana cables AND Switchcraft TinyJax cables which are very slightly different from 3.5mm and arenāt 100% compatible. Both being rather expensive, even to make on your own.
There are cheap ways to make your own banana cables, but Iām not a fan of most of the connectors Iāve tried. IMO itās worth it to buy Pomona specifically for banana. They are expensive, but they are VERY reliable, they always fit perfectly, and use 18AWG wire, which is heavier than most. Iāve never had one fail, even after years and years of use.
I thought that TipTop was going all 3.5mm and recommending stackables for obvious similarities, and just using different looking jacks for the control signals and audio (as these are generally kept
separate on Buchla systems.
I could be very much mistaken though, so Iāll take a look at their site.
Edit: They LOOK like bananas on their page, and the manuals donāt specify. However, in Toddās video, they appear to all be 3.5mm stackables. Now Iām slightly more confused, but still leaning toward all 3.5mm until I find more information. Looking now.
Edit Edit: Theyāre all 3.5mm. They just separate jack type to keep the visual separation of the originals. Gurās introduction video on the Tip Top site shows it pretty clearly.
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These tiptop modules are Eurorack versions of the Buchla 200 series and use 3.5mm cables. They donāt use banana cables at all.
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Seams like these modules fly off the shelves. According to tiptop the first batch of 281t has sold out. This module and the 258t have not even hit the shelves in Europe. Not what I have seen at least. Seems like a preorder is a must.
this is killing me. iāve got the first two modules in a basket and iām prevaricating. do i get on this train now? or wait a couple of months until i can afford the Easel Command i promised myself this year? aarrrrggghhh
Price is good. I respect TipTop and have a lot of their gear so it is a good pairing. But with the chip shortage I have learned that you cannot always get what you want. I donāt know how Intellijel is surviving the shortage. Seems a bad time to release a new product.
someone tell me what to do, iām going mad here