So I’ve had a Pittsburgh Modular Lifeforms SV-1 for a little while now and have been holding off on expanding on it until after I had been able to afford a drum machine. I was able to get a good enough deal, with the help of a friend visiting from the states, that I actually have enough left over get started. I would love some suggestions. I’m leaning towards getting Maths, cause everybody seems to love it, and it looks like it could handle lots of different tasks, which helps as i don’t have that much space. I’d like to only get one or two modules to start with. Anyone have any ideas or reasons why I shouldn’t get Maths and get two other modules instead?
Will not give advice until you give some hint to what you’d like to do or achieve.
Blind advice is pointless.
That’s a good advice already
‘Because everybody seems to love it’ isn’t the reason to get something dude. Get it because it’s something you want.
Maths is great will add something to any system, but your sv1 is already a balanced system by itself with quite a lot of utilities. What are you missing? Why do you want to expand it? Do you want add a different sound source? Do you want to sequence it? Do you want process the sound of the sv1 with some effects? etc. etc.
ya my bad. i mean I’d like to do a lot more than I’ll be able to achieve right now ideally, but I also don’t really know that much of what is possible. Only things I know for sure that i think would be cool to have is an envelope generator, mixer, a send/return for my pedals, and modulation in general sort of. Some kind of sound source that’s sufficiently different from the SV-1 and A4 would be cool as well.
I have a lot of learning to do before I have a real set goal. I guess something interesting that might force me to take a new approach to things and learn some new tricks. I’m planning on going the DIY route for most of it, but I want to spend some time with something I’m not very familiar with to get a better idea of what I should invest my time and money in.
I’m really not doing well at explaining myself. It’s not really that there’s something missing in my setup that I’m dying to do so much as that I have some extra time and money, am interested in electronics and music, and I’d like to explore something new.
you have an envelope generator, modulation and mixer in your sv1 available. You can use further envelopes and lfos from the cv outs of your A4. You can route the sv1 in the audio input of your a4 to apply effects. You can also sequence the sv1 from your a4. that’s a lot.
If you want a sound source different from your gear you might want to have a look at oscillators available in eurorack. there are many available sounding different to your sv1, digital and analog. There are tons of demo videos on youtube.
You can visit modulargrid and search for oscillators. You can use this oscillator together with the sv1 and a4. after you get a feeling for it you can ask yourself or us, what would make sense to get next
moog mother 32 … this thing is so beginner friendly and easily understood (cough cough) sweet to see what is going on and go from there.
dont do modular … but u probably heard it before
ya sorry about the painfully ignorant question. I am definitely a complete beginner, and I know it’s kind of annoying when people ask super general questions.
I’m still only a little more than 6 months into making music again after several years of heroin addiction, and I find myself getting pretty easily over excited and getting ahead of myself. I had sold all my gear save a couple guitars, and I’m maybe in too much of hurry building back up. I’ve mostly played guitar before, but I always liked picking up different kinds of gear and seeing what I could make of it. Always loved drum machines and had a lot of fun with rather frivolous explorations with loopers, a 50’s hammond, and some pedals i made with my dad. Initially I started picking up electronic instruments this time around cause there’s nobody to play in a band with up here, but I ended up completely falling in love with synthesisers. I absolutely love the fact that I don’t understand all of it and that it’s all so new and inspiring.
Sorry about how much of a mouthful that turned in to. TMI as the kids say, I’m sure. I wasn’t sure how else to give my query any context. I guess I should probably take some more time to patch the SV-1 and A4 before I make any more guesses as to what new element I’d like to introduce.
Thanks for bearing with me.
(if anyone has an idea for VCO or something, that would be cool)
You don’t have to excuse for asking questions, it’s totally fine. And eurorack is overwhelming in the beginning.
If you want to patch things, and learn about synthesis, I recommend to have a look at the make noise 0-coast. Make noise is a popular eurorack module developer, and the 0-coast is a patchable semimodular that brings a lot to the table for a very fair price. It has mostly a so called west coast synthesis (buchla, serge) approach, so it will differ from your sv1 and a4 in sound as well as handling.
There are countless vcos in euro, if you want something digital you might want to have a look at the classical braids by mutable instruments, erica wavetable vco, piston honda or the mighty shapeshifter. There are also physical modelling options like mutable elements or the intellijel plonk. Mysteron or tellharmonic from make noise look interesting. Loquelic iteritas by noise engineering or the klavis twin wave look great. Just to name some digital popular vcos.
Many people love complex oscillators which are also from the buchla approach. Make noise dpo, verbos complex osc, furthrrr generator or the pittsburgh double helix.
I think you are covered now with oscs to research. Please don’t buy all of them at once
Future Music’s monthly modular series on YouTube is really good for explaining the principles of it, and covering how various individual modules can be used.
Here’s one that might be particularly relevant - unusual oscillator creation:
Read the sticky topics in the eurorack section of Muffwigglers… you will much of use there. It is also an excellent forum populated by knowledgeable people (like here…).
Maths is a useful utility module (capable of audio rates)… if you have the need for its functionality. Be prepared for a lot of research as there are so many fine options no matter what categories you are looking to explore.
just for the record i don’t have any maths or clouds in my euro case
the SV-1 is already a dual oscillator module, with lots of utility already. you can go a long ways with just that and adding some features here and there. I’m not familiar with the SV-1 Midi 3 module, but it looks like it has some LFOs, if that is the case, adding more VCAs and Envelopes would be a cool way to start doing stuff with modulation. If that is the case, I highly recommend the Intellijel Quadra + Expander, Mutable Blinds, WMD Triple Bipolar VCA (although I opted for Blinds over the this one), and a WMD/SSF SPO…or two
I see lots of people stuffing all kinds of sound sources into their euroracks but you can get quite a bit of mileage from a single sound source with plenty of modulation and ways of controlling and altering the modulation.
as I emerged from the rabbit hold I kept a small assortment of modules, 8 VCAs might seem like it’s too few, but once I’m using all 8 of them in a single patch it’s plenty. If I wasn’t trying to keep all the subcon modules in my case (the whole reason I got into eurorack) I would probably use the 18 hp from the Model 15 to stuff another quadra expander and and 2 more spos in there.
I haven’t been able to access muffwiggler for some reason. I don’t know if the site is down or something? But ya maybe I don’t really have any need for something like that. Been wondering if I should just go for the stuff I can get used relatively cheap to get started. 0coast looks cool, but I was trying to avoid getting a whole other synth, since I already have two. I dunno. Maybe it makes the most sense if I would end up looking for a lot of the same functions in modules.
Woah 8 VCAs sounds like a lot to me, but I’m having a hard time picturing how to use VCA modules to the extent that it sounds like people do. Does that still apply in a small system? And I mean very small. I want to start with just 84hp to begin with, including the SV-1. I’ll probably get another row in not all that long, but i had enough wood for one 84hp case lying around and whipped one together the other day already and don’t want to buy a bunch of modules before I have a better idea what I wanna do
This video series on VCAs is pretty helpful.
I use most of mine for controlling modulation, so I would say yeah it still applies to a small system. The modulation capabilities is what makes eurorack so appealing to me.
The forum is down until 1 October, I believe.
I’m actually thinking about getting some kind of sampling module and something to do an effects loop with my pedals, so that I can record and sample stuff with my guitar, loop them, and modulate it with cv. The Phonogene and morphagene look super fun but cost so much, so I’m having a hard time commuting to the idea. It was one of the first thoughts I had about modular, though. Anyone have experience with something like that or know of any other sampling modules with as much cv control?
you want your sv1 inside the 84hp case?
Ya for now. I got it really cheap without the blackbox case. I’ve thought about maybe just building a little case for it instead, but another row seems like it makes more sense. I’d really prefer to get modules one at a time, though, so I can learn as much about how they work and what I might want to use them with before making rash purchases. Maybe two to start with, which might be the whole rest of the case if they’re kinda big anyway