Good morning.
I’m considering moving towards building a rack (19" 3 or 4 units) and having that for opportunities to expand.
Currently, my setup has an Oto Bim, Sherman Filterbank 2 and a Ventris Reverb as my effects setup. The photo below shows how it all sits. However, I’m thinking about having a desktop rack which I can load up.
In my mind, this is a little bit like opening a Pandora’s box; my perception is that there are more opportunities to expand with a 19" rack. I’m also thinking that there are a greater number of rack based devices that I can exploit.
The pedals I have are great admittedly and I’m not considering this due to a discontentment with them. This is quite purely to open up an area to explore with devices that are currently outside of my setup.
I may be naively thinking that rack based equipment is more readily available, both new and second hand. I may also be thinking that there is a greater market for second hand effects and instruments in this form.
So . . . I guess I recognise that the motivation for this change is not initially one based on sonic quality but rather opening the door to a greater selection of equipment.
Finally, the pedals I have were bought for sound AND live performance. However, I sample them into my Octatracks so studio based equipment isn’t an issue.
Below is my current setup and a couple of photos of the desktop racks I’m considering.
I’m a big fan of the 19" rack format. It is far easier for many to build up than it is to build out on a desk. I shudder at the thought of laying out this stuff across multiple desks.
The industry move to desktop modules annoys me to no end but thankfully you can buy sliding shelf units so you can pseudo rack your desktop modules. So yeah, go 19"!
There’s not much point in going down the rack route without a patchbay. Just think of all the routing possibilities at a drop of had directly in front on you. Otherwise you’re going to be continually routing around the back to connect your devices… I would get a slightly bigger rack, factor in a patchbay and further room to expand. You can also connect your pedals via your patch bay too
I’ve no issues with my Neutrik NYS SPP-L. Switchcraft makes the fancy stuff if DB25 and TT cables are your thing.
I like something like the Furman M-8Lx because it has front illumination with a dimmer, as well as a front facing power outlet. You can go cheaper if you don’t want the lights and the price will increase if you add the voltmeter.
I recently decided to sell a bunch of my gear, and invest in building a rack setup of my dreams so this is a very timely post.
My rig centers around (and was inspired by) my recently acquired Roland Integra 7. I ordered a Louder Than Liftoff Silver Bullet to start out my signal chain for processing the Integra 7. The compressor I chose was the Stam SA4000 MKII with API mod. I also ordered a Korg MR2000 SSD to end the rack chain. Now, I’m considering going full slut, and also ordering the JuJu/Zulu bundle while there’s a deal:
