So, is everybody getting out of modular?

Which one, out of curiosity?

Summit!

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Noice.

It’s the arms

Long as fuck, ain’t they.

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image

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So this thread is officially over?

*did anyone get any good deals?

We had a good run.

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Agree, I was thinking the same thing but with “bring 80’s/90’s synthesis (digital FM, granular, modal) into a modular format” tacked on.

I think things are less mind-blowing now in eurorack but not because ingenuity/creativity has slowed but because the mind-blowing ideas are used up to some degree so now the focus is on refinement. Joranalogue stuff is a good example of this - same old modules just better. Less exciting but not a sign that things are getting worse. Lots of things play out this pattern. Movies, video games, and computers come to my mind.

side rant:
Also too much mind-blowing isn’t necessarily a good thing. Remember Zelda II? All they had to do is make a new map and some new items and laugh all the way to the bank. Nope, they’ve gotta blow everyone’s mind. Luckily they came to their senses with the third one and made the best game ever.

Sorry for the serious post everyone. <insert hasselhoff pic>

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I’m selling my whole eurorack collection this week. This is the 3rd or 4th time I’ve sold everything and got back into it. 2nd and 3rd time was because I proba had a few modules kicking about still, but each time I’ve started a new rack with a different focus. I’ve just explored it a few ways now and it’s not for me

Whilst I’m not sure about the full validity of this thread’s claim (I’m not sure if a perceived amount of for sale racks automatically means one thing or another, it might just mean that the market has grown since the last few years and there’s a recession going on), it’s true that there’s currently (and always) great deals to be found second hand.

I recently took the Eurorack plunge (a little over a year ago). Definitely late in the game, but I’m glad I did because I feel I have a larger field of choice than I would’ve if I had dipped in 10 years ago. Not just choice either, but also knowledge- These days there is a tutorial/review/podcast about every single module. It’s great.
I’m enjoying my slow time at work by learning all the stuff I bought this last year, and man…I’m really enjoying myself…and I feel like my choice of modules was informed by my background in music, and I am getting exactly what I had planned to get out of it all (and more). I actually had an intention going in, and that slowly mutated into where my rack is now.
As for the OP’s question, I wonder if the eurorack phase is similar to the folk who get into the Octatrack. Lot’s of people love the idea of the Octatrack, but once they get one, they get overwhelmed with all that it can do (and other reasons for sure). I’ve had my OT for 5 years and I’m still learning. I’m hoping modular will be the same.

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At that time, and at least in Euro, the Mutable Instruments, Make Noise, Malleko, NLC, and Mannequins seemed to always bring something new to the table. While you could say that much of Make Noise was bringing in some of the elements from the Buchla/Serge, it still was fairly new to Eurorack. Random Source was just starting to bring modules from there as well, though I can’t remember if the were DIY only or not at the time. Rings, Clouds, Voltage Block, Rene, Maths, Tsycklon Labs Chaos Divider, Basimilus Iterritas Alter as a voice, Just Friends, Three Sisters, the WMD Sequential Switch Matrix takes a switch and turns it on top of its head. 4MS was also doing a few modules here and there that were pretty brilliant seeming at the time.

You could look at popularity on Modular Grid to see a list of what’s in racks that could “kind of” provide this.

I guess my point is, as someone that blew my wad at that time, coming back a few years later, and even today - there’s not much I see in the way of new modules that offer enough new concepts that aren’t already spoken for in my cases. Maybe I’m just the rare Euro guy that’s happy w/ his case(s)…

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You could be right in that it’s not the creativity has slowed so much as the ideas have been incorporated in some way at this point.

I never meant to imply that things are getting worse - only that I’m not really in the market for new modules at this point, and that may be part of the issue. There could be others like me not seeing any new modules that accomplish something not already at their disposal…

I don’t remember Zelda 2 because I was never into Zelda. But I am old enough to remember when Happy Days actually jumped the shark, so I should know Zelda 2.

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Gladly

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Horsellhoff

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The vast used market will probaply tempt many, many potential users in the future.
We’ll see how supply chain and other issues will be handled, but Erica Synths re-issuing a few Hexinverter modules seems like a good sign.

Btw, seems accurate:

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Hasselhorse

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i can see people ultimately realizing that while its the most creative and fun tool for experimenting, you dont get the same musicality as an all-in-one synth built with specific components that work together in harmony. or at least that was my reasoning, besides not being able to keep up with the constant new modules i wanted

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i got to a kieth fullerton whitman workshop once where it became so clear the ways modular is sort of like a multidimensional synapse. it’s so neuronal and adaptive, but also like a wormhole. you really feel the electricity is routed and contained in ways around the system, and you’re just opening taps, changing directions, switching pipes, changing the house the pipe is going to, opening multiple taps at once etc etc.

to me i think thats its central way of working or method, at least in the way i understand it. control voltage says everything really. whereas digital systems are just all about random access memory. it’s a different philiosophy - it’s more like an infinite filing cabinet that can get you whatever you want, whenever you request it.

but theres something in hardware - whether it’s modular or just a box - in that a hardware designer has selected and chosen elements bespoke to that unit. thats curation, artistic decision. i think there’s something in that, too. wanting to survey and explore a designers creative and artistic intent with a particular invention.

i’ve personally never got a leg up on modular though. i bought clouds once, and sold it (my only module) and have never had the guts to pull the trigger on a case. to me it’s just such an abyss. a giant cliff i’m standing on in dark cavernous space and i really have no idea what’s down there, so i just don’t go there

i’m still curious about modular, i’d like to try it, but elektron give me enough mileage and everything feels contained and serviceable enough without having to lose your mind over functional logistics - something the inventor takes care of. modular makes you the inventor in some ways, and sometimes i think that maybe once you’ve got enough hardware boxes, modular is a logical next step. but for me i waver more between no boxes and some boxes, and have never quite taken the leap into the unknown yet. maybe one day

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