You need to dual-wield mice then! 
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I get this. I dont like touch screen or clicking with a mouse either. But I do like the fact you can literally try before you buy. Design systems, build patches, (and save them!) Until such times as youāre ready to get the physical modules.
Enjoy.
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VCV rack ect is cool, but Iām not sure it could give you a accurate idea of what most modules sound like. Possibly for the modulation effects side of thing, I would say yes, but for audio I would doubt you will come close to previewing modules. The digital stuff like Plaits (Mutable) yes. But for example, the Make Noise DPO. I am by no means an āanalogue is betterā type of person, but Iāve never heard waveforms with depth and raw power like that thing. Iāve been using Reaktor since 2.3 and my first synth was the Nord Modular (also owned a Nord G2), but most things I enjoy in the modular world, would not translate to the digital world. Bitwig, VCV rack, Reaktor, iPad, they are all amazing tools. Something like the Nord G2 is an even superior tool in some ways. But from my brief experience, Eurorack is about crazy custom equipment that would be hard to actually reflect in the screen/touch world. You could get a tiny glimmer, but, yeah, nah.
Edit;
There is also the Erica Synths SYNTRX, which looks like an endless happy accident, for hella cheap in the scheme of things.
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Get a Nifty Bundle
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Nord modular is a great answer! The micro modular you can find for about $500 and is a good halfway point between software and hardware. Kind of a bummer that you are tied to windows or an emulation but sounds great!
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System Coupe is pretty well thought out, although there are a few tools I wish it had (mainly an fx module) I guess at this point I pretty much doubled its size and am very happy the over all set up. Before I got it I got a pico system 3, and a strega. Pico system 3 while a standalone system has no pre-routed signal (unless you plug in a patch card) and no convenient built in VCAs/attenuators on certain modules, its a very raw design and teaches you to patch in a kind of more old school way, Strega showed me how dang nice having all the built in attenuators are, a lot of higher end modules are going to have features like this.
I think a used pico system 3 + a semimodular, that you maybe plan on selling from the get go will teach you a lot about what you want out of a system down the line.
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Iām not a modular person, but if you want to get a sense of patching, the Moog Grandmother is just an absolutely amazing instrument. I think it would make a good gateway as itās super musical and you could add modules to expand it. Amazing keyboard and great arpeggiator as well. Also a real spring reverb tank.
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Nord Modular is wonderful. I still have a Micro Modular I havenāt used in a while but it sounds great.
Iām not sure if Axoloti is still available but that was a similar experience and had some nice extras like MIDI processing and delays, etc.
Saw this on Reverb, sparked my interest. But what are the pitfalls buying such a system, 2000 km away from home? (apart from rough handling by carriers)
Also: when I configured this on Modulargrid, it was only a couple of 100 euroās more expensive (of course there are some discontinued modules in the case, so I would have to get an alternative)
Thatās not an original Shared: the modules are mostly recent iterations (white knobs vs blue knobs) and no Optomix, essential to the system. Only two VCAs in that listing: nowhere near enough.
Fwiw when I started putting together a rack I modeled it off a Shared.
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Cheers. I thought the XOH was some kind of mixer?
Thinking about that route too. What was the order of appearance, re. your modules? Or did you buy everything at once?
Also seems cheaper to model a rack yourself, considering the Black and Gold Plus is around 5500 euroās in Europe (if itās going to be available anyway)
It is a mixer but itās more an output interface: thereās no cv control over anything.
I went into modular with the sole purpose of having a DPO in my life. After which point I didnāt know what I wanted or needed so I went slow. I knew I need the essential sound - modulation - vca so got DPO, Maths, and moddemix (and a midi-cv module). After that I added piecemeal. Itās not exactly a Shared anymore but it was helpful to start off cross-referencing.
It is definitely cheaper to source a Shared yourself used. Black and Gold isnāt cause people sell the individual BG modules at a significant markup.
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With my minimal knowledge of modular, I think I would stay very close to an existing system I know works. That why I was also drawn to the System Coupe, but hesitant because the main sound module is focused on samples.
Well obviously you could get the system and switch the sound source but that would defeat the purpose of buying the system.
But all of these systems (and any good rack) are effectively the same balanced combination of functions, just differing on the execution: sound DPO vs Squid; cv Maths vs Quad Slope; sequencing Pamās vs Rene; VCA mod/Optomix vs Tangle and so on. So keeping your module options in line with that will get you a good base from which to start.
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Yeah, I think my ideal starter would be the System Coupe with something like the dpo. Enough sample based stuff already, and I want to combine a modular system with the OT for mixing, mangling and fx.
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Get you an account on ModularGrid and have fun/lose your mind.
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Already diving in there. Have a good Christmas!
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Hands on with modular is great to learn but I would advise before buying anything to really get to grips with how modular works in VCV. This will inform your purchase decisions and stop you wasting time and money on things you donāt need or later find you donāt want.
For example:
Clock dividers
Precision adders
Shift registers
West coast style ātempoā derivation from envelope generators
Complex oscillators
How to create slides in sequencers without the function
How to accent and handle velocity
Etc
You may find that you want essentially a custom east coast synth more than wanting to go down the more experimental/west coast road with modular, so I think trying before buying can save thousands in cash and minutes.
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Well, that is one of the main reasons that I was looking at pre-configured systems (or using those as a model). That way smarter people than myself have already done all the thinking and I can watch loads of tutorials or review vids to see if I would like something like that.
I did watch a lot of stuff already and brought it down to a couple of choices: shared system (hard to get your hand on), ALM System Coupe or a 0-Coast to start really small and self contained.
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