Hello!
I’ve been following LMNC for a couple years now, but since i finally finished UNI and have some more time I decided to invest it into making my own modular setup!
I’m no stranger to building the circuits, but I am new to modular synthesizers, hahaha
I was wondering where to start (already have my plans/schematics for a case and eurorack-style power supply) which modules should I build first?
I was thinking about a VCO, VCF, VCA and the bigbutton
but i’m not sure if one of each is enough…
Also my country is not that good to find patch cables either the 1/4 or 1/8 ones, so any recommendation for international shipping for those would be appreciated as well!
As a final note, I have an arturia minilab mk2, and if anyone knows some way to interface it with the modules, I’d really like to know more about it!
One of each will get you pretty far, though an ADSR envelope generator should be in there too.
If you compare to a Moog Mother-32 semimodular synth it has one VCO, one VCF, one VCA, one envelope generator, one noise source, one LFO, a sequencer, and some utilities. So that’s plenty to get started. A MIDI to CV will let you use a MIDI keyboard, but you don’t need to; you can use a CV keyboard, or other CV controllers or sources.
I can’t help on international shipping but someone from Brazil recently posted that getting audio cables of either size was difficult for them but they could easily get wire and banana plugs and jacks. Those will work fine for patch cables too; some prefer them.
Awesome!
I was hoping I wouldn’t need to resort to banana cables as they tend to become loose rather quickly, but they are an option…
as for the MIDI to CV, I like this idea as there are plenty projects for that, but now I just need a way to convert the USB out to MIDI on the minilab ahha, I’m hoping it uses MIDI over USB as that would be easy to convert to MIDI over regular MIDI cables…
thanks for the (actually quite surprisingly) quick response haha
You could also purchase a roll of cable (50m) and a bunch of plugs and make your own cables. I did this recently. Note the cable supplier was local to me, but you want guitar/instrument cable. (note I barely touched my roll and could make many more and whatever length I want or need)
Note that the Big Button does not produce any audio, only sequenced triggers, so you need to combine it with something like the wav trigger to make a drum machine.
Maybe an analog sequencer like the Baby 8 would better complement your basic synth voice (VCO, VCF ,VCA and as @analogoutput mentions, an envelope generator of some kind).
A computer with MIDI control can also obviate the need for a sequencer module (to start with).
First of all, welcome to the beasts cage
I can warmly recommend these cables to you. But they have a 3.5mm plug and are 1m long. I also ordered them, unfortunately only 10 pieces, next week I’ll order another 50 pieces!
I think you should build the following: 2xVCO, VCF, minimum 2x VCA (better more), ADSR (very important for me), a mixer (Sam’s super simple mixer is great and you can easily build it bigger) and maybe a Delay and a sub oscillator, both relatively easy to build. If you need stripboard layouts for these modules, take a look at our “veryfied stripboard layouts” thread or write to me. Have fun and greetings THOGRE
Have a play with Cherry Audio Voltage Modular “Free” … That will aid in guiding your ideas,
For physical
You have to start with an oscillator. but it does not have to have voltage control. There are plenty of options for that.
Then just build whatever you can.
You will find things work first time and believe your a DIY god
You will build something you think perfectly and it will blow up. Your now a DIY “Dumb Ass”.
You will build something and it will not work as expected. Your now a DIY “Learner”
You will Fix the Latter two and realise your not GOD but with the help of the forum you can be a DIY experimenter…
And you will repeat the above in various order for various modules…
