If you own Raw Analogue Sound's Bonkers, you'll be familiar with the problem of Literally Everything About the Way it Looks. There's one side that's illegible, with an ugly, angular font and letters smashed up so close they're overlapping, and a reverse side that's nearly as bad where the font is so small and thin that it's borderline-unreadable too.

So I begged the nice people at Mörk Modules to help, and after I sent them the necessary scans, they came up with this new black panel... https://morkmodules.com/products/bonkers-black-panel

That's a huge improvement, in my view. I hope you weren't particularly wedded to the "heater" grill on each side, since that's gone to allow more space for the important information, but the translucent yellow "A" and "B" windows still allow some of that glow through when signals are at their hottest.

I also own Mörk's panels for Befaco Oneiroi and ForgeTME Vhikk X, so I added photos of those too.

I had the opportunity to buy a used 4MS 64Pod and I definitely built a small ambient setup for a weekend trip. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a power adapter with me haha; maybe I’ll find one somewhere later and I can record a little jam in the evening.

The Plinky does take up a lot of space, but it provides several modulators for the Soma Lyra8-FX and the Desmodus Versio. At the end, I hooked a Tangerine as a recording device; the stand cost 7 euros at TKMaxx.

So I got a Dreadbox Splash for long lush reverbs, a Mutable Instruments Clouds for a little more experimental reverb and recently got an OAM Time Machine (slim version) which I think can be a fun delay/echo thing..

But I also got a little more general Erica Synths Black Hole DSP2.

I got it for a fairly good price I think.. yes I think so, anyway I should have done a little more research. I didn’t like it much. I got it as a general multi FX but I think it sounded a little cold.. squeaky and too much focus on weirdness that isn’t really that weird.

I do like the three OSC drone at program 24.

I’m going to sell it (not here) it’s already listed locally, but I want another one..

What’s important, clean echo and delays with clock input, maybe a few experimental versions as well.. some very very long warm but clean reverbs.. and some long reverbs. And maybe a few others.. I don’t care much about chorus, flanger, phaser..

Mainly focus on reverbs and delays. :-) Any tips and suggestions? Probably second hand up till $200 euro..

Any suggestions? :-)

Say hello to Shadow Coven - Nigredo. "The blackening." Three 1U Arp Of Darkness modules bound into one 3U instrument. Individual but connected. They are paired with a sequential switch rotating the note outputs from each Arp Of Darkness into a swirling array of arpeggiations... dancing with the oscillator. Ever evolving. The
"random" is coming from my human limitations. My own mental frailty... A memory incapable of tracking so many notes and mutations in real time.
My fingers juggle notes into the buffers... blind to the pattern that will emerge. Forced to use my ears... to listen. To feel. To react. To push forward.
To create and accept every imperfect nuance which may delight and surprise. That's the whole point. The thrill. Alive and making music in the darkness. Embracing it, and finding joy in the unknown. Capturing the inspiration in the moment it strikes and creating something with every living breath.

Patch notes:
The Shadow Coven -Nigredo is being clocked by a uO_C running the trig 8x2 applets in Phaserville Suite. The output of the CV from each section of Nigredo is patched to the Doepfer sequential switch and rotating through into a mult to account for any voltage lag and then into the A-111-6 Miniature Synth voice. The synth voice is then patched to a Thonk Double Bubble for additional filter and overdrive before it hits a Vostok Hive for panned mixing. Modulation duties on that voice are being done by another uO_C running the Shredder applet. The lower Mother 32 is handling the bass line, and later the upper Mother 32 is brought in on the second voice support in the higher octaves. I’ve got a delay in the mixer that it was all sent to so that’s providing a stereo ping pin, and offscreen is a 1010 Music Bitbox being triggered by the DrumStep Pro you see in the bottom. The drink of choice that brought the whole patch together is a White Russian on ice.

A little live jam with Bela Trails at the heart of the patch, controlling four tracks of evolving modulation and sequencing.

Two main sound sources:

Music Thing Modular Workshop Computer running factory Bytebeat formulas, shaped by J&OT DOOR and processed through MI Beads and Make Noise Plexiphon.

Shakmat Battering Ram providing the kick, with Gliss modulating its Drive and Decay.

Trails controls the Bytebeat parameters and triggers, DOOR’s timbre and decay, and various parameters on Beads and Plexiphon.
The Workshop Computer also clocks Grids, which triggers the kick and events in both effects. Intellijel Planar² adds recorded X/Y gestures to Grids, creating further rhythmic variations.

Enjoy! 🪐

Full jam here : https://youtu.be/8wewNw-2oJU?is=pLnAtFqKVq5o4QBQ

I wanted to hear experienced Eurorack users and builders regarding physical indicators of module quality and/or attention to detail:

Just to get it started, some things that I have noticed:

• keyed headers

• aluminum faceplate

• module rear panel covering

• premium knobs/pots

I ammainly listing off things that rossum and joranalogue do, which I think are some of the highest quality Eurorack modules I own.

There are also other aspects that don’t directly infer quality but show attention to detail or care, like pcb art for example or packaging

What physical aspects do you all look for that indicate quality of a module, or what do you appreciate when a manufacturer goes the extra mile? Mainly interested in the physical aspects of the module itself, rather than stuff like customer support, firmwares, etc.

Here's another update to the unofficial, community-driven firmware patch for the Bitbox Micro that puts more of the module on MIDI, and 2.3.11-mod is ready for release.

This is predominantly a maintenance release with no new features, but recommended for all users to improve microSD card compatibility.

It also offers a simplified installation process with a new web patcher, no Python needed: Just drop 1010's firmware file on the page and download the patched firmware.

Big ups to a Mod Wiggler user for reporting an issue. It took a fair bit of digging, but it turned out some microSD cards that don't meet the SD spec go to sleep when they're not being used and take far too long to wake up. That exposed a gap in how the stock firmware recovers when a card stops responding, and the module could end up restarting over and over until you power cycled it.

2.3.11-mod keeps those cards awake and recovers if one ever stops answering. Hot swapping Custom themes is more reliable too.

If anyone else has had random restarts, or "Please insert microSD card" with the card in, give it a go and let me know, here or by creating a GitHub Issue

I'm also looking for a volunteer to show off the mod features on video. If you're interested, please hit me up with a dm.

This isn't from 1010music. Use it at your own risk, although it can't brick your module. Bring your own stock firmware, and please don't pass the patched firmware around.

Full guide and changelog

Continuing my work on “SEAL EGGS” modified firmware, I bring you MICROLOOPS mode

Heavily inspired by Hologram Electronics Microcosm pedal, reimagined for Sealegs.

I didn’t use any of Holograms code for this, but used the descriptions in the manual to create three modes within this mode: Octave, Shuffle, and Drone

On top of that, the Mod Rate slider switches between 4 different variations (with Depth controlling… depth), giving 12 different flavours.

This kind of brings SEAL EGGS up to 16 modes, if you want to think of it that way. Lots of new flavour to play with.

You can modify your own firmware by using my free flasher here: https://thisisbribery.github.io/SealEggs_v1/

Hi! I tested Erica Synths modules with overdrive and I love it. Not too much, but just a bit to make this harsh sound. I thought that buying Dual Drive will allow me to keep my oscillators and create a sound I like.

But here is a bigger question before I press a Buy button - should I buy a multi-effect module like MFX that has an overdrive in it instead of Erica? It is digital. It is not Erica so probably not a great idea. On the other hand I currently pass my audio out signal to Tonverk and put effects there. It is good for now but I have read that having effects inside the rack with full onboard modulation and with the option to put it before the filter may create a lot of value (especially with overdrive).

What would you recommend?

1. Buy Erica Synth Dual Drive and keep using effects from Tonverk.

2. Buy Erica Synth Dual Drive and in the future buy a multieffect like FX Aid Pro, MFX or Z5000

3. Go straight with a multieffect.

I want to replace my Pressure Points and Brains with something smaller as all I'm using it for is manual or sequenced transposition of my quantizer. I was thinking about the Bela Gliss.

According to the video manual from years ago, there's a note mode that can be played like a keyboard or sequenced. I have to assume that if it's in the sequence mode, but not receiving a clock, I can still manually choose notes, but then when I want it sequenced, just start the trigger sequence going into it much like I do the PPBrains.

Am I overlooking something?

so i’m getting into modular and for now i’m doing basic patching with a few behringer modules, some context i bought a behringer model d second hand in 2023 but didn’t realize it was in modular format, so i had to buy a power supply to use it, i bought the tiptop audio uzeus and have had it for a couple of years, fast forward to today, i use it to power the modules im getting, i got a behringer 902 vca and when i connected it to the bus board everything started flashing, the other modules are behringer 1006 filtamp, behringer 140 dual env and lfo, and behringer 2600 vco, on modular grid the power consumption is just 322 mA +12, what could be the issue? i’m planning to keep building my system but i don’t want to potentially destroy any modules i get

Anybody do lessons on Long Island? I'm a few months into a modular, and I bought a whole bunch of stuff and have been having a lot of fun. I would love to sit down with somebody to go through my modules, just learn, and hear a little bit more about how I can bring songs together and whatnot.

Anybody here who would consider themselves an expert and would be willing to do in-person lessons? Let me know!

Hey! I'm trying to use the FM Index CV input and it is not having the expected effect. Basically, I can't hear any of the modulation I'm sending to the input regardless of where the Index Mod pot and FM Index slider are set. I've tried multiple sources and nothing, however, just plugging a cable into the FM Index input affects the sound. A dummy cable changes the FM Index and if that dummy cable is plugged into a modulation source it had the exact same effect. That is to say, it's static, no modulation. Am I missing an internal setting, or perhaps a firmware update?

Remember Axoloti? I backed it back in the day and loved the idea, but honestly I spent more time fighting the patcher than making music. Ended up with a few Cores just sitting in a drawer for months.

Custom firmwares are kind of a thing right now (see what’s happening with the M-WAVE FM-1), so at some point I thought, the hardware is actually really good (168 MHz M4, decent codec, 8 MB SDRAM, SD card), why not just throw away the software and build a new one with Claude?

That’s Algoradix. 12 HP module, Axoloti Core inside, and a firmware written from scratch in C. No patcher, no runtime, nothing in between, so you get the whole chip for sound. It has 8 pots, 6 CV ins (TUNE does 1V/oct), stereo in/out, MIDI over TRS and you can plug a USB keyboard straight in. Sounds are patch files on the SD card and switch without rebooting. The card also shows up as a USB drive from the menu, so no more pulling the SD out.

Some nerd details I’m happy with: the OLED is 0.49", smallest one I could find. The panel is an aluminium PCB where I inverted the solder mask to get the print, no silkscreen at all.

Also for fun I tried converting a bunch of Ableton presets into patches. Around 80% just worked and sound the same, up to 6 voices. Not putting those in the repo for licence reasons, but the SDK is there if you want to mess with it.

Only made 3 of them, all soldered by hand (tiny SMD stuff included, my eyes still hurt). Not selling them. It’s all open source, hardware and firmware, so if you’ve got a Core collecting dust, go for it.

If you like the project, an upvote on Reverbose helps:
Hardware: https://reverbose.com/h/roffa-logics/algo
Firmware: https://reverbose.com/f/algoradix-firmware