I decided to get a set of Ieaskul F. Mobenthey (IFM) modules, the Eurorack designs by Peter Blasser.  I make it a principle to put all of my Euro modules into easily portable boxes.  The one I chose for this is the Synthrotek Waterproof 7U (6U + 1U) 84HP Portable Eurorack Case.  I took the 4ms Row Power 40 supply from my controller skiff.  This new box needs to have the supply in a row, because it closes completely with no external holes.

Philosophy

IFM modules are ramp wave based, producing mainly triangle and sawtooth shapes, as well as pulse waves.  I’ve become less interested in subtractive synthesis, which uses filters to reduce harmonic content, and more interested in wave shaping, especially wave folding.  So I went looking around the world of Euro for modules that would support this concept.  I selected two, each having different ideas  behind them:

• Mutable Instruments:  Warps
• WMD: Phase Displacement Oscillator (PDO)

I will have much more detail about these, and about all the modules in this case, in separate posts.  Here I want to emphasize the system as a whole.  It needed to have enough functionality to be played by itself.  I tried to balance the standard functions, as follows:

VCO

• Most of the capability is from IFM:  Two Denums, one Fourses, and two Swoops.
• The other main player is the PDO, which is a single VCO with four wave shapers.
• Warps also includes a VCO.

VCA

• The Verbos Scan and Pan is a deluxe output module with eight VCAs, four for level control and four for panning.  These handle the output mix levels.
• The WMD Triple Bi-polar VCA is the workhorse VCA for control voltages, but also for audio.
• Warps includes two VCAs, one on each input.
• Each Denum includes a strange VCA that I will have more to say about.

VCF

Going light on filters, we have

• IFM Sprott
• WMD Quad Anti-Aliasing Filter (QAAF)

LFO

All of the aforementioned VCOs go low, except for the one in Warps.  Additional LFO capability is provided by:

• Peaks, which has two LFOs with manual selection of several wave forms.
• Maths, which can cycle as a dual LFO.
• Pip Slopes, which can cycle as LFO.

Envelope Generator

• IFM Swoops (2)
• Peaks (2)
• Maths (2)
• Pip Slopes (4)

Slew

• Maths (2)
• Pulp Logic manual slews (2)

VC Mixers

• Triple Bi-polar VCA
• Warps
• Scan and Pan

Manual Mixers

• Mutable Instruments Shades (much like an Oakley Multi-mix)
• QAAF
• Maths
• Two Pulp Logic summing modules, with outboard attenuators

Inverting

• Shades (3)
• Triple Bi-polar VCA (3)
• Maths (2)
• Pulp Logic inverter (2)

DC Offset

• Shades (3)
• Maths (2)
• Triple Bi-polar VCA (3)

Sample and Hold

• Pulp Logic S&H (2)

Comparator

• Pulp Logic comparator (2)