VCAs - what are they and do we need them? 

I’ve honestly not used Plaits much recently as I don’t like menu diving and prefer the modulatability of other voices more. It’s great in a bigger set up I think though.

Thanks George, tell your friends lol ! I’ve only been into modular for a couple of years and hope to improve the quality of my videos as I get more used to presenting.

Totally agree. Javelin works well in a small system although I quite like the look of a Percall with its 4 vca and envelopes.

Really nice to know it’s appreciated and I enjoy making them. It’s a lot harder than I thought getting all your thoughts ready, especially when planning a patch demo from scratch. And the reason they’re so simple is that I don’t have any video editing software yet but not sure it needs it. Maybe a second camera for bigger patches.

Thanks Martin, it’s a journey, one that costs a lot of money to discover through trial and error, so I hope you’ve found some useful info here. If you need any advice, feel free to hit me up. Really enjoy the educational content and explaining the thought process for building a patch from scratch.

Yeah that’s the point I was trying to make and super small cases are better suited to these newer full voices. As long as you can make the notices you want, that’s all that matters.

If someone could justify why a single 10cm Eurorack cable should cost the same as a 90cm one, I’d live to hear it!

Could you use an attenuator to modulate modulation?

@@markbooth yes, or you could use the attenuverter to control how much the modulator modulates your modulation 😂

That sounds like an Andrew Huang quote lol

I’m a fan, for sure! As well as @mylarmelodies ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JKqcQxLjno0.html

@@AdamDaughterson I remember that video, a Mylar classic! However, I don’t think dedicated VCAs are as important as they once were, just like not everyone needs a Maths now either. Modules are getting more complex and integrated now. I do like them in a larger setup though.

A few people have suggested this so I’m doing a follow up video today. I’m learning all the time and appreciate the feedback, thanks.

@@markbooth Great vids overall! But trying to fight decades of the most ocd, polite, and muffly mod-wiggled, attention-to-detail wisdoms ever accumulated? Haha ~ good luck with that! Those people are the tried and true guinea pigs.

@@mildheadwound I totally get why vcas are useful but there’s so little space in small cases for people just starting out with modular. I might get a 1U vca to replace the line out I don’t use anymore, always something new to buy 😂

Yes you can use as a mixer which is mostly what I use it for. Send the left and right out from Chainsaw and have one side a little quieter than the other and sending that through a delay for a cool effect.

It depends when we got into modular as to what our preferences are. I’m now starting to look at some Befaco modules and recently got a fully expanded Turing machine. I love having the system suggest happy accidents and then lock them in.

@@markbooth very true. Yes-Turing and radio music got me into it really. Such clever ideas. Listening to Tom whitwell on why we bleep, I was sold. I'd recommend befaco to anyone too. I love that they are feature packed modules, but no digital menus etc (apart from vcmc etc). Percall, with radiomusic is so good for sample slicing! Also muxlicer is very clever, and usually ends up as a central hub in my patches 😁

@@dialnfornick I’m looking at a Percall to replace Quad VCA in this video. It looks really good! I hate modules with menu diving and have to be able to play something in real time. This is why I love Steppy but never use my Disting except as a delay but now never since I got a Mimeophon. That’s the reason I gave up with DAWs and just use Ableton as a mixer and EQ with some effects via an ES9. Patching modules together is where my creativity is, not programming modules or DAWs. Sounds like that works for you too.

@@markbooth yeah totally agree, dawless is fun and instant tweaking happy accidents etc. No mouse clicks and cubase help manual diving 🤣. For sure I'd recommend percall. Really clever normalised input so you can do 2 different triggers on one sound, eg hats and snare from just one noise input 😁. Cv controlled decay sliders too. Perfect 👌.

Oh yeah I'm not on commission with befaco or anything 😁 but the rampage is a tonne of fun too. Been jamming on that tonight trying to do side chaining /ducking which is great. Defo recommended. The DIY kit is like half the price of a make noise maths. And they're both based on the same oldskool slope generator circuits I think. Anyway great vid! Cheers

If only it were for tiny pockets too! I do find myself gravitating to the palette case for creativity though, despite having over 5x84HP of other modules.