Day 160 - The Portable Rig

I've been quiet, but largely because I've been busy, and--let's face it--as I continue on my Eurorack journey, I am better to discern keen observations from banal, masturbatory drivel. I hope to try to bring more of the former and a little slightly less of the latter.

One thing I noticed about my Pittsburg Modular Structure 360 is that it is unwieldy to move around. Yeah, I can move it around the house with a little bit of elbow grease, and wouldn't feel bad about taking it out and about with me. After all, it is durable and incredibly good-looking. But, free spirit that I am, I was craving something even more portable, something that would fit on my lap and I could move about with ease.

So, I bought one of Synthrotek's 84hp 6U+1U waterproof cases. Slimline and in SOLAS orange, of course. The thing is light as feather (well, about 20 pounds of feathers after all the modules are in) and is incredibly attractive. The orange practically glows (see below).

Somehow the light from the strips of LEDs mounted on my workbench (not shown) give off a purple cast on camera and make the plastic of the case radiate an intense life-preserver orange.

I was expecting the shift from 360hp to 168 to be a little painful, but it caused me instead to make carefully considered, deliberate choices about which modules belonged, and which did not. Noticeably absent are the any "performance" modules, such as Pressure Points or Rene, or something along those lines. This perhaps puts this configuration squarely into more experimental territory, but I felt like the space was better served creating a unique "voice" that was controlled with CV rather than touch pads. There's certainly plenty of opportunity for an off-rack 1V/Oct keyboard or sequencer if the need overtakes me.

I am perhaps relying too heavily on the Ornament and Crime to provide quantized voltages for melodies and such. As awesome as the module is, its capabilities in the musical space can take me only so far. I will see how it is I wield this module in the crafting of sound, and if I'm not taking better advantage of it, I'll replace it with a quantizer and some other doodads.

Since this picture was taken I have also replaced the Intellijel Linix with a Make Noise Wogglebug, an LxD, and a 2hp Filt. While, yes, you can never have too many VCAs as they say, but, after some experimentation, I felt the space was better served with some random. The LxD, as a dual low-pass-gate serves as a sort of VCA anyway.

Of course, I still have plans for my 360hp case. I'd like to see it turned into an amazing percussion powerhouse. I'm not sure there are enough VCOs on the portable rig to belt out any serious amount of percussion. This of course is subject to the results of hours of experimentation.

What the portable rig is good at is some pretty intense ambient. Dark, atmospheric stuff. Here's an example I threw together while jamming on my back porch, wearing my spiffiest space-man suit: