--- In SergeModular@yahoogroups.com, darkstr1746@c... wrote:
Okay, OKAY! John shamed me into it...
I will offer some random bits in hopes some may prove beneficial!
I started with an Animal shop panel so I have to concur that if you
can only afford a single panel to start, you can accomplish a lot
with this alone. The nice thing about having a small selection of
modules is that it forces you to push each one to the limit.
I also agree it is very easy to overlook audio mixers (cross-faders
are extremely useful) and voltage processors (PRC, ACPR, SCPR, BUFF)
when poring over a catalog filled with enticing audio manglers and
the most flexible voltage sources around! But the former are really
important in developing the more complex timbres at which the Serge
excels, and the latter are critical for precise control of your
modulations and the ability to have them evolve over time. Many of
the owners of 4+ panels on this list have a full panel dedicated to
mixing because we overlooked it ourselves initially!
New vs. used: if you are going to buy your first panels from Rex, I
would buy shop panels to start so that if you decide to change your
system down the road they will be easier to incorporate and/or sell.
Chances are you will know much more about what you need more of or
can do without after 6-12 months with your system, and John Duval's
role of "unofficial community benefactor" should serve as evidence
that one person's vision of a perfect panel layout is often quite
different than other current or would-be Serge owners'. The benefit
of buying your first panels used is that you can get to know a lot
of modules and can then pass them along with less depreciation after
you have a much better idea of what your ideal module arrangement
is. "Rookie mistakes" are much more costly with new panels!
That being said, if I were to lose all my stuff in a fire and could
only afford two panels to rebuild, I would start with the following:
*Panel 1 - Audio*
NTO / PCO / RING / NCOM / VCM / AMX / VCF2 / VCFQ(X) / DCSM
*Panel 2 - CV*
RS / SSG / DSG / SPRC / ACPR / ADSR / DTG (w/sig in mod) / QUO
I think every Serge system should have at least one of each of the
modules above, and you can always expand later. Add a Soup Kitchen
and/or a Sequencer panel and you've got a lot of synthesis power!
But I also think you could put together a great starter system with
several of the panels currently available. How about this combo?
Blake's panel: $1800
1/4" to banana interface, PCO, Ring Modulator, Pulse Divider, Wave
Multiplier, Mixer, Resonant Equalizer, Variable Bandwidth Filter,
Schmitt Trigger, and Dual VCA.
John's Panel#4
NTO / PCO(2) / VCM / TWS / XFAD(3) / MIX2 New$3390.
Sell $1800.00
John's Panel #7
2RVG / CLK / PRC / DSG (2) / QUO(2) New$3340.
Sell $2000.
For less than the cost of two new STS panels, you would get a very
capable and flexible line-up:
* no shortage of oscillators (1 NTO + 3 precision VCOs)
* lots of sound shapers... 2 wave multipliers + triple waveshaper +
ring mod + variable bandwidth VCF + Resonant EQ (IMHO these last two
are the most distinctive Serge filters)
* plenty of mixing power (3 manual mixers, 3 cross-fader/vca's, dual
vca's - with careful patching you can also achieve panning)
* nice collection of voltage sources/modifiers, including two each
of the Quadrature Oscillators (see my rant on these in post #3350)
and Dual Slope Generators (care to chime in here, Mr. Coplin?)
Your next panel could come straight from Rex and include stuff like
the Frequency Shifter, Quad Voltage Mixer, Smooth/Stepped Gen, NCOM
(another great one) and perhaps another filter or two and whatever
else you recognize by then that you're missing!
Well, that's quite enough opinion from me, hopefully something from
this ramble will make sense or at least spur productive debate!
Best wishes,
Chris Sawyer
> if even half the owners of systems would bother to chime in onthis thread.
Okay, OKAY! John shamed me into it...
I will offer some random bits in hopes some may prove beneficial!
I started with an Animal shop panel so I have to concur that if you
can only afford a single panel to start, you can accomplish a lot
with this alone. The nice thing about having a small selection of
modules is that it forces you to push each one to the limit.
I also agree it is very easy to overlook audio mixers (cross-faders
are extremely useful) and voltage processors (PRC, ACPR, SCPR, BUFF)
when poring over a catalog filled with enticing audio manglers and
the most flexible voltage sources around! But the former are really
important in developing the more complex timbres at which the Serge
excels, and the latter are critical for precise control of your
modulations and the ability to have them evolve over time. Many of
the owners of 4+ panels on this list have a full panel dedicated to
mixing because we overlooked it ourselves initially!
New vs. used: if you are going to buy your first panels from Rex, I
would buy shop panels to start so that if you decide to change your
system down the road they will be easier to incorporate and/or sell.
Chances are you will know much more about what you need more of or
can do without after 6-12 months with your system, and John Duval's
role of "unofficial community benefactor" should serve as evidence
that one person's vision of a perfect panel layout is often quite
different than other current or would-be Serge owners'. The benefit
of buying your first panels used is that you can get to know a lot
of modules and can then pass them along with less depreciation after
you have a much better idea of what your ideal module arrangement
is. "Rookie mistakes" are much more costly with new panels!
That being said, if I were to lose all my stuff in a fire and could
only afford two panels to rebuild, I would start with the following:
*Panel 1 - Audio*
NTO / PCO / RING / NCOM / VCM / AMX / VCF2 / VCFQ(X) / DCSM
*Panel 2 - CV*
RS / SSG / DSG / SPRC / ACPR / ADSR / DTG (w/sig in mod) / QUO
I think every Serge system should have at least one of each of the
modules above, and you can always expand later. Add a Soup Kitchen
and/or a Sequencer panel and you've got a lot of synthesis power!
But I also think you could put together a great starter system with
several of the panels currently available. How about this combo?
Blake's panel: $1800
1/4" to banana interface, PCO, Ring Modulator, Pulse Divider, Wave
Multiplier, Mixer, Resonant Equalizer, Variable Bandwidth Filter,
Schmitt Trigger, and Dual VCA.
John's Panel#4
NTO / PCO(2) / VCM / TWS / XFAD(3) / MIX2 New$3390.
Sell $1800.00
John's Panel #7
2RVG / CLK / PRC / DSG (2) / QUO(2) New$3340.
Sell $2000.
For less than the cost of two new STS panels, you would get a very
capable and flexible line-up:
* no shortage of oscillators (1 NTO + 3 precision VCOs)
* lots of sound shapers... 2 wave multipliers + triple waveshaper +
ring mod + variable bandwidth VCF + Resonant EQ (IMHO these last two
are the most distinctive Serge filters)
* plenty of mixing power (3 manual mixers, 3 cross-fader/vca's, dual
vca's - with careful patching you can also achieve panning)
* nice collection of voltage sources/modifiers, including two each
of the Quadrature Oscillators (see my rant on these in post #3350)
and Dual Slope Generators (care to chime in here, Mr. Coplin?)
Your next panel could come straight from Rex and include stuff like
the Frequency Shifter, Quad Voltage Mixer, Smooth/Stepped Gen, NCOM
(another great one) and perhaps another filter or two and whatever
else you recognize by then that you're missing!
Well, that's quite enough opinion from me, hopefully something from
this ramble will make sense or at least spur productive debate!
Best wishes,
Chris Sawyer