blacet analog modular

[sneakthief]

After endlessly pining for a real modular, I finally ordered a simple setup from http://blacet.com

 

I chose the following kits: 1xVCO, 1xVCA, 1xEG, 1xFilthy Filtre, 1xLFO, 1xMultiple.

 

It arrived on Monday and I finished building it after a 3-day soldering marathon. mmm... solder fumes

 

Here's a little page I threw together with photos of the construction, comments, and some initial mp3's:

 

http://sneak-thief.com/blacet

 

It's really stable and polite if you want it to be - but can also get into the really wild territory quite easily. The CV modulation routings are fantastic. The frac rack is flimsy though and you really have to insulate the two front bars so that they don't short out the jacks on the modules

 

 

(my Fireworx is going to be put to good use now!)

 

cheers,

michel

[clusterchord]

that looks very nice. i've been planning on a smaller blacet system too. but so far, i only have the rack, pwr and time machine.

 

 

thanks for the mp3s. there is so few demos of blacet stuff online..

 

if you make some more, please make sure you post them..

 

 

 

on a related note, dunno if you heard this, but good news is Paul Schrieber (MOTM) is considering making a few of his fantastic filter and vco modules available in Frac Rac format. and he said it will be cheaper than his large format versions.

 

 

if this does happen, having a a nice 440 filter (ssm in discrete version) and his 300 vco... it ll surely add a lot to the frac rac format appeal - can't wait.

[sneakthief]

those mp3's don't really do this justice - i'll post some more after i finish building the midi-cv converter and can sequence it externally... i think that'll be more representative than the wanking that i uploaded *lol*

 

re. MOTM in a frac: yeah, i saw the discussion at soundarc.net! it's interesting, but for the moment it's outta my price league although i must say that the new GX-1 filter is really tempting (MOTM 485). yummm.

[sneakthief]

here's my first proper "musical" demo of this beast:

 

http://sneak-thief.com/blacet/sneak-thief_polar-crust.mp3

 

no sequencer, just 20 patch cables and knob tweaking (aka wankery)! i basically used 4 of LFO's outputs to wreak havoc on a whole bunch of CV inputs. you can also have the EG automatically retrigger like a complex LFO. the kick is a pulse wave with a fast attack eg and the weird melody is from a waveshaped triangle. they alternate back and forth by using both a triangle and inverted-triangle to control each of their respective volumes.

 

(a tiny hint of delay and feedback from the fireworx rounded things out)

 

 

cheers,

michel

[program_insect]

thank you.

[simulacreant]

nice demo!

[J3RK]

Very nice. Blacet and MOTM are the route I'm going to go when I finally have room for a modular. Though, now that I've seen yours, I might have to build a small and simple one like that. I think I can squeeze it in. I lean toward MOTM for a lot of the filters and things that they have, but I'm thinking now that if I build one simple Blacet rack, I can just build a MOTM setup later, and build a little patch bay that goes from 1/8" to 1/4" and make up some special patch cables to go between. It would be more cost effective than buying the conversion panels.

[sneakthief]

j3rk - why bother with the patchbay when a bunch of extra 1/4-1/8 cables will do nicely? isn't it more convenient that way?

 

re. expansion: i bought the extra power distribution board (9 extra connectors) to supply another rack's worth of modules somewhere down the line. i'm only using less than half of the 500mA of my current PSU, so I should be able to power at least another 5 or 6. depending on how much cash I have next year, I'll either get some Arrick's or DIY some CGS.

 

oh god modular's are such the money pit!!

[program_insect]

also, I believe the MOTM series offers a module that is dedicated to 1/4"->1/8" patching.

[J3RK]

A dedicated panel for that would be cool too. Cables would be ok, but depending on how the racks were laid out, a little patch bay would be pretty handy I think. There isn't any really good reason why just the cables wouldn't be fine on their own. I just like patchbays.

[program_insect]

agreed...patch bays are essential for achieving that 60's sci fi space ship bridge look in the studio.

[urbanscallywag]

Originally posted by J3RK A dedicated panel for that would be cool too. Cables would be ok, but depending on how the racks were laid out, a little patch bay would be pretty handy I think. There isn't any really good reason why just the cables wouldn't be fine on their own. I just like patchbays.

Patchbays can introduce more noise!

[clusterchord]

Originally posted by urbanscallywag Patchbays can introduce more noise!

 

i wouldn't worry much about it. that's why modular audio signal level is set to whopping 5 volts. (considering standard line is arround 1V ).

 

one thing one gotta take care of is to have common ground for different modulars and pwr supplies to be used together as one system.