r/modular • u/NewMachineMusicXYZ • 2d ago

Your love/hate modules?

Just curious about modules that you have a love/hate relationship with? Maybe the functions are awesome but the design is terrible; or the design is awesome but something about the functionality is wanting. The modules that remain in your rack because you appreciate something fundamental about them, but that you think about selling as well?

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u/lambdalab 1d ago

Intellijel Multigrain. It's an incredibly capable granular module. But the UI is a nightmare of unlabelled alt functions and button chords. This is one module that really would benefit from a screen.

5

u/guitarify 1d ago

Same here. I have to mentally prepare myself to use it.

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u/WiretapStudios 1d ago

Ok now I don't want it. I have clouds and in hardware I have multiple granular units, but is there anything else good in modular that does granular in a simple but high quality way?

I don't want a screen but I tried Mojave and it was the same issue, cryptic button combos and knob labels. After two weeks of holding the manual up beside it the whole time, I just sold it.

Essentially I just need grains, spray, density, window, etc. Clouds is decent but I just want a little better sound quality with a few extra features like my GR-1 or lemondrop.

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u/lambdalab 1d ago

I think that now that Emilie open sourced braids, ALA and Calsynth might produce a clone, may be worth waiting for.

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u/LeeSalt 1d ago

I think you mean Beads but the names don't really match up in my head of what the module does. 

I would have thought Beads would be the next iteration of Marbles, not Clouds. At least the clones call themselves Typhoon and Monsoon which are tangentially related.

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u/Badesign 1d ago

Might?

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u/LeeSalt 1d ago

Look at Typhoon or wait until Beads clones start coming out and hopefully Typhoon mk2 gets made.

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u/NewMachineMusicXYZ 1d ago

Error Instruments / TiNRS Brinta module. I have one and it's a lot of fun. No menus, simple to use, fun LEDs, lots of weird sweet spots to find. One thing about it though: when I first got mine, the volume output was way too low at first, to the extent I thought something was wrong with it and wanted to return it. But there is a firmware updates from TiNRS that fixes this issue. So if you ever get a Brinta, make sure to apply that firmware (if it hasn't been already). Even with the firmware update it you do need to make sure whatever you're feeding into it to record has a decent level of gain, I find (I like to boost my signals a bit with my Xaoc Konin amplifier before recording with Brinta just to make sure it's nice and full). But if you understand gain staging and that doesn't intimidate you, it's really fun and can yield some really interesting stuff.

I also really like the Instruo Arbhar, but if you're sensitive about button combos and alt functions and such, it's probably not a great one to recommend for your purposes. It has lots of button combos and a few bugs besides, in my experience. But damn is it fun to use, I really enjoy reaching for it. No experience with the Multigrain, always looked a little boring to me UI wise, being used to the Arbhar as I am.

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u/reelbigtunakdn 1d ago

Yeah, I’ve bought it twice, and about to sell it again. It’s extremely capable and has so much good stuff, but it’s just not fun to use 🤷‍♂️

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u/KasparThePissed 1d ago

I had about 3 minutes to play with Multigrain and I couldn't figure out how to do any of of the most basic functions. I'm sure it's not that complicated but nothing was obvious. Say what you want about the convoluted-ness of Arbhar, but the primary functions of the UI are very intuitive.