December's rack of the month is a percussive groove machine. Let's dive in!
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In planning the build for this month's rack I started with two powerful modules and tried to build around them; Hexinverter's Mutant Machine is an analog percussion voice with a very open sound generation engine, and Acid Rain Constellation is an 8-output Euclidean trigger sequencer. My thought was to use Constellation to trigger and modulate the Mutant Machine, getting multiple sounds out of a single voice.
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I knew that to use the gate outputs of the Constellation as modulation I would need control over the dynamics of its control signals, so I added Ampera, a simple quad VCA from Omnitone. With the remaining space I added another signal source with the trusty Dixie II+, a flexible modulator in the Soundforce Mod 6, and finished the rack out with plumbing and utilities - an output module (Intellijel Outs), a simple mixer, (Bastl ABC), a buffered mult (Intellijel Buffmult) and a noise and modulation utility (After Later Audio SHTH).
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In practice, this rack is very fun to work with. Constellation is a little unusual for someone more familiar with step sequencers, but a little time with the manual had me spinning up polyrhythmic beats in no time. The Mutant Machine is a beast! It gives access to many classic analog percussion sounds, while also being capable of some pleasant craziness. I found that I had more than enough ways of achieving varied sounds from the single output, using the plethora of modulation inputs. I was a little concerned that the technique I had in mind of modulating it with sequenced gate signals would result in some unpleasant audible clicking as values are snapped around, but everything was smooth. Having the Dixie as the base for an extra voice is nice, and I found ways to use everything that I had included.
If I were to change or expand this rack, I would want to add some effects and a way of panning by voltage control to get some stereo output. A filter or wavefolder to go with the DixieII+ would be nice as a way of controlling texture for that second voice.