One keypoint to remember here for composition with the # of panels had is where, the word in progress, is going to be recorded to. Ultimately, a multi-input / multi-track recorder, is the greatest desire. One that can sync to the Serge for later overdubbing.
That, is my key area of lacking. A few years ago I had bought the 2nd hand m-Audio 1010 - 10 channel bi-directional interface for recording. I knew a fair bit less back in those days electronics theory wise (not that I know that much more now! Lol ). Setting it up to begin learning and working with it, I spent days trying to figure out where the 60hz hum was coming from in my modular. (Weeks or months later, finding that I had 2 Ground loops causing it.) It took me forever and a day to realize that the trouble was inside the m-Audio 1010 itself and had to be repaired - which with all of the changing that continually occurs in my modular, I never did get TO.
My entire point of this portion being: I never have BEEN able to afford a multi-track recorder beyond 2 tracks, that also has Sync In and Out for overdubbing whilst recording from my modular. I've always had to have enough of the modular built, to be able to compose everything that I wished for a piece, to a single recording.
(Yes I could do overdubs afterwards. Being a 'sequences' nut, from 30+ years of listening to Tangerine Dream / adjusting the sequences live, for change / live improv., I far prefer being able to sync things together ... in immediacy / as opposed to practicing my keyboard playing chops over and over and ... (my own fault, there)).
Which brings me to my overall point - since coming back to building modular gear again in the Summer of '05, my monster had been continually growing towards having enough 'voices' and sequencers that I felt comfortable with (hardware sequencers instead of MIDI), to compose.
Continually building; trashing; building new; refining and all that rot, by last November, I'd felt that I'd finally reached the point where I could begin composing with everything that I had built. And then, the 'Serge desire' that had been floating around since getting my 1st catalog from Rex back in '92, bit me again. And THAT is where the direction that I was headed changed, completely.
Sound - is basically my life. Creating it. Editing it. Making new explorations of moods; in change; over time. The 'standard' / 'meat and potatoes' type modular gear that I had been building for 6 years hadn't been able quite, to approach what was in head; my desires. All of the reading / studying / learning that I began doing in earnest last November finally opened my eyes to new ways to get to where, I wished to be in creating new sonic movements. The basics of operations from the Serge modules were my 'key'.
And that John - is what I've been doing on and off over the last year. Purchasing Serge Tcherepnin approved PCBs from
cgs.synth.net ; modifying some of them (including giving the Programmer Sequencer, the same functionality as the Moog Q960 Sequencer - play / skip / halt per step, in both directions) and building my own Serge PCBs from schematics.
My desire which had partially been, to have a monstrous system and moreso - to have a powerful system has been slightly modified now from the long posting of your own: further clarity in the modules that I feel will be most useful to me in creating the audio that I wish to - will help me choose how many of which other modules that I will build from here on as well as which of the older 'meat and potatoes' modules that still exist in my system, may no longer be needed. (Partially, to assist in keeping my system to a manageable size.)
At the mo' I've between 3 to 4 full panels of actual Serge modules, with my entire monster being somewhere between 10 to 12 Serge panels in size. There's more fine tuning to do; what to keep and what to scrap and replace by the proper Serge modules that can cover the scrapped functions as well as do other functions. And to be able to do as much of it in one take, with as little overdubbing as possible.
Thank you greatly for all of the experiences that you went through John, that brought you to where you are in life at the moment - to create that huge post that has helped fine tune my direction. I shall now reach my destination far quicker than I would have without reading that. :)
And the guitar ... my first instrument learned and played, 40 years and 2 months ago. I rarely touch it nowadays. It can't assist my travelling towards my destination in much of any way. (Though, the bass guitar can and does. ;) )
Respect.