MOTM

Well, since it seems that all are making the bottom of their "cabinets"
different, I will throw up an idea that I am thinking pretty seriously
about.  Like someone else said in this long thread, I know I will have some
rack gear used with my MOTM.  So, I decided to have either a separate 5U
high X 24U cabinet on the bottom of my slant cabinet, OR make my main slant
cabinet 15U high (plus magic bus of course).  The bottom 5 units would be
set up to house either MOTM format or rack mount.  If you examine the 24 U
width we have been discussing, it will hold 2 wide 19" rack units with a 2U
MOTM panel square in the middle for multiples, switches, or otherwise
bringing rear stuff to the front through jacks.  This would offer up 10
standard rack width 1U high spaces for whatever.  And, since most of us
already have some of Paul's rack rails, once or both sides of the 19" space
could be converted to 5U standard MOTM space.  My personal opinion is that
I will have 5 or less 1U modules (MIDI2CV, EQ, vocoder, effects unit,
Paul's latest craze), and the other side will have 10U of standard MOTM
modules.  So, that format lets you mix and match.  A little imagination
lets you figure out how to match the face plate depth.  And, if I ever
exceed the 5 1U spaces I have set aside, I can move into the other half.

The only disadvantage of this set up is that if you fill the whole thing up
with MOTM 5U height you only get 22U instead of 24U of useable space
because you would have 4 "dress up" end caps if you had rack rail
conversions on both side.

One other one thought I had when I was considering making this rack wood
cabinet separate (matching of course) that my MOTM slant cabinet would sit
on was actually making two 19" cabinets that would sit side by side.  The
could house 10U MOTM or 5 1U rack.  By having two cabinets side by side,
the stuff in them could be gigged out easily without the remainder of the
MOTM system in case the effects or whatever were something you would
otherwise use.

I do have ONE serious request Paul.  If these things are to be designed to
use with MOTM or external signals, can we please have a switch to select
from low and high (MOTM) level signals so we don't have to make the
"resistor" decision.  We might want to use it both ways.  And if you make
it where a preamp has to be used for line levels only you may exclude some
of that other market.

Larry (cabinet crazy with options) Hendry

From: "Tkacs, Ken" <Ken.Tkacs@...>

My own preference is for 5u "major" modules and
3u high "minor" modules, but I'm not pushing the 3u
idea on anyone. I'm building a series of cabinets
that are 13u high to house two rows of 10u MOTM
gear and then a 3u "utility" section along the bottom
for multiples, passive filters, a coupler panel, adapters,
CV mixers, etc. Pretty much the Moog IIIp look.

From: "Dave Bradley" <daveb@...>
 
Consider this: I'm doing 2U high "minor modules" on
bottom (Moog IIIc look) instead of 3U high, that way 
I can just buy a 5U x 2U blank MOTM panel and
turn it on its side. You could buy 3U wide panels from
Paul and do the same. You may end up cutting one short
at the end if it doesn't come out a whole multiple of your cab width.