I had been using soft synths for several years producing instrumental music but had the itch to be more ‘hands on’ rather than tweaking presets. So, what finally triggered my plunge into modular was in March 2011 discovering an extensive article in Sound On Sound (originally published in 2009)- ‘The SOS Guide To Choosing A Modular Synth‘. An additional factor was that a friend of mine had been name-checked in the article – one Lester Barnes!
So, the next obvious move was to seek advice from Lester and when I asked if I could come and see his modular synth, I should have known that I was in trouble when his answer was ‘which one?’.
After further research I decided to go for the Eurorack option buying a Doepfer case and mostly Doepfer modules apart from three TipTop Audio z3000 oscillators. So the journey began . . .

The changes were slow but I rapidly found that certain modules didn’t do it for me and these were replaced – a process that still goes on to this day. It now amuses me to see that the above picture of my first full case is titled ‘complete’! Ha!
Being particularly drawn to sequencers, my first major addition was an Analogue Solutions Oberkorn 3 which sat nicely on the Doepfer case, which itself I had enclosed in a rather crude DIY pine outer case.
So that was 2011 and the most recent module I have purchased (June 2024) is the AJH Sonic XV filter . . .
