Ginko Synthese Flightcases

Ginko Synthese portable flightcase frontside 

Ginko Synthese, known from their recent successfully funded SampleSlicer project and their TTLFO, has been making modular cases for quite a while...

Now this Dutch company is thinking about making a small batch of portable flightcases (the white one with aluminium corners), maybe 10 or 20 pcs.
The pictures are an indication of what it will look like (a case he made earlier).

The busboards are connected directly to the back of the case in this one, but if enough people are interested he will make internal mounting rails for them so there will be nothing visible on the outside.

Ginko Synthese portable flightcase backside

Specifications:

- 104 or 114HP width
- includes PSU and Doepfer busboards
- case depth will be around 11cm
- keeps your patches inside while lid is closed
- detachable lid
- 220V connection on side for standard eurostyle power cable

Updated November 3, 2014
You can still order for this batch.
They are available in two sizes:
104HPx6U = €320,-
114HPx9U = €500,-
They come including PSU and busboards.
The color is white/grey and have a subtile gynkosynthese logo engraved in the lid.
The power connection is on the side so you can use it laying flat or standing vertical.

Check the Ginko Synthese Portable Cases product-page for more info on how to order:
http://www.ginkosynthese.com/product/portable-cases/

2Egress Studio Furniture and Cases

After the recent wave of interesting new Eurorack-modules you might run out of rack-space pretty soon...
I recently stumbled upon a Canadian firm that builds and designs studio furniture and Eurorack cases.

A few of the 2Egress Eurorack case-designs

2Egress is a three year old small business located in Toronto, Canada that specializes in technical furniture for recording studios and film editing suites.

"Growing up with an avid woodworking father, Brock inherited a love for all things wooden, and developed a passion for restoring classic racing sailboats.
These experiences have been stepping stones to the high quality, detail oriented pieces that he designs and builds today.

As a schooled audio engineer and musician, it became clear to Brock that studio furniture had become stuck in the 60's and 70's - ugly and utilitarian to excess, the standard pressboard self-assembled furniture available was not recognizing the unique needs nor aesthetic discernment of the industry.
Some time ago they had been invited to build a Eurorack case and have decided to continue building them ever since."

12U 104HP wide custom case for Damian Taylor

Recently they designed and built a double wide 12U 104hp modular case for Grammy-nominated producer Damian Taylor (Bjork, The Killers, Unkle, Arcade Fire, The Prodigy).

It houses four Doepfer PSU2’s and 8 Bus Boards, has two IEC power connectors on the rear and even a matching rear panel to compliment his studio space.

They included 1/4” connectors on the rear with passthroughs to the front of the case. 

See the building-process HERE, and the finished product with modules installed HERE

I really like this sort of craftsmanship, that's why I think it is worth posting it here.
If you are looking for a new case or rack, contact them to find out what they can do for you.
They mention worldwide shipping on their website...
Based on the pictures they seem to make good quality products with an eye for detail.
Watch their site as they will be adding some very funky cool cases in the very near future.
Loads of drawings are already just waiting to be pumped into their CNC machine...

Also check out their impressive portfolio at http://www.2egress.com/portfolio.html

Website: http://www.2egress.com/home.html

I also added their RSS newsfeed to the right column of this blog >

Doepfer A-100LC3 Low-Cost Case Announced

Quite fast after they released their A-100BP case, Doepfer has now announced another new case to house your eurorack modules.

This time it is a low-cost case that will probably be available from the end of 2013.

Doepfer A-100LC3 low-cost case front view

The A-100LC3 is the "small brother" of the low cost case A-100LC6 (and A-100LC9).

It is very similar to the A-100LC6 but offers only one row with 84 HP for installation of modules. 

The A-100LC3 is equipped with one power supply (1200mA) and one bus board. 

Because of the limited space the power supply of the DIY-Kit #1 with an external transformer is used (same as for the DIY-Kit #1). 

Doepfer A-100LC3 low-cost case

On the left side of the case the connector for the external transformer is located.

The external transformer is not shown in the above pictures. 

The outside dimensions in mm are about 445 (width) x 160 (depth) x 150 (height). 

The price of the A-100LC3 will be around Euro 180-200 (including external power supply for 230 or 115V AC, without modules).

One of the benefits of having the connector on the side of the module IMO is that it can also be used on its back, as some kind of (high) skiff, but I wouldn't look up strange if Doepfer soon announces a skiff or another case...

Source: Doepfer website

New Doepfer A-100 Case A-100PB Announced

New A-100PB case without cover

Following the success of the larger Doepfer monster base cases, they announced today that probably from December 2013 the "small brother" of the monster base A-100PMB will be available.

The new case A-100PB is very similar to the A-100PMB but has only half the width (2 x 84 HP for installation of modules).
You could say that this is the flightcased version of the basic wooden A-100LCB case...
The suitcase versions A-100P6 or A-100P9 can be positioned on top of the A-100PB because the width of the A-100PB is a bit more than the width of A-100P6/P9 and the footprint of the A-100PB is adapted to the depth of A-100P6/P9.

The A-100PB is equipped with one power supply (1200mA) and two bus boards.

New A-100PB case closed

The bus boards are located in the rear area (even those for the modules that are mounted in the front row). This was necessary to take advantage of the full height of the front area for installation of A-100 modules.
The max. depth for modules in the front row is ~70 mm.

A cable lenght of 20 cm for modules in the front row is still sufficient as the bus board is close to these modules (just behind the area required for the modules, same bus board position as for A-100PMB or A-100LCB).

The price of the A-100PB will be about Euro 550 (without modules).

Source: Doepfer Website

Random Video: DIY Acrylic Modular Syntheziser

This video comes from Jonas Karlsson via the Doepfer A-100 Analog Modular Facebook page.

It features himself, building and installing modules into his DIY acrylic Eurorack-case.

It even has some nice music...

Video: DIY Acrylic Modular Syntheziser

" DIY Building a Eurorack modular synthesizer case of acrylic and Doepfer DIY kit 1.
Stills and video, Music is made with Doepfer A-111-5 Mini synthesizer voice,
Make Noise Phonogene Sequenced with Make Noise René

And a Korg Monotron delay "

Uploaded by miip999

Zyntetix at Bandcamp

Modular In A Picture Frame

A great idea for a nice modular case can be found on http://groanmaster.blogspot.nl/

This project by Andrew Dobbels involves a real picture-frame and a 208 HP Eurorack with various modules.
You can find the making-of pictures on his site with explanatory texts, so you can build your own.

More pics HERE

(via MATRIXSYNTH)

The Eurorack Standard

Many early synthesizer modules had modules with height in integer inches: 11" (e.g., Roland 100), 10" (e.g., Wavemakers), 9" (e.g., Aries), 8" (e.g., ARP 2500), 7" (e.g., Polyfusion, Buchla, Serge), 6" (e.g., Emu) and had widths in 1/4" inch multiples.
More recently it has become more popular to follow the standard 19" Rack unit systems like the 6U (Wiard), 5U (8.75" e.g., Moog, Modcan), and 4U (e.g., Serge).
Two rack 3U unit systems in particular are notable: the Frac Rack system (e.g., Paia) and the similar Eurorack system.

Manufacturers using the Eurorack format include Doepfer, Analogue Systems, and Cwejman in Europe, and Plan B, Livewire, and Harvestman in the USA.

The Eurorack format uses modules of 128.5mm (slightly over 5") height.
Horizontal width is measured in "horizontal pitch", where 1 HP = 5mm (slightly less than 0.2"); most manufacturers use a horizontal unit definition of either 1U = 4HP, or 1U = 6HP.
3.5mm phone jacks are used for interconnection of audio and voltage control.

The Eurorack format needs ±12V power (most other current formats use ±15V), in addition to +5V required by some modules.
Unfortunately, the power connections are not completely standardized yet; the format uses ribbon cables for power and a two-row ribbon cable connector containing either 10, 12, or 16 pins.
The 16-pin connector uses some of the extra pins to distribute control voltage and gate signals from a keyboard to the modules via a common case connection.

More info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_synthesizer,
http://electronicmusic.wikia.com/wiki/Eurorack, and
http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/01/31/eurorack-modular-synthesizers/ or http://www.modularplanner.co.uk/ for suggestions.

DIY Modular Case Ideas

There are many ways to house your (eurorack) modular synth, i wrote about the pre-manufactured options from Doepfer earlier, find that post HERE, but of course you can also try to build you own case.
There are many ways to make your own A-100/Eurorack case if you start out with just the basic rails and busboard, and you can make it as cheap or expensive as you can.

Check out a few ideas;
Wooden cabinets and side-panels are still very popular amongst (modular) synth enthusiasts.
These simple case standards for the pre-manufactured LC9 cases are very simple, and can be sooo useful
http://synthesizerart.blogspot.com/2011/10/dual-doepfer-lc9-case-stand-v1-design.html Also check out the other great modular pictures on his site.
Matthew Goike (@Goiks) also has some nice wooden cabinets on display and for sale on his website: http://www.goike.com/node/5

...or do what Stretta did (or rather what his brother did), make a high-end wood/brushed aluminium cabinet with integrated LED-lights and some kind of ingenious integrated cable-tree-hanger-thingy.

Stretta's Modular cabinet, made out of wood and brushed aluminium

...with an eye for detail

On his blog he writes: "The basic criteria was to widen the six row monster base/monster case combination another rack width, creating a triple-wide configuration that is easy to reach across. The width of such a configuration is about the same a standard piano keyboard. The curved design brings the top row dow to a more reachable height. The foot print of the system isn't much wider than my previous configuration." ,and
" The 1512 gets its name from the amount of hp it houses. To put this in perspective, the 1512 puts 54U of rack space, all within an arms reach."
Find more pictures of this cabinet HERE
(pictures by stretta.com )

Tony's Modular Toolcase

Tony Steventon's 'Modular in a Toolbox' case is also a very nice idea.
I personally like it's portability, plus the fact that you can travel with it without having to unpatch your whole system because the lid covers and protects all your patch-cables nicely.

Find his step-by-step building instructions at http://synovatron.blogspot.com/2011/11/modular-in-tool-case.html

Last but not least i find these custom side-panels for Dark Energy very cool. If you are handy, you could make something like this for your Dark Energy, Dark Time or Dark Matter, or try to find a pair of these on eBay.
Find more of these custom-made wooden side-panels at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI1KuWWAP8c

Racks, Cases and Monsterbases

In the beginning it was easy; you only had a few choices:
You could either buy a 3-unit high rack (A-100G3), a 6-unit high rack (A-100G6) or the 6-unit high suitcase version (A-100P6) from Doepfer to mount and organize all your A-100 modules.
Nowadays you can choose from a huge variety of other housings from Doepfer, from 32HP width miniature-cases up to 168HP monster-cases.
You can even make your own cases/cabinets with the low-cost DIY-kits containing rails, a power supply and bus-boards.

The most economic versions nowadays are the low-cost plain wood cases (A-100LC6/LC9) ,which cost about 35% less than the metal and standard suitcase versions.
If that is not your thing you can always go for the monster-cases;
Twice the usable width of a 'normal' rack, but finished with a black or grey finish in a flightcase-look are available in many different shapes and sizes.
There's even a monster-base that fits under these cases, with 2 rows of 168HP width, one with horizontal alignment and a second with a 45 degrees inclined row.

- note from the Doepfer-site: " ...the 12U monster cases are a bit difficult to handle by one person only "

I recently ordered my 4th metal G6 case because i already owned three of them that are filled up to the max. I already have some loose modules lying around that i would love to have back in my system again.
Budget-wise i wanted to go for the LC9-version(s), but then i had to re-arrange the rest of my system too, to give it a same look. Too much work for now.

For my next expansion i am considering building myself a cabinet, using 5 or 6 A-100DIY1 kits . 

That is probably by far the most in-expensive way. If i sell my G6-cases second-hand, i will probably even have some money left to buy me an extra module or two. We'll see...