I did notice that there are ES-5 encoders available for the iOS version of miRack in case youâre interested
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There is better version of the ES-9 module above @Throwawaydonoteat.
Please let us know if it works well.
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Hey @futureaztec I have been reading about your predicament all week, and Iâm sorry youâre having a hard time with limitations. 
On the other hand (at least IMO), half the fun of the issue is the critical thinking that you get to exercise in coming up with a creative solution. If anybody can do it, itâs you, as I know you to be the king of building workarounds to fit your use case. Finding challenges like this and coming up with ways to overcome them consistently keeps us sharp, and I feel like it makes the victory a lot more enjoyable than the few minutes of joy that you get when you buy an easy route to solve the problem 
That being said, I saw this while taking a look at (more like drooling over, as I wonât be able to work with it until I sell off some modules in the distant future) the Strymon Magneto, and I noticed they make an attenuator and an amplifier module in a 4HP format, which is about as bare minimum as I would imagine something like this could be. I thought it might be a good thing to consider if you have no way to build your way through it, provided you havenât already seen and considered this.
Anyway, I hope this will be helpful, as your thread about working with your low level pickups from the guitars, the Blooper, your minimalist rack, and Audulus together from this past week immediately popped into my head the moment I saw it. 
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AA1EU--strymon-aa1-amplifier-attenuator-eurorack-module
Thanks for the tip. I considered this module as well:
But I have ordered the Befaco INAMP as I found it on sale somewhere. I like the fact that it has gain knobs.
The conversation moved along and I eventually considered the Octopre interface, which I believe could add 8 channels, with preamps, to the ES-8 via ADAT. This would bring the number of inputs up from 4 to 12, but take up no more room in the rack.
If this were to actually work as described, it seems to me like an attractive solution. In the meantime, I hope Santa delivers the INAMP in time for Christmas morning.
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One of the things I like about modular is the sheer number of choices available for any given function. While there are certainly standout modules like Maths that seem to have a wide following, for most things you have solutions available from many different vendors at many different price points. For real flexibility itâs hard to beat the new superdisting (except for Audulus of course).
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I spend way too much time looking through modules. This morning I am playing with the idea of putting a dual head tape style looper in the center of the rack.
I just love the calm precise development of the Instuo fella.
Like how he has made the faceplate rings on the module capacitive touch sensors!
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Neat looking module. Love the touch sensors. Personally, I think Iâd rather have a Boss RC-500 or 505. I realize that you would lose the ability to use CV to modulate the loops and or course theyâre not as compact but theyâre very flexible loopers and much less costly. Still, modelar is all about personal preferences. I would love to have a Strymon Magneto in my rack but, since I donât perform itâs hard to justify when I have already have a ton of reverb/echo plug-ins. I love the immediacy of hardware and I think I wouldnât be satisfied with only virtual instruments but finding a balance between the two worlds, particularly in light of budget constraints, has proven to be somewhat problematic.
Well TBH I am kind of scratching my head right now. I have had to order a special MIDI cable, some plugs and patch cord cable to build a custom Y splitter, and the Befaco INAMP, and a footswitch in order to accommodate Blooper. Blooper only provides one âtape headâ which any layering over top has to be the length of the original loop. (I knew all of this but wanted to see if anything would click with me even in its simplicity). It crams in some other effects and whatnot (which I often wish the looping companies wouldnât do). I picked it up somewhat in defeat, surprised that after all of these years, no one has made the looper I want. At this point, it would have been cheaper to run the Lubadh.
Before the month is up I may call it a loss and return Blooper, not because it is a bad product by any means, but because I am not actually coming at all of this from a guitar pedal world but more from a modular synthesis world â ie., having direct control over effects and understanding what I am doing is a vital part of the joy.
The most important aspect in all of this is syncing, which seems to be an afterthought in all pedal designs. Each one I have looked at has some deal breaking feature missing.
With Blooper I keep hitting creative barriers. I record a loop, pitch it down and think âokay, cool.â Then I go to record some noodling over top and it applies the pitch shifting to everything,⊠and so on and so on. It is so hard to know the walls without hitting them.
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Itâs hard to know how things will gel with a complex setup like yours, until you can actually try them out. Things that look good on paper often turn out to be impractical in the real world. Unfortunately these days itâs not really possible to try before you buy. (Not that it ever was here in the music store desert.)
I was seriously considering a Maths module but Iâve found that the Hydrasynthâs envelopes are so flexible that with 5 to play with I can generally use 1 or 2 to drive the two CV outs from the Hydrasynth if I need a complex envelope. They can be triggered from an external CV source so they can be independent from the Hydrasynth note on if necessary. Theyâre variable curve DAHSR that can be synced and looped. The LFOs are similarly flexible.
In fact, I would say that a desktop Hydrasynth would make a pretty amazing add to a modular or semi-modular rig. Two CV inputs, Pitch, Gate, Clock and two CV outputs make it pretty easy to integrate. The clock output will sync with the Hydrasynthâs clock which in turn can sync with an incoming MIDI clock or alternatively the Hydra can act as a master MIDI clock source. The CV inputs are capable of audio rates, so itâs possible to feed an audio signal into the Hydrasynth if necessary. The filters and effects are outstanding, and of course itâs a powerful synth. Iâm. beginning to think that adding a desktop version to the keyboard version I already have would give me the most bang for the buck. I know itâs digital rather than analog but my two semi-modulars cover the analog space pretty well for me.
I often wish that Eurorack had been developed just a bit later so that the voltage levels were better aligned with other audio equipment. Modern electronics are much happier at lower voltages than those found in the Eurorack standard. It would make modules significantly less expensive if voltage ranges were lower and it would also ease interconnection if audio signals were at line level. I can envision a more modern standard similar to Eurorack but getting vendors to adopt one might be unmanageable.
Your comment regarding sync got me to looking at the RC-505 user manual.
Looks like it has MIDI sync in and out on both 5 pin and USB. In addition it has L & R instrument and line level inputs, a mic input (with phantom power) and L & R line level outputs. 5 separate tracks, a pretty deep MIDI implementation etc. This version is intended for desktop use rather than as a stomp box but the RC-500 is similar in a footswitch layout.
This mention stings me right in the buyerâs remorse part of my heart, probably about as much as I imagine the ES-9 does for you @stschoen , as the Super Disting EX module came out the week I had finally gotten my waitlisted Disting MK4 module pair, and worse still it actually was priced at ~$25 less than I had just paid for the dual Disting modules. I didnât want to return them, so Perfect Circuit was nice enough to match the new price they had dropped the Disting 4 pair which was $40 between the two, so my total cost was just below the cost of the Super and overall, just enough to make me feel not as bitter about buying at the time I did 
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It sucks when something better comes out just after youâve bought something. Sound like they made an effort to make things right at least. I guess there will always be something new and improved coming down the pike. On the bright side, you had the pair in hand and probably would have had to wait for the super. I noticed it was out of stock at perfect circuit.
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