The Rack Pack

The Rack Pack #22
This week the Pack takes on the ethics of reverse-engineering software and the open-sourcing of Beads. We also compare notes on getting ready for a 45-minute set versus a 15-minute one, and why rushing is dangerous. There’s gear too: making ambient music with the Befaco Oneiroi, the Befaco Ark “groovebox in a module,” Ethereal Electronics Shooting Stars and the Squarp Core. Plus Stu’s existential question of the day, and the synths we’d take to a desert island.
CONTEST! Download the stems we recorded at the Vintage Synthesizer Museum and make a piece of music with them. Your track must be 1 to 3 minutes long and use only sounds from this project. The stems come as a Logic project, with a subfolder of raw WAV files. Entries are due December 15, 2026. We’ll play the top three on air, and the winner, picked by The Rack Pack, gets some TRP swag.
Download the stems: https://bit.ly/4isXkJD
Links
U•D•O DMNO: https://www.udo-audio.com/dmno
Modular On The Spot LA: https://motsla.com
Music For Wineries, Oct 25: https://www.instagram.com/reels/DemgKxUSoEB/
EZBot stream on Elektron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DlNucvqP50
Synthdad’s Oneiroi video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceUX5awTRRc
Befaco Ark: https://www.perfectcircuit.com/befaco-ark.html
Happy Modular cases: https://www.etsy.com/shop/HappyModular
Ethereal Electronics Shooting Stars: https://etherealelectronics.nl/products/shooting-stars
Nireus: https://www.instagram.com/nireusofficial/
Genki Instruments Katla: https://genki.is/katla
Squarp Core: https://squarp.net/core/
The Vintage Synthesizer Museum: https://vintagesynthesizermuseum.com

In this episode the Pack chats with musician, producer, music educator, and content creator Sarah Belle Reid. The conversation hits how to improvise with electronic instruments, what it means to listen, and how Sarah approached her most recent project, an electro-acoustic opera that took seven years to make! We struggle with the usual modular existential questions like whether to go big or to go small, and how to embrace our mistakes, even the ones made while podcasting.

Sarah Belle Reid's "Times Undoing and Progress" is available for preorder at bandcamp: https://sarahbellereid.bandcamp.com/album/times-undoing-progress

Sign up for her course on sound and synthesis here:
https://www.soundandsynthesis.com

Sarah's website:
https://www.sarahbellereid.com/

The Rack Pack is back after a slow summer, minus Stu. Mark recaps Bloop Groop's Culture Night special in Dublin with Arturia, where he built a modular system from an empty case in front of a live audience. Jonas reports from Knobcon and the first EMIXX West in Denver, and recounts his run in with the law for playing synths. Plus: Swells vs. Desmodus Versio, the Plinky, Noise Engineering's 23 new Legio firmwares, Radio Music Mk II, Soma Enigma, the Sidekick, and the dangers of going to lunch with Jeffy.
Modular On the Spot LA: https://motsla.com
Dublin Bloop Groop: https://www.bloopgroop.com/
EMIXX West: https://www.emixx.org/EMIXXWEST
KnobCon: https://www.knobcon.com/

It's a lean crew this time — a smaller version of The Pack meets up to talk the ebbs and flows of creativity, what summer does to a Eurorack habit, and wherever the conversation wanders. On the docket: the campaign to bring Modular On The Spot LA back to life, recent gear scores and lingering GAS, and the eternal question of fitting music-making into full lives. Don't miss Stu's progress report on becoming Geddy Lee, plus an update from the Seaside workbench.

In this episode of The Rack Pack, the crew is joined by modular synth wizard DivKid for a full post-Superbooth decompression session. We recap the biggest announcements, weirdest modules, unexpected trends, overheard hallway gossip, and the collective sensory overload that only Superbooth can provide. Along the way, the Pack and DivKid dig into what actually stood out after the dust settled, which gear kept pulling us back in, and what the current state of modular says about where the scene is headed next.