I discovered modular synthesizers roughly four years ago, and knew at once that I wanted one.
Unfortunately, as is known by all who have felt lure of modular, the cost is prohibitive. Even a small skiff realistically costs over $2,000 while still being quite limited in its capabilities.
If you want a more complete modular instrument, such as by filling a 7U 104HP case, then the cost can easily exceed $6,000. And while this is a common size for fully-fledged, self-contained modular setups, it's also firmly in the low/mid-budget range for this hobby. If you can afford it, the sky is the limit -- or rather, the ceiling of your studio space.
Not included is the cost of patch cables. Even cheap ones cost about $2.50 each. The useful stackable ones start at $6. Anything beyond a small rig is likely to require several dozen, meaning that if you're going to get into modular, you should probably expect your patch cable budget to start in the three figures.
Then again, once you've spent several grand on a fancy system, what's another $150 on the cables that will actually let you use it?
When I first began to dream about modular, $150 did matter. I was in the middle of a divorce whose strain on my finances ensured I couldn't treat even the smallest expense as an afterthought. Consequently, modular synths were part of a fantasy I prescribed to the future. Even if I had wanted to get into it piecemeal -- buying a module here, a module there -- I simply couldn't bear the startup cost. A case, a power supply, and a single nice module could still run anywhere from $500-$1,000.
Not only was this more than I could afford, it was hard to imagine a worse value proposition. Modular is exponential. Every new module adds value to the ones you already have, but it takes a good handful to get anything remotely as capable as a traditional synth. Without prior gear or the ability to buy a decently-sized system all at once, it simply makes no sense as a starting point for making music.
And indeed, if the goal is to produce music, modular can be difficult to justify. I'll get into that in another post, but for the moment, it's enough to say there are many pros and cons to consider, which I didn't have to do because the cost alone was enough to outweigh all other factors. So I waited, budgeted, and made music. From spring 2022 to fall 2023, I worked purely "in the box," spending money only on an FL Studio license, a pair of speakers, and a small MIDI keyboard. I was lucky enough to already have a digital piano and a good pair of headphones.
Eventually, I purchased my first hardware synthesizer. This was shortly before publishing my debut album, Space Bunny, as a reward to myself for taking the hobby seriously and for nearly two years of meticulous budgeting. It wasn't modular -- that was still too expensive -- but with the goal of one day getting around to that, it was semi-modular. I had chosen an Arturia MiniBrute 2S, used -- $365 after taxes and shipping, down from a retail price of $500. Not bad.
That was over two years ago. Since then, my budget has grown and my hardware expenses ramped up to match. First, I spent six months jamming my heart out on the MiniBrute, learning its ins and outs. I discovered I preferred using it for making bass lines, and feeling badly that it needed a drum machine companion, I paired it with a Roland TR-6S. I chose it for its affordability, portability, and appealing library of classic sounds -- though I quickly decided I did not like the workflow.
Four months later, I bought a Novation Peak to serve as my polyphonic synth workhorse, as well as a distortion pedal through which to route the MiniBrute. After another four months, I decided I needed sequencing and sampling capabilities, knocked out those two birds with one Elektron Digitakt II, realized it could also be a drum machine, and sold the TR-6S.
I bought all of these devices on the second-hand market and saved good money doing so, but the cost of related equipment added up -- especially as I felt a rising desire to disconnect my music hobby from the computer that already took up so much of my time. As of selling the TR-6S, I had also acquired a MIDI controller, MIDI merger, MIDI splitter, audio interface, audio mixer, USB hub, speakers, stands, and a veritable menagerie of cables and adapters.
Thanks to my meticulous bookkeeping, I knew that my whole music studio had cost $3,650. The instrument themselves made up about $2,450, and the remaining $1,200 had been devoted to equipment that existed purely to support those instruments. Keep that in mind if you ever decide to go DAWless. It's a reality of this hobby.
I felt happy with my three hardware devices (four, including the piano), but I still had my mind on modular. Specifically, for almost as long as I had known modular existed, I had kept an eye on the Tape & Microsound Music Machine by Make Noise. Every module in the TMMM seemed inspiring on an individual level as well as in the context of the whole system. True, the idea of buying or assembling a predetermined system seemed to go somewhat against the modular ethos -- but I couldn't shake the appeal of the TMMM.
This was doubly true because over time, I had gravitated toward wanting modules for FX processing, and wished for my modular system to have very little overlap with the rest of my hardware in terms of functionality. The TMMM seemed to fit while still having the ability to be played by itself if desired.
Finally, in August 2025, after endless planning, budgeting, and second-guessing, I decided I would no longer wait. I purchased a powered case, an input/output module, an oscilloscope, and a Mimeophon. Along with cables, this cost a little over $1,100.
I decided that after this, rain or shine, I would spend roughly $500/month until I filled the case. This would give me room to learn modules one at a time without getting overwhelmed, but still be fast enough to complete the system by early 2026. My finances were finally more than healthy enough to support this, and after putting off modular for 3.5 years, I decided I would not allow myself to hesitate any further.
As of writing this, I have now acquired all of the modules in the Tape & Microsound Music Machine -- except two minor ones that I will not be getting. I'm left with some small gaps, which I've yet to fully decide how to fill. But after getting my last major piece of the TMMM, I wanted to reflect on how far I'd come.
Next week, my marriage will have ended four years ago. In the year that followed it, my finances were in freefall. Not long before the separation, my ex and I had bought a house into which I'd put a lot of my own money to purchase and renovate, as I had anticipated to be there for a long time. Consequently, when we sold the house just a few months later, it was at a loss to me even though the value had gone up -- and a gain to her. This was exacerbated by her refusal to pay for any lingering joint bills, like foundation repairs for the house that the buyers requested after an inspection.
I didn't help my situation by moving out of state to a city where the cost of living was higher -- though at the time, we had agreed on a marriage dissolution. It wasn't long before I received divorce papers in the mail, containing a list of laughably exaggerated grievances and several flat-out lies. This didn't stop a judge from ordering me to pay $500/month in spousal support because my ex was unemployed. She had, just before the separation, quit a full-time job that paid $2,000/month (net). My own income was $2,700/month. It doesn't take a math savant to see this doesn't add up.
I didn't push back against the spousal support because my attorney had told me it would be refunded to me in the final settlement. In fact, it wasn't. It only served to put pressure on me to complete the divorce proceedings as quickly as possible -- to agree to unfavorable terms to stem the bleeding. Then there were the attorney fees, and the disbursement my ex received from my retirement account. I was entitled to half her marital savings as well, of course -- she just didn't have any. Her money had been for spending. I was the piggy bank. All the budgeting in the world won't matter if you marry the wrong person.
Back to the present, I find a kind of poetry in that $500/month figure I allowed myself to spend on modular. Three and a half years ago, this was money that put a genuine strain on my finances. In truth, it doesn't even come close to representing the full cost of that divorce ... but I like the symbolism. It took until mid-2024 for my finances to fully recover, yet I am now thriving and able to spend more on myself than ever before -- and for the first time in my life, I am also allowing myself to do so without constant second-guessing.
So far, the modular system has been a lot of fun and has so much to offer. I'm not entirely convinced I will keep all of the TMMM modules, but I am settled on limiting the system to my current case at least until I move again, which I'm not in a rush to do. After expanding my hardware setup for the past two years, my goal is to slow the expansion and focus on refinement, and on actually uploading music. I play all the time, but I'd love to have something to share to the family members that ask.
Happy New Year <3
