We’ve wanted to make a case for a long time, and many customers have requested them, too. A few years back, we happened to meet a local metal fabricator – literally headquartered 20 minutes from the Noise Engineering HQ – and we started chatting with them about the concept of making a case. 

When designing the case, we decided that 64 HP was the perfect size: it wasn’t too wide, but it was still big enough to assemble a full system of Noise Engineering modules. We also wanted a case that was deep enough for modules from other manufacturers – some skiffs we’d used couldn’t fit our favorite Doepfer modules, for example, so we designed Case of Steel to be as deep as was reasonably possible. Once we had a design, the metal fabricator built the cases for us, and sent them to our distributor. 

All that was left was the power supply, which we thought would be straightforward, since we already had a design. It turned out our initial prototype didn’t work as well as we’d hoped, and we spent the next two years working on a new one. We expected the power to be complicated – partly because we had high standards – but we hoped it wouldn’t take quite that long! In the end we think it was worth it: the new design is incredibly robust and much more sophisticated. 

Sadly, Case of Steel is a limited run for a variety of reasons. We bought these cases before tariffs dramatically increased the price of metal, meaning we couldn’t make these again at the same price. Add to that the challenges that storing and distributing a heavy enclosure pose for a small team like us, and throw in a dash of some big behind-the-scenes changes here at NE (more on that later), and this will probably be the only run of cases we make for a while – or potentially ever. We didn’t intend Case of Steel to be a limited product, but we’re hoping there are at least enough to go around for a while.

Naming the case was the last challenge, which spurred some spirited discussions in the Noise Engineering slack, but in the end, Case of Steel narrowly beat out Skiffy McSkiffface (much to Markus’s continued dismay) and we were finally ready to ship. Patrick even got to borrow a lightsaber for the product photos. 

A heading about headers

Some folks have reached out asking why we didn’t use shrouded headers for the power connections. Shrouded headers are an interesting part: in a perfect world, they can make things easier… but sadly, we don’t live in a perfect world, so they can have some unintended consequences. 

Shrouded headers force keyed power cables to be installed in one orientation. Most of the time, this is a good thing: you can’t plug something in upside down. However, over the years, we’ve run into a surprising number of corner cases. On rare occasions, cables are simply manufactured incorrectly, or are manufactured with the expectation of a differing orientation standard, which forces your module to be plugged in upside down when installed in a shrouded header. As you can imagine, this is suboptimal. We’ve also run into power cables that can’t actually be installed in a shrouded header, making them unusable with some busboards. There are also power connectors that look like they would be keyed but aren’t, making them just as easy to install incorrectly as correctly.

All in all, we’ve found that we much prefer using unshrouded headers, and used our preferred design on the Case of Steel. As a bonus, they don’t require hand soldering like shrouded headers do, so the MSRP is lower, too. 

Grab your skiff today

As we mentioned, there are only 100 Case of Steel (Cases of Steel? Case of Steels?) available, and unfortunately a number of factors have made it difficult for us to make more any time soon. In addition, due to their weight, they’re only available from the Noise Engineering webshop to avoid further logistical challenges. They’re ready to ship now, so order yours today if you’re itching to start a Eurorack system, or you just need some extra space for those last few modules.