Jack-o-Mix

In a continued effort to speed workflow in my home studio I've just added this 1/4 to 1/8 inch adaptor.

It's made using a DIY PCB called Jack-o-Mix. I drilled the faceplate myself using this template from greyscale. These 6 1/4 inch outs then run to my patchbay as shown... nice and neat!

New track on Soundcloud...

Patchbays, cable ties and workflow

Having grown organically over 9 or so years my home studio had turned into a spaghetti soup of wires that went everywhere– a nightmare!

So in an effort both gain control and speed up my workflow I began a total re-design and overhaul.

Stage 1 was re-routing al the PSU's, stage 2  Midi, and usb and finally stage 3 running all my outboard audio to a patchbay above my mixer.

Finally with everything labelled, and sensibly routed it's time to start making music again!

(Dontcha just love cable ties.)

Midi Widget gating a Eurorack Test No 2

After the success of my breadboard I made up a stripboard for the Midi Widget to provide 8x Eurorack gates. I  thought a stripboard design would cut down on flying wires in the build, and make less work for me!

There's a film of it in action here, and photos below. The film only uses 6 gates as I didn't make up a ribbon cable with enough lines...

Having all these gates to play with in the modular environment is gonna be so much fun!

The jack sockets will attach the stripboard to my enclosure face, in a similar way to a eurorack module.

Rear of stripboard shows where I cut traces.

Daw–to–Midiwidget–to–Eurorack

What next..?

Well, ultimately I'm thinking of using the Midi Widget not only provide gates for my Eurorack, but also remote switch some of my circuit bent instruments. I've already breadboard tested the widget controlling  circuit bent stuff using reed relays,  so my next stage will be to work out a strip board design for this... cool!

Midi Widget gating TipTop audio modules

My midiwidget from Highly Liquid arrived... so I quickly set up a breadboard test with it gating some eurorack modules!

Three gates out with LED indicators and a permanently on LED to show 5v power supply.

The 5v gate out voltages go through 1v resistors and then on to 3 modules; TipTop 808 Kick, Snare and Rim.

Video recorded on iPhone, audio through Mackie vlz mixer with no fx into Logic. Video and audio were then visually synced.

I have to say, I love this thing already– still working out how best to design my build, as I want to use some gates for eurorack, and some to switch circuitbent machines using reed relays. I might post some more as that progresses...

But in essence this device rocks, thank you highly liquid!

New circuit bent beard music on Soundcloud

Gear Used...

Bent gear: Casio sa5 and Roland tr505.

Analog gear: doepfer eurorack modular system and an mfb522.

Other gear: Ehx holy grail, memory man, v256 and an oboe.

Recorded Portsmouth 2015.

Thanks for listening... :)

Roland System 100m

Spotted in Wunjo Keys, Denmark street London. One of my favourite synth shops in the whole world... (second only to Schneiders Buero, Berlin!)

Circuit Bent Tr505

A new machine enters the fold– a circuit bent Tr505!

Pitch pot added using circuitbenders.uk LTC1799 circuit. I kept the original crystal and used a DPDT switch to flick between original pitch, and variable pitch. I also added an input so I can control the pitch via cv using my DOEPFER A-101-9. Nice!

24 Bends were added to the ROM chip using a schematic here avoiding the power and gnd pins.

There are tons more bends possible with this machine (just look online) but I'm super happy with my mods  as I use it solely triggered via MIDI, and wanted to create new timbres which the pitch and rom bends do nicely.

Expect new tracks soon...

Organ Monkey Teeth

Two new tracks on soundcloud: Organ Monkey's Teeth Parts 1 and 2...

In case you're interested...

Both tracks were recorded and mixed in my small home studio in Portsmouth.

OMT part 1 was mostly made with doepfer a100, circuit bent barbie and a microbrute.

Bass 2xa110 vco> a106.1 ms20 copy. The settings on the filter lead to a notch around 100k which the kick fitted into snuggly.

Snare from circuit bent barbie– I sent noise from an am radio into it and then modulated it with a doepfer a100 system. The different timbres are created when I manually adjust settings.

Kick from a100, again no presets here!

Lead from a100 and the barbie again FM cross modulating each other.

Flute from mtron sent out into my mixer and back into logic. (I know it's software but I will never be able to afford a real mellotron!)

Reverb EHX hoy grail, delay EHX memory man.

OMT part 2 was made with circuit bent instruments and a small doepfer a100 system.

Bass a100 recorded through marshal amp with a low signal noise ratio in an attempt to not Freak out our neighbours (hence amp hum!)

Kick and snare also from Doepfer patches - no presets here!

Kick patch used sine and triangle from an a110>a131vca modulated with a145 adsr and a145 lfo (pitch)

Snare patch used the same crappy am radio  fitted with line out as a noise source into a bit crusher > also with an a110> vca modulated with adsr

Vocals processed through circuit bent voice changer and home made distortion box.

Lead from bent casio sa 5 into doepfer wasp filter being swept with foot controller.

Cow bell is a percussive noise from the a100 sent through a high hat with a piezo driver and picked up again with a piezo Mike.

Delay from ehx mm and reverb ehx holy grail.

All tracks run through mackie mixer and arranged in logic.

All in all, one of those sessions where the studio turns into a chaos of wires and possibilities- fun!

Thanks for listening... :)

 

 
 

DEATH / Transmission / LIFE : MYTHOS

Neal Beard and his Machines have their track 'Rikane Delmarre is Dead' included on a new compilation from Necktar.

The themes of this, their 7th compilation, is Death / Transmission / Life : Mythos.

(Beetween 15 and 17 hours of music by sound pioneers from all around the earth) Stay tuned §:)

Download or stream here

More info on their website here