Trio of Weevil07

Its taken a while but finally the Weevil07 cranks into (vague) production. Here's the first batch of three, freshly constructed. The design is updated a bit from the Weevil07 Prototype - bigger case (proto was too fiddly small), range tweaks, LEDs...

The range of sounds, compared with the Weevil06, is extreme and powerful:
- tweaked oscs now with pulse width adjustment for extra versatile sounds
- powerful analogue low-pass filter with resonance control
- more responsive touchplate - the touchy sounds you can get are super-chaos!

Full production should commence in July (though, judging by my recent form, times may slide somewhat).

Porta-frame filled

(click to see it big)

...just in time take to Amsterdam. Hopefully I'll be able to take this on Easyjet as hand-luggage - the dimensions are *just* ok for their 'carry on musical instruments' though it remains to be seen whether they believe its a musical instrument...

Details:
Top row:
- Thomas Henry Quadrature VCO
- Lofi looper module
- Thomas Henry XR2206 VCO x 2
- Thomas Henry NE566 VCO (from the 566 cookbook)
- Noise and RingMod
Middle row:
- BugCrusher (old version)
- Dual Pattern Generator
- Dual Envelope
- Low Pass Gate clone
- BugCrusher (new version)
- State Variable VCFilter
- VC PT2399 Delay
Low row - auxes panel:
- Power
- 3 x preamp
- inverter section
- 2 x mixer


EDIT -- hey, I'm happy to report that I was able to get through just fine carrying this box onto the airplanes -- absolutely no problems (which is strange considering my friend had a lot of hassle for carrying harmonicas in his hand-luggage --- all nuts!).

Next plan is to make a bigger box made to measure to fit exactly the maximum carry of musical limits of 30 x 38 x 117 cm... hehehehe!

Bug Pics - studio shots

Hey, I had a really cool recent photo shoot with Arun Productions (plus his Flickr stream).

Here's the Flickr Set
Some great pics to leaf through...

Even more portability..

The Ambassador System (see post below) just isn't portable enough.. Trying to take such a case on airplanes is out of the question. So I've quickly had to put together something even more portable (..shows next week in Amsterdam).

So this new little frame holds two frac racks, has a bunch of auxillary functions in the base, plus runs off two SLA 12v batteries - no mains power required.

The frame is an old wooden box I found outside a year ago. I added rack strips on each side, but it was a slightly strange height (..I miss measured and ended up having to trim 5mm of metal off the top and bottom of the auxes - ooops - but it still fitted in). Jigsawed as much off the back as possible - its just a little deeper than a frac-rack.

Two 12v SLAs have been strapped into the base - these are just fine for running the system for many hours.

The Aux panel has::
Power
Preamps x 3
Inverter section -- two simple inverters and two attenuverters
3-channel mixers x 2
---- some of the useful modules you always need...
---- and there's still the space in the end-cheeks of the frac-racks to be used for more aux functions..

BugBrand Ambassador Battery Powered Modular

Here's some first pics of my new (just-about) portable system. It runs entirely without the need for mains electricity. Powered by two chunky 12v SLA batteries and with a pretty meaty internal power amp, this allows modular squelch almost anywhere (..first performances were outside by the Bristol harbour during the wonderful Venn Festival weekend). Soon this will be solar powered - going to pick up a couple of powerful panels from the Post Office later today...

This has been called the Ambassador System. Its a pretty chunky frame - at the moment holding three frac-racks of modules (with space for a fourth down below).

Here's a detail of the front. I made a frame for 5u tall frac-width panels so as to fit in a system mixer. This mixer has big stats! ::: four input preamp channels, four aux sends (you can never have enough! There're two sending up to the frac modules and two sending to 1/4" output jacks), plus main channel with C.Anderton Opt-compressor.

Then there's a couple of rough'n'ready panels to hold:
Power Regulators --- I've regulating the 12v bipolar supply down to +/- 10v using 317/337 circuits. Not totally sure if I need to do this though...
Power Connections --- to hook up solar panels etc
Power Stat LEDs - LM3914 based 12v battery testers to see how well the SLAs are charged
Power Amp - actually pretty meaty 20watt amp - its certainly loud when inside the studio! And, with the chunky batteries, this can chug out loud sounds for many hours!

& here's some more details of the mixer build..... repetition!

And here's a wobbly YouTube Demo video::::::