BEAM festival

I'll be doing a WOM event at the end of June at the Brunel Electronic & Analogue Music festival

http://www.beamfestival.com/

As you can see - LOTS going on at it!

Daren Ager's Radiophonic Set - help Japan! (and links to other BugMod Radiophonics)

At the start of April there will be a great event at the Cube Cinema in Bristol over two evenings - A Radiophonic Weekend - Sat 2nd and Sun 3rd April 2011.

Recently I asked the users of my BugModular systems to come up with short tracks inspired by the works of the Radiophonic Workshop to be played in between parts of the Cube weekend. You can listen to all the tracks via the MuffWiggler Forum Thread Here. The results are, though I say so myself, freaking amazing and highly varied.

Daren Ager has gone one step further and has compiled his tracks into an album which he is now offering at a super price of only £1.25 with ALL proceeds being donated to the Red Cross for the Japan Disaster Relief Fund. (You can also easily donate MORE if you'd like!)

http://darenager.bandcamp.com/album/bug-phonic

And to whet the appetite, here's one of his new videos:

Release

These are the pics that relate to the latest ModularMailOut.

(what, you're not subscribed to the mailing list?!)

Click the images for large versions.

5 x 1Frame Systems - shown without EndCheeks

Overview of the two System types

They're identical other than Type1 has 3xSYN2A Utility VCO while Type2 has one SYN2A replaced by a PRC5 Wavefolder

With Desktop EndCheeks

With 19" Rack EndCheeks

Costings: All prices are exclusive of shipping and VAT (@ 20% - applicable to all UK & EU sales)

Frame - £70

Desktop EndCheeks (Pair) - £20

MiniPower (inc UK or EU PSU) - £75

ENV1 Attack Decay - £100

SYN2A Utility VCO x 3 - £270

DD2 LFO / DC Mixer - £80

DD1 Modulator / LPG - £90

DD3 VCA / Drive - £90

PRC3A SV Filter - £90

PRC1 PT Delay - £95

UTL2 Output Mix - £60

Starter Cable Pack (24 Cables) - £40

TOTAL = £1080

For System Type 2 (PRC5 replaces one SYN2A) - add £5

For 19" Rack EndCheeks - subtract £5

For worldwide sales (120V operation) MiniPower is discounted due to self-sourcing PSU - subtract £7.50

Typical Shipping Costs -

UK - Special Delivery - £22.50

EU - DHL - £40

Worldwide - DHL - £50

Toggle Time

Soon it will be time to::::

StringThing DIY

Five years ago, back when I was making a load of Contact Mics, I soldered some guitar string offcuts onto the back of a C-mic and enjoyed the plinky fun sounds that resulted:

Recently someone reminded me of these and I thought I'd make a new version mounted in a little box. Here's a simple DIY guide to make your own (click images to enlarge):

It is a very simple setup - a c-mic mounted inside a little box with some guitar string pieces (c. 6" length) soldered on to the back of the c-mic.

I used some plain and some wound guitar strings of various diameters - you can experiment with different gauges and different lengths.

The only slightly tricky part is how to effectively solder the strings onto the back of the c-mic - what is important here is to get decent heat-transfer - make sure your soldering iron is as hot as it can be (I turn mine up full) and that it is clean.

- I first make a blob of solder on the back of the c-mic, about 1cm diameter

- I then tin the ends of the guitar strings

- clean the iron tip and re-tin it, but with quite a lot of solder

- now re-melt the solder blob and fuse in the guitar string

- repeat for all the other strings, spacing them very slightly apart from one another

- you can see in the 2nd image how I stripped back the ends of the wound strings to expose the plain central core

I mount strings onto the c-mic and then use epoxy resin (araldite etc) to fix the c-mic into the plastic case.

The Piezo element is just a standard 27mm piezo disc.

Have fun!

BugBrand SoundCloud

My beginning to use Virb last year coincided with the service turning poop.. I've finally set up a SoundCloud username to replace this and serve as an easy upload space for sound demos.

Here's the new destination: http://soundcloud.com/bugbrand

Starting off with some rough recordings from my new playing setup - making use of XBase09, Mono/Poly, Fat Controller, Time Factor and, of course, BugBrand Modular.

AllTogetherNow2SND by BugBrand

BattleMix by BugBrand

AWMix by BugBrand

AW2 by BugBrand

New Modular Bits - an early Christmas!

I posted some images of new EndCheek designs on the MW forum last month (here)

The parts have now come back from the metal work shop and look fantastic!
(great thanks to Steve Bell at PEM Sheetmetal - they do all my metal work and are great to work with)

My new personal 4FrameBomber setup (click any image for HiRes):

There are a few new & prototype modules hidden within there.

The modules are (from top left):

2 x SYN2A rev1 XR09VCO // 3 x SYN2A rev2 Utility VCO // E350 Morphing Terrarium // DD1 rev2 Modulator / LPG // 2 x PRC3A rev1 SV Filter // UTL1 Dual Preamp (rev2 which doesn't work properly! to be replaced!)

SYN1 Weevil beta (really early one) // 2 x ENV1 rev1 Attack Decay // ENV1 rev2 Attack Decay // 2 x DD2 rev2 LFO/DCMixer // PRC2 BugCrusher // UTL3 Dual VCA // PRC4 Dual LPG // DD3 VCA/Drive Beta

SYN3 Digital Shift Prototype //. CLK2A Divisions // CLK2B Binary Division // CLK3A Triple Logic // CTL3 8 Stage Preset Proto // 2 x PRC1 PT Delay // UTL5 Fade/Pan Beta

CTL2 rev2 Joystick/Touch // CTL1 rev2 Touch Panel // UTL4 Dual DC Mixer // UTL2C Matrix Mixer // UTL2 Output Mix // UTL2B Outputs

At the same time I received some 'Boot' style EndCheeks too in 3 and 4 Frame sizes:

Some of the EndCheeks were powdercoated in Blue Leatherette finish:

And to finish up here's a pic. of a BugModular user's update setup newly updated: