Patchblocks Launches minijam studio Kickstarter Campaign

Exploring the tek.drum Published on Apr 2, 2017 Patchblocks

Kickstarter campaign here.

"Mindflood Ltd., the company behind the Patchblocks brand, was founded back in 2013. It was a result of the academic research of Sebastian Heinz, the founder, CEO and CTO. During his research he developed the idea to Patchblocks and brought it to a prototype state, which ended up to be the content of the first Kickstarter campaign (12/2013). This became one of the most successful synthesizer campaigns on Kickstarter.

In 2014 Sascha Goetz, an old high-school friend of Seb, joined the company as co-founder and started to take care of the all operational tasks. From then on Patchblocks were promoted heavily on key trade shows and many events all over Europe. That allowed the team to build a global retail and distribution network, as well as extending the Patchblocks product line. Those extensions are the Midiblock (2015), which enables connectivity with MIDI equipment and the Keyblock (2016), a miniature Midi Keyboard, which can directly be connected to the Patchblocks.
Besides the new minijam studio (details below) there was also a brand new 3-channel mixer added to the product portfolio. PBMIX3 is a battery powered, portable audio mixer with send and return chain.

For the minijam, the project team was extended by Filip Vandueren (Sounddesign), Andy Wilson (Engineering), Gnichi Mohamed (Engineering) and Carsten Bellan (Design consultant).

The company currently has its main office in Holywood, just outside Belfast, Northern Ireland.

minijam studio
The project started in early 2016 with the idea of creating something that still follows the Patchblocks philosophy in terms of accessibility, affordability and fun. Feedback from customers and retailers pointed to something more hardware, less software. The result was not just one single unit, it ended up in a whole product line, which combines a lot of different studio hardware in a small size.

minijam is based on the idea of what happens when you boil down a hardware studio or live performance setup to very compact and affordable products. Maybe compromising pro-features, but not compromising the enjoyment of noodling and jamming with such machines.

The studio includes a drum machine, a wavetable synthesiser, an analog filter, a mixer and a speaker. It gives you the feel of jamming with hardware equipment, all bundled in a ready-to-use set with impressive sound.
Each device is powered by a rechargeable battery and can be used standalone or as part of the set. You don’t need any software or mobile phone. The mixer keeps all connected devices synchronised and also allows for the integration of other hardware with it’s sync triggers on the second channel of the stereo connectors. (e.g. Pocket Operators, Volcas,etc.)

Product details
tek.drum - Drum Machine:
8 Drum-Synthesis tracks with 4 parameters per track
8 Patterns with 16 steps
automation and parameter locks of all 32 parameters
pattern chaining up to 128 steps
global delay send effect
save patterns and automation to flash
up to 12h battery life (rechargeable via Micro USB)
Dimensions (l/w/h): 15.5 x 6.5 x 3.2 (cm), Weight: 100g
Kickstarter price 45.00 GBP (MSRP 60.00GBP)

tek.waves - Wavetable Synthesizer
16 fully automatable sound parameters divided into 4 pages
3 wave table banks (vowel, classic, harmonic)
arpeggiator with hold, octave range and arp mode settings
4 patterns with up to 128 steps per pattern
scale select, and 2 octave keyboard within selected scale
global delay send effect
save patterns and automation to flash
up to 12h battery life (rechargeable via Micro USB)
Dimensions (l/w/h): 15.5 x 6.5 x 3.2 (cm), Weight: 100g
Kickstarter price 45.00 GBP (MSRP 60.00GBP)

tek.filter - Analog Filter
audio input and output
2 pole resonant low-pass / band-pass filter
up to 40h battery life (rechargeable via Micro USB)
Dimensions (l/w/h): 11.5 x 6.5 x 3.2 (cm), Weight: 65g
Kickstarter price 40.00 GBP (MSRP 50.00GBP)

.hub - 3 Channel Mixer
3 mono channel input with sync trigger output per channel (stereo cable)
digital encoder and display to set tempo
44.1kHz 16bit .wav recording to micro SD card
up to 8h battery life (rechargeable via Micro USB)
Dimensions (l/w/h): 14.0 x 6.5 x 3.2 (cm), Weight: 95g
Kickstarter price 45.00 GBP (MSRP 60.00GBP)

.boom - Portable Speaker
small, battery powered speaker
integrated 3.5mm audio cable
Dimensions (dia/h): 5.0/7.0 x 6.0(cm), Weight: 130g
Just included in the set

The whole studio will be priced with 130.00 GBP on Kickstarter (MSRP 170.00 GBP).

Double Studio, one for you & one for a friend 250.00 GBP on Kickstarter.

All units will be shipped by September 2017.

There are also 100 limited Early bird Kits for 99.00 GBP and 40 pre-production sets for 150.00 GBP (shipping in May 2017)."

New Kinetik Laboratories Dao - Algorithmic Chopper

Dao with Gort and Volca Sample Published on Mar 13, 2017 Kinetik Laboratories

"Korg Volca Sample act as clock master for Dao and Gort - the Robot.

Gort is processed by Dao - Algorithmic chopper.

Dao is a pattern controlled gater capable of turning every signal connected to the INPUT JACK into a rhythmic sequence, passing or muting it towards the OUTPUT JACK.
The rhythm patterns are based on the position of two knobs, PATTERN LENGTH and CHOP NUMBER, allowing an intuitive use of the device."

via Kinetic Laboratories

"Dao is a pattern controlled gater capable of turning every signal connected to the INPUT JACK into a rhythmic sequence, passing or muting it towards the OUTPUT JACK.

The rhythm patterns are based on the position of two knobs, PATTERN LENGTH and CHOP NUMBER, allowing an intuitive use of the device. Users can generate up to 136 patterns by setting these knobs.

The ON/BYPASS switch is used to turn the effect on and to start the pattern generation.

The CLOCK RATE knob is used to set the internal sequencer tempo.

The DECAY switch is used to choose the chopped audio slices length. Using SHORT setting is possible to obtain percussive sounds from every kind of continous sound as pads, drone and noise sounds.

Dao generates a 5 Volts pulse, at the beginning of each step, on the SYNC OUTPUT jack. It can also be synchronized to external devices using the SYNC INPUT jack. When a jack is connected to the SYNC INPUT, the CLOCK RATE knob has no effect and the sync signal is replicated to the SYNC OUTPUT allowing synchronization of compatible equipment.

Dao must be supplied with an external power supply, providing 9vDC on 2.1mm barrel jack, negative tip.

Price: 250€ shipping not included. "

shaduzLABS pink-0 - Raspberry Pi Zero Based Ableton Link to Clock/Reset Converter

Published on Feb 21, 2017 Canale di shaduzlabs

"A short demo showing a working prototype of pink-0, a Raspberry Pi Zero based Ableton Link to clock/reset converter."

pink-0 Ableton Link to clock/reset hardware converter demo #2

Published on Feb 21, 2017

"pink-0 is sending clock and reset to DinSync Modseq.
The clock signal is also sent to an SSSR Labs Divider and used as trigger for a Mutable Instruments Peaks. The oscillator I used for this demo is a Frequency Central System X Osccillator, which goes into a Manhattan Audio VCA and finally into a Music Thing Modular Spring Reverb."


via ShaduzLABS

"When Ableton published the Link source code, I started experimenting with it and decided to explore the feasibility of a hardware Link-to-clock converter.

I made the first attempt with a Teensy 3.2 board and a a WIZ820io ethernet module, but due to some of the dependencies of Ableton Link, this approach proved too complex, as it would have required a complete rewrite of the low-level networking functionality.

Having abandoned the "bare metal" approach, the next natural candidate became a Raspberry Pi board: I had a Zero lying around and decided to use it to build the first prototype, mainly because of the power requirements and the form factor.

A couple of weekends later I had a working prototype and decided to design and order a PCB, which I only received almost two months later (thanks, Custom Office...). When the PCB finally arrived, I put everything together and spent some more time fine-tuning and optimizing here and there.

The final result is a hardware shield for the Raspberry Pi Zero board and the necessary software and scripts running on the Zero itself and providing real-time conversion from Ableton Link to eurorack-friendly clock and reset signals."

You find full details including the GitHub link at shaduzLABS.

The SynthiMuse - MIDI Composer/Re-Composer

Target price ~ £300 / $400.

Expected to be ready mid to late March 2017.

via SynthiMuse

"The SynthiMuse is random music composer/re-composer that creates MIDI notes.
It can do a number of different things:

1. It can create endless random sequences of MIDI notes derived from the genuine random internal noise generator that is the same circuit as that used in the analog synthesizers of the 1970’s

The notes created are truly random. Any note sequence it generates has never been heard before, and if you don’t save it to a loop, it’ll never be heard again.

Sequences are generated by setting the parameters on the controls that can influence the notes. You can set the Key and the Scale and the generated notes, velocities and lengths can be affected by LFO, Noise, and Audio.

2. It can ‘re-compose’ notes passed to it from the MIDI input.

You can play any note melody in to it ( or no melody at all, just a repeating single note ) and, using the setups on the SynthiMuse panel, it will create new melodies.

3. It can trigger off audio picked up from the internal microphone or an external audio source.

You can sing or speak in to the SynthiMuse and it can either be influenced by the audio or actually triggered by it.

The SynthiMuse is sensitive to the pitch of the audio so singing/playing high and low notes can influence the pitch of the MIDI notes created.

CLICK FOR MORE »

NAMM 2017: Kenton Midi Solutions

Published on Jan 21, 2017 sonicstate

Bastl Instruments Introduces the KLIK - analog audio sync

Published on Jan 19, 2017 Bastl Instruments

"dual line level audio click to modular clock / trigger converter"

"We are happy to announce our new product: the KLIK!

It is a synchronisation device that enables the user to make rock solid analog sync signals from their computer and hardware synths. The KLIK revives the old-school sync technique of using audio tracks for synchronisation purposes. Record your synths exactly on the grid into your DAW while compensating for the latency of your sound card. Jam between your computer and your HW in a really tight sync and add groove to your clock.

We have collaborated with Bitwig and Irrupt Audio to make the KLIK as powerful and easy to use as possible and are presenting this collaboration for the first time at NAMM 2017. Check us out and try the KLIK at booth C4911 !

The new version of Bitwig (2.0) adds a HW CLOCK device which we collaborated on to use with the KLIK!

Please note that the KLIK is designed to only transmit clock / trigger information. Its output is either low or high 0 or 5V. It doesn't output continuous CV signals.

Pricing and availability
Price is 49 eur excluding tax (approx 59 eur including tax)
The KLIK is available for preorder NOW at Noise.kitchen and first units will start shipping in March 2017"

Not NAMM 2017: DJTW Pocket Mixer Project Update

Published on Jan 16, 2017 djthomaswhite

"This is a video of my updated DJTW Pocket Mixer. It has 1 audio/sync combo input (Teenage Engineering format), 5 more audio inputs, 5 sync outputs and 1 main (mono) mixed audio output. You can chain 6 Teenage Engineering devices together at once with no need for the internal mixing of the Pocket Operator series. This is totally DIY still but now with powder coated case, water slide decal labeling, new style Alpha pots and a more polished look overall. They really add a lot to the Teenage Engineering line of devices but can also work for Volca's. Using them like this would mean 5 shared sync jacks (like a multiple) and 6 mono audio inputs mixed to one main mono output.

The concept is now proven, and I'm looking for someone to partner with to build these. I am working on an "active" powered version but have yet to complete the mixer circuit thus far. I have many ideas about how to do a version of what you see here in this video but with some small and vital improvements. I simply don't have the time between family, work, school and my music business to properly focus on making these. If you are interested in talking about making these happen for real lets chat. It could easily be a Eurorack interface module too."