#105

That’s very generous! Thanks for making these available.

Personally, I have a decades-long habit of not using sources I haven’t created myself, so I will pass, but it would be cool to see what these might get turned in to.

#106

This comment was ping ponging around my head over the weekend. I’d like to take the plunge in to his standalone synths at some point, and this seems like a very potent insight–that the truest expression of his art is found in the Ciat-Lombarde instruments.

Part of what makes them so appealing too I think is that they are battery powered. Truly standalone.

He mentions somewhere on his site something about one of his synths being great for camping. As someone who spends as much time as I can away from civilization (read: no AC power outside of the 110 VAC on my Jeep), this appeals a lot. Which brings me to a subject that I will ventilate elsewhere (battery power).

//// pictures of our sound-making machines ////
#107

Mind that the powered CL instruments sound different on 9V batteries. On PB2 ‘kicks’ have a diff frequency range, clock tempo’s don’t go so high. I remember being underwhelmed with the PB at first while waiting for my power supply to come. But probably you can work around this with a 12V laptop battery or something. Loving my OP1+CL Tocante as travel buddies.

3 Likes
#108

Noted, and thank you. That’s all fine.

I’ve had a passing curiosity about the OP1. I’ve not really looked in to them. I know this is probably unfair, but I have a teensy eensy bit of skepticism about Teenage Engineering–bit of this feeling of buying in to a Lifestyle accoutrement rather than musical instrument–but that doesn’t mean the device itself isn’t great.

I do have a fairly serious interest in truly standalone, battery powered synths (err…is it?). I wish the 0-Coast was battery powered.

Would you mind expanding a little on the OP1 + Tocante pair and how you use them? Do they coexist as an integrated pair in how you use them?

#109

I can totally relate to that. I also have a decades long habit of not finishing tracks! :smiley:

1 Like
#110

Oh hey @glia look what showed up by way of @drehleierguy

RIP making “real music”, I’m in too deep.

7 Likes
#111

ha wow yeah
it is it’s own world

1 Like
#112

Sadly, after ~3 hours of play, I’m all the more certain I should buy a plumbutter, haha. Ffffff. So good.

2 Likes
#113

if you do get a plumbutter remember while it is a great drum machine half of the fun is using it as a sound processor (even its own sounds…)

4 Likes
#114

Tocante into the line in and use it to record on tape or use it to modulate effects. Or use the Tocante as a touch-to-activate speaker :wink:

2 Likes
#115

Meng Qi kindly Tweeted about Peter B’s solar sounders yesterday, and I almost fell over:

I need to make these. Desperately.

Years ago, I was looking around my weird, shrubby hill, and deciding I needed to do some sort of installation with solar sound devices. I was thinking of building some weird hybrid thing with cannibalized solar powered garden light panels, Arduino something-or-others, and sound devices–never got around to it. I was going to combine those with some ancient, rusty industrial farming steel harvester blades I have (imagine a vaguely convex steel plate; very heavy) that sound just fabulous if suspended and struck by a mallet or something. I had ideas of deploying them in an array suspended from tree branches and creating a kind of field array of environmentally generated sound (primarily wind and sun). Never got around to any of it. Still have all the stuff.

So stoked to see someone actually doing this! And I love the bright colors!

12 Likes
#116

couldn’t make it to the workshop
that seems pretty rad tho

#117

Sounds deadly! Did anyone here ever commission a rollz? There doesn’t even seem to be any kits for sale at the moment but curious as to how much it would be in comparison to the plumbutter.

1 Like
#118

I built myself a Rollz. It’s a pretty cheap build. $35 PCB (http://modularaddict.com/manufacturer/meng-qi/mengqi-rollz5-pcb) and really cheap/easy to acquire parts (TL074, TL072, very basic resistor and cap values, etc). Probably like $20 worth of parts or less, especially ordering from Tayda.
It’s incredibly time consuming, though, and there are many pages of discussion on the MW thread to wade through (including critical fixes that need to be made).

I ended up selling mine for around $400, not because I didn’t like it, but because I don’t own banana cables. I could have bought or built some, but I already have enough cable and gear anxiety as it is. I didn’t want another 20 cables in my office for one device.

My favorite build was actually the Grassi: http://modularaddict.com/manufacturer/meng-qi/mengqi-grassi-pcb

Cheap, quick build. I added sockets for the “hairy” capacitors, so I had fun swapping parts in and out. It’s definitely a noise device, but there were a lot of surprising moments with it.

3 Likes
#119

I’d love to have a go at building my own but i really don’t think i have the patience for it :slight_smile: Would definitely buy or commission someone to build one for me though!

#120

I’ve built several of Meng Qi’s Rollz5+ units for folks and for myself. They are great.

I’m happy to build one for you if you want, but I will say that it’s a fairly basic project in the grand scheme of SDIY, and worth doing yourself if you’re a bit savvy. Happy to answer any questions about the build.

As for comparisons with the Plumbutter, I haven’t had the pleasure of playing one but I would imagine that the PB2 has much more going on in the variety category while the Rollz focuses in on more detail on the “drums” part of the PB2. The Rollz5+ has 2 each of the following: 3-rolls, 4-rolls, 5-rolls, and 6-rolls. It has 2 AV Dogs, 2 Ultrasounds, and 2 Gongues (like on the PB) which are the “sound making” parts of the unit.

The PB2 on the other hand only has a 3-roll and a 4-roll, but it has much more in other categories, like a deerhorn, snare, man with red steam, and lots of cv/knob control.

2 Likes
#121

Processing OP1 drums via the PB2 gongues and ultrasound, modulated with some rollz. Wish I had a spare gongue for a funky bassline:

3 Likes
#122

heres an album i did about a year ago - its free and is all Plumbutter with a little Coco.

8 Likes
#123

Heres a new one i did - this was recorded live in one take using the Coco, Sidrax, Plumbutter and Tetrax. https://soundcloud.com/hoan-kiem-chess-team/chung-thang

7 Likes
#124

I really enjoyed this.

Dumb question: are they all free running or is there some level of sync happening?