Apart from filling the gaps it's done!

I do have a Bitcrusher and a second filter winging their way to me as well, which is nice.

I have a problem with Space

I have a problem with space, more modules than my original Bug case can handle!

Now I have drawn up plans for my new Bug case - curvy and organic - but after a couple of failed prototypes due to lack of materials I found being capable of being curved to the radius' needed I have got to a crunch point that is no longer acceptable, i.e. having modules I can't use

So I have started a temp case and here it is so far:

It'll use the same rails, PSU and other ideas planned for the final case so at least I can try ideas out as well has have enough real estate for expansion. 

So it's now drilled and filled, rails (with sliding nuts - not making that mistake again), common earth point, primed and first coat of colour.

As you can see in the second picture I was a tad over enthusiastic with the spray and it ran

 Hopefully I'll sand and second coat next weekend and then start the electrics and the finishing touches.

Finished the second coat of paint after a good rub down - not a perfect finish by any stretch but I need my Bug back - and sprayed the antennae (a bug isn't a BUG without them).

Added some rubber feet. Fitted the USB sockets, power rails, connected up the PSU, flipped the switch and at last some power  

 Still some more work to do; branding, blank panels etc but I did a quick populate to see how it looks - then promptly lost a few hours having a play.

It's getting there. 

Quite happy with the USB lights, both for a fiver off Ebay and a bit of spray paint.

I think the reason I spent a bit of effort here was trying out things and leaning what works and what doesn't. For example I'd already drilled the holes for the USB sockets before receiving the nice new longer buss boards from Tom and then realising that I'd compromised the space for mounting the buss, hence it being placed on edge for the top rail. Also I only inserted enough sliding nuts for the max number of frac widths the case can hold. Then when doing the first module install realised that two nuts in the top row (same rail) are rubbish thread wise - I was just taking these new nuts and sliding them in and not checking if they were 100% before - so I'm short a nut or two and because the rail mounts are filled and painted I can't add more so will need to cut a slot in the rail to insert extra ones. It's these little things that go into the database of don't do that again.

Live and learn. 

New camera so a better picture of my Piston Honda expander

BugBrand has grown a little

My Bug case is pretty full now so plans are in progress for it to grow a third tier.

Trying out a new VCO - Din Sync OSC303

The Din Dync OSC303 is a clone of the TB303 VCO. I wanted to try a patch that showed it's not just an Acid sound source.

Basically a sequence into a single VCO into a filter and that's it ;o)

LFO into RCD which clocks a 16 note sequence from the Z8000 and a uStep.
Z8000 out to uScale (default mode).
LFO to Brains/Pressure Points providing a 4 note sequence that feeds the second input of the uScale
uScale into OSC303
OSC303 Squ into Doepfer Spring Reverb into Z5000
OSC303 Saw into A101-1 filter into VCA
uStep into ADSR into VCA
VCS in cycle mode into A101-1 cutoff to create a resonance bump
A143-1 into Both input of VCS
VCA into Z5000
Z5000 set to a basic delay

The Harvestman Piston Honda, expander, expander.

With so many ROMS starting to be made available for the Piston Honda I wanted a way to be able to swap them out without removing the module from the rack.

So inspired by a guy known as jbartee over at www.muffwiggler.com I knocked this up over the weekend.

 As you can see it's very simple, just two 16 way ZIF sockets cable up to the Piston Honda expansion board.

The main things to remember is to turn the power off before swapping ROMS and that the other ROMS within a socket are liable to fall out when you change one of them.

My embryonic BugBrand Modular and DIY case.

Looking through my Archive

Well I started as planned and to be honest after 45 minutes with a boom box and a stack of tapes I now realise what a task this is going to be.

What was fun is that I had failed to mark the casettes as stereo or 4 track so on several occations the tape went in the machine and what came out was two seperate tracks, running at half speed and one of them backwards.


Some of it sounded good, the irony being that I'm halfway through reading "On some faraway beach" The life and times of Brian Eno by David Sheppard. Brian would be proud.

An interesting new project

A friend and colleague of mine is a prose writer and recently I recorded myself reading one of his pieces.

Much to my surprise he has asked me to do a couple of more readings which I plan to do this weekend.

Looking to start going through the archive this weekend

Over the years I have used many medium for recording; mono reel to reel, stereo cassette, 4 track cassette, 4 track reel to reel and various digital formats.

So this weekend sees the start of what I expect will be a long process of converting it all to a common format.

This is a task I'm dreading because of the effort involved but equally really excited as I have no idea what little treasures I might find.

The challenge of sourcing something to play these tapes on will be fun too.

First post

Hello everyone who have found their way to my place.

The idea is simple, a repository for things I'm doing that may or may not be of interest to others.