Pressure Points is here!

Our Pressure Points module arrived on Friday and has been seeing regular use since. It is a touchplate controlled voltage selector with four copper trace "pads" and a host of outputs (more on that in a second).

Before going into my small review below, I first want to say that Pressure Points is NOT a quad channel, pressure sensitive gesture controller, as I had originally led myself to believe. If that's something you're looking for, this isn't it.

Yes, it does have four channels with "Pressure" outputs on each, and yes, these outputs behave in much the same their name implies (the "harder you press on the copper traces" (i.e. how much of your finger is covering the trace (i.e. it's not actually pressure sensitive)) the stronger voltage will be at that channel's Pressure output).

BUT you can only "play" one pad at a time. So, if you have Channel 1's Pressure output controlling filter cutoff and Channel 2's controlling pitch, you cannot modulate both simultaneously*. It was a bit of a drag to find this out after ours arrived and I almost tried swapping it out on the forums for a Synthwerks FSR-4.

However, on some good advice, I slept on it and spent most of Saturday getting to know the module. Turns out, as is the case with most Make Noise modules, you have to put in some work before understanding/loving it.

Instead of thinking of Pressure Points as a pressure controller, which it is but isn't, it's better to imagine of it as a playable sequencer. Each pad selects a channel, which is represented by a vertical row of three knobs. Placed next to each other, the three resultant horizontal rows terminate in the Tuned Voltage outputs on the right-hand side. The top row's knobs scale voltage between 0-8v, with the middle and bottom rows offering 0-5.5v. Playing the touchplates, then, allows up to three destinations to be modulated simultaneously by these values.

In this video, Tuned Voltage outputs 1 and 2 are sent to a quantizer, and from there are controlling a Tip Top Z3000 and Bubblesound uLFO. Tuned Voltage output 3 is changing the pitch of the accent drum (a Maths channel at audio rate, sent into a wave multiplier):

I apologize for the sound quality-- the VCOs (after being mixed together) were sent into a Doepfer 134-2 crossfader, the fidelity of which leaves much to be desired-- but you get the general idea. Being able to scale each Tuned Voltage output AND create the sequences at will provides a huge amount of room for control and flexibility.

The best part: Pressure Points, as a system, is entirely modular. Meaning that up to four Pressure Points modules can be chained together, expanding the number of touchplates/voltages options at the Tuned Voltage outputs. Plus, as mentioned in the module's manual, the upcoming Points Expander module will add "traditional" sequencing abilities to the module, though if the NAMM footage was any indication, the quotes around "traditional" will be cartoonishly large.

I still plan on picking up an FSR-4, as I really like the idea of pressure modulation, but will also be adding a second Pressure Points in the near future. 4 pads is good, 8 is much better.

---

*In this example, the fiter's cutoff would be modulated whenever Channel 1 is selected, and the VCO's pitch would be modulated whenever Channel 2 is selected, but since Channels 1 and 2 cannot be selected together, the Pressure Outs cannot act simultaneously.

Mission 9 arrives!

Our Mission 9 case from Monorocket arrived today and it's a looker! Three rows of 88HP (you can push it to 90HP, I'm told), a solid 3 amp power supply and covered in beautiful "Fender Smooth Brown" tolex. With a matching lid. I've spent about as much time oogling it as I have playing it.



I've planned out the rest of the system as best I can (though with new modules coming out at their current pace it's more of an educated guess than a plan), and have blocked out spaces in the case for the final pieces.

The rack's rails use sliding nuts, which are not my favorite (I prefer my old Schroff's threaded strip solution), but it's hardly an issue. It just means a few extra minutes in mounting everything, and a little additional head-scratching in leaving accurate spaces for things-to-come. I was lucky: the modules I'm saving for now are the same size as ones I already own, so I could use them for measurements. But if I was saving space for something odd, like a Triple Wavefolder or a UEG, it would be a bit trickier. I'm not faulting Monorocket for this-- simply a matter of preference on my end. On a related note, my case came complete with an abundance of screws, which fit the nuts perfectly. Nothing like having shinny new screws to go with a beautiful new case. A nice touch.

Before ordering, I'd read some concerns on the forums about the shallowness of the Mission cases. I'm happy to report that our Z3000, which has the deepest PCB in our system, sits comfortably in the Mission 9 with a full "thumb's length" of distance between its bottom and the distro board (see below). In total, the Mission 9 has 4" of usable depth, from faceplate to header.


I'd also read about the ultra-bright blue LEDs on their new bus boards. They are, indeed, ultra-bright. I may have to try Felix's old "nail polish" trick on them (fast forward to 2:17 in this video), though they do make the case seem "alive inside" in a way that dimmer LEDs wouldn't.

Steve from Monorocket was great to deal with-- I fully recommend ordering from him, and plan on doing so again when we outgrow today's arrival. Mission 9 cases are the best deal going in the format, and he's moving production away from custom cases into a standard issue-- black tolex, hardware-- in order to meet demand and eliminate the one problem customers have had with his work: availability. Monorocket cases came with high praise, which is completely deserved. Big thanks to Shawn at Analogue Haven for making it happen, too.

Just watched "Gomorrah"

Woah.

I missed this when it was in the theater, despite reading its reviews/having everyone I know be impressed by it. Seriously: holy shit. It's like "The Wire", but without cops and redemption.

Thingamakit Night!

Our pal Emily stopped by tonight for a Thingamakit building party. We got started around noon, and by 11pm still hadn't finished our machines. Still, we had a ball and will hopefully have some new noisemakers chirping away before the holiday weekend comes to a close.





Here's where Emily was at the end of the night-- just the drilling left to do and that's all. Not bad for a first project! Great job!!


Some notes on the kit:

The Thingamakit PCBs are white with black text. Very nice!!



The manual is well laid out and easy to follow, but there are a few points worth mentioning--

When you solder the pots, fight the impulse to push them flush with the PCB. You'll need to bend them backwards later in order to fit in the case.

The instructions tell you not to connect the speaker until the drilling is finished. We're pretty sure you can ignore this.

Drilling blows. If you know someone with with access to a press, buy that person a pizza and visit them.

All told, this is a fun advanced-beginner project. It's a straightforward build, doesn't cost very much and makes exactly the kind of unmusical noise you want to hear at the end of the night. Plus, if you're the sort of hobbyist who immediately wants to modify your kits, the manual comes complete with suggestions to that end to get you started.

Recommended!

P.S. Can anyone point me to a CV sync mod (for either the oscillator or the modulator... or both)? Is there a way to do that?

Genelecs on "The Wire"

We rented Season 5 of The Wire this past week and have been working our way through it at a brisk pace. As of this post, we're one episode away from the grand finale.

The show is top notch, and it's a rare moment when I find myself taking issue with it, but last night, while watching the third-to-last episode in the season/series, something really stuck out to me as a a boneheaded production move.

The Wire, if you don't know, is a TV series about a broke police force in a broke city trying, in Season 5 especially, to do "more with less." In the show, there's barely enough money in city's budget to run the school system, let alone enforce crime, and the shifting bottom line causes one sort of drama after another.

It is with that in mind that I found the following so shocking:



On the right-hand side of the screen-- that's a Genelec 8030! In a shack of a police station, on an illegal wire tap, they're using a $1500 pair of pro audio monitors?! If ever there was a job for thrift store speakers, this'd be it, but noooooo...

Worst of all-- it isn't even plugged into anything!


ARGH! Hollywood! Get it right already!

Passive True Bypass/Feedbacker pedal

After a series of drilling and spray painting mistakes forced me to abandon the aluminum case I was originally using for this project, I rehoused it in the black plastic Radio Shack job you see in the photos. To be honest, I think it looks a lot better this way, almost like something from the Shadow Hills line. Not bad for a $3 box!


In any event, this is a passive version of the True Bypass Looper/Feedbacker design I saw on the Beavis Audio Research site. Before getting underway, I found a wiring how-to on the Experimentalist Anonymous board which helped immeasurably. If you decide to build one of these, be sure to click both of those links and keep the pages open.

This is a twofer utility pedal that doesn't make a sound on its own. Instead, it acts as both a true bypass loop, to introduce one or a series of pedals into your signal, and as an overload feedbacker, sending an adjustable amount of the overall output back into its Send jack for chaotic noise effects.

It's also very simple to put together, only costs around $20 in parts and is entirely passive-- you'll never have to open it up to change a battery!

In the video below, I ran a clean guitar into the In jack (right, bottom) out to an amp via the Out jack (left, bottom), and from the Send jack (right, top) into a BYOC Analog Delay, then into a BYOC Mighty Mouse, and from there back into the pedal via the Return jack (left, top).

When the switch at the top of the pedal is in the down position, it acts as a simple true bypass loop; when it's in the up position, it's a feedbacker as well, with the dial in the middle controlling the amount of the signal being fed back into the circuit.

One thing worth mentioning-- it may have to do with the fact that I was using a plastic case instead of a metal one (though I doubt it), but I had to connect the grounding in a jack-to-jack cascade (like in the Beavis diagram), and not simply to the Output, as shown on the Experimentalist Anonymous page. Before I did this, the pedal gave me a wicked 60hz hum, which doubled in volume when it was engaged. Also, if you're following the EA guide (and you should-- it's really, really helpful), take note of the typo in their final photo-- the center row and the right-most row should swap their numbers (i.e. the top, from left to right, should read 1-4-7).

Speaking of errors, I apologize for the lighting in the video below. Also, it should stop at 1:30 or so, and not 2:30. I'll fix this soon enough. Enjoy!



"Buzzsaw" by The Turtles.

EDIT: The video problem has been solved.

Voice of Saturn Sequencer kit: first impressions

This is the first non-guitar pedal kit that I've put together, and the step-up in parts and wiring was noticeable from the start. That said, it was still a relatively paint-by-numbers operation, and was at no point "difficult" to complete. Anyone can build one of these things— you just need time. And some soldering practice.

More to the point, this is the cheapest, easiest to build analog sequencer option I know of, and while the control voltages may be neither completely stable (they're supplied from a 9v battery. As the battery dies, so does the CV range) nor accurate (they aren't calibrated or anything), they get the job done well enough. Plus, it's got an S-Trig out, which can drive a Moog, a deal sweetener for me (see video below).

In short, if you don't have a sequencer but want one on a budget, and maybe kinda sorta want to know how it works while you're at it, head over to the Curious Inventor site and pick up a kit. It'll run you $125, with around $10 shipping.

There have been a few video reviews of the Voice of Saturn line popping up, and I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and offer my initial impressions as well.

The cons:

1. Wiring. There is a lot of wiring to be done with the sequencer kit, and none of the cabling is included in its bag of parts. This thing is cheap for a reason, and corners had to be cut, but it would have been nice to know that I had to re-stock on wiring before it arrived. It's a small gripe (one, admittedly, I could have avoided by looking at the kit's contents photo a little more closely)

Also, the online manual (one is not included with the kit) recommends that you cut and prepare 15" lengths of cable, with which to connect the parts and the PCB. As you can imagine, this quickly leads to a mess of wires, so I recommend organizing a color-coded system for yourself beforehand and sticking with it.

In other words, when the kit arrives and you realize that you have to go out and buy a bunch of cabling, get as many different colors as you can and more of each color than you think you'll need. Or, better yet, order cabling direct from Curious Inventor alongside your kit. I found that 24 gauge works nicely,20 gauge doesn't.

2. LEDs. There are 11 LEDs on the sequencer, and they're held in place with small plastic LED holders. The instructions advise you to insert the LED holders first, then the LEDs, "pushing them until they snap in place." In the case of our kit, that meant using a metal letter opener to force the LEDs, with effort, to get situated. Again, minor gripe, as it may have just been a matter of the holes on our unit being a hair too small. But, if you're having trouble installing the LEDs on your kit, I can tell you from experience, pushing them in by hand (as shown in the manual) does not work. You'll just bend the LEDs' legs and get frustrated in the process. Instead, use something skinny and non-flexible to lock them into the sockets.

3. The Manual. Maybe I've been spoiled with the BYOC manuals, which hold your hand as close to literally as possible, but the instructions for the Voice of Saturn Sequencer kit were of this type: here's a photo of the finished result; make yours look like this. Again, I'm new at this, and directions of this sort could be the norm for all I know, but from a nOOb's perspective, a little more of a walkthrough would have been appreciated, especially in a kit aimed at the intermediate/beginner crowd.

The pros:

1. Low difficulty construction. Despite the list above, the kit is remarkably easy to put together. There are only two resistor values to worry about mixing up, and all 11 potentiometers are 100k. It isn't quite a Lego operation, but it's close. And while the manual isn't the most forthcoming thing in the world, it doesn't really need to be— so long as you pay attention to what you're doing, everything will end up in its proper place.

2. The price. $132 (w/ shipping) is a steal. I've read a few comments on the boards from people saying they're holding out for the Chimera Synthesis SM16, which I'm excited about too, but, when it finally drops (early-August is the newest ETA, but who knows), it'll retail for $400. To the Eurorack addicted, that may not seem like a lot, but for the rest of us, that's a chunk of the rent.

3. The VoS Forum. Much like the BYOC forum, the VoS Forum is the place to go with any/all Voice of Saturn construction questions. There were two points on the wiring diagram that I didn't understand and, after posting about them there, got a response within an hour. Not bad!

4. DIY pride. Sure, you can't make music with satisfaction alone, but there's something I find more inspiring in firing up a machine that I've built than there is in turning on something I bought. Granted, your VoSS/Paia 9700 pair won't rival your SQ-10/MS-20 combo, but knowing your instruments exist because of your interest in them certainly adds to their worth, sentimentally or otherwise.

In total, the Voice of Saturn Sequencer took me three nights to complete (about 12 hours altogether). If you have more experience in kit building than I do (which is to say "some"), I'm sure you'd be able to shave a few hours off that time.

This is the first sequencer I've owned (or used, for that matter), and as soon as I switched it on I immediately wanted to cobble together a second unit. Trust me, if I can build one of these, you can too. Recommended!

Video:



1.
S-Trig out to the Rogue
CV Out to CV In on the Blue Ringer

2.
S-Trig out to the Rogue
CV Out to Low Pass Cutoff Frequency In on The Resonator

3.
S-Trig out to the Rogue
CV Out to High Pass Cutoff Frequency In on The Resonator

I can't live without my radio

Our mini-boombox from Troika USA arrived today, and it sure is tiny! 5.25" x 5.25" x just over 2".

If you're picking one of these up, there are a few things to note:

1. It ships with a pair of AA batteries, but does not ship with a wall wart. If you're looking to buy one beforehand, get something that'll give you 4.5v and 300mA, with the same sort of connection you'd use for a Boss pedal. Should be easy to find.

2. Once it arrives, open the battery compartment and look for a flimsy, clear piece of plastic tucked away on the side. Yank it out. The LCD screen won't work unless you do this, which sucks, because it isn't mentioned in the manual.

3. To set the alarm, turn the On/Off switch to "BUZZ - ALM" before pressing and holding the "ALM SET" button. I don't know why you have to do this, but the alarm time will not change if the On/Off control is set to either "RADIO ON" or "RADIO OFF/ALM." Again, not in the manual.

That's it. The reception is better than you might think with the antenna raised (we can get WFMU in our place without any trouble), and the single 3" speaker could be worse. $75 well spent!


EDIT: Just to be clear-- we like it! It's loud enough for whatever you'd practically use a mini-boombox for (and it's got a headphone-out, if you wanted to connect it to something with a little more oomph for some reason), the reception is fine, it's superlight and it looks great. So long as you're not expecting it to sound like a portable McIntosh system (which is to say, this), it doesn't disappoint.

Lo-fi hi-fi

We (finally) bought a new, cheap-o preamp for our record player and can now listen to records again! It's been a while and it's been lame. And, if only for the fact that we haven't been able to do so for the last few months, we patched in this little Sansui reverb thing we bought for $20 last year but hadn't used much.


I'm here to tell you: get one. Don't pay more than $20, but get one. It's a magic box.

We tried it out first on an obvious candidate: Robert Gordon.


Robert Gordon played rockabilly in the late 70s, but with none of the echo box eccentricities of Tav Falco or The Cramps to make his records anything other than "genuine." "This music is who he is," the back of the LP jacket reads, and the recording quality is equally honest: despite being a throwback to a time when school PA systems had reverb sends built into them, the production here is clean, restrained and boring. But pass this platter through the RA-700 and it really comes alive! I'm not joking-- hitting the button "off" and "on" gave us with two different records: as originally issued and enjoyable.

Because the RA-700 was built for an undiscerning consumer market in a time when everyone was smoking dope, it doesn't even pretend to improve the sound quality of whatever you pass through it. When engaged, the bass drops off, the midrange distorts and the reverb effect sounds exactly like what it is: a cheap, short-spring Hammond enclosure. Somehow though, and I've been waiting years for this to be true: three wrongs make a right.

Case in point: a record we liked already: "Colossal Youth" by Young Marble Giants


Young Marble Giants played minimalist pop better than anyone, and "Colossal Youth" is what they're remembered for. By design, there are huge open spaces throughout the album, and the "if you can't do it live, don't do put it out" rule is firmly in place-- there isn't a second guitar track to be found on it from start to finish. Someone hit record, the band played and now we have "Colossal Youth." It's from 1980, when "cutting edge" meant cold digital reflections, but aside from spots of that here and there, it has a simple, understated mix (think "Before Hollywood" era Go-Betweens, with less drums).

But sure enough, add in some splashy reverb and it's a better album! Well, not entirely (we pulled the Amount dial back on a few songs), but by and large, it sounds better with RV-700 in the mix. The title track bounces even more with a little slapback and "The Wind in the Rigging" sounds cinematic with the dial turned to full.

Pick up an RV 700 (or RV-500... they're the same, from what I can tell) and try it for yourself! I think you'll like it!

(Question: are there any published mods for these machines?)

"The Good Shepherd" gaffe

We saw "The Good Shepherd" a couple of nights ago and, like most people I'm sure, appreciated the fact that the film's Prop Master decided to showcase a Urei 565 "Little Dipper" in one key scene (which was very reminicent of the "audio decoding" scene in "Sneakers," I might add).

If you haven't seen it yet, in "The Good Shepherd," CIA agents are doing their best to clean up a particularly muddy reel of 1/4" tape, and, by using a 565, are able to notch out extraneous noise and narrow in on and identify, say, the ceiling fan whirring behind the dialog, or the distant jet engine masked by nearby church bell clamour. All very exciting stuff, and, more importantly, somewhat accurate. This it what the 565 was designed for-- ultra narrow Q notch filtering. Identifying a particular frequency and removing it. Etc.

Unfortunately, the scene in question was set in 1961, nine years before the 565 was released. I know, I know: movies are illusions, the 565 was just a prop so what does it matter, creative license, blah blah blah. Still, it's fun to imagine some gear snob boom operator complaining about it on set ("Come on, guys. Can't we use a PEQ-2?")