Mikrophonie Modular Modular Modular Modular Mikrophoniemo Disu Lar Microphone Preampmodula R with a Piezo Contact Mic Built Into the Panel

Home , David Borden, Four Tet

Music Music Thing Thing Modular Modular

STATION DRY WET DRY WET

START CONTROL CONTROL

RESET TILT TILT Music Hold for bank STATION START CV X-FADE CV X-FADE

IN OUT IN OUT RESET OUT

RADIO Thing MUSIC SPRING SPRING TREBLE

BASS

Modular TILT Open source electronic IN OUT musical instruments EQ

MusMicusic MusMicusic MusMicusic Music Music Music ThinTghing ThinTghing ThinTghing Thing MusicThing Thing ModMuoladrular ModMuoladrular ModMuoladrular Modular ThingModular Modular Modular

TREBLE STATION STATION DRY WET

BASS START START CONTROL GAINGAIN GAINGAIN GAIN GAIN

RESET RESET TILT Hold for bank Hold for bank TILT MICM IINC IN HEAHDEA IND IN MIC IN HEAD IN STATION START STATGAINIONGAINSTART CV X-FADE GAIN OUOTUT OUT

OUOTUT OUOTUT IN OUOUTT IN OUT OUT RESET OUT RESET OUT OUOTUT OUT

ELECTRO MIKRO MAGNÉT RADIO ELECTRORADIO ELECTRO MIKRO MAGNÉT PHONE MIKRO MAGNÉT PHONIEPHONIE OPHOOPNHEONE MUSIC PHONEMUSIC EQPHONIE SPORPHOINE G PHONE

MuMsiucsic MuMsiucsic MuMsiucsic ThiTnhging ThiTnhging ThiTnhging MoMduoldaurlar MoMduoldaurlar MoMduoldaurlar

STATION STATION

START START GAINGAIN GAINGAIN

RESET RESET Hold for bank Hold for bank MIMC IICN IN HEHAEDA IDN IN GAINGAIN STATIOONUOSTUTTART STATION START

OUOTUT OUOTUT RESET OUT RESET OUT OUOTUT

MIKRO ELECTROELECTRO MIKRO MAMGNAGÉNTÉT RADIO PHONERADIO Module PHONIEPHONIE OPOHOPHNOENE PHONE Guide MUSIC MUSIC

Music 1 2 3 Thing April Modular 2016 4 5 6 A B C Updated Turing Machine Since it was launched in June 2012, the Turing Machine has become one of the most popular Eurorack DIY projects. It is a random looping sequencer that spits out basslines and melodies. It generates strings of random voltages that can be locked into looping sequences. These sequences can be allowed to slip, changing gradually over time. This module was inspired by the long history of shift register pseudorandom synth circuits, in- cluding the Triadex Muse, Buchla 266 Source of Uncertainly and Grant Richter’s Noisering. The 2016 revised Turing Machine has many improvements: • Rotary loop length switch • Pulse out • Easier to build: a larger PCB in the same width, clock and noise circuits are more robust • Compatible with existing expanders

“I am interested in perceptible processes. I want to be able to hear the process happening throughout the music.To facilitate closely detailed listening a musical process should happen extremely gradually.” Steve Reich, Music as a Gradual Process, 1968.

Music Thing Modular: www.musicthing.co.uk Expanders New Updated These modules connect to the back of the Turing Machine to add extra outputs, control methods and even random looping audio mixing. Pulses turns the sequence into a series of rythmic semi-random clock signals, based on the main clock input Voltages adds two more control voltage outputs, determined by the positions of the 8 illuminated faders Volts are chainable additional voltage outputs Vactrol Mix combines four audio or CV signals into two channels, determined by the random sequence. It’s a great way to create stereo effects, complex waveforms or feedback loops.

Random Module Generator: bit.ly/random_module Radio Music This is not a radio. It is a sample player that can behave like a radio. A digital way to simulate radio- powered compositions by John Cage or Stockhausen using files on a SD card. Used by Chris Carter, Russell Haswell, Robin Rimbaud and Richard Devine.

“Cage rose up from below the stage on a hydraulic STATION platform playing the piano. People were furious. I was flabbergasted. He used a radio as one of his instruments, too. At one moment he turned it on and got the voice of the Pope asking for peace in the world. It was a wonderful moment. One man strode down the aisle with a cane. He hit the piano and said, “Now I am a composer!” I guess you could say that concert blew my mind. I stopped writing music for a year.” Alvin START Lucier, Music 109

What kind of audio can I put on the SD card? ○○○○ Broadcast radio; Stations from Pyongyang to Bamoko to Jamaica, plus two episodes of The Archers ●○○○ Unusual speech and radio; sermons from 78rpm RESET records, Buckminster Fuller, Samuel Beckett, William Hold for bank Burroughs ○●○○ Robotic and scientific speech; Numbers stations, STATION START Apollo recordings, LAPD police scanners ●●○○ Ambient sounds; Birdsong, Brick Lane traders, Lon- don Underground announcements ○○●○ Melodic and drone sounds; National Anthems, Choirs, the Greatful Dead tuning their instruments RESET OUT ●○●○ Avant-garde music; Cage, Cardew, Feldman ○●●○ Avant-garde songs; Monk, Abramoviç, La Barbara ●●●○ Drum loops ○○○● Hi-fi test records ●○○● Music from Earth (from the Voyager Golden Disk) ○●○● Sounds From Earth (from the Voyager Golden Disk) RADIO ●●○● Nagra Tape Loops MUSIC ○○●● Gamelan Loops

Music Thing Modular on Instagram: @tomwhitwell IN TREBLE BASS TILT EQ OUT controller. unit thesizeofa game LEDs andajoystick ina knobs, 3buttons, 4 Modular. Itadds6 by theNord Micro sound board, inspired the fantasticAxoloti A simplecontroller for Control Axoloti well inafeedbackloop. into distortion.Works range topushsounds control, butjustenough an oldhifi.Novoltage controls you’dfindon of thekindtone building twochannels SMDsolderingby Learn Simple EQ

Music 1 2 3 Thing Modular

4 5 6 A B C Prototype Music Music Music MusicThing SpringT hi ng Thing ThingModular Modular Modular Modular Reverb A flexible, easy-to-build voltage controlled DIY mono spring reverb module. Traditional guitar reverbs are tuned to the sound of the DRY WET guitar and the amplifier it is played through. This circuit is different; designed to be relatively clean and high-fi, with a lot of bass response. It can also be abused and CONTROL driven into (externally GAIN patched) feedback.GAIN

“We introduce a different thing to the sound system world. This TILT amplifier here have MIC IN chrome frontHEA Dand IN CV X-FADE reverb. That’s the first GAIN time a reverb was OUT introduced in Jamai- ca is when my sound OUT IN OUT come out. OAndUT it get the people so excited that OUT everywhere we go we have a following.” King Tubby talking about his Hometown ELECTRO MIKROHi-Fi sound systemMAGNÉT in SPRINPHONIEG December 1975.OPHONE PHONE

Music Thing Modular on email: [email protected] Prototype Music Music MuMsiucsic Music Music Thing Thing ThiTnhging Thing Thing Mikrophonie Modular Modular Modular Modular MikrophonieMo disu lar microphone preampModula r with a piezo contact mic built into the panel. It is an easy way to bring environmental noise and feedback into a modular system, inspired by the early days of electroacoustic music in Paris and Cologne, and by the contact microphone and phonograph cartridge experiments of John Cage, Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley and Nicholas Collins.

Electrophone While Mikrophonie picks up physical vibrations, Electrophone can hear GAIN electromagneticGAIN vibrationsGAIN through GAIN the single coil guitar pickup mounted in the front panel. Single coil pickups are also notori- ously susceptible to interference of all kinds; hum from transformers, flu- MIC IN orescentHEA lightsD IN or even radioMIC signals.IN HEAD IN GAIN GAIN OUT MagnetophonOUT With a mono cassette head in the OUT OUT OUT panel andOU aT NAB equalised amplifier circuit, Magnetophon is a cassette OUT OUT player without the transport mecha- OUT nism. Try rubbing old cassette tapes on the panel, or attach a head on a wire to recreate Nam June Paik’s Random Access or Laurie Anderson’sMIKRO ELECTRO ELECTRO MIKRO MAGNÉT MAGNÉT PHONE PHONIE Tape-BowO Violin.PHONE PHONIE PHONE OPHONE

Music Thing Modular on Twitter: @musicthing Music Thing Modules are designed in Music Herne Hill, London by Tom Whitwell. Thing They are published under a Creative Modular Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. That means you can build them, share them, sell them, hack them and modify them as long as you give credit and share all your changes under the same license.