Store Newsletter 31.12.23

Beepboop Newsletter 31.12.23

As we enter the netherzone between Christmas and new year it seems the perfect time for me to get lost and ponder what the hell has been going on at Beepboop.

Alot has happpen this year, it's been awesome to get involved in so many synth events. The year kicked off with All synths east in Febuary, CFON in March, Superbooth in May and finshed off with Maschina Bristronica is september!

I've had the chance to host a few tape loop workshops and met so many great people who share my love of tape. I hope to get a full list of dates and venues organised for 2024!

I've been playing with alot of diffrent ideas this year, sometimes it's hard to stay focused. There are a number of new modules at very early stages but I am still focused on releasing the 1u Taperack system.

Journeys are not always a straight forward path.

There are two ways around a circle.

I took a side quest some time in the summer after struggling with some of the mechanical complexities of making a complete tape machine system. This has led me to the uTape scrubber which I have just released for preorder.

It's intresting how things go in cycles.

It all started with wanting a sampler / looper based eurorack system to jam with so, I discovered the amazing tutorial by Peter Edwards (https://bastl-instruments.com/support/tutorials/omsynth-project-3) and the LOFI Tape sampler module was born hinting of what was to come.

It has been a dream of mine to create a tape based looper module for eurorack, my first attempts were panel mounted walkmans with Vactrol based CV control over the motor speed.

I’ve put together a few pages about the back story to the module with some photos of the early prototypes.

In other news there is a brand new ISD Sampler module joining the ranks of the classic LOFI Tape Sampler as well as a hint of what else you can expect to hear in the future.

Sometime midsummer...

While staring into space trying to think how to tame the 1U Taperack system I am battling with I noticed a job lot of dicatphones I had bought and forgotten about.

I realised the way forward was to go backwards and revisit an old idea….

Originally the plan along time ago was to panel mount the whole dictphone and modify them to be powered from a eurorack case.

This first version was called dictaphone2euro (bottom right).

I added a circuit for motor CV control and an amplifier but the first protoypes were…. Well…. rather noisey although did work well for voice recordings.

The noise floor plus the difficulty of operating the start, stop, rec ect meant it was a bit unusable really but the idea was there.

Back to the the shelf.

Before the Dictaphone2eurorack I had toyed with the idea of a standard cassette version (left), I had designed a CV bidirectional motor control circuit which worked well.

I tried using a transport came from a bush Walkman cassette player that could only be improved with some petrol and matches…. Truly awful. The tape head amplifer picked up more motor noise than signal from the tape due to their close proxmity as grounding.

This prototype had a great size format fitting perfectly into 20hp. Firstly I did away with the replay circuit from the orignal walkman and used 2hp tapehead eurorack module to amplify the signal from the head.

Close but no cigar, Although this prototype was alot of fun the tranports were fundentally flawd and really prone creating motor noise.

I wanted to be able to make something much simpler which would be an easy to use alternative to the 1u system.

I realized that by combing the new Bi-directional CV motor driver circuit with the transports from the Dictaphone and the record and playback circuits from the 1U that would create a complete system!

Having a reliable and consistent transport as a foundation to work from has allowed me to focus on balancing the record and playback circuits and taught me alot about applying and calibrating my designs for different systems.

Once I’ve resolved the mechanical inconsistencies with the 1U Taperack system I can apply what I have learnt to setting record/playabck and bias levels.

I am very happy with the utape scrubber but I feel this is just the start. I am already thinking of extra features including………..

Momemtary motor kill switch
Gateable record/playback modes
Scratch control.
Internal vcas and envelope followers.
Tone control
Bias control
Pt2399 Delay or dsp
Speed cv out
1u breakout heads…but all in good time but for now

LOFI uTape Scrubber - Bi-directional CV S.O.S Micro Tape cassette looper - PREORDER!

£74.75

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Utape scrubber preorder

The reception has been bigger than I had imagined and I am really grateful to
everyone for supporting this bonkers project.

If anyone would still like to preorder I am organizing another batch for April which is avaliabel from the link above.

LOFI MIXTAPE SAMPLER - LIMITED SPECIAL EDITION

£119.00

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It’s been over three years since I released the first LOFI Tape sampler module!

I‘ve been experimenting with alternative ISD sampler IC for the new version.

I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if it would be possible to upgrade previous versions of the LOFI Tape sampler with just a back pack PCB including one of these new IC's.......

It turned out the main module still needed to modified to get the upgrade backpack working so I’ve built up a one off small batch of 8 module. I’ll keep one for myself :)

The number of mods got a little out of hand but I was able to add a host of new features I would have liked to include in the original LOFI Tape sampler while also adding extra sample time by replacing the old ISD1820 ISD IC

The new IC has resulted in something rather different in tone with it’s own unique behavior to the original so I felt it deserved to become a module it it’s own right.

I have created a limited edition batch with colorful Bristol inspired hand painted and drawn panels. There will only ever be 8 (two of each colour) like this and one of the 8 will have an extra surprise included….. More on that to follow!

The core of the module has been replaced with a new sampler IC which required a number of mods to the original main TAPE SAMPLER circuit board (Please see the photos) but is identical in terms of operation to the upcoming standard MIXTAPE sampler at a lower price as it’s a modded prototype.

For a full description of the module click the link above.

I will make a demo video as soon as possible.

I was listening to clip of Delia Derbyshire describing shaping and moulding white noise. Immediately I felt the need to start experimenting with an old broken radio in the workshop that belonged to my grandmother.

I caught snippet of a radio call in where a gentlemen starts talking about water damaged tapes… it’s the unexpected in life that makes it real.

I realized this is what the beepboop eurorack system has been leading towards.

A noisey cv controlled fm radio as a source for found sound.
to seach between the channels.

To scan the noise ether.

Beepboop Newsletter 31.12.23

Sometime midsummer... While staring into space trying to think how to tame the 1U Taperack system I am battling with I noticed a job lot of dicatphones I had bought and forgotten about. I realised the way forward was to go backwards and revisit an old idea….

Sometime midsummer...

While staring into space trying to think how to tame the 1U Taperack system I am battling with I noticed a job lot of dicatphones I had bought and forgotten about.

I realised the way forward was to go backwards and revisit an old idea….