We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

BioT - Touch Plate Demonstration Record

by Matt Wand & John Tuffen

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

    download includes all tracks in ‘whatever’(tm) format and PDF assembly and soldering guide for those purchasing the module kit.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • BioT “circuit bending” module kit for AE modular format or other breadboard patchwire synths

    limited edition Silver/White BioT module PCBs, kit parts and bonus Hot Air/Wonkystuff badges.

    NOTE:
    1) A soldering iron and solder is needed to assemble this item.
    2) if you do not have an AE system but have a Korg Volca, Bastl Kastle, NS1 or Tiny/Minisizer please tick the standalone option and a seperate hex spacer, nuts and 4 rubber feet will be included at no extra cost. Though for the REALLY interesting noises a Tangible Waves AE system is absolutely recommended, the Volca/Kastle set ups require a LOT MORE licking of the fingers to get results... you have been strongly advised!

    The idea, basically, is to use short circuits creatively. the body (finger) makes a connection between two plates , but the finger will always have resistance and depending on the surface area covered that resistance can change acting like a bio-potentiometer. Long live ExistenZ & the new flesh! “our bodys are machines, our minds are full of screams” as Jane from Big In Japan howled! the added factor of the close proximity of all of the possible connections also makes it an arena to feel your way around randomly or instinctively to making many interesting permutations of connections just by slithering a finger or two around ( hello ipad/iphone users everywhere ) and hence, with a little bit of trial and error, surprising sounds will be found and can be morphed between as different strengths of touch and positions merge signals that wouldn’t obviously be patched and buzzes, crackles and fizzes from the electricity in your digits add to the shorted broken sounds from voltage and waveforms brutally forced to fight each other for the entertainment of Caesar’s thumb.
    obviously this doesn’t have the full scope of laying yr hands on the inside of random circuits ( Major Morgan is my companion in this i have an army of 12 of them with their butch circuitboard chest hair exposed. ) BUT it does have the versatility of being able to pick and choose where you introduce circuit breaks/flesh resistance. Lusting after the new Make Noise Strega? Well why not save half a grand and get one ( or two? ) of these and see what you can come up with in AEland.

    Includes unlimited streaming of BioT - Touch Plate Demonstration Record via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more

    Sold Out

  • 2nd Edition BLACK/GOLD BioT “circuit bending” module kit for AE modular format & some other breadboard patchwire synths

    2nd run limited edition BLACK/GOLD BioT module PCBs, kit parts and bonus Hot Air/Wonkystuff badges.

    assembly instructions as PDF are in the Demo Album download that comes with this OR GO HERE:
    wonkystuff.net/biot-build-step-by-step/
    OR direct PDF download:
    wonkystuff.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/BioT-Assembly.pdf

    IF YOU WANT/NEED A FULLY ASSEMBLED VERSION CONTACT ME VIA THE BANDCAMP MESSAGING. THERE WILL BE AN EXTRA CHARGE PAYABLE VIA PAYPAL, NOT BECAUSE I HATE SOLDERING, FAR FROM IT, BUT ASSEMBLED VERSIONS ARE TOO BIG TO GO LARGE LETTER RATE SO POSTAGE AND PACKING WILL BE HIGHER ESPECIALLY TO LOCATIONS OUTSIDE THE UK. I’LL FIGURE OUT THE COST DEPENDING ON WHERE YOU ARE. IF YOU HAVE A HANDY UNCLE/AUNT WHO SOLDERS NEARBY, MIGHT BE BETTER TO GET THEM TO DO THIS SIMPLE TASK FOR YOU? NO REALLY! IT’S DEAD SIMPLE :)

    NOTE:
    1) A soldering iron and solder is needed to assemble this item.
    2) if you do not have an AE system but have a Korg Volca, Bastl Kastle, NS1 or Tiny/Minisizer please tick the standalone option and a seperate hex spacer, nuts and 4 rubber feet will be included at no extra cost. Though for the REALLY interesting noises a Tangible Waves AE system is absolutely recommended, the Volca/Kastle set ups require a LOT MORE licking of the fingers to get results... you have been strongly advised!

    The idea, basically, is to use short circuits creatively. the body (finger) makes a connection between two plates , but the finger will always have resistance and depending on the surface area covered that resistance can change acting like a bio-potentiometer. Long live ExistenZ & the new flesh! “our bodys are machines, our minds are full of screams” as Jane from Big In Japan howled! the added factor of the close proximity of all of the possible connections also makes it an arena to feel your way around randomly or instinctively to making many interesting permutations of connections just by slithering a finger or two around ( hello ipad/iphone users everywhere ) and hence, with a little bit of trial and error, surprising sounds will be found and can be morphed between as different strengths of touch and positions merge signals that wouldn’t obviously be patched and buzzes, crackles and fizzes from the electricity in your digits add to the shorted broken sounds from voltage and waveforms brutally forced to fight each other for the entertainment of Caesar’s thumb.
    obviously this doesn’t have the full scope of laying yr hands on the inside of random circuits ( Major Morgan is my companion in this i have an army of 12 of them with their butch circuitboard chest hair exposed. ) BUT it does have the versatility of being able to pick and choose where you introduce circuit breaks/flesh resistance. Lusting after the new Make Noise Strega? Well why not save half a grand and get one ( or two? ) of these and see what you can come up with in AEland.

    Includes unlimited streaming of BioT - Touch Plate Demonstration Record via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more

    Sold Out

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.

about

BioT is a collaboration between Hot Air & Wonkystuff. It is a patchable ‘touch plates’ module for the Tangible Waves AE modular system, a system specifically designed to be a much cheaper and incredibly portable alternative to Eurorack modular synthesis.
We have made the panel flippable so that alternative panels can be exposed (one on the reverse of the panel, and one internal!) using a spring connector, which is not as cheap as we would like but 42 times less expensive than a Verbos touchplate keyboard… and we all know how important the number 42 is?
The module takes it’s cue from Reed Ghazala’s anti-theory of circuit bending. It also has precendents in Michel Waivisz’s Kraakdooz ( cracklebox ) and Tom Bugbrands postcard & board weevils. My own first exposure to this kind of intuitive abuse of technology for sound making was probably Voice Crack circa 1984 though some of Throbbing Gristles sounds/homemade equipment and accidentally discovering that holding a screw driver over two points in the back of a PigNose amp would make a low rhythmic synth like sound may have preceded it by a few years. In the later nineties you could pursue this kind of technique virtually in the Nord Modular environment.
This selection of tracks serves as a sort of initial demonstration of various experiments with ways to patch up and ‘finger’ the BioT module within the AE system. It’s probable that other tracks will be added if new sessions generate more interesting stuff.
The BioT module is available in limited numbers for purchase in simple kit form on this page.. a soldering iron & 10 minutes of free time is also required.
If you don’t happen to have an AE system, as this is a passive module, it could conceivably be used stand-alone with other breadboard patch cable synths like the Korg Volca Modular, Bastl Kastle, NS1 nanosynth, Anyware Tinysizer/minisizer etc.

credits

released May 7, 2021

BioT module design: matt wand & john tuffen
BioT demonstration record:
tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, & 11 : matt wand
tracks 3, 6 & 10 : john tuffen

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Small Rocks Eccles, UK

Matt runs the Independent Record Label HOT AIR. He formed the seminal electronic sampling & improvising group Stock, Hausen & Walkman in 1989 and also works under various other pseudonyms, Small Rocks being one.
He has remixed many people ie: Ground Zero, PULP, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Hawkwind, Peter Thomas, Steve Reich, Buffalo Daughter, Lady Miss Kier, Thurston Moore.
... more

contact / help

Contact Small Rocks

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like BioT - Touch Plate Demonstration Record, you may also like: