Dr Bleep is trickling out more info on the new Thingamagoop 2 synth robot.

The video above demonstrates using a Thingamagoop 2 to control a Moog Prodigy.

Dr Bleep says:

The Thingamagoop has a stereo 1/8? jack on the side to facilitate control voltage in and out. You can make your own cable very simply or order a nice, shielded one from us. It’s simply a stereo 1/8? to two, mono female 1/4? jacks. Here’s Dr. Bleep and his band, The Hearts and the Minds, using the Thingamagoop 2 to control a Moog Prodigy.

Note that the CV input is not 1volt/Octave but you can use it to make some ridiculous sound!

Arduino Support

The Thingamagoop 2 uses Arduino to control the analog VCO as well as the LEDacle. You don’t need an Arduino board to use the Thingamagoop 2; you only need on if you want to reprogram it.

The Thingamagoop 2 circuit incorporates an AVR chip that has been programed without the Arduino bootloader. This allows the device to start up immediately but you’ll have to switch out the chip for one with the bootloader if you want to reprogram it.

The programmer cable is a stereo 1/8? cable with a ferrite noise suppressor and 3 pins on the other end that go into the Arduino headers. Not only can you directly program the Thingamgoop 2, you can communicate with it.

“Who will be the first to get processing to use the photocell as a variable!? Or build a MIDI i/o!?” asks Dr Bleep.

Last week, Bleep Labs introduced the Thingamagoop 2 with a teaser at their site.

Now they’ve put together this video showing the Thingamagoop 2 in squelchy action.

The Thingamagoop 2 is a DIY kit that sells for $100.

Here’s what’s new in the Thingamagoop 2:

• Analog VCO controlled by analog or digital signal from Arduino. (A separate Arduino board is not required)
• Sample and hold, Arpeggios, noise, and bit crush effects with open source code so you can program your own sounds!
• All the analog sounds of the original Thingamagoop.
• Controllable LEDacle – Ramp and random waveforms with rate control.
• New modulators – Square wave amplitude modulator and triangle wave pulse width modulator.
• Tough, stomp box type body with silk screened graphics in 3 different styles.
• Easy to access battery – No more screws!
• Much fuller and louder speaker.
• CV in and out.
• Arduino Programmer jack. Easily hook an Ardunio board up to the Thingamagoop 2.
• Kit now comes with a pre-drilled enclosure.
• Still assembled in Austin, Texas by Dr. Bleep and friends.

via drbleep:

Analog + Arduino noise madness. More info at bleeplabs.com

David Byrne is keeping busy.

While he just opened his audio installation Playing the Building, he’s working on a new project, involving animatronic robots.

Byrne explains:

About a year ago, I was approached by some Spanish curators to participate in a show scheduled to open at the Museo de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid at the end of this month. I was told the show would be called “Machines and Souls: Digital Art,” so I suggested I work with David Hanson (of Hanson Robotics) to make a quasi-realistic singing robot. Animatronics date at least as far back as Disney’s Lincoln robot delivering part of the Gettysburg address, although Abraham’s delivery all but ignored any emotional fervor.

Having seen some of Hanson’s work at Wired Magazine’s Nextfest—and having heard about it for years before that—I thought it might be time to attempt a collaboration. I immediately thought the robot should perform an action with a weird emotional resonance, like singing. An impassioned speech, laughter, or tears, would have worked just as well, but I had an inkling I could write a short passionate song (in both English and Spanish) for Julio the robot to croon.

Byrne’s interested in exploring the strange effect of the almost-real robot.

“It’s still a work in progress—the movements will be more “natural,” as will his hair,” adds Byrne. “But this definitely demonstrates the creepiness factor at work!”

Michael Una will conduct a MIDI robotic percussion workshop on Friday, May 2nd at Bent Festival Minneapolis.

Participants will receive free MSA-R kits donated by Highly Liquid. The workshop is free and open to all on a first-come, first-served basis.

This is pretty insane – a robot that moves around, collects samples and then lays down funky beats.

The robot first plays on the object it finds (or is forced to find by the angry cameraman), plays a small beat, and records the beat it plays on it. Then this recorded beat is played again, and it starts to play on the object (and belt tracks and everything else it has), while also playing the sampled beat.

The robot:

• Navigate around, collect some data, avoid obstacles, until it
• Finds something “worth playing on” (a single isolated object or a wide flat surface that it can find an angle onto)
• Snakes into place
• Plays some beats on what it have found, and samples this, checking it has a “good sound”
• Based on data collected in the area, and sample just made, then compose a little rhythm, and plays this along with the sample

Want a robo-drummer at your next gig?

via LetsMakeRobots