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Plankton Electronics | The Bumblebee

Description

Here it is The Bumblebee! The first of the Plankton Noise series. This is a super easy to mount and play DIY drone ‘n’ noise machine. A simple but powerful 100% analog design capable of generate the most annoying sounds of the neighborhood. Designed for DIY beginners, noise makers, and weird sound enthusiasts, it’s modular design converts it into a very versatile machine capable of multiply its power when connected to other modular systems. Available at the store as a modular kit or fully assembled!

Oscillators

Each oscillator generates an audible tone (a square wave) controlled with the Rate potentiometer. With the Vol pot the signal is sent to the filters and then to the main output. Each osc has its own output, which is independent of the volume control.

With the CV inputs we can control the tone of the oscillator with antoher signal. This is usually done with the LFO’s or another oscillator but you can use any signal from 0 to 5V. When a signal of more than 0V feeds an oscillator its tone will increase. With the CV potentiometer we can attenuate the amount of the modulation.

OSCILLATOR MODULATION 

With the gate input we can switch on and off the oscillator creating gate and ducking effects. This only accepts 0 or 5V inputs because it acts as a switch. Anyway you can experiment with other signals.

OSCILLATOR GATE

We can create a very weird patch connecting each OSC to the CV IN of the next one (OSC1 -> CV2A, OSC2 -> CV3A, OSC3 -> CV1A ). This way we create feedback between the 3 oscillators. Tweaking the RATE and CV potentiometers the machine will produce very rare sounds.

LFOS

The LFOs, Low Frequency Oscillators, are essentially the same design as the oscillator, but with a lower frequency (the lower settings are not audible). It only have one CV IN each and no GATE input. Each LFO have its own led to see the frequency. The LFOs are not connected anywhere like the Oscillators, just to its outputs.

Filters

The high pass filter cut all the frequencies below a point which is set with the HPF pot. It is usually used to remove the non desired lows and to create a thinner sound.

The low pass filter works the oposite as the HPF, cutting all the freqs over a point. Besides it have the RESO pot which produces a feedback near the cuttof frequency creating a very popular and nice gritty sound.

Setting all the volumes of the oscillators to its maximum position will cause the filters to distort.

Output

The main output sums everything and sends it to the OUT connector via the MAIN pot.
BrandPlankton Electronics
ModelThe Bumblebee
DeviceSynth
TypeDesktop
Engine TypeAnalog
EngineVCO
Voices (max)1
Oscillators3
LFO3 Square
Engine Detailed3 VCO, Square
Filter (VCF)2 24dB Slope (4-pole), High Pass, Low Pass, Resonance
Keys0
Key typeN/A
VelocityN/A
AftertouchN/A
CV-gateCV/GATE I-O
Produced:2014 - 2016
Legend: Obvious Y: Yes, N: No, N/A: Not Applicable
VCO Voltage Controlled Oscillator DCO Digital Controlled Oscillator
LFO Low Frequency Oscillator Sub Sub Oscillator
VCF Voltage Controlled Filter VCA Voltage Controlled Amplifier
Velocity As with a piano, the harder you hit a key, the louder the sound, unlike most organs which always produce the same loudness no matter how hard you hit a key. Aftertouch Pressing a key after you activated it. Channel Aftertouch, no matter which key, it will send a Channel message. Poly Aftertouch, sends the pressure per key instead of the whole channel.
Values for OSC, LFO, Filter, Envelope are per voice unless stated otherwise.

Facebook

If you like to discuss or talk about synths in all forms (including VST and modular), you are welcome to join the Facebook group "The Hard, The Soft and The Modular".

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