Out: tiny milk chocolates. In: delicious Program Card code creations for the Music Thing Computer in the Workshop System. It’s a beautiful story of what happens when a small, focused community goes all in on an idea.
There are only a couple hundred Workshop System modulars out in the wild. Little wonder; if Music Thing and Thonk were about anything, perhaps like this site, they’ve been fearless in love of niche communities. Even with that small flock of systems, though, the modulars are already getting intensive musical use. The Workshop System is an all-in-one creative toolset for the experimental set. It’s packed in an adorable carry case and with a complement of Music Thing sound shapers, creative aleatoric voltage generators, and amplifiers for connecting to the outside world. The ability to bring in a piezo input or add some transistor-based Minimoog-style drive, plus tons of ways of messing with voltage (like the Turing Machine) make for a rich compositional, performative toolkit. Big, friendly knobs don’t hurt, either.
And that’s before you get to the Computer. Powered by a Raspberry Pi RP2040, it’s capable of running custom-loaded code via Program Cards – little flash memory keys (MicroSD) inserted into a slot tucked into the bottom of the module. Out of the box, Tom and Music Thing shipped cards to convert Computer into a simple USB MIDI interface, Turing Machine random looping sequencer, and a reverb. There are also two blank cards in the package (and you can buy more).
That’s where the advent calendar comes in. Chris Johnson, an early adopter in the Workshop System community, is giving out a utility every day through the 25th.
The clever bit here is that these are configured as a “Utility Pair” – so you can squeeze two applications onto a single card, dividing the controls and I/O of the module down the middle. With 25 individual utilities promised by the time Christmas Day rolls around, that’s a whopping 625 utilities.
It’s inspiring whether or not you’ve got a Workshop System. For instance, today, Monday the 16th of December, is lopass gate day. That comes with a twist, as the pulse is rigged to a 5-step sequencer. Some examples of what’s appeared elsewhere in Advent:
- Wavefolder
- VCO
- Karplus-Strong resonator (with input)
- An elaborate Serge-inspired add-on for the Slopes looping envelope generator
- Bitcrusher
- Euclidean rhythm generator (take a shot)
There’s also this cute selection interface so you can choose your paired utilities:
https://www.chris-j.co.uk/utility_pair
It’s not the first time we’ve seen programmability like this in Eurorack modular. Befaco’s Lich, for instance, runs Pd (via Heavy) and code. Befaco also tried using modules, with Fx Boy (though those carts gave you fairly simple patches). Mutable Instruments has seen various modes and customizations. Ornament & Crime is probably the closest example, with custom CV generation (based on Teensy 3.2 rather than Raspi) – or monome Teletype as a mini-computer / event triggering device. 4ms’ Meta Module even runs a version of VCV Rack (with hundreds of modules) for modular inside modular.
But Music Thing Computer has a special place inside the Workshop System – a defined home to live, even with modular patching possibilities.
And those keys are so cute…
I got the chance to have a look at Music Thing Modular’s new shed (a literal shed for Tom). With all the hyper-capitalist, mass-produced devices and the torrent of horrible news, there is a meditative elegance to a small group of people focused on learning a customizable instrument. It’s at a scale that returns us to being a little more human.
I’ll be curious what happens next.
