Thursday 3 November 2011

Bugbrand WOM Pro

Some sounds from Tom Bugs' DIY Workshop Osc Machine Pro.



I've just built my WOM Pro, which I got from Tom at his recent gig in Berlin. Despite its simple looks, the WOM is capable of a wealth of complex, ear-shredding noises:

Bugbrand WOM Pro by navs

The kit comes with all necessary parts, excellent instructions and was a joy to build. The schematic reminded me of some of the circuits in Nicolas Collins' Handmade Electronic Music, some of which I used in my Trobetronic40. What makes the WOM special is its power starve, touch plate control and, I suspect, its CMOS-based mixer. The latter seems responsible not just for volume control, but also the way the oscillators interact. Click here for more info on the build.

The WOM Pro puts out enough juice to be plugged directly into the modular and, used with an envelope follower, random generator and the Borg filter, is capable of Benjolin-esque sounds. Try setting the VCO range switches to a midway position. The resulting uncertainty opens up another can of bug-sounds.

Thanks to Tom for an excellent kit. I was going to give the WOM away as a present, but it's too much fun - highly recommended!

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