“Bastl” is Czech slang that’s roughly equivalent to the maker culture or DIY. And now, from the makers of the glitchy, odd, and wonderful world of Standuino, comes a new granular sampler, a follow-up to a terrific earlier kit.
The Bastl crew are showing off the microGranny 2.0 among lots of other new gear here at Musikmesse. They’ve added some functionality to the instrument (copy/paste, more presets), and put it in a very attractive housing.
But as before, you get a hackable, happily lo-fi sample mangler. Load up your sounds on SD card, then manipulate them with hands-on controls or via MIDI. You can loop, change the sample rate, crush, and add envelopes. And check out the code; it’s built from open libraries.
The whole project is made in the Czech Republic:
Most of the components we get are from local distributor, PCBs are produced in small town Blansko 20km north from Brno, laser cut parts are made by our friends in Razzia in Brno. All of this comes to our tiny “factory” office, gets sorted into kits and the assembled instruments are made by locals who are partly from the Bastl generation (50+).
And with that in mind, the very short first run (just thirty units) will have some special Czech touches. You get vintage knob caps – the orange models look strikingly modern and stylish – plus a sample bank from 80s pop music, each salvaged from the former Czechoslovakia.
Future Music paid the creators a visit and shot some lovely video:
Full specs:
monophonic mono sampler
microSD card (storing + recording samples, storing presets)
6 sounds with full adjustments storable in a preset at once
60 presets in 10 banks (6 preset per bank), stored as .txt files on microSD card
wav sample playback from microSD card (mono, 22050 Hz, 8 or 16 bit, two letter file name)
8-bit 22050Hz wav recording via line input or onboard microphone
hold button
sample rate (tuned or free run)
crush
start, end position with repeat, instant loop
granular settings: grain size and shift speed (positive or negative)
amplitude envelope attack and release
MIDI Input – responds to note, cc and clock (synchronize loop and grains)
MIDI side chain envelope restart
copy, paste
input & output volume knob
power switch – plug / battery
hackable – arduino based
More – and direct preorder link:
http://www.bastl-instruments.com/instruments/microgranny/