Patch Ideas with Tausend dB

Tausend dB works great for bringing line signals to Eurorack levels, and saturating Eurorack levels into overdrive. We love feeding piezo signals into Eurorack with it. Here are some short videos of patches for inspiration.

DIY Tubular Bells into Mutable Instruments Clouds#

Here's a lovely tubular bells patch made with piezo contact mics and modular synth. The sound of the brass and aluminum tubes is picked up underneath with our TausenddB eurorack piezo preamp, run through Mutable Instruments' awesome Clouds as well as 4MS amazing Dual Looping Delay. The result is this mesmerizing soundscape, a little reminiscent of Pierre Schaeffer’s Music Concrète piece Psyche Rock as sampled in Futurama.

Lush Sub Bass with Mutable Instruments Rings#

The bass is strong with this one! The sound of the wooden baseplate is picked up with a piezo contact mic and amplified in the modular synthesizer via our TausenddB piezo preamp, then run through Mutable Instruments brilliant module rings.

The Arturia Beatstep Pro sequencer is advanced a step each time you knock on wood, giving rings a different pitch. The spring board mounted at the top adds a subtle sonic texture, that is enhanced with a TC Electronic Hall of Fame guitar pedal.

Mesmerizing Kalimba Clouds with Modular and Piezos#

This cute kalimba melody stems from our sound experiments with piezo contact mics and eurorack modular – and just sort of happened! The kalimba is picked up through the wooden baseplate, routed through our TausenddB piezo preamp and into Mutable Instruments brilliant clouds granular texture synthesizer, doing both pitch and delay, before being processed through a TC Electronic Hall of Fame guitar pedal.

Reactive Drum Effects with Modular Synth and Piezos#

Reactive Drum Effects with Eurorack Modular Synth – massive thanks Andreas Huck for laying down this neat drum solo! The jazz brushes are picked up through the wooden baseplate with piezo contact mics, routed through our TausenddB piezo preamp and into both Mutable Instruments brilliant module Rings and the awesome Plaits macro oscillator in resonator mode.

Plaits' pitch is slightly altered each hit using Tom Whitwell's Music Thing Modular Turing Machine, a DIY module with kits available at Thonk. The resulting sounds are processed through a TC Electronic Hall of Fame pedal.

Steampunk Brass Tubes into Mutable Instruments Clouds#

Check out this shiny steampunk contraption patched together from copper tubes, eurorack modular synth and guitar pedals! The metal tubes are picked up with piezo contact mics, routed through our TausenddB piezo preamp and into Mutable Instruments brilliant Clouds granular texture synthesizer, with the EHX Stereo Memory Man adding extra layer of sonic bloom. The lovely shimmer on top is a TC Electronic Hall of Fame pedal.

Percussion with prepared Ukulele and Modular Synth#

Making a percussion patch with a prepared ukulele and eurorack modular synthesizer! The ukulele body is from a DIY kit and picked up from within with a piezo contact mic.

It is routed through our TausenddB piezo preamp and into Mutable Instruments brilliant Plaits macro oscillator for the sub bass treatment, with the Electro-Harmonix stereo memory man adding extra layer of delay.

The shimmer on top is a TC Electronic Hall of Fame pedal. The lovely mini shaker and large wooden egg maraca are percussion instruments from Rohema and NINO Percussion.

Lush Acoustic Feedback Patch with Mutable Rings#

Check out this neat feedback patch, running a selfmade string contraption through the eurorack modular synthesizer! The instrument is made from a solid piece of spruce, roundwound bass strings, some ukulele tuning mechanics leftovers from the last experiment and a couple of LEGO Technic bushings to help and keep the strings in place.

The strings are excited with a felt plectrum, picked up with piezo contact mics, routed through our TausenddB piezo preamp and into Mutable Instruments rings resonator module.

Rings' output is pitch modulated using Tom Whitwell’s Music Thing Modular Turing Machine (from Thonk) and fed to our Dynaudio nearfield speakers, which return the signal through the wooden baseplate into the piezos, creating the beautiful blooming feedback. The shimmer on top is a TC Electronic Hall of Fame pedal, with the EHX Stereo Memory Man adding extra layer of delay.

Tongue Drum through a Distortion Pedal#

Selfpatched pedals with our piezo preamp – we were blown away by the broken bladerunner style mangled reverb from this patch! The awesome UFO shaped instrument is a chinese tonguedrum, picked up underneath with two piezos through our Tausend dB DIY 8 Channel preamp for eurorack modular synth. The sound is run through two EHX stereo Memory Man delays, with a hefty smack of modulation applied and a Crayon overdrive patched between left and right channels. The result ist going through a TC electronic Hall of Fame.

Glockenspiel through a Guitar Pedal#

Here’s my childhood Glockenspiel all blown out by the blooming Eventide-style mangled verb from this patch! The Glockenspiel is picked up underneath with two piezos through our Tausend dB DIY 8 Channel preamp for eurorack modular. The sound is run through two Electro Harmonix Memory Man Deluxe with Hazarai, and two Crayon overdrive guitar pedals. The verb is a TC electronic Hall of Fame.