BrikWorm connecting performers

BrikWorm Chain/Development

 

March 8th, 2023:

The first user interface for Noah is being prepared for production. Its purpose is a modular synthesiser with three improvements to traditional modular synthesisers:

    1. The designs can be saved and recalled instead of re-patching, writing down potentiometer values etc; so it can be used Live.

    2. All "control values" are inputs and so can be automated - there are no dedicated potentiometers. For example, the attack time (or decay/sustain/release) of an envelope generator can be a fixed value or it can come from an output, including live audio.

    3. It's polyphonic

More to come soon...

 

April 3rd, 2022:

During Chain development, we accidentally generate other opportunities....here is one!

Back in 2016 we designed an improved user interface for computers, to speed up our own development work. In 2018 it got updated, we made a few and we have used them ever since without really thinking about how useful they are.

It's funny how, when you make your own tools and then use them, and get used to them, that you forget you even have them.

A little while ago an ally visited and saw us using them and said "you have got to make that into a product - I want one!" and so we are doing. It's a complete revamp from the 2018 version and will be available in a few months' time.. so we're taking this opportunity to create links and pages for it.

It's called "Snippet"

 

June 23rd, 2021:

Chain Update

The Chain will never be finished.

Instead it will always be in a state of development / flux. It is far easier to keep developing any concept than it is to make it into a product. That's because making a product has to include all the production tools, legal requirements, regulatory requirements, documentation and so on.

Then why bother developing something that will never be finished? That's because it's a sure-fire way to come up with all manner of interesting ideas. We aren't a company looking for something to sell, we are a company who want to improve music in any of its forms or needs. If, in that endeavour, we find something interesting, we can make it into something that other people can use.

Two years ago we completed the hardware for "Noah"™ which stands for "No Architecture". This is something that happened by chance, or rather as a result of continuous development of the Chain.

In every audio system there is some design / architecture which connects together what can be best described as modules, in a certain order, to be the product. Modules could be filters, volume controls, delays and so on.

Those modules have controls which are used to adjust parameters to best suit the situation the user finds themself in.

Noah's modules are exactly those things: filters, multipliers (volume controls), delays, oscillators... and each module only has inputs and outputs. The "control" values can be anything that is available; from user input, eg: via a dial, to live audio. Yes, you can use live audio to adjust the Q of a filter (or its gain, frequency).

Delay lines have taps and the tap position is... an input.

What is different with Noah™ is that the "design", the order the modules are connected up in, is completely up to the user. Not only that, the design can be changed "on the fly". So you can change the whole structure of say a reverb whilst you are listening to it.

Need an extra dynamic range controller and BiQuad somewhere? ...just add it in - whilst it's happening.

The other thing that's different about Noah™ is the scale. In a minimal system there are thousands of BiQuad filters, multipliers etc and tens of thousands of interconnections. Because the whole thing is modular, if you run out of something then just add another module.

We are still working on the user interface for Noah™, which may well also be something that's never finished. It's going to take a while to complete.

In the meantime, we have something to "spin off" from the Chain... the '42'. Coming soon!

 

May 18th, 2018:

Digital channel routing allows any individual input channel to be routed to any individual output channel. Not pairs, or lots of 4, or even anything as gross as lots of 8 - INDIVIDUAL channels. Of course, if the channels are already grouped in stereo or 5.1, they can be routed together or separately, whatever's best for the application!

The method we're using is completely scaleable, and just for fun we tried it on a high-capacity logic device which gave us 3,300 individual input channels to any of 3,300 individual output channels. That's 3,300 channels at a base sample rate of 48kHz, or to put it a different way more than 200 channels at 768kHz sample rate.

That means we can cope (and will be coping) with ultra-high bandwidth and multiple different formats.

 

April 8th, 2018:

Analogue-to-analogue latency results:
48kHz is <0.35ms
96kHz is <0.2ms
192kHz is <0.15ms

 

August 2017:

The next-generation BrikWorm is in design!

The BrikWorm Chain takes modularity to its limit. Not only are separate modules plug-and-play, but the internal electronics is also plug-and-play within units, making a virtually unlimited range of products possible.

The Chain can have any topology including daisy-chain, spurs and stars. Maximum number of CAT-5-interconnected nodes: 4095.

Last tidbit... the Chain can also mix, record and is WiFi-controllable.....

More information will be posted here when available. The Chain will be available when it's complete, tested, working and ready for use in anger. (see our Commitment)

 

 

About Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Contact Us | ©2023 FlatKeys Ltd