Tea Kick (Magpie Panel)

more than just a bass drum

Tea kick is universal analog circuit which is based on improved version of twin T resonant structure and mainly inspired by analog drum designs of Standa Filip. The basic principle or this drum is to create virtual electronic membrane which you strike with electricity than the membrane vibrates and created very natural drum wave form which when outputed to a speaker (another membrane) sounds very natural. To adjust such membrane we have TUNE and RESONANCE control. Think of adjusting those as if tuning an acoustic drum. There is a CV input for tuning the circuit so it can sound from bass drum through all the toms to woodblock. There is main TUNE control knob for the tuning and also CV Input with ATTENUATOR.

There is a RESONANCE control which affects how much resonant the circuit is. However the resonance also affects the tuning: the more resonant the lower the drum sound is. Add resonance to get longer decay drum sounds. The resonance range switch can limit the resonance from self oscillating. When you switch it up the resonance control makes the circuit self oscillate and than it can be used as kind of VCO.

Tea kick also has a click generator with tone control which is mixed into the signal. Think of the click as of a stick which you can use to strike a acoustic membrane of a drum – the resulting sound has different character. The click tone control also affects the spectrum of the twin T circuit. There is also SQUARE output and WTF input available for more fun experiments.

Beyond the drum:

Tea kick can be either used as predictable drum circuit or can go totally nuts as an experimental oscillator. There is several ways how to route inputs and outputs to generate feedback loops to generate signal. However there is several ways how you can use it to modify and filter signal from another VCO. Highly recommended it to route any oscillator to the trigger input. There is a lot to explore in here.

Features

bass drum generator
Tune knob for adjusting pitch
CV input with attenuator for Tune
resonance knob
resonance range switch (low range limits the circuit from self oscillation)
click tune knob – adjusts pitch of click added to the drum body
click output jack – when plugged in it puts the click out of the main output
buffered output
square wave output
trigger input
wtf input (acts something like band pass filter but not really:)
trimmer to adjust the resonance range
handmade in Brno, Czech republic
front panel from oak wood, handmade custom knobs

15 mA +12V
15 mA -12V
? mA 5V
35 mm Depth
Ø 4.07 (14 Votes) Average Rating
Available as an assembled module and as a DIY project.