Hey so check it out – after a good, long second it’s another electronics workshop from VauxFlores! For this go round, we’ll be taking a plunge back into the murky, yet possibly overly-malleable waters of the Eurorack format to collectively cobble together a gaggle of GS’s. What is a GS, you ask? Here’s the spiel: The GS is based off the Gold Standard fuzz circuit that I carried as a semi-flagship product from 2013-2017 or thereabout. Ok – to be more accurate it IS the Gold Standard circuit, albeit with a noticeable size reduction, a couple tweaks to make it more synth friendly and one or two other updates derived from lessons learned after a decade since the first time I spray-painted a box with some gold enamel in an attempt to keep the bill collectors at bay. Also, these tiny panels, man – you try to spell “Gold Standard” in a legible font on a tiny panel and still have enough room to make it pop among a sea of modules. Sonically, it’s a weird one – definitely derived from inexperience and a little bit of luck, but it somehow found its followers. Among its many features include buzzsaw-grade thickness, a whole deal of sustain, an interesting breakup and an input impedance that’s so low that it should probably be illegal – all of which pretty much mean nothing when you’re not running a guitar through it – not to say that you couldn’t if you so desired. However, when paired with the usual blips and chirps of the synthesized world, it half acts as a waveshaper; cutting and compressing various signals and half as a filter, accentuating the occasional harmonic peaks and valleys. In short, it’s not without its merits. Oh right, it also does this thing with the kick drums where it makes it all saturated and grimey in the best and/or worst possible ways. Not to mention, on certain occasions when the moon is just right, it may just start oscillating and chirping on its lonesome, which I guess is also a feature. All said, I like it and while I’m not sure this is my signature circuit, I’ve had a Gold Standard on my pedalboard since the day I first built one and have converted it into a couple other formats as well over the years so that’s at least something.
Sop to recap: Distortion, adds some extra ounce to your bounce with kick drums, makes everything else sound nasty and gated, freaks out and self-oscillates when left to its own devices. Sounds easy enough to wrangle, yeah? All said, it’s good stuff, also small at a diet-conscious 4hp.
Ala logistics: the workshop will go from 12 PM – 3 PM and all materials will be provided. No prior electronics experience is needed and yes, you get to keep this module at the end of the workshop. Price is $80 and we’ll have a synth or two on site for testing unless you really, really want to share your sweet, sweet setup. As with VF workshops, we strive to keep the atmosphere casual, informative and friendly – and SAFE (an obligatory statement even in the post-covid world, to be interpreted as broadly as you’d like. For this go-round attendance will be limited to 8 and a small VauxFlores pop-up shop will also be on-site for anyone interested in nabbing something without having to solder it themselves, as per tradition.
For those into the whole “no-speaking” style of demonstrational video, here’s two offerings for anyone looking to justify sonic expenditures by way of internet-based participatory marketing tactics (don’t forget to like and sunscribe!)
