As well as providing modules to interface with external devices (instruments, motors etc) you've released the bitRanger and Kastle. Which are both stand alone devices. Will we see more stand alone devices in the future?
I need to mention Peter Edwards a.k.a. Casper Electronics at this point. He is a circuit bending legend and really innovative thinking instruments designer that happened to move to Brno to work with us on synths and instruments. The bitRanger is his design that we released and the Kastle is my design that is obviously inspired by the bitRanger. We have always been doing standalone instruments and to be honest it is much easier from the design perspective to make a module than to make a tabletop thing (that is why it takes so long sometimes). Now especially with the bitRanger and the Kastle we wanted to address the situation of starting modular user (so you don't need so many modules and expenses when starting to have something fun to play), but also somebody who doesn't have more space in the rack (so you get an external device to enhance it).
Personally I like the wooden panels, they look and feel great but it's hard to escape people asking for aluminium panels. Will you offer those in the future?
Yes we will ! It took us really long time because all our production is local or in house (pcbs,assembly, panels) so we were trying to find somebody local, too. That turned out to be impossible so we started to look further and found a company in Germany.
With them we managed to develop a technique how to do the printing and post processing so it becomes very durable and also looks amazing so we are really happy with the result. So hopefully we have the panels very soon.
Finally anything else you would like to tell us or promote? Any new module teasers?
Well we always talk about the community around Bastl Instruments. We are mostly musicians and all the guys working with us have build a modular for very little money. And we all play these instruments, we organize monthly concerts and also we try to make internal weekly workshops on synthesis, music, electronics and related topics. There is a real music scene forming around Bastl now which is really exciting.
With products - there is very anticipated effects processor called Thyme getting finished so we can hopefully soon start the production. It also took much longer than anticipated but is really worth it. Sounds and feels truly great! When it comes to modules… yes there will be some new modules next year. There is still a lot of modules that I desire that don't exist so i need to make them exist!
Thanks to Václav for chatting to us and checking BASTL here - http://www.bastl-instruments.com/