Pico Paso experiments with the Moog Grandmother

Here’s a fun little piece of DIY hardware I built a few years ago, the Pico Paso by Dr. Bleep. It has a few very interesting features. First of all, it contains two triangle wave oscillators and a single square wave LFO. That’s neat, but where the fun truly begins is the act that it’s sound is modulated by two small light sensors, which a person can bend and shift noise based on the proximity of the operator’s hand.

I’ve recently been very inspired by the Moog Grandmother, which happens to allow for external sound input. I was gravitated to the idea of piping the Pico through the grandmother, utilizing the cutoff filter and spring reverb. Not pictured in the video, I also have the grandmother pumping through an Electro-Harmonix Canyon delay pedal.

The results are spacey, haunting, and wild. I’m looking forward to incorporating this small and unique piece of electronic mayhem in future ambient projects!