Question 1

What is your company information?

Accepted Answer

Stochastic Instruments Ltd. is a 'Micro-Entity' VAT Exempt UK-based Registered Limited Company (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13111638)(Company Number 13111638) incorporated on 4th January 2021.
 
Our UK Export EORI Numbers are GB079397159000 (to confirm, follow this link (https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/check-eori-number)and copy/paste the number) and XI079397159000 (https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/eos/eori_validation.jsp?Lang=en&EoriNumb=XI079397159000&Expand=true)for exports N.Ireland, typically exported using HS Commodity Code 9209940000 (https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/9209940000)
 
All our products are fully tested and RoHS (https://www.rohsguide.com/rohs-faq.htm)compliant.
 
Our contact point is on the contact page,(javascript:void(0)) and our registered company address is
 
Greenwood Accountancy,
5-7 Pellew Arcade,
Teign Street,
Teignmouth,
Devon,
UNITED KINGDOM,
TQ14 8EB

Postal items should be directed to our working premises and will be discussed by email.

Question 2

What are your Company Ethics?

Accepted Answer

Stochastic Instruments believes companies should be inclusive of everyone, transparent, pay taxes, be ecologically responsible, supportive of education and above all, ethically brave.
 
Every big ethical step forward a society takes was once unpopular, born from the fortitude of individuals striving bottom-up for a better future and a better world, through reason, logic, evidence and public debate, to influence power top-down. Hard won legislation now protects humans irrespective of race, colour, creed, disability, belief system (or none), sex, and sexuality. The salient unifying property is sentience, and the next frontier is species.

We bank ethically, use biodegradable materials wherever possible, minimise energy use, offset carbon emissions in shipping, and ensure that we and, whenever it's possible to control, the services we use, do not invest in weapons, tobacco, gambling, tax-avoidance or any form of exploitative practice, most pertinently the Killing Industries of meat, dairy, fishing, animal agriculture, or any parallel industry predicated on animal abuse.

We reserve the right also to refuse sale to these industries or their representatives.

Question 3

How do you Calculate Shipping Charges?

Accepted Answer

We have worked hard to secure the best balance between cost and security for your valuable package and monitor services for the greenest (CO2 offset), fastest, most reliable, and best value options available. We also do not profit from our P&P: everything is done at cost. Please see the Shipping section of our Policy (javascript:void(0))page.

Question 4

What about Brexit?

Accepted Answer

Music transcends all barriers: including those artificially forced upon us by politicians. SI hopes this is au revoir e auf wiedersehen––it's EuroRack, not BorisRack––but until then, our EU friends should expect a similar situation to ordering from a US company.
 
We are registered as VAT Exempt so our sale price is the actual price: there is no VAT to remove at the point of sale. This actually disadvantages us financially, but we have taken this decision to pass the savings on to our customers.
 
As with every other UK export to the EU, EU customers are now charged their local sales tax, Duty (typically 0-3% on electronic goods) and processing fees. There is simply nothing we can do about this.
 
We can only provide the cheapest reliable shipping options available (and a range of pricing/insurance options within that), as well as the appropriate customs paperwork stating the full value of the items.
 
As a brand new start up already facing potentially increased production costs through Brexit, sadly we cannot absorb the additional costs for EU customers that these politicians have created. Thank you for understanding.
 
Please see our Policy Page (javascript:void(0))for more information. It is important EU customers are aware of these details.

Question 5

What is your Modular Grid page?

Accepted Answer

Stochastic Instruments has the coverted Official Manufacturer Status on Modular Grid (thank you Knut!) and is found here...
 
https://www.modulargrid.net/e/modules/browser?SearchVendor=906(https://www.modulargrid.net/e/modules/browser?SearchVendor=906)

Question 6

Can you do custom panel colours/designs?

Accepted Answer

Company panel colour is black but we recognise that Eurorack is also all about individuality. If you really wanted a particular alternative colour it is something we can explore, but is limmited by the options available with the PCB fabricators we use and will cost more as it will be a special order. If you still want to pursue this, please contact us.(javascript:void(0))
 
Finally, please see our Support (javascript:void(0))page for details (including free Mech Files!) of how to make your own panels if you really want to show off!

Question 7

Who are dBs Institute?

Accepted Answer

You will see the dBs Institute ((https://www.dbsmusic.co.uk/)formally dBs Music) logo on our modules. dBs is an highly innovative and long established teaching and research institute in music, audio and sound engineering based in Plymouth UK and with sites in Bristol and an afiliate institution in Catalyst Berlin.(https://catalyst-berlin.com/)
 
SI company director Phin Head has been a staff member there for nearly 20 years and, lectures there in Electronic Music Composition and Performance, heads up their ground-breaking Modular Research Group and was also on the team that set up Catalyst.
 
The MRG is an open research forum open to any staff or student member with a good idea related to Eurorack and/or music software that they want to develop into a product. It aims to help integrate accademia with industry (a key dBs ethos!) both through the generation of new ideas and through connections with our friends in the Eurorack community (see below) where we collaborate on beta-testing.
 
The Stochastic Inspiration Generator grew out of support from dBs, and both Phin and Stuart see their industry work as a fully integrated aspect of their academic teaching, allowing their respective students in music and electronic to see innovation in the flesh and the marketplace, not just the classroom.
 
SI maintains extremely close ties with dBs Music (as the teaching institution) and also its sister companies dbs-i ((https://www.dbs-i.org/)where Phin is a research collaborator) and dBs' commercial wing dBsPro.(https://pro.dbsmusic.co.uk/)
 
To recognise this, and the essential link between innovation and education, we proudly put dBs' logo on our modules to thank them, our colleagues, and our wonderful students for their continued support.

Question 8

Our friends in Eurorack

Accepted Answer

The Eurorack community is mostly small (often single operator) companies doing amazing things. Along the way, we've met many extraordinarily talented people making incredible modules. Best of all, because it's people making things that interest them as individuals, there is much less sense of direct competition between makers than with the big music tech giants.
 
In no particular order, we'd like to shout out to our modular manufacturer friends, from whom you will find many wonderful things

Kinesotronic (https://www.kinesotronic.com/products.html)- Our great friends, colleagues and collaborators Matt Ward & Chris Pratt created the incredible Refractor multidimensional gestural morphing application initially for use in Ableton (bridged to Eurorack via a DC-coupled soundcard) but are already planning to take this much further.

WMD (https://wmdevices.com)- from Denver Colorado, Will, Alex and friends build modules that combine the grit of urban techno with the intellectual refinement of process-driven composition: truly modules for players, by players. The Performance Mixer, MSCL and Overseer redefined output staging in Eurorack, and Metron is simply untouchable for trigger sequencing. We would also like to personally thank Will for his kind technical advice during the manufacture of SIG! 
[Tragically, in August 2022 Will announced that WMD would be closing for business. We hoped desperately to see them return in the future and then in 2024 they did! They were, and are again, the best of the best.]
 
Winter Modular (http://winter-modular.com/)- Eloi's 8 track powerhouse has fast become the centre of many people's racks and with good reason. There's little to touch it in terms of compact immediacy and functional depth and it's saved Phin's life a few times an hour into an improv set! We would also like to personally thank Eloi for his kind technical advice during the manufacture of SIG!
 
Tubbutec (https://tubbutec.de/)- Tobi makes the best multifunction MIDI & tuning system in Eurorack, period (and much else besides). Phin was lucky enough to get to beta-test it and deliver a microtonality lecture/gig on the µTune a(https://vimeo.com/268160632)t Superbooth '18.
 
ThisIsNotRocketScience (http://www2.thisisnotrocketscience.nl/)- Stijn & Pricilla, working out of Amsterdam have somehow found a way to reinvent the building blocks of modular with incredible combinations of familiar concepts with innovative twists. And, the new Fenix will be a history book classic.
 
Superbooth (https://www.superbooth.com/en/)- Where else combines an international academic conference, a music festival, a trade show, the best vegan (http://phinland.net/wp/vegan/)food in the vegan capital of Europe, and Jean Michel Jarre (https://jeanmicheljarre.com/)on a shopping trip? Herr Schneider's (https://blog.native-instruments.com/inside-superbooth-its-superhero-andreas-schneider/)carnival of wonders is our annual pilgrimage.

Question 9

What the hell is a milliWard?

Accepted Answer

The bigger the rack, and the more experience you have, the longer and better will be your live set: but how do you measure that?
 
SI's Phin Head, his great friend and dBs colleague, modular DJ, composer and lecturer Matt Ward, and WMD's Will Mathewson and Alex Anderson (both modular DJs and composers in their own right) derived a unit of "Eurorack skill", all while drinking together in a dingy Berlin bar...
 
One 'Ward' is a derrived unit defined in min/hp where 1Wd = 1 minute of decent music per 1hp/3U of rack space. That is, the more skilled the player, the longer the set they can get out of a given rig size.
 
1 Ward is a big value (like a Farad!). Will and Alex reckoned a maximum set length of about 40mins was possible with two rows of 104hp, so thats 40/208 = 192 milliWards of 'skill' –– and those guys are world experts, playing live several times a week, week in week out.
 
Matt and Phin managed a 2 hour set with two 65% full 4 row 126hp rigs = 120 / (65%*(2x4x126)) = 183mWd which they were actually pretty pleased with.
 
Joking aside, it's worth considering this idea: these are musical instruments after all. The more you practice the better you get, and the more possibilities you see. In addition, think about ideas like the Three Module Challenge, the fact that all creativity comes from constraint, and that the nature of Eurorack is that as soon as you add another module to your rig, all the ones that were already in there can now do more too.
 
So there it is, the milliWard––get practicing people! :-)

Question 10

I've heard going vegan can save the world?

Accepted Answer

Damn straight! :-)

Animal Agriculture––the Killing Industries of meat, fish, dairy & eggs––murders 3 trillion animals every year, 95,000 every second of every day, in agony and terror, for profit alone, at the destruction of our shared planet.
 
The science (http://phinland.net/wp/vegan/)is clear and multidisciplinary:(https://www.plantbaseddata.org/) the animals feel (http://fcmconference.org/img/CambridgeDeclarationOnConsciousness.pdf)and suffer, the environmental effects are devastating (https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6399/eaam5324)(it's the leading driver of the 4 main non-warfare existential threats to organised human survival, Climate Change,(https://science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987) Antibiotic Resistance (AMR),(https://amr-review.org/sites/default/files/Antimicrobials%20in%20agriculture%20and%20the%20environment%20-%20Reducing%20unnecessary%20use%20and%20waste.pdf) Pandemic Zoonoses (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK396511/#wt605845_ch1.S2)(like COVID19)(https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/508654#top) and Pandemic Obesity)(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697260/), and its direct effects on individual human health (https://www.iarc.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr240_E.pdf)are serious too.
 
But the really great news is that the dietary science (http://phinland.net/wp/vegan/#hh)is also really clear and really positive: vegans thrive (http://phinland.net/vegan/vdiet5.pdf)and enjoy significant health gains from birth,(https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1627S/4596952) reduced heart disease, cancer, diabetes, infections and obesity...and the growth in delicious, cheap and healthy vegan options is sky-rocketing.(https://www.forbes.com/sites/katrinafox/2017/12/27/heres-why-you-should-turn-your-business-vegan-in-2018/#750e79c82144)
 
So, here are a bunch of really amazing recipes (https://veganuary.com/recipes/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA3NX_BRDQARIsALA3fIIVY3sKcaFmVMu06itJRFp9eRw2CwNb5nUjWNCi8mcex-6etcDOoB4aAojiEALw_wcB)for you!
 
Save the world, be kind, love food, feel great and play modular! :-)

If you would like to donate, two leading charities are the UK-based Humane League,(https://actnow.thehumaneleague.org.uk/page/140815/donate/1) and the international Animal Equality.(https://animalequality.org/donate/)

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