This Is Not Rocket Science Bopp & Steve Eurorack Effects Processor Module

We say...

A unique fusion of reverb, delay and pitch-shifting with that distinctive This Is Not Rocket Science twist! Perfect for spaced-out sonic voyagers.

Manufacturer's description

With this module every sound is bigger on the inside and we can finally know how many angels fit on a pin-header. Between the input and the output your sound is shot through space and changes occur.
Bopp & Steve let you in at different points to tweak and trim their space effects until you find the exact place in the universe you were looking for.

Bopp & Steve reverberates, diffuses, delays and shifts pitch of whatever you send into it. Based on a deconstructed audio path and intricate DSP. We connected the virtual with physical reality by giving you tangible parameters, connecting your fingers to bits floating in space.

THE LINE

The audio path of Bopp & Steve is input – diffuse – delay – tail – output. Diffuse smears your sound over time which seems to change the shape of the space you are in and has its own Flavour setting you can tweak.

Delay holds your sound over time which seems to make the space you are in bigger. You can choose between bouncing between left/right (pingpong), a supershort Karplus-Strong physical model (waveguide) or staccato repetition (multitap). You can tweak the Length, Feedback and Pattern of these delay modes.

In the Tail the diffuse and delay of your sound merge together and travel into infinity. Your tail can be smoothly tapering off (dense), ethereal and shimmery (float) or choppy with space in between (sparse).

You can tweak the Length, Chorality and Temperature of the different tails. With Freeze you can hold sound in the Delay and/or the Tail so they become infinite.

At the end of the line the Main knob lets you set the wet/dry mix of all these spatial effects on your output. We’ve also added an Envelope of the dry audio path that has its’ own tracker output which you can invert if you like.

PITCH

The pitch modes on Bopp & Steve let you shift pitch chromatically (regular) three notes at time (chord) or detuned and unquantized (free). All modes are CV and MIDI controllable.

The chord mode is unique as far as we can tell. This is where we stuck all the angels on the pin-header. Following the note of your input a choir of harmonious notes will start sounding. Instant etherealness.

With Pitch Point you select a point in the audio path where the pitch gets shifted. Transpose lets you set how far you transpose from -2 octaves to +2 octaves. Control gives you control over intertia in Regular mode, in Chord mode it lets you control chord type and in Free mode it controls detune.

ORIGIN

The heritage of BOPP & STEVE starts with a reverb that Stijn has been working on since the 2000s. A version of it is in the Fenix IV Dual Delay as the Reverb mode with a “chunky shimmer and a phat detune”. We further deconstructed their Early Reflections into two parts (Delay and Diffuse) and created three types of Tail (Dense, Float, Sparse). The Sparse tail is based on granular synthesis, which we explored earlier in our Brinta collaboration with Error Instruments. At Superbooth23 we presented our first prototype and got a lovely write-up at GearNews and Superbooth23 demo videos. After this the insides have had a make-over as we changed to the new Raspberry Pi chip RP2350. January 2025 we are finally ready to launch.

BOPP & STEVE?

When we were sending out our Fenix IV systems, we drew little comics and phrases on every box and in these drawings two planetary entities appeared. Stijn named them Bob and Steve because even paper planets should be named. They stuck.

When we started talking about this reverb years ago, we referred to it as our space module. Dubbing it SPACE gestured with hands wide, preferably hitting someone in the face. Because there are already many modules called space, star, sky, nebula out there (and a gesture as a name is hard) we had to let space go. Cue the return of Bob and Steve.

We morphed them into Bopp referring to Hale Bopp (both the song and the comet) and happily Steve turns out to be a specific Aurora Borealis that resembles a line in pink with skirts in green. Spacey.