Metal Cased Ambika

Latest Ambika build completion. White case by Adrian / Van Daal Electronics.  Official designer of the Shruthi metal cases.  The volume knob has been moved to the rear of the case (with a posh Cosmo knob).  Inside are 4 4P's, 1 SMR & 1 SVF Voicecards.  Also has a nice bezel for the LCD Display.  Really hate to see this one go.  The metal cases look absolutely stunning!

More Photo's Here.

Enter the Eurorack

Just acquired a Make Noise System 1 last week.  I have had a couple Eurorack modules for a bit, but nothing useful.  I decided to get the full system because I had been looking at getting a Music Easel, but was having a hard time spending that much on something.  While this is not a Music Easel, it is fairly close to it with a lot more patching options.  Very happy with it.  The other plus is it is in it's own carrying case, so I can easily bring it with me when I travel out of town for work, as the below video is just that.

Official PolyLAB Page Added

Added a PolyLAB page to the top.  In it you will find a full description of what it is and where it's at.  I will update is as progressions are made as well as posts on the home page.

PolyLAB Update

The main globals PCB arrived and has been populated. Just missing 1 capacitor. So far the Portamento and gate led drivers have been tested.

Next PCB, which should arrive this week is for the 2 MIDImplants (although I probably could have used only one. It pays to read the manual fully first, kids).  It's also got a 5v power supply for the MIDI thru. 

Other than that, I should have a working prototype within the next month or 2. The case is going to take a while as I probably won't be able to bend the metal or paint until the weather warms up. Oh wells. 

Build Break Jam

Sometimes ya just need to take a break and mess around with the gear you have and make horrible music.

Paia - Hot Springs Reverb

Custom build for a customer.  Now this is one nice spring reverb.  There is relatively no hum and there is a crisp brightness to the reflections.  I'm totally building one for myself.  Check it out here

I used a 10x10 outdoor electrical case from Home Depot.  There should be enough height in it to stack 2 hot springs in there for stereo (which I'll probably do for mine).  I've had a drawer filled with those oldschool Fender style pilot lights for years.  Never had a reason to use one until now.  An 8mm LED fits perfectly in them.  My only complaint with the design is there is not an amount pot.  There is a gain trimmer in the PCB, but, it's not a dry/wet mix.  I'd have to design a circuit to get that, which I may do.

More Photos Here

PolyLAB Update 11/15/2013

Think I finally decided on a the MIDI 2 CV.   Hexinverter.net has a DIY MIDI2CV that pretty much fits the bill.  The only issue is it cannot chose how many voices for poly.  It's either 1 or 4.  But, there is a version of software over on muff's that allows to select how many voices, among other things.  At first I was just going to hardwire it under the panel, but I decided that I would wire switched jacks and normal everything for 2-voice poly, but when a cable is inserted, it will break the connection.  Should be pretty cool.  While I'd like to have a custom one built, I don't know how to write code and it would probably be a lot more expensive to pay someone to build it for me.

The Globals panel is pretty much laid out.  I just ordered that last remaining parts needed.  Now the big challenge is getting the case designed and built.

PolyLAB Update 11/12/2013

Lastest and possibly final PCB revision.

Here's what we got:

• Mod Bus (Osc 1, Osc 2, Filter, PWM).  Each destination is global.
• 2 Portamento's, each with their own amount knob and symmetry (slide in, out or both).
• Master Audio Output Mixer
• 2 Gate LED Drivers

Probably going to order up the boards next week.  Hopefully I can get it built and tested by the end of the month.  

Now, to find someone willing to write code for the polyphony dispatch & MIDI 2 CV....

Temporary Hiatus

I will be closing up shop for the remainder of the year.  I've got quite a bit of stuff on the bench I need to get done and we are having a baby in 2 weeks!

Once the dust has settled from having a newborn and the holiday's are over, I reconvene taking build requests.

I will continue to respond to emails, so if you have a build request and are ok with waiting a couple months, please feel free to send me a request and I'll put on the list.

Thank you and good night.

Jmej 808 Kick Clone

Damned small PCB!  The sound is undeniably an 808 kick.  I had a dotcom Noise Faceplate laying around (I gutted it and the dotcom S&H and mounted them onto 1 MU Panel), so I re-purposed it.  Just need a couple extra holes for the pots.  Looks crappy but it works.  Only bummer is the output is a bit low compared to other modules.  May look into modding it to raise the output.

More info here.

At any rate, add this to the list of stuff I'll build.

PolyLAB Update 10/31/2013

Welp, the global cutoff and resonance knob switching has been completely redesigned.  The amount of parts needed for something so simple was just bugging the hell out of me.  So, I ended up ditching it all together and going with simple rotary switching.  Now it will have independent controls for each.  The Cutoff and Resonance will each have a 6-pole 2-throw Rotary switch which will send it either to it's local pot or the dual gang global pot.  The nice thing about this is not only is it waaaay more simplistic, but it will allow individual control of each parameter, such as if I want to have control of but cutoffs but with 2 different resonance amounts.  I'm thinking that could be a pretty neat feature.

I finally wired up the Saw to Triangle PCB to my working Soundlab.  Holy crap!  The low end that comes out of this thing now is incredible!  This synth absolutely needs this added to it!  I'd highly suggest adding this to yours if you have one.  The circuit is easy to wire up to some perfboard.  I used a 3PDT toggle to switch between the 3 waveforms.

Here's a wiring diagram for the 3PDT:

Here's some pics of it in place.  Double sided sticky foam is great!:

Ambika with 6 SVF Filters For Sale [SOLD]

I have a freshly built Ambika for sale.  Asking standard price of $1100 + shipping (I also have it listed on eBay for $1150 to cover their damned fee's).  It will come with the Power Supply and 4GB SD Card.  Send me an email if interested.

PolyLAB Update 10/22/2013

Slowly coming along.  I think the PCB design is finished.   I crammed everything onto 1 board.  It will have the following:

• Modulation Destination Switching
• Cutoff & Resonance Switching (for global and local controls) with a Mono/Poly Switch and LED indication
• Portamento

The Portamento was an addition I just did last night.  There are 2 on the board actually.  1 for each voice.  There will only be 1 Amount Pot.  It will be asymmetrical, meaning there will be a switch to choose between slide into note only, slide out of note only or slide in and out of note.  Should be a pretty cool feature.

PolyLAB Update 10/11/2013

So much for keeping the PCB costs down.

The global Filter Cutoff & Resonance pots were a bit more involved than I thought, but this is a section that I feel the synth must have.  Pretty nice looking PCB though.  I still have to go through and label everything, but I'm hoping this and the Mod Bus boards will be ready for fab next week.

PolyLAB Update 10/6/2013

Well, the more I looked at the design of the Mod Bus, the larger the part count was getting, so I scrapped the original idea.  I worked it down to just  3 CV Mixers and let the rotary switches handle all of the switching.

The LFO Wave Selector rotary switch stayed, but the destinations were reduced to OSC 1, OSC 2, Filter.  There is now 2 Mod Source/Destinations.  The Source will just be a standard Toggle switch between LFO & S&H.  Both toggles will wire to the Amount pot.  From there it will wire to the Destination Rotary switch to be sent to the Mod Bus Mixer PCB.  This is a much simpler design and will keep the PCB cost low.  With the previous design I was pushing the cost for 3 boards over $100.  This new design is about $25 for 3.

On Friday I put an order in for the Saw to Triangle Generator!  I also designed and ordered a small board for the rotary switches.  Instead of having to solder a bunch of flying leads, they will all be connect to a molex connector.  Nice and neat.

Now that the Mod Bus was redesigned, the Global Control Panel will have to be resigned.   I may also be replacing the 2 MFOS panels and putting both + the Global Panel on 1 piece of sheet metal.  I had a thought to redesign the layout of the 2 Soundlabs and move all of the patch points between the global control and the 1st Soundlab.  Oh, and I will be replacing all of the banana plugs with 3.5mm jacks.  The main reason for doing this is so I can connect it to my dotcom and eurorack modular easier.  Banana patching between different power supplies is a pain because it does not carry the common so I would have to have a dedicated banana plug that was wired to common to bind the commons between systems, as well as have a separate unit with banana to TS Jacks (I did build one, but with more than double the patch points, it's just not worth it to keep the banana jacks).

That's all for now.

Note the INPUT labeling is wrong. Instead of LFO or S&H it will just be 1 or 2 and its destination as both busses will be switchable between LFO and S&H. 

Finally got around to writing the About page.  Forewarned, it is extremely winded!

PolyLAB Update

Other than finally settling on the name, PolyLAB, I got the Global Modulation Panel figured out (hopefully).  here's a pretty 3D rendering:

I also worked Ray Wilson's design of converting a Saw Wave into a Triangle wave onto 1 board.  This will give each Oscillator a Triangle wave.  4 in total:

This was my fist time designing a schematic and PCB.  I took the crash course over the weekend (staying up until 5am reading tutorials).  Once I got past the initial fear of it, it's surprisingly not that complicated.  I found it to be way more intuitive that I had thought it would be.

Hopefully within the next couple weeks I can have everything wired up and tested.  The case is on the back burner for now.  I'm still pretty sold on the idea of bending the sheet metal myself.  On the fence with the paint.  Oh, speaking of which, I think I'll paint the MFOS front panels as well, so it's all uniform.  Gonna be doing a lot of silk screening.

Also, after I complete and get the first one 100%, I'll more than likely sell additional units.  At the moment, I only plan to do 2 more (as the PCB's are ordered in multiples of 3).   If I do any future batches, it would more than likely be in groups of 3.  

Poly Continum

Global panel design complete!  Wiring nightmare!  

SLMSX2 (MFOS Soundlab Mini-Synth MKII 2-Voice Poly Synth)

The past couple of months I have slowly been designing a 2-Voice Poly Synth. At it's core, it is 2 MFOS Soundlab Mini-Synth MKII's.  I've spent a lot of time tweaking ideas on how to implement everything. Pretty much all of the parts are there, I just need to put it together. Easier said than done.

It starts at a Mutable Instruments MIDIpal.  Eventually I will try to tweak the MIDIpal code so it only has some of the apps, like Dispatcher (of course), arp, seq and maybe some others. Keep it simple. The MIDIpal will be connected internally to 2 chained midimplant's (MIDI to CV) which will be wired to each Soundlab. This is how the polyphony will be achieved.  I will have MIDI IN & THRU jacks mounted on the rear of the case. 

The front panel will have both Soundlabs mounted side by side. There will be a 3rd panel to the left of the 1st Soundlab that will be home to the MIDIpal as well as some other cool stuff. This "Master" panel will have the following, top to bottom:

• MIDIpal
• LFO
• S&H
• Cutoff & Resonance knobs
• Mixer and master out volume

The LFO, S&H, cutoff & resonance will be global controls. 

The LFO will have 2 rotary switches.One waveform and one destination. It will also have PWM knob and an amount knob. 

LFO Waveform switch:

• Sine
• Triangle
• Sawtooth
• Reverse Ramp 
• Square 

LFO destination switch:

• OSC 1
• OSC 2
• OSC 1&2
• Filter (cutoff)
• OSC 1&2 + Filter

The S&H will only have 1 rotary switch which will be the same as the LFO destination.  Along with the normalled destinations, they will also have banana jack patch points.   Noise from the 1st Soundlab will be hardwired to the S&H input.

Next is the filter cutoff and resonance knobs. These will be connected to a series of 4053 IC switches. There will be a Poly/Mono toggle witch will route both Soundlabs cutoff and resonance to either the Poly global knobs or their dedicated knobs via the 4053's. The global pots are 2 dual gang potentiometers with a 5% tolerance.  In theory this should work, but I haven't breadboarded it yet. There will be an unused switch at each pot which I will use to drive 2 LED's that will show which state the synth is in (mono or poly). 

Lastly is the global mixer. As each Soundlab has a dedicated output, I will wire them to switching jacks. When not used, the outputs will be sent to the mixer where I will have a pot to mix the volume of each Soundlab as well as the final volume output. It will go through a stereo mixer where I can pan each synth. The final output will be wired to 2 jacks at the rear of the case. The Left will be normalled to the right, unless a jack is plugged in for stereo effects. 

Each of the synths CV & Gate jacks will be normalled to the midimplant unless a jack is inserted, which will break the connection from the midimplant. 

I am also adding a circuit to each oscillator to give it a Triangle wave. 

Finally, I want to add a D-Sub connector (ala minimoog voyager) to access additional inputs and outputs for each Soundlab. It will connect to a separate box with the jacks and pots (again, ala minimoog voyager)

The case will have a sheet metal base and wood sides. I'm planning on cutting, bending and drilling the sheet metal myself. I may take it to be professionally painted, price being the biggest factor.  Ill probably screen print the panel descriptions myself as well.  I'm still on the fence if this will be the only one or if I will make them to order. As it is now, these will not be cheap. Just for the 2 Soundlabs, it's close to $1K without build costs.  If you are interested in buying one, leave a comment bellow and I'll keep you posted as this progresses.

TTSH

Getting close! Hopefully just a couple of more weeks to go...

Temporarily Closed

Just an FIY:  I will be going out of state from 9/6 - 9/9.  I will be checking emails, but if you send an email, I may not respond until next Tuesday.

In the meantime, enjoy some Rickyisms:

LSW #4

Completed a Mutable Instruments "Yellow Magic" last night.  This was the first in building this specific filter.  I dig the PT2399 Delay Chip added to the circuit.  Adds a great dimension to the Shruthi series.

Of course, each unit I build is taken through a test run.  As I had never played with the YM before.  I felt it would make a nice addition to the series.  The other synth is a Music From Outer Space Soundlab Mini-Synth MKII.

LSW Demo #3

Post "I Dream of Wires" Modular Patch. Felt inspired.

If you haven't seen or heard of IDOW yet, you should check it out!

LSW Demo #2

Oddly enough, the Sonic-Potions LXR is the first hardware drum synth I've owned.  I've got a bunch of stuff on the computer, but that kind of music creation has always been creatively constricting for me.

Anyway, I recorded a new demo with some devices we build (MFOS Soundlab MKII, Hex Inverter Sympleseq & Sonic-Potions LXR).  It's accompanied with a Minimoog Voyager OS and a Juno-106.  The LXR is generating the clock which is being sent to a Kenton Pro-Solo II MIDI 2 CV, which is then sending the clock to the Sympleseq.

Enjoy and thanks for watching!

GM5x5x5

Just completed another board.  This time I used some dense red oak wood to help keep it weighted down when multiple MIDI cables are plugged.  It was spray painted with flat black then coated with clear matte.

LSW Modular Demo #1

Quick demo with some of the devices I can build up fer ya.

Lazy Sunday mornin patchin

http://instagram.com/p/c4sCW3JLVP/

Finally found some time to build something for myself.  Hexinverter's Sympleseq with the Re:Synthesis panel.  Extremely happy with this module.  Also happy that I finally have some blinking lights in the modular!

more pics here

Just recorded a quick demo of an Ambika with 6 SMR Voicecards I recently built.  Seriously huge filter!

On the bench

Going out the door this week:

Also, I finally got around to yanking the Juno-106 Filter Chips out today.  They all work ok, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before they start to fail.  Added sockets to the pcb so they can be easily swapped if need be.  Currently in an acetone batch.

Nothing new to post.  Work has been exceedingly busy this year.  Between that and the build requests, I haven't had time to breadboard any idea's.  Maybe next month.

Lots of builds!

Build requests have been coming in pretty regular lately.  There has been a sudden desire for Ambika's!  I'm suspecting the video I posted on youtube that was featured on Matrixsynth aided in that.  Along with this fantastic demo that popped up around the same time.  I have 2 Ambika's ( 1 with 6 SMR's and 1 with 6 4P's) on the bench right now and a 3rd I need to order.

I also just finished a set of 3 Music Thing Modular "Turing Machine" Random Sequencer with Expanders.  This was my first Eurorack experience.  The size can be a bit difficult to deal with at times, but I do like the fact that they are so much smaller than my dotcom modules.  Definitely going to get a case and build up a eurorack modular.

The big excitement is the Sonic Potions LXR Drum Synth that's coming in the mail.  An LSW regular bought 2.  1 for me and one for me to build him!  Really stoked on this one.  I've been needing a drum machine for some time now.

Anyway, back to the builds!

Ambika or Juno?

One thing that comes up from time to time over at the Mutable Instruments forum is the IR3109 filter board. If you do not know, this (discontinued) board used the famous IR3109 filter chip that's found in the Juno 6/60/106, SH-101, JX3P, Jupiter 6/8 and some of the later Jupiter 4's.  To say the least, a very popular and recognizable filter.  Since Mutable Instruments discontinued the filter board (mainly because the IR3109 is no longer produced and should be used to fix the synths they belong to), there have been discussions on wanting to remake the boards.  The schematics and board layouts have since been deleted and all traces removed, but every so often someone comes along looking for one.

Now, the standard Shruthi-1 kit comes with the SMR-4 filter board, which, when you look at the schematic, is basically the same design as the IR3109 chip!  There are some differences, but for the most part they are the same.  There is a mod that can be done (a couple resistor changes and a couple diodes added) that gives it an almost identical sound to the IR3109.  Actually, there is a new replacement for the Juno 106 80017A (which was a board that had an SMT version of the IR3109 and some other stuff encased in black epoxy) which uses the same 31700 Op Amp!

But, the problem is, when someone hears the IR3109, it's typically in a polyphonic scenario.  Well, I just finished a build for a customer that has 6 SMR-4 voice cards!  I decided to set it up like a Juno and see exactly how close it is.

The settings:

Osc 1: Saw
Osc 2: Off
Sub Osc: about half way
LFO 1 Triangle (sloow) > Osc 1 (very little)
Filter Cutoff about half
Filter Resonance about half
Filter Cutoff > Envelope 1 about 2/3's

Then I run it through a chorus pedal to give it that "Juno" sound.  Finally a little reverb.

Finished an Anushri & an Ambika with 6 SMR voicecards over the weekend.  Now that I've heard all 3 voicecards, I must say c SVF and SMR are tied to first (slight edge on SVF with BP & HP modes). 4PM is my least favorite. Now, when Tubeohm gets the Ladder Filter Voicecards done, that may take the lead. Stay tuned!

MFOS Soundlab Minisynth MKII MIDI Board

Well, technically this will work with any synth that works on V/Oct or Hz/V but I built it specifically for my SLMSMKII.  I added a 5vdc power supply to the board for the MIDI THRU.  Ultimately the THRU will chain to another midimplant to control a second Soundlab.  Going for an SEM 2-Voice kinda thing, as I believe I have mentioned before.  At any rate, this is the board that can be added to any Soundlab order.  There will also be a push button at the back to edit the settings of the midimplant.  I will probably add an activity LED to the front panel as well (between the Gate & V/Oct jacks).  Once I get it installed I'll post some photos and do a short video of it in action.

Bluethunder III

Just finished and sent off another Shruthi-1 LSW Blue Thunder Edition.  This is our highly modded Shruthi with the SMR-4 MKII filter.  It has the following mods:

• Audio IN Volume
• Audio OUT Volume
• 2/4 Pole Selector Switch
• Low Pass/ Band Pass Switch (BP1, LP, BP3)
• Audio IN/FM Mod Switch (routes the Audio IN jack to either the filter, as intended or as an FM Source to the filter cutoff.  When used as an FM source, the Audio IN volume becomes an attenuator
• Dedicated FM Mod Pot (takes the raw oscillator output from the digital board and routes it the filter cutoff as an FM Source.  Desgined by forum member yewtreemagic)

New to this model is the "IR3109 Squelch" mod (a mod I had made to a previous shruthi and yewtreemagic perfected and improved.).  This mod replaces a 2 key resistors that tames the filters input & output causing the resonance to sound "purer" and "squelchier".  The original issue with this was that the resonance would then become overpowering to the oscillators when the resonance was set high.  The addition of 2 diodes in parallel with a key capacitor tames this issue and results in a VERY Roland-esque filter!

More photos here.

love her sleep - RoyFnBerry

"Off the cuff - first run - not over thought - drum half of new spaceship with 1 drum pattern - plus 1 bassline (a repeating 303 & SammichSID)"

Featuring a SammichSID built by LSW!


and another vid featuring the SammichSID & an MI Shruthi by LSW!

"Not supposed to be a song; demoing some synths and a process; thought I'd film it. Click [show more] for explanation.

Using a MIDIpal (for a sine ccLFO and a random ccLFO) and an Event Processor Plus program (to remap things and whatnot), a SammichSID and 2 Shruthi SMR4-mkII (for stereo), auto crossfade and auto random program change.

A second MIDIpal randomizes the notes of an EF-303 sequence (no audio heard from EF-303).

The SammichSID starts first. You can tell which one's volume is down and receiving random program changes, because its screen will show the patches changing (once the patches stop changing, you'll hear the patch it stops on fade in). The SammichSID makes noise when changing patches (it's a flaw of the old C64 SID chip).

The SammichSID and one of the Shruthi's were built by Adam Armstrong from Mutable Instruments trusted builders list. The other Shruthi was ordered from the Mutable Instruments web-store, built by Olivier Gillet (honestly can't remember which is which).

Audio straight into a ZOOM Q3HD, normalized.

AND the SammichSID sequence patches and drum patches play at their own speed for some reason. I'll figure that out later. Also, since the program changes are random, some of the sounds happen more than once."

New product officially added!

Finally got around to working up a flat fee for the MFOS Soundlab Mini-Synth MKII, mainly because Im thinking of building a 2nd to make a 2-Voice SEM of sorts. I'll also offer the addition of a MIDImplant.    Go to "prices" above for details. It's at the bottom.

Of Our Own Design...

Couple of exciting things happening here at LSW.  Firstly, to elaborate on a previous post, we are bouncing around the idea of making and selling effects pedals.  We are currently building a couple Mad Bean pedals (Zero Point SDX & LowRider) and if all goes well, we will build a couple for sale.  The idea is to hand paint the graphics on the metal case.  Keep each one unique.  If demand is high enough, we may have 2 versions.  One with custom graphics and one with a standard silk screen graphic.  Depending on the interest, we may look into other PCB's from other manufacturers as well.  We figure Mad Bean has a good assortment to choose from and looks to be a good starting point.

Besides building pre-designed pedals,  We have a couple pedal ideas of our own.  Not to go into too much detail yet, but the first design is looking to be a reverb pedal of sorts with some interesting bells & whistles.  This is still in the brainstorming phase, but as we begin designing the circuit, we will be sure to update on the status.

Now on Facebook...

Finally put a Facebook page together.  Every 100 likes I will randomly pick a fan for a likeprize!  It'll be something electronic that makes noise.  Head on over and click that like button!

Alex, from Sumo Elevator, did an awesome video showcasing the Mutable Instruments Shruthi-1 4-Pole Mission I built for him on youtube!  Please check the video and his music out.  His/their projects are very talented and highly recommended!  More here and here.

Still here...

So far this has been a pretty busy year.  Along with Laurentide SynthWorks, I have a day job that can require a lot of my time.  Some weeks I work fairly close to home and am able to jump on requests pretty timely.  Other weeks I need to hop on a plane and go out of state which keeps me from LSW stuff.  This can really back up the work bench.  Currently, that is the situation.  I have a bunch of stuff in for repairs (1 is a build I did, 6 are not), plus a 4PM that I'm just waiting on the boards to start building.

Of course, I am not complaining.  Not in the least.  I just want to emphasize that LSW is not an "offical" business.  This all started as a hobby.  Just some tinkering in a basement with a soldering iron and a DIY "kit".  I first started building Shruthi's and selling them on eBay.  Then, Mutable Instruments began the "Trusted Builders" list, which I quickly signed up on.  This opened the door and brought in requests rather than me taking a risk and hoping a build would sell on eBay.  Thankfully, I don't have to use eBay (evilBay) anymore.  I get enough requests coming in.

I guess I really don't have a point to this post, other than just getting a post up, as I haven't written one in a while.  

Anyway, I recently completed a MidiSizer MidiALF (Automated Latching Frequencer - not the official title, but if works).  It's a really awesome Sequencer.  Lot's of bells & whistles.  Fairly inexpensive for what it does, as far as sequencers go.  You can find more info here.   There is also a CV OUT board being finalized.

I just picked up a couple of boards from Mad Bean Pedals.  The "Zero Point SDX" Dual Delay and the "Low Rider" Octaver PCB's.  I'm starting with the delay.  I ordered a case from Mammoth and had them paint it.  I'm probably going to paint on the legends ala Z.Vex.  If it turns out good and not too time consuming, I may offer their line for sale with custom painted enclosures.  I'll keep y'all posted.

MFOS into Dotcom

Finally got around to ordering a blank panel for the MFOS Noise Cornucopia PCB that I built over a year ago.  I had aspirations of getting a screen and printing the font and knob markings on the blank panel, but, that's a lot of work, ya dig!  Ended up going to Michael's and getting a white paint pen.  Doesn't look the best, but it does the job.

At any rate, the Noise Cornucopia board is a pretty kickass noise source.  More on it here.   I'm really diggin the Graininess Noise.  Very cool as a mod source.  Haven't been able to check out the Random Gates yet (wrong IC).   But yeah, more noise sources in one module that I know what to do with!

MFOS into Dotcom

Finally got around to ordering a blank panel for the MFOS Noise Cornucopia PCB that I built over a year ago.  I had aspirations of getting a screen and printing the font and knob markings on the blank panel, but, that's a lot of work, ya dig!  Ended up going to Michael's and getting a white paint pen.  Doesn't look the best, but it does the job.

At any rate, the Noise Cornucopia board is a pretty kickass noise source.  More on it here.   I'm really diggin the Graininess Noise.  Very cool as a mod source.  Haven't been able to check out the Random Gates yet (wrong IC).   But yeah, more noise sources in one module that I know what to do with!

Juno-106 Active LED Indicator MOD RECALL

Turns out there is a flaw in my design somewhere.  I hadn't noticed it when I had it breadboarded, but last night I was hearing a lot of distortion when I had the resonance kicked up.  After fussing about for a bit, I decided to pull the power from the Active LED Indicator board and the distortion went away!  So, until I can suss out the issue, I have removed the schematic and YouTube video.  Sorry to anyone that was interested in this mod.  Also, if you happen to have a clue as to what may be the culprit, please drop me a line!  It's a bit bothersome that I have 6 holes in the top now.  Grr.

Anushri build

Just finished a build for a client. Really enjoyed this one. It was bought as a kit then shipped to me. Didn't have to put a mouser order in or try and find those damned 3.5mm jacks, which are impossible to find in the states (that will fit the Anushri footprint). It'd cost over $40 just for 12 of those from the EU.

Anyway, I'm hoping I can get a bit of playtime to have her and dotcom get familiar, knowiamsayin?

Juno Bling Complete

Well, I opted for repurposing the red LED's I pulled out of the Juno and replaced with the blue ones. The blue LED's were a bit to bright and I felt it would look better in red. Anyway, drilling the holes sucked, as anticipated. I need to get a drill press.

Juno Bling pt 3

Board is done (other than the LED's).  I let the circuit sit for about 4 hours today and the Juno running through an arpeggiation.  I noticed that if I set the resonance high, the LED would get brighter.  If I then adjusted the cutoff, the LED would overload and begin to dim.  I ended up adding a resistor to each one.  This tamed it and keeps the LED output intensity steady.  Wired the 6-Voice-Cable-Harness™ to an Arduino 6-pin header.  Also added a couple headers for the +5V/COM.  Gonna see if Fry's has some blue diffused LED's tonight.  If so, I should have it all done by tomorrow.