A very boring yet crucial part of any setup. A buffered multi always comes in handy and it’s pretty easy to build as well. Since I was building one myself I added a few leds to indicate signal and it’s polarity, that way I got some indication what’s going on. I used 2 separate leds since I didn’t have any dual coloured leds lying around. It would look a bit fancier with a dual led, maybe I should order a few, just in case I build a few more of these.
Input module
It shouldn’t be all weird stuff, sometimes one needs some simple building blocks. After a bit of experimenting with sending audio from the mixing desk to the modular I found myself short of a way to amplify a line level signal to the audio levels used in a modular. Hence, I thought I build myself an input module with the sole task to take in a line-level and give it a nice boost. It’s a simple module actually.
The Oscillator One – update 1
I’ve put some updated schematics for the oscillator one online. Changelog:
- Changed Linear Ramp output volume so it’s in line with the other ones (R59 to 20k instead of 10k)
- Changed the sensitivity of the coarse and fine knobs (R10 and R11)
- Used an LM4040 to create a 5V reference instead of L7805 and L7905 voltage regulator. I hope this will improve stability when switching octaves.
- Added a potentiometer for the saw animation in
Crusher
I was one of those guitarists who spend more time with his effect pedals, then with his guitar. I ended up exchanging my guitar for synths when it came to music making. Not really a surprise there, but my love of piling effects together into a huge unpredictable pile is still there, and somehow, even with a bunch of 19″ racks I haven’t been able to scratch that itch. You could use a computer these days, but nothing beats a bunch of wires and noisy electronics to spark creativity. Guitar pedals are nice and all, but do lack in certain areas when you try to use them with synths.
FML – 4 operator FM percussion drone module
While doing research for the oscillator I stumbled – seems to be a common theme — upon these IC’s. The ICL8038 promises to be a stable oscillator with very few external components. It’s an obsolete product, but I could get a few of them via Ali-express cheap enough to experiment with. Since it offers a sine output I immediately thought about doing some FM type percussion. That way I wouldn’t need 1/v per octave and pitch fluctuations wouldn’t be that much of a problem either. I also had a V2164 quad VCA chip around, so a 4 operators (aka oscillators) seemed a perfect fit. Enough to provide some interesting FM timbres at least.
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