Yamaha CS-40m

Finally!

I actually paid for this almost two months ago but the seller had no way of transporting it to me since he had no case for it. And, he lives over 600km away from me so it's not really a quick or cheap trip with the car to pick it up.
Yesterday though, I finally got it :)

Terratec Phase 22

Just a short notice about this one. It's a PCI ASIO audio interface.
I bought it new, I think around four or five years ago.
I don't have a picture of it (it's really nothing to see).

Behringer UMX49

This keyboard also deserves to be mentioned!
It is my MIDI controller keyboard that I've been using the last three years or so.

Behringer Xenyx 1204USB

As described in the Xenyx 1002 post, I needed to be able to rout a single audio channel to the audio input of my Terratec Phase 22. I needed the smallest mixer with sub outs or alt outs that I could find. The Xenyx 1204USB seemed to be that one.

Behringer Xenyx 1002

I guess I should include this one in my equipment list.
I bought it new about two years ago I think and I've had it sitting on top of my PC tower case.

Step4x16 addressing test

Not much new to report but it is so much fun to see your project actually make something visible and audible happen :)

I have tested the address decoder and data latch mask logic. A small video clip was made as well just to show the amazing LEDs :P

Some 4x16 prototype testing

After a couple of weeks (isn't it?) of programming, testing and being lazy, I finally managed to get the sequencer running.
I have now managed to trigger the CS-30 and send CV voltage thus producing a somewhat musical scale :)

Why does everybody hate the Poly 61? Even my cat..

Well, I'm gonna spare you most of the details. But..

One of my cats just puked on the keyboard of my Poly 61.
Come on! No synthesizer deserves that kind of disrespect!
Luckily it was easy to clean off.

Any negative comments about cats will be removed.
I love my cats.

Microchip AN556

Well..

This isn't really only related to my sequencer, but since I'm programming a PIC to use with it I'll tag it as Step4x16 sequencer related anyway. Oh, I changed the name of the sequencer again to "Step4x16". I found it's the most logical name since.. well.. it's got 4 patterns with 16 steps each..

Anyway, there is a bug in Microhip's application notes "AN556 - Implementing a Table Read"...

Started building

It always feels good to get started with the actual construction!
Here's just a photo of the two boards with the buttons and almost all of the LEDs.

More sequencer planning

-"I will try to buy as few components as possible"
Who said that?!

Ok, so I had a feeling from the start that this would rather turn into a "I hope I can use some components I already have" rather than the above...

I spent a couple of days trying to fit the panel layout to a plastic sweets box. I made a layout in InkScape.

LOL the background is transparent.
Please click the image to get a white background, assuming that is your default browser background ;)

Make a small CV/Gate sequencer?

This is too much, I know.
But, when you have a CV/Gate-synthesizer, don't you just feel the urge to try and make a DIY CV/Gate-sequencer for it?
So, there's a new project in the making! But, this is more than a possible future plan (like the Juno and JX-editors).

It'll be waaay simpler than the Matrix-1000 editor so it should be a lot quicker to build and program. Preliminary name: Mörckstep, in lack of better ideas...
I want to keep it simple, yet flexible, cheap and easy to use.

CS-30 Sequencer KBD mode tuned

Well, my calibration skills (or rather, my crappy multimeter) seemed adequate enough to fix the problem I had with sequencer set to KBD mode.

Yamaha CS-30

Yay!
My first CV/Gate synthesizer, and a beast at that! Yamaha CS-30!

I'm not dead, just demoralized

Ok, I haven't been writing anything for like three months.

The reason being the problems I had with the A/D-converter. There is still a lot of jitter on the lines which sometimes causes a parameter to constantly switch between two adjacent values.

After buying rack units I need to use them :)

Ok, recently I have been buying a Matrix 1000, a rack mixer and 3 rack FX units. Time to put them to use I think? I got myself some screws (couldn't find any black ones) and a lot of patch cables and got to work.

More of the same!?

Ok, so I bought three rack units at the same time. If I buy a DigiTech Studio Quad V2, do I really need another one? Well, you never know. Might as well get it :)
Actually, it's not exactly the same:

This is the DigiTech Studio Quad 4, the successor of the Quad V2.

More FX!

Well, since I bought the Alesis MicroVerb4 I was thinking of getting me a Lexicon FX for that reverb that everybody talks so much about. But then I saw this one:



It's the DigiTech Studio Quad V2!

A rack mixer?

I never thought I'd use one but realizing I have very limited space in my small apartment and since I have two Matrix 1000's that need some mixing before going to my regular Behringer Xenyx 1002, I thought, why not? With a price of about 30 Euro it wasn't really anything to think too long about either.



A Roland M-120 12 channel line mixer! :)

A modern classic?

I have been drooling over this since I saw it (which was not long ago actually since it kind of new, but still).
I bought this 2nd hand from the friend of a friend. It's only about a month old.

Dave Smith Instruments - Tetra :)

Replace Poly-61 battery with Lithium battery

Just a quick update. I made a small board out of strip board and placed a holder for the coin type Lithium batteries that are so common (CR2032). I put a schottky diode in series with it to prevent the reverse charge current.

I'll just put a photo here and then if you're interested you can read the rest of the boring details :)

Built data entry knob stuff

Well, not much to write about actually. I have just built the design I made earlier but not yet mounted it or even tested it yet.

I made the strip board design using a program called Loch Master 3.0 available from http://www.abacom-online.de/uk/html/lochmaster.html for €39.90. A very good tool for planning your strip board projects!

Here's what I came up with using the program:

Another Matrix!

Impulse buy?
Ok, maybe I didn't need this one but .. Come on.. The guy that was selling it lived in the same city as me and he just wanted 150 Euro for it. I had to buy it...

Roland Juno 2 (rackmod) a.k.a. Plexijuno

Plexijuno
It's a Juno 2 but without keyboard, and it's mounted on a piece of plexi glass.
It's the Plexijuno!

Good progress. Prototype done.

I got myself a programmer, some PICs and started to learn. I had to do the compulsory "blinking LED" but after that I continued to see if I could do what I wanted.

Maybe a data entry knob for Poly 61?

I have been looking for a reason to learn PIC programming for a while. But, with my Matrix 1000 editor project, a PIC really does not have much contribute with compared to the LPC2103 ARM7.
However, a few nights ago I was thinking that it might be nice with a data entry knob on the Korg Poly 61, similar to the alpha dial on the alpha junos.
Perhaps a suitable job for a PIC?

Boys say go! (A simple cover)

I was bored this morning (night almost, woke up early) and was thinking of the Depeche Mode song "Boys say go" version performed at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1982. It's better than the album version (Speak and Spell).
Without giving it too much serious effort I decided to do a "remake" more than a cover of the song. I mean I wasn't trying to change it a lot. I wanted to modernize it slightly but still keep most of the sounds fairly similar to the original.

Polysix on the road to recovery

Don't underestimate the power of battery acid!

So, Christmas and New Year vacation is over. But, the day before I had to go back to work I made a last effort to get something done since I'd spent most of my vacation just playing computer games or doing nothing. I'd gotten the Poly 61 keys working and felt like the Polysix needed attention, so...

Poly 61 is "almost" working now

Dead keys
Normally you'd expect an old synthesizer to have problems, for example scratchy pots, dead voices, leaking batteries and dead keys.
Well, the Poly 61 was completely silent when I got it. It lit up and I could edit the presets and store them and everything, but there was just no sound anywhere. Also, I saw the leaking battery.
I was expecting a lot of hopeless searching for errors but I was pleasantly surprised...