OceanoGraphy CD presented at WWF

Last week I visited the Dutch WWF (Word Wildlife Fund) Head Quarters to hand over a copy of my OceanoGraphy CD. As you know the WWF officially endorsed this album and also their logo is on the back. I'm still very proud of this. In the picture on the left you see me with Marlou who made this all possible. Thanks Marlou! Now I just hope that they like it and that they are also going to do some promotions for the CD :) A part of the revenue of the CD is donated to the WWF as well. So do buy the album, because it is for a good cause!! We also discussed some future possibilities so who knows what this will bring :)

Classical Project Postponed

I have some sad news. I know some of you are looking forward to my Classical Project, but I decided to postpone it for a while. There are several reasons for that. I thought I was almost finished with this project. I started it in 2006 actually, but today I tried to open the files and lots of stuff isn't working anymore. That means I have to recreate a lot of stuff and I rather spend this time on creating new original Synth.nl music at this moment. Also my record label is not interested in this project since it is now my own music, but just covers of existing music. So I'm putting it aside for now and will decide later what to do with it. In the mean time there are still 5 tracks on my website for you to enjoy. I hope you understand.

The Hip Bass Drum (Part 1)

Today I build a very nice project called 'The Hip Bass Drum'. I it found in an old article from the Polyphony Magazine published in 1983. I had all components except for the 4739 opamp. I replaced that one by two LM741's. I decided to build this one right away on an experiment PCB. As you can see in the pictures it is full with holes and islands. You can solder them together to create the necessary wiring between the components. It is just a matter of looking at the schematic and making all the connections manually. The advantage over the bread board I use earlier is that you don't have to take it apart afterward and build it anyway on a board like this. It is only less easy to correct mistakes. But since this is a very small module I took the risk :)

Here you see a picture of the PCB from the top with most components installed. Since this module has a lot of external potmeters I decided to wire it right away with wires long enough to reach a front panel that I will eventually make for this module. I only mounted the Led on the PCB, but that one will go on the front as well. It lights up when to modules receives a trigger. After this I hooked up the power from my lab power supply to do the famous smoke test and it all looked OK. After that I got some potmeters from the stack I received from Mouser last week.

After hooking the potmeters up I attached a mini jack to get some audio from it. The first thing I noticed it that the trigger wasn't really working. Well I forgot to attach a resistor to ground. That was an easy fix. Then it sounded like only one of the two audio generating circuits was working. It sounded like the impact module worked, since I recognized that sound from the Snare Drum Module I'm building, but I couldn't hear the oscillator that should create the kick sound. After some debugging I found a resistor that I forgot to hook up on one end. And yes then It sounded like a kick :) I fiddled a bit with the potmeters and it sound very nice. A very usable module. I'll start making a front panel for it and I will also add a manual gate option and maybe a output level potmeter. If you are interested in the article, just send me an E-mail.

Moon Modular 553 Midi to Clock Module

I'm still building a lot of DIY synthesizer modules, but I recently also bought a module that I could not buy as a kit. It is a 553 Midi to Clock Module that I bought from Moon Modular. It receives midi clock and outputs a clock signal that can be used to clock the sequencers I'm building. With this module I will be able later on to synchronize my midi setup (from my Sonar software sequencer) with the modular setup. If you are interested in this module you can find more information on this URL: http://lunar-experience.com/553.html

Here you can see a picture from the right. It just barely fits in my cabinet. As you can see it is very shallow. The module looks very nice and is professionally build. Moon Modular has more interesting modules. Be sure to check them out. The only challenge I have now is that this modules came with a synthesizers.com power connector. And even though I have a MOTM 950 with a power distribution board with the right connectors, it didn't come with a cable to connect it. So I ordered some connectors and will make this cable myself.

Electronic Snare Drum Project (Part 1)

I was so enthusiastic after reading the Eletronic Drums Cookbook that I decided I just had to try some of the stuff out. So I went to my local electronics shop and bought a whole bunch of components. Normally I only order what I need for a specific project, but then you keep waiting long time before everything arrives. And I'm in such a period now, waiting for stuff. So in the mean time I can do some experiments on the stuff I learned from the cookbook. In the end there is an example of a Snare Dum Module so I decided to go and give it a try and build it from scratch without a PCB. I never did that.

I got also a breadboard for these kind of experiments. You can see it in the picture on the right. It is full of holes as you can see where you can put your components in. Every little line is interconnected so you can use those to hook stuff to each other. It is very easy to experiment and change values while you are going. On the board I got a trigger optimizer now that takes a 5V gate on the input and outputs a conditioned 12V pulse that the drum modules can use. There is also a led on there that lights up when it gets a gate.

In the picture on the left I'm a bit further. The snare drum sound will be build up from three sound sources: an impact generator, a snare generator and a shell generator. The impact generator is below the trigger conditioner. Below that in the middle is a little audio mixer that mixes the three sound sources together. In the right top is a noise generator with a low pass filter that I'm building now and that will form the snare generator. Below that is a VCA for that module. On the left you see the same VCA for the shell generator that will be in the upper left corner. It is already generating some sound. The noise generator, the mixer and the impact generator are operational already.

Electronic Drum Cookbook

Since I'm very into electronics again I decided to look for some interesting books about electronics for audio. An interesting read I came across was the 'Electronic Drum Cookbook' by Thomas Henry. A very interesting read I can say, with some nice examples in the form of schematics that are explained in detail. Electronics knowledge is necessary though to be able to read it. It is great to catch up again with the stuff I learned when I was in school about 600 years ago :) If you are interested in the book look on this URL then: http://www.magsmoke.com/thomas_henry_drum_cookbook.asp

My First Front Panel Arrived

Last week the front panel that I designed for a YuSynth VCO arrived from Schaeffer. It really looks great, so I'm very happy with the result. It is in MOTM style and I took some stuff from different designs to get this one together. The text and other symbols are actually engraved, so it looks very professional. The only thing I found out is that the holes that I made for the potmeters are a bit too big. No real problem. I had this before with some panels from Bridechamber. The trick is to use an extra ring, but you need to be careful to get it centered. If you like this design and want to use it as well. Just E-mail me and I will send you the .fpd file. You can download the software from here: http://www.schaeffer-ag.de/de/download/frontplatten-designer.html. And then you can make adjustments for yourself and see what the price is right away. When you are satisfied just click order and wait until it arrives :) Very cool. I must warn you though that it is not cheap. Especially the extra lining I did around the potmeters makes it expensive, but I like to have some soft of scale. If you leave that out (and you can easily delete that) it will cost a lot less. Well I'm planning to do more front panels this way if I can't get them anywhere else. For my friend Hans I'm also looking for an Eurorack panel for a Wogglebug. If you know where I can find that please let me know.

Join the Synth.nl News Mailing List !

If you want to keep updated on new releases, radio shows, interview, reviews etc you can now join my new mailing list. You will never miss important news, since I will send it to you by E-mail. Joining is very easy. Read how on: http://www.synth.nl/mail. You can also join me on facebook, myspace or twitter for updates. But I think the mailinglist is the best option if you are only interested in music stuff, since I write a lot about my studio and DIY projects as well on the other channels. Well you are into that that fine of course :)

Klee Sequencer (Part 3)

Last week I wrote on my blog that I was looking for the 0.1% 100K resistors and I got a very nice reaction on that post. Andre mailed me with the Farnell part number and I could order them right away. I asked him back if he also knew the part numbers for some other components as it turned out that he was also building a Klee Sequencer. So he gave me his list for the stuff I didn't have yet. This saved me an enormous amount of time. Thanks Andre! I also got some more led holders last week since I overlooked 5 leds on the front panel.

Here you see the font panel with the extra leds and most of the switched installed. The switches are all APEM series 5000. They have a very nice flat look. I still need to mount three switched in the middle and the jacks, potmeters and a rotary switch. I'm trying to order them from Bridechamber, but I think Scott is a bit busy since he doesn't react very quickly on mail and it looks like he didn't even ship my previous order yet. So I'm considering to order some stuff from Mouser. I also got part numbers for the potmeters and rotary switch from Andre.

After I mounted the front panel components I worked some more on the PCB's with the next supply of parts that I got. I'm still missing 100K resistors and 100nF capacitors, but the rest is soldered. When checking the IC values I saw that my local electronics shop gave me alternatives. In stead of the CMOS CD types I got HCF ones. I don't think I should do this even though I can't make up from the data sheets if it would be a problem. But I rather not take chances and will bring them back and order them from Farnell I guess. Too bad that getting all the components takes so much time. I'd love to start wiring it, but I better wait until everything is in place.

Second Subwoofer in the Cinema

There is much debate about the effectiveness of more than one subwoofer in a home cinema setup. I bought a Rel Quake a long time ago and I thought it did very well. But then my friend Hans told me that he had one exactly like mine that he didn't use anymore. So we decided to try them next to each other. And well no debate for me. It works :) You can really feel the explosions now and I love that. And since the cinema is surrounded by 40 cm of concrete and under the ground just like the studio, nobody will be bothered by it :)