20 March 2008

PAIA 9700S (Part 9)

I got some questions in my E-mail about the equipment I used to build the PAIA 9700S. So I though lets make a post about that. In the picture on the left you see on the left my multimeter. I used it to calibrate the the Midi2CV8 module and also to measure resistor values. Sometimes color codes are not very clear especially on the 1% tolerance resistors. In the middle you see my soldering iron. It is a Weller soldering station I have for a long time and still works perfectly. I think this is the best you can buy. On top of the blue station you see a rol of soldering tin. On the top you see a green bench-vice I use to hold some components for soldering.

On the right you see some pliers I used. The one with the yellow is a pair of cutting pliers I used to cut and strip the various wires. The black ones under that are used to bend things and also to hold the nuts for fastening the front panels to the PCB's and for fastening the 3,5 mm jacks and switches to the front panels. Also you see a black marker I used to mark stuff in the checklists from the manuals that you see lying in the background. I want to compliment PAIA again for these manuals. They are very clear and just by folowing them to the point you will get a working synthesizer.

In the picture on the right you see a picture of the two screwdrivers I used by a finished PCB. The black one is a philips screwdriver that is used for the screws that go into the frac rack and also for fastening the PCB's to the front panels. The black one is a regular, but small one that I used for adjusting the trim potmeters. I have to say by the way that after the initial tuning and calibrating I described I found that the synthesizer still wasn't completely tuned and I spend another hour or so getting it perfect.

The last equipment I used for calibrating is not necessary per see. You could do it without is, but you will do it on hearing then and this is more precise. On the left you see an oscilloscope. You can use this to visualize and measure audio signals. It has two channels so you can put two waveforms next to each other. Right to that is a combined function generator and frequency counter. You can generate waveforms with this to test stuff and also is measures frequencies very precise. Ideal for tuning synthesizers. On the floor you see the PAIA 9700S in a completed state. After this I put it in my rack. I already played around with it. It sounds very analog. Very nice. The last post I will do on this project will include some demo sounds. To give you an idea what it can do.

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