Modular Progress Overview 4

I haven't build much recently, but I am testing all the modules that I have connected to the power now. Here I was testing the syncing of the clock of all sequencers. They all run very smoothly :) I also made some sound effects already on this modular setup. It is really great to patch on it. Since I'm working on a lot of new releases for later this year I don't think I'll have much time to work on the modular this year anymore. So for now the project is on hold. I expect that I will be working on it again from January on. So keep an eye on the blog for the progress :)

MFOS Sequencer (Part 1)

Since the power distribution in my modular desk is finished now, I started on some new modules again. Here are two PCB's that are the analog and digital boards of a MFOS sequencer. The design is quite straight forward and there are no very special components on there, but still I think it is a very nice sequencer. It has 16 steps with both a coarse tuning and fine tuning potmeters. It can be set to 4-16 steps and also can be put in reversed or random mode. It has a reset funtion and can take an external clock and external start signal. So it might not look much, but in fact it is very versatile.

Thomas White designed a very cool rotary front panel for this sequencer. That was for me one of the reasons to build this one. It looks a bit like the Klee Sequencer I build. I just downloaded the Front Panel Design file from his website and sent it to Schaeffer and got this very nice panel back. After I got it I started mounting the front panel components. Here you see the jacks and the leds from the back. I'm still asking myself though how to fit the PCB's to this front panel. Hopefully Bridechamber has a solution for that soon since they are going to sell this front panel as well.

And here you can see the front. I still need to source a lot of the front panel components, but it already looks like something :) I will keep you posted on the progress as usual. I don't know though when that will be. It can take a while since I'm already building some other stuff as well and soon I really have to focus on my new album again. I haven't signed a contract yet, but I need to stick to a tight schedule to make October. You can find more information on the sequencer on this URL:

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/SEQ16_2006/SEQ16_2006.php

MFOS Stereo Mixer (Part 2)

When I tested the MFOS mixer I found a problem. When trying out the stereo output and some stereo channels I found that I was missing some channels. I checked my wiring and I couldn't find any mistake there. Then I started measuring signals and found quickly that I had signal in the input of the stereo potmeters, but NOT on the output. I thought that was very strange. So I started measuring the potmeters themselves and it turned out that some of them didn't work at all :( So after that I decided to test the other set I have. They worked so I decided to replace them.

Replacing the potmeters was not very easy. As I said in the previous post it is sometimes hard to reach the solder lugs. But I first removed the old potmeters with the wires attached. Then inserted the new potmeters and then finally soldered the wires one by one so that I couldn't go wrong with that. You can see it in the top left picture. In the picture on the right you can also see that I didn't shorten the shafts of the potmeters yet. These ones are made of plastic so with a small saw you can easily shorten them even when they are already mounted.

After this I redid my testing procedure and found that everything was working OK. These plastic stereo potmeters just don't feel so solid as the metal ones. I might replace them in the future when I can source better ones. Then I encountered another challenge. These new potmeters didn't have round shafts but they have a flat side. This is normally to have the knob on at a fixed position. I found that when I put the knobs on it didn't align with the scale on the front panel. So I had to twist the potmeters a bit to get that right. You can see that in the picture on the left.

And here is the final module. It is not really that bad I think :) It works great. I played a bit around with the Mooger Froogers on the Send and Return channels even though they are not stereo. But this way I could add some sound effects to the input signal by turning the send potmeters. And of course there was one thing that I gambled. And that was the polarity of the headphones stereo jack. And of course I switched left and right. Well 50% change eh? :) I think this is quite a nice mixer and you can build is very cheap if you are interested take a look on the MFOS website at this URL: http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/STEREOMIXER2006/STEREOMIXER2006.php

MFOS Stereo Mixer (Part 1)

This weekend I started on finishing a new project. It is a stereo mixer. I used a PCB that I bought from Music From Outer Space (MFOS) designed by Ray Wilson. I designed a MOTM style front panel myself for this module that I had produced by Schaeffer. It is quite a nice mixer with 4 mono inputs, 2 stereo inputs, 2 stereo send and returns for SFX integration and it also has a build in headphone amplifier. On all mono channels you have a level potmeter, a pan potmeter and 2 send potmeters. I used Alpha potmeters for the mono channels but had some trouble sourcing stereo potmeters. But I found two sets of 6 and will see which ones are best later on.

As usual I started with the inter component wiring on the back of the front panel. All components have a ground connection as you can see by the black wiring runing through everywhere. And then some wires from the input jacks to the potmeters. Then I started attaching all the wiring to the PCB. As you can see there is quite some wires actually. It was quite a challenge to organize them a bit also because they come from everywhere on the PCB. I also managed to solder on a screw terminal for the power like I did for my Yusynth modules. The only thing that annoys be a bit is that the elco's on the bottom are not all straight on. But this was quite a tight fit. Ah well nobody will see it eventually, but I like to have things neat and tidy.

And here is the finished module from the back. It is not always easy to solder the wires on the bottom layer of the dual stereo potmeters. The soldering lugs are quite difficult to reach sometimes. But I managed to get everything in place. Ray has quite a nice wiring scheme on his website that I followed. Sometimes the naming of the inputs and outputs on the PCB are a bit confusing. Well there is quite some as well as you can see. Well I think I managed to organize the wiring quite OK. Actually I didn't even expect that up front ;)

And here is a shot of the front of the module. I seem to have made a little mistake somewhere with the design. I had to adjust the 4 pot bracket I used because the potmeters where not all in the perfect spot. But I don't see it from this shot do you? Looks alright to me, but then again I don't really have an eye for these sort of things. If you like to use this front panel design, just send me an E-mal and I'll give you the .fpd file for Front Panel Express. OK now it is time for some testing. I will do that tonight after dinner. For now I'm going to take a little break :)

MFOS VC-LFO New Front Panel

I bought a Music From Outer Space (MFOS) Voltage Controlled Low Frequency Oscillator (VC-LFO) a while ago from E-bay. When it arrived it didn't work properly and I succesfully repaired it back then, but I wasn't happy with the build quality either and the fact that it had a front panel that read Oakley VCO. So I decided to buy a new front panel for and and completely rebuild it. Here you see the old unit. As you can see the PCB is fastened with a piece of plastic on top, but it isn't really secure. It fell out a couple of times and after the last time I was fed up with that as well.

The first thing I did was remove all the old wiring from the PCB. After that I used a desolder pump to remove the solder from the PCB holes. And then I put new wiring on the PCB. I got a new front panel from Bridechamber, but there is something I didn't really get. The PCB has a potmeter for Course Tuning and Fine Tuning, but on the front panel only Course. And there is a Sine Shaper potmeter on the front panel that I didn't understand. Eventually I decided to use the Sine Shaper potmeter for the Fine Tuning. I also used a 3 pot bracket from Bridechamber to fasten the PCB.

And here is a picture of the finished module. The only thing I left in place is the wiring for the power. There is also already a MOTM style power connector on there. Something I still need to do for my other units. After this I looked again at the signals coming from this unit. And I was a bit surprised. Even though I didn't change anything the signals didn't all look that great. But there is not much calibrating that you can do on this unit. I think I'll go and see if all the correct components are used on the PCB. I can't imagine it is supposed to work like this.

And here is the finished module on the right. It has two potmeters for CV inputs now and also an input with potmeter for the Pulse Width Modulation. And then there are 5 simultaneous outputs with Sine Wave, Triangle, Saw, Ramp and Square. Right of the module you can still see the old front panel. I already have two Oakley VC-LFO PCB's as well in the mean time. But I'm not sure that I'm going to use this front panel. Ah well we'll see :) Today I looked a bit through my backlog of PCB's while searching for the Oakley VC-LFO. And I found some PCB's that I didn't even know I had :) Hmmmm.. Still lots of work to do. But let's first finish up the modules that are already done. I'll keep you updated on the progress as usual. Enough for now.

Modular Backlog Update

I promised to make a blog posting as well about the stuff that I still have to finish. In the picture on the left you see a stack of PCB's. Some are fully populated some not. On the left are some MOTM boards that will be used inside the modular for power distribution. Next to that are some CGS PCB's and on the right are a lot of Yusynth PCB that I made myself. Some of them are also spare. I made a lot of those twice while I will only completely build one. Maybe I will sell the other PCB or maybe keep them for spare for the future. Below the stack of Yusynth PCB's is also some MFOS stuff.

And here is another stack of PCB's. The stuff you see here is mostly populated as well. Most of them are Oakley PCB's but on the left is also a Mega Percussive Synthesizer from Electro-music.com also designed by Thomas Henry. Below is the Snare drum project on the breadboard. I'm saving this to make some video before I put it on a experiment PCB. In the picture on top you see also a front panel laying in the bottom of the picture. That is the Front Panel I designed for my Hip Bass Drum module. That one is quite complete so I can finish that very soon I guess.

There here some stuff I have laying on the floor right now. These are mostly front panels I'm populating. You will recognise the Klee Sequencer panel that I posted about before on the left and behind that is the MFOS Stereo Mixer I'm building. You can also see the VU meter panel on the bottom and some more Yusynth stuff that will come soon. On the far top left are the synthesizers.com Q960 sequencers. Hopefully my furniture builder Gerrit will fix the modular desk on Wednesday so that I can start installing and testing them. I can't wait for that :)

And here the last picture. On the top left is a Bridechamber multiple panel where I already put the jacks in. Then on the bottom next to the roll of black wire is an Oakley MidiDAC that will funtion as a Midi to CV converter in my modular desk. And on the right are three MOTM 300 VCO front panels. All in all quite some stuff I still have to finish, but I nearly got all the parts. Now I'm missing some potmeters that I will get from Mouser soon and I already used up all the jacks so I ordered some more of them too. I thought I had enough. But apparently I didn't ;) Well now you have seen everything, so I hope you can see why I'm a bit busy at the moment :)

Modular Progress Overview

Since I'm working a lot now on my modular project and I only showed you some PCB's and loose panels I thought it would be nice to post a little overview of the modules I have finished now. In the bottom of the picture on the left you can see the Yusynth filter modules I build and the Wogglebug. On top are three modules I bought on E-bay. On the left is a MOTM-120 Sub Octave Multiplier that adds subharmonics, next to that a MFOS Quantizer and next to that the Oakley Noise and Dual filter module that I used to test my other filter modules.

In this picture you see the two MOTM 900 and 950 Power supplies that I build. And also the VC-LFO that I repaired earlier. It has an Oakley front panel, but is actually a MFOS. I do plan to build an Oakley one and swap panels somewhere in the future. On the right you see the Yusynth Random module I build with noise generator and sample and hold. I still haven't fastened any module in the cabinet yet, since I'm still not sure where everything should go. I need to make some kind of plan for that I guess.

And maybe you spotted this front panel in a previous post as well. Here you see it together with the PCB's that go with it. This will become a Klee sequencer from Electro-music.com. It looks really great in this circular setup. I got this front panel from Bridechamber and it was designed by Thomas White. I studied the documentation for this project last week and I ordered all the PCB components. Hopefully they will arrive on Monday and then I can start building this beast :) I can't wait to see it working. This project is the most complex module I build so far. But we all do need a challenge don't we :) I'll keep you posted on the progress as always of course.

MFOS VC-LFO Repaired

During the last year I bought some Synth modules from E-bay, but I didn't have time to test them yet. One of them was this LFO module. I hooked it up to my newly build power supply and was a bit surprised that the led on the front panel didn't work. I hookup the output to my oscilloscope and there was signal coming from it, but it looked very strange. Like a 50 Hz hum added to all the outputs. When I studied the module closer I found it to be a MFOS VC-LFO (Music From Outer Space) with an Oakley front panel. I found the schematics quite quickly online. Isn't the Internet great for that? :) You can find almost anything on there in just a few second. I love that :) I can remember the old days where this would take weeks or even months.

The first thing I did after that was hook one of the power distribution boards that I got from MOTM to my lab power supply. Measuring on a live circuit always gives the risk of accidentally short circuiting something and this power supply is protected for that. You can also limit the current that can flow so nothing will burn out in case of a problem. The first thing I focused on what why the led didn't work. I put power on the led directly and it lid up, so it wasn't the led itself. One side of the led was connected to the PCB and the other side to the ground. Well I thought it was. Because after some tracing of the front panel wiring I found out that all the grounds were interconnected but there was no actual ground connection to the PCB.

So in the end I just soldered a wire from the front panel ground loop to the PCB and that didn't only solve the led problem but also the other problems I saw with the signal. After that I had a very stable output signal on all connections. In the documentation was also a calibrating procedure so I did that as well. It cost me a good part of the afternoon to solve this, but it always feels very satisfying when it works in the end :) Here you see another picture of the VC-LFO module hooked this time to the new dual power supply I build this morning. On to the next project :)

Modular DIY Preparation

After my album is released on the 17th I'll be continuing to finish my studio (yes I still have work to do) and I'll will start working on my DIY modular project again. I'm really looking forward to that, since I did a lot of stuff already but when I was just about to test some stuff the work on constructing the studio started and when that was finished I had to start on my album. So it has been a long time ago since I worked on that project. One of the things I noticed is that I didn't have enough light on my modular desk to solder properly so I bought this new lamp. It is a TL so it gives bright white light and I can adjust it to be just over my workspace. Also there is a magnifying glass on it to see what I'm doing when I have to do really small stuff.

I also ordered some stuff the last months that I also need for the big modular project. To start with I bought two power supply kits from MOTM. One has only +12V and -12V and the other one has +12V, -12V and also +5V. Some modules need this. I also ordered some power distribution boards for inside the cabinet. This way it is easy to get the power everywhere I need it. I thought there was more work to be done on the power supply kits, but it looks like it is only wiring it to the frontpanel components and fitting it on there.

In the picture on the left you can see the front panels that came with it. Just a switch and a power connector on there actually. I probably will need one or two more power supplies later on to power the whole modular, but for now I have enough to start with and I also still have the lab power supplies that I can use in addition. I'll start by testing the modular on the lab power supplies anyway since they are short circuit proof ;) Just in case something is wrong with the electronics I build. I just have to figure out a neat way to get power to the front of the units.

I also bought some other stuff. Here you see some new PCB's. I'm planning to build a MFOS sequencer and also a Klee sequencer from Electro-music.com. For the Klee sequencer I also got a front panel from Bride Chamber and hopefully they will have a front panel soon for the MFOS sequencer. From Elby Designs I ordered the front panel components for the ASM-2 I'm building. So I don't think I have to be bored the coming period :) Of course I'll update you with nice pictures (and hopefully some sounds) during the construction of all this nice equipment. As said before I can't wait to start working again on this. And hopefully relax a but during the process. I really need it!