Wednesday 21 October 2015

Delay No More - NonLinearCircuits build notes.

The saying "Delay No More" is a great ideal to live by.
And for those of you who have spent any time in Hong Kong, you might also recognize it by its local slang meaning.. "Delay no more" sounds similar to the Cantonese foul words (Diu lay lo mo) which translate as "fuck your mother".
Seldom used seriously "Delay no more" appears in writing as a joke among Hong Kong people. There is even a fashion brand in Hong Kong producing T-shirts with "DelayNoMore" on it.


I'm sure Andrew knew none of this when he picked a name for his new delay module. :-)


Here are the build notes:
http://www.sdiy.org/pinky/data/DelayNoMore%20build%20notes.pdf

All the SMDs are passive ... just caps & resistors. So building this puppy should be pretty easy.
(Be careful not to heat the caps too much).

The DNM uses the PT2399 which is a great chip for DIY. It's almost a whole guitar pedal by itself.
According to Princeton (the manufacturer) it is a echo audio processor IC utilizing CMOS Technology which is equipped with ADC and DAC, high sampling frequency and an internal memory of 44K.



It also features an internal VCO circuit in the system clock, thereby, making the frequency easily adjustable.
Cool Man !

First some virgin pics of the PCB.

Both sides require SMD components. Solder these on first.


Headers, resistors, caps next.
Next the BC 547 trannie, the 78L05 (+5v voltage regulator) and the vactrol.
I'm using a Silonex NS 32

K = Cathode.

Now the pots & jacks. There are six linear 100k pots , one 1M linear  and a single 50k linear.

Don't forget to solder the ground tabs with scrap wire.
Lastly do the LED.
Beautiful !!! Time to stand back and admire.
And she sounds very distinctive. esp for such a small module. Another sound effect in your arsenal.

I'm thinking of putting this into one of my Buchla cases. As the CV input is isolated by a vactrol, plugging in 10v - 15v Buchla voltage levels should be fine. This module is not just for Eurorack.
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Sunday 18 October 2015

Buchla 200e & a Roland TR 909

Some fun yesterday. 

Cobramatic & I paired two of our favourite instruments:


The Buchla 200e & Roland's TR-909


The 909 is the master clock. (all midi)  sent to the 225e -- the top left module in the pic below.

The timing to the 250e sequencer was super tight... all midi clocked via Buchla's internal bus

Remix 2:

Saturday 17 October 2015

DIY - Eurorack

This page is my index for all Eurorack related DIY.
It includes build notes, hacks, etc

GENERAL
+ Small Euro drum - version 1

Barton Musical Circuits (BMC).
+ BMC 037 - EuroBuffer (Buffered Multiple)
+ BMC - FM Drum - build notes

Bastl


Beast-Tek
 + Microbe 
 + Pixel Drum 

Befaco

Cat Full Of Ghosts
 
CGS
* Serge Resonant EQ/Filter - Euro format (CGS 202)
 

Division 6
+ Dual Sequencer

Doepfer
+ module 128 modification - Fixed filter bank

Duskwork

+ Faderbank -16n 
 
Greyscale

hEXINVERTER

Ian Fritz
 
Klee Sequencer

L1

Liquid Foam
 
Ljunggren Audio


LZX Video Industries
 + Function Generator - build pics & notes

LZX - Cadet
 + Cadet I - Video Sync Generator - Build notes
 + Cadet II - RGB Encoder - Build notes
 + Cadet III - Video input - build notes
 + Cadet IV - Dual Ramp generator - build notes
 + Cadet V - Scaler - build notes
 + Cadet VI - Fader - Build notes
 + Cadet VII - Processor -Build notes
 + Cadet VIII - Hard Key Generator - build notes
 + Cadet IX - VCO - build notes
 + Cadet X - Multiplier - Build notes

LZX - Castle
Introduction
00_000 ADC - Analog to digital converter
01_001 DAC - Digital to Analog converter
02_010 Clock VCO
03_011 Shift Register
04_100 Multi Gate
05_101 Quad Gate
06_110 Counter
07_111 Flip flops

Manhattan Analog
  + CVP (Control Voltage Processor)

 + Voltage memory - Meng Qi - build notes

Metromodular


 MI
+ Mutable Instruments - Grids Hack for clock & random gate.
+ Links - DIY build pics 

MFOS (Music from Outer Space)
+ Bi-polar Power supply

Music Thing Modular
 
Neutral Labs
 
NLC - Non Linear Circuits:
        + All NLC pages are here  
 
Ornament & Crime - O_C


Snazzy Effects
+ ArdCore -Installation Demo


Sonic Potions
 
ST-Modular


Steiner-Parker
Steiner-Parker MicroCon Voice - Eurorack - Build notes

SynthroTek  
 
 
 
 Westlicht

Zlob
Minimixer
Dual VCA
Dual VCO
Clock divider
Zlob SVF (State Variable Filter) - build notes

Mutable Instruments Grids - hack - adding clock & Random gate

It's Sat afternoon and we are feeling pretty good ...having each just consumed half a Kangaroo and two bottles of red wine.
The wine on the right is a 1990 vintage port from Steins in Mudgee NSW. If I remember correctly, they have a fabulous motorcycle museum there.


And on the left is a Tollana Cabernet Sav from 1995. (Eden Valley, South Australia). Both excellent wines !!!

In such a frame of mind there seems nothing better to do than hack a perfectly good Mutable Instruments
module.

Paul (Cobramatic) tells me it's a easy one and he won't even hold me responsible if I mess it up :-)

He must have really liked the wine I served.

Anyway, it turned out to be dead simple and I highly recommend this if you own a MI Grids.


There are 3 points on the back of the module: Random Gate, Clock & Ground.
Solder  a wire to each and the other ends to two jacks.
The ground of course is shared by both jacks.


Deciding where to mount the jacks is a bit tricky ... Lots of SMD components .... decided to place them
between the bottom two jacks on the left.

There you go!

We now have two new outputs ... for clock and random gate. Very useful.

..
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Sunday 11 October 2015

BEMI Easel - Bell patch

Patch no 2 for today - a bells.

The Blue Sky reverb was also used - shimmer effect .... lovely.



Saturday 10 October 2015

Buchla Easel - trumpet patch

A bit of sampling for a future tune.
I think this patch sounds a bit like a trumpet.

The random CV makes a world of difference.


Tuesday 6 October 2015

The CellF Project - University of Western Australia

I was very fortunate to attend the premier of the "CellF Project" last weekend (Sat/Sunday 3 Oct, 2015).
CellF is pronounced "Self". This was held on the campus of the University of Western Australia in collaboration with LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore.

This is cybernetics applied to synthesizers & electronic music.

  Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine"

This pic was taken on the Sat arvo during the setting up phase.

....

Guy Ben-Ary, Nathan Thompson, Andrew Fitch (NLC), Darren Moore (drums & patching the synth), Douglas Bakkum, Stuart Hodgetts, Mike Edel. Nathan's brother Mark Thompson, welded this together.

The organic design of the CellF synth is care of Nathan Thompson.... a bit like the tail of an insect or scorpion. I think it reminds me of a old school gramophone or a cochlear implant. And notice how the end loops back. ... alluding to feedback loops which are part of the performance.



This is a printed sculpture of the CellF Synth.

The very top of the central square tower houses the live human neurons. It's an incubator which maintains a constant temperature & atmosphere The cells look like this:
The neurons are grown on an array of 60 electrodes which connect the cells to the synthesizer.
The arrays are two way. That is they both detect electrical signals from the neurons and send signals back (about 1V p-p) from the outside. "The neurons give off a constant chatter called 'neuronal noise', something like white noise but it seems a lot easier on the ear.....maybe more organic ;)" (Andrew Fitch).


Some of the neurons give off spikes called 'action potentials' . These occur in various ways, sometimes erratically and sometimes with patterns.

The neurons themselves were once skin cells harvested from Guy Ben-Ary over 3 years ago.
They were converted into stem cells & then into neurons.
Below the cells, is the amplification section. Of course the neurons themselves produce very tiny voltages.
These need to be amplified (about 100 times) to get synth level (5V) neuronal noise signals. The action potentials are extracted using comparators to get synth level triggers. Another circuit converts synth signals into triggers (approx 7ms trigger, 1Vpeak to peak) at a voltage and shape pleasing to the neurons (large falling edge). They seem to like this feedback, without it they tend to get bored and inactive.

To prevent feedback loops there are 60 analogue switches to momentarily turn off the processing circuits when a stim signal is sent

To the left & right of the centre console is the synth itself. They appear to float on two wings.
This amplifier section sits just below the incubator. The cables patch control voltages from the neurons to the synthesizer itself.
The synth is composed of two CellF voice, two CellF action panels, two multiband distortions,8 Frigates (frequency2CV and frequency2gate modules) and lots & lots of VCAs ---- made up of 4 voltage controlled matrix mixers (32 VCAs in each so 128 VCAs).

 The CellF Voice panel

The CellF Action Panel


The NLC Synth - Left Wing

The NonLinearCircuits Synth - Right Wing.


..
A short recording from Sunday's performance.
CellF will also be releasing a properly recorded video from the night. I'll post links here when this
becomes available.

    Links:
1. The CellF Project - Guy Ben-Ary
2. NLC video - July 23, 2015
3. NLC - Setting up the first concert
4. NLC - The CellF Panels
5. Muffs - CellF Semi Living modular synthesizer

..
Please contact me if there are any errors, omissions, etc.
I'll update this page as I go along. Jono

Fremantle Western Australia - YHA & the main prision

I paid a visit to Fremantle over the weekend. It was an opportunity to catch up with some old friends.
& check out the CellF synth project that my mates Andrew & Nathan of  NLC have been so involved with lately (more about that in the next post).

While I was there I decided to spend a night in Fremantle Prison. No, I haven't been arrested for being out of tune. I actually paid to sleep here :-)

This is the entrance to the Youth Hostel - It was once the women's section of Fremantle Prision

Fremantle Prison was built by convicts. First opened in 1855, it was only decommissioned in 1991.
It is the largest and most intact convict built prison in Australia and is Western Australia’s only World Heritage Listed Building.

The prison had very poor sanitation in the 19th century and things didn't improve much into the 20th century. This culminated in a 1988 riot with guards taken hostage, and a fire that caused $1.8 million worth of damage. When the prison closed in 1991 it was replaced by the new maximum-security Casuarina Prison.

The roof above is all Jarrah timber ... built by convicts.... much went up in flames in 1988.

Some art left by prisioners in their cells.



More than 40 hangings were carried out at Fremantle Prison, which was Western Australia's only lawful place of execution between 1888 and 1984. 

43 men and one woman were hanged in this period. Martha Rendell was the only woman. She died in 1909. 
The last person to be hanged was serial killer Eric Edgar Cooke who was executed in 1964


Capital punishment was formally abolished in Australia in 1967. Ronald Ryan was was the last ... he was hanged in Victoria.

Over the last 140 years there have been many  escapees. These included Moondyne Joe and John Boyle O'Reilly. Also famous were six Fenians who escaped to the United States in the 19th century and Brenden Abbott in 1989.
 This is a part of the women's section which is now the YHA.


 And No, I didn't see any ghosts.


For more travel postcards click here: