the light..

so ive finished my sort of ms-20 copy. since ill never pay what they go for now. waaaay overpriced. its the second doepfer diy ynth and the first in one enclosure and when they are linked... MAN THEY SOUND DOEPFER! ha. seriously the sound exactly as i had hoped. its actually sort of better than an ms since i can use them in any configuration of oscs and filters i need to. or as seperate units even. i still have to figure out why the 3rd env on the new on is slightly funky.. cold solder joints i think. i didnt have a ton of time to ferret out things .. just the initial first test. made it about 93% of the way.. not too bad at all! things never work right out of the gate. those moments are gifts from above!:) anyway heres some pics.. ill put up some vids later on this week. i tried running a simple 8 step sequence off the sequencer (1 pitch 1 filter A one filter B) rows of cv.. man was it FUUUUUUUUCKING sweet. like an ms with the ASQ10. but even more flexable...

over the edge...

so for the last couple weeks ive discovered the entirely new world of microprocessor diy synths. the first and most ridiculus sound for the money (70.00 USD) was the MEEBLIP. holy shit does this little gremlin of a synth have balls! its angry, harsh and just tears through a mix! it has tons of bottom and is extremely staright forward to use and "program". its fairly limited soundwise, which makes i really good for musical things. i was overwhelmingly impressed with it immediately. i of course soudnt use the enclosure they had or their pots and switches. i used sweet ass rockers for the switches and a spare 2 U faceplate to do it as a test unit of sorts. the real one is a 3U face with cv in for each of the knobs.. a little mod that wasnt very had to do.

the next one is the SHRUTHI-1. this is one of the stunning synth engines ive ever seen. holy shit is it. its a wavetable based monosynth with your choice of analog filters. ssm 2044, cem3379, dual 2p SVF, a proprietary stock/standard 4pole LPF like the moogs, and several others. or you can add your own. i chose the 2044, stock 4p and the dual svf. i then set about to figure out how to have all 3 and switch between them :) without physically removing them. this also will sit in the 3 u rack space and have some recycled mac computer keyboard (fromt he 90's) switches. clicky style joints. also utilizing a new haven OLED. with .9 milimeter characters it will be awesome to edit on it.

the engine is simply perfect. it has soo many things that you always wanted to have on a synth. along with 2 cv outs (lfos, envs etc..) and 4 cv ins and a full matrix mod and step sequencer and arpegiator. its a badass little motherfucker!

ill keep you informed as i get into it...

i also did another doepfer DIY. i added some extras.. 2 extra MFOS envs and huge amounts of ins and extra patch points/in/out.

the task of tasks has begun

so ive begun to wire up the ody and its associated components.. i had to really familiarize myself with its circuitry a bit better and see if what i laid out and had in mind was going to actually work.. so far id say 100% ..its a total fucking miracle actually. i was able to get done VCO 1 and its patch points, switches and pcb connections. the breakaway headers offer much better eas of use to remove and fit/test hings and also though, they double the wiring time it takes to each section. but for what they allow its very worth it for me. here are some pics of the prelimary session on the ody..

yes. that is a HUGE repro/printout of the PCBS! its fanstatic to have as a reference or as for art! right now its great since i can see component values, traces and component numbers/designations. its ideal.

the face plate and pcbs can be removed seperately and in any fashion/combination really. i wanted to be able to access the inside from either the rear or the front. so , so far this design has worked out really good.

quick studio panarama

heres a quick peek inside....

more of the current...

heres the poly 6 as i recieved it. its pretty beat. no power connection . its been cut off and stripped (frightening) . so with that guy we're pretty much starting at zero. i spliced a quick poer cord on.. it powered up. no smoke and alot of ill behaviour though. upon a quick initial inspection i found : battery is not exploded (good) . several corrosive spots on pcbs from previous soda spills (bad) general oxidation of traces (bad) alot of free floating objects ( 4 pennies, 3 screws) inside (that could cause shorts it in contact with the WRONG things.. (VERY BAD) . so lets say that i'll start with a serious bath for all those pcbs in some iso alcohol and high pressure air to blow them dry. then deoxit all the connectors. remove the battery and maybe put in a coin cell if i can get it running. not to mention installing an IEC socket for the power cord. what a fuckin mess. i have a feeling this may be a "ill buy it for parts" kinda repair job for me. it might not make it back from the grave. it depends on how much the client is willing to spend on her. shes time intensive for sure. mine was.
if you notice the serious grime on it from the pic of the single wipe of tissue with iso on it. wow. mad grime. then you can se the clean spot that was made when i swiped it.. nasty shit. so we'll see if i can get it running then maybe made a little nicer looking after her hearts beating..:)

current status buffer : full!

so the benches are seriously full: no vacancy. im knee deep into the ARP ody redo, which is about 3 projects in itself. ( the ody and case, the distro section and then the mfos minisynth under it) both the MFOS and the ody are augmented with an extra MFOS envelope as well.. so yeah.. then i have another sequencer peripheral row expander unit that has 2 more rows of cv with coarse and fine tunes and each has the controll line mod i did. then i got my friend Karl's octave kitten to fix and open on the main bench.. add to that now the 909's rim trigger issue to solve (workaround and maintenence in progress) . i also have a poly 6 which is fairly fucked to repair for a client in detroit.
and an emax II rack to assemble for a friend in florida.

so yeah theres alot onthe benches now. to say the least.

heres some pics of the current things...

THE ODESSEY OF THE ODESSEY

so i got an arp ody whiteface from a friend. sliders were real fucked. since i really didnt want to pay 400 usd for a set or replacements i decided to harness the boards and remove all sliders and switches .. cut off the keys and make it pached out to point (1/8 jacks) .. alot of work. you betcha it is.
its pretty much redoing all but electronics. im also adding a new ps and another env and 4 amped and attenuated distros to it. along with adding a jacked out patched out MFOS minisynth in the cab below it to use in conjunction with it. how long and dark can i make that tunnel??? reeeeeeal long.

heres what it looks like now and stauts picks