Thursday, March 22, 2012

monowave pics



heres the pics of the front of the MUTABLE INSTRUMENTS SHRUTHI-1 "monowave" im making. im trying to make it very ppg/machine- ish as i can..minus the ebony side overlays...:)

final frontiers: new synths




so ive discovered microprocessor based virtual synths as DIY projects... the meeblip was first. HARSH raw and its own animal.. i loved it immediately, so i set about to build another that had modifications.. cv ins for all the potentiometer controls! ... then i discovered the SHRUTHI-1. woah. what a beast of an engine! basicly a mono voice ppg of sorts with selectable filter cards . all that you build. im in.. so i set about doing desighns and ordering parts... measuring, testing.. etc. heres some pics of updates and such. both ended up being 3 u rack units since its the most efficient space wise and to make the easy of assembly work in my advantage.

so for the "monowave" the shruthi, i had to design a switching circuit that allowed multiple parallel lines to be switched in unison to utilize the multi filter card set up with no physical switching. enter CD 4052 CMOS IC. 4-1 switcher. love it. i had to proto a switching circuit.. man it was like a science experiment! but alot of fun to figure it all out direct from the chip spec sheet. so after that was done i could go ahead with implementation and build.. im using a greeen over sized OLED for the display as well so its easy to read and edit. im also using recycled MAC keyboard switches for all buttons/switches. i really want to make look as much like a ppg as i can! so..

on the meeblip i went straight for the old roland SH series in design.. they were some of the best looking machines ever! so...

Monday, February 6, 2012

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...

Saturday, January 28, 2012

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.