2 new modules finally finished

Today I finally got 2 of the 4 Thomas Henry VCO 555 build and tuned. These are some very nice and easy to build VCOs. I build one with a 2k tempco and the other one with one KTY 81-121 and 1k resistor in series after a theory from Rene Schmitz. Both versions work fine.

Seemore on my Signal Generators

 I also finished the Ian Fritz 5 Pulser Wavefrorm Generator

Little setbacks

The TLV5630 of my MBHP AOUT_NG seems to be bricked ... so no CV Outs with the breakout.
After hours of debugging I decided to rebuild the PCB completelly, now .. waiting for parts ...

To ease my frustration, I patched my new modules ..... one had a tiny bit of a +- connection problem ... electric capacitors blew up .. I soo missed that smell 😊😊😅

Well, still a lot of work ahead, so those little setbacks will not keep me from soldering and/or blowing up thingys

First Modules in the new Cab

The first modules have been rebuild to the new format (18cm * 5cm)
From left to right:

• Midibox Breakout Module
• Curetronic Extended VCO
• Curetronic VCF 121 (Roland System 100 clone)
• Curetronic ADSR
• Curetronic VCA
• Curetronic Dual Mixer

Recabineting

My first frontpanels where made of polyprophylene, wich is o.k.ish, but in 5U veery woobly.

To finally get my ass up again and build all the stuff I have, I decided to rebuild my Cabinet.
I added real metal-rails and decided to do all my frontpanels anew with Alu-Dibond.

While planing this I had another idea. I found the arrangement of the knobs and jacks mostly to spacey on the 5U ... but 3U is in my eyes too small.

So I decided to crop all standard formats and build some 4Uish stuff, but stay at -+15Volts.

Best decision I made .. regarding formats.

 

Midibox Seq V4 plus

I finally finished my Midibox Sequencer V4
This gives me a total new workflow that I still have to train but fell in love with.

I added round buttons and a transperent case, wich looks pretty cool.

I also added nearly all extensions I could find.
So it has now:

• 4 Midi IN
• 8 Midi Out
• The CV/Gate Extension for my modular with 8 CV, 8 Gate, 8 Clock and in addition 16 triggers

Ungleichklang is now Ardvinna Modular

After some years and some big changes in my perspectives I decided to rebrand the old me and seperate the Synth DIY stuff from my music stuff.

My musical projects will now be named Ardvinna Moon with me, as Alisdair Moons, wich gives me the chance to some wonderfull cooperations with other artists.

My Synth-DIY stuff is now Ardvinna Modular.

My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWAR64-81C3FbK_Hejz2QHw
My FacebookPage: https://www.facebook.com/AlasdairMoons

Shrooty XTC with Polivoks Filter

Another very nice and quick synthbuild ..
The Shruthi XT from the pusherman ..
Polivoksfilter from Tubeohm
Yes, it does sound digital .. but it is a nice toy

At last .. some time to solder

Started the Midibox Sequencer V4
STM32F4 Core, 2 Midi IO, Quad IIC and Line Driver done.

New PCBs in the house

Still not much time to solder, still gathering PCBs
This will be the new heart of my setup .. away from DAW, back to basics ..

Midibox Seq V4 with Wilba Panel with 4 MidiIN and 8 MidiOUT, AOUT to directly speak CV/Gate to my modular and the 4x16 BLM ..

:( visions 2014 / 2015

lack of time and money stagnates the building of more modules ..
but at least it can't kill my visions .....
there will be more modules and some nice projects from ucapps.de (Seq4 and CV2)

Finally some patching :D

experimented a bit with frequency modulation and VCO-syncing ... will try to make some soundsamples soon :D

Modules you see:
Curtronic: extended VCO, ADSR, VCA, Steiner Parker Filter, Mixer
Thomas Henry. XR-2206 VCO
Yusynth: Dual ADSR, Dual VCA, Wavefolder
CGS: Dual CMOS Filter
Nordcore: M2CV

XR2206 finally done .. with some help of Bernd (Serenadi) :D

Finally I managed to finish the XR2206 VCO from Thomas Henry .. Board is from Magic Smoke ...
It looks nice buuuut .. the XR2206 I bought seems not to work like they should .. it produces only noise ...

UPDATE: yesterday I had a chance to visit Bernd Schilling (busybernd / serenadi) .. he managed to fix the VCO ... the XR-2206 IC's where crap ... now it works :D

Next update on PCBs

I just got a delivery from Canada ..
2 BatteryAcid Distortion Modules from hexinverter
One simple and one with CV .. those where designed for the "I dream of wires" Documentary.

I also managed to solder the last parts of the first TH-102 VCO from MagicSmoke ... soon Panel mounting will be done :D

And I build a Cacophonator 6DE from Famfest for my two french Friends from the Cacophoneuses

a little update on my PCB's

long pause of soldering but on on collecting fun modules.

Fonik:

• Thomas Henry VCO-555 (4 boards)
• Thomas Henry ADSR (4 boards)

Mutable Instruments:

• Anushri

TODO's 2013

I thought I'd do a quick reminder to myself which PCB's I've bought and still have to solder.

Yusynth:

• Dual Balanced Modulator (Ringmodulator)
• Random Module (Noise / S&H)
• VC Quadrature LFO
• EMS Filter
• Wavefolder (second PCB)
• CV Standards

Electro-Music.com:

• Klee Sequencer
• Mega Percussion Synth  will not be finished .. gave the board to a friend
  

Magic Smoke Electronics:

• Thomas Henry XR-VCO (2 Boards) one finished in 07/2014

MFOS:

• Single Bus Keyboard
• 16 Step Sequencer with Vari-Clock

CGS:

• Tube VCA (two PCB's) 
• Serge VCS
• SubOscillator

Fonik:

• Sequential Switch
• Thomas Henry Controller LFO (2 boards)

Nordcore:

• MCV Interface (Midi2CV based on an ATMega88) (second PCB)

curetronic VCA done

did I already mention that it's getting colder outside??

I finished my second module today (PCB's where pre-soldered so actually this was just cabling/wiring)
It's the curetronic VCA => it can do linear and exponential, AC and DC and also offers 2 more inputs as an option.
I will add those two inputs on a separate front-panel with another multiple.

curetronic ADSR done :-)

It must be getting cold outside - soldering goes well.

Today I finished the curetronic ADSR(T) in addition to the typical stuff it has an inverse-out and a TIME-pot - we will see what it does :-)

Midi2CV done

Jet another board lying around undone is finished.
It's from a sequencer.de user named nordcore who did this thingy based on an AMTEL88.

It offers:

• 4 CV (Tune, Velocity, Mod-wheel and Pitchbend)
• 4 Gate
• Start/Stop for Sequencers
• Clock out and a Clock-divider

It can be used on one Midichannel, 2 Channel (2CV/2Gate) or 4 Channel (CV/Gate)
The CV and Gate can be configured with an CTRLR based userinterface.
The documentation is absolutely fabulous and all can be soldered within a couple of hours with ease.

If you are interested in the paneldesign I did, download it here
Finishing this module is another big breakthrough this week (the VCO is the first) => from now I can PLAY the modular (or Renoise, or Qmidiarp does)

CGS49 Twin CMOS Filter done

another soldered board that had been lying around without been put to the frontpanel.
The CatGirlSynth49 Twin CMOS Filter with J. Haible Distortion ....

The frequency pot has to be soldered between +15V and -15V (like described in the texts and schematics Ken provides) and I modded the resonance on one of the circuits like described on electro-music.com ...
will do some more tests tomorrow ..

Thanks to Ken Stoner for his nice DIY-boards :-)
http://www.cgs.synth.net

Videoreviews on curetronic modules

Today I had time to cut and upload 2 vids from my curetronic-modules.
Both are DIY-Kits (not premade modules)

VCO with ext-board that uses a CA3046, that makes a tempco obsolete.
Waveform-Mixer with inverted-out and muc-much more

On the second vid I go from the wavemix-out of the VCO into the curetronic Steiner-Parker VCF until self-oscillation. This VCF is modded with an additional feedback-pod (yes, it's a mean-machine) for nice filtering I got a Roland 100m VCF-Clone