Friday, January 22, 2016

Up and running...

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been.  The last few years have been crazy (mostly in good ways), so nearly all of my studio & DIY stuff has been on hold.  Thankfully that has changed!  Towards the end of last year I set up my studio (wish I had more space!), finished a few stand-alone clones (ARP 2600, ARP 1601, and Buchla 208), and resurrected the Synthasystem.

The biggest problem was that while a bunch of modules were in the case, I'd only built a couple of power connectors.  So I made a bunch of those, built a second power supply, and finished the Input Amplifier module (which I'll post about later).  Here is the system in its current state:
There's clearly still work to be done, but it is a joy to work with.  I have a few PCBs that are mostly populated, and ordered the final ones today.  When all is completed, the rows will be arranged as follows, from top to bottom:
  • VC Clock, Sequencer, Selective Inverter
  • Triple EG, Frequency Divider, Triple EG
  • 3x VCO (Type A)
  • VCO (Type A), VCF, VCA, VCF, VCA
  • Input Amp, Noise, Peak Selector, S&H, Voltage Follower, Voltage Processor, Noise, Ring Mod, Phaser, VCA
Originally I was going to build a Tuner/Monitor, and another Peak Selector.  But I realized that (for me) the Tuner/Monitor would be a bit of a waste of space.  And after using the system extensively for the past few weeks, I decided to skip them both and add a 3rd VCA.  (I'll still likely build the Tuner/Monitor, if only because I have the panel and it is about 95% complete.)

The bottom space in the rack will house a panel with some jack converters for input and output, a couple of V-Trig to S-Trig converters (maybe a couple going the other way, too), and possibly a PAiA Hot Springs reverb.

As the system nears completion, I'll post more photos, and hopefully some videos of it in use, too.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist! ;-)