"I call it the Sonic Emulsifier, a name coined by someone at work who knows nothing of analogue synthesis or sound processing."
"The History:
It started out with a WersiVoice card, which is basically a triple BBD contraption that was very commonly installed in Wersi organs, that gives both ensemble and rotary speaker effects, and, for its time, was actually pretty decent sounding. What it turned into:
(1) the Wersivoice BBD device
(2) a Ken Stone bandpass filter (SH-5 Bandpass clone)
(3) a Ken Stone Real Ring Modulator (two transformers, four diodes)
(4) a Paia “Roctave divider” board
(5) a multi filter band pass unit tuned to vocal frequencies (based on the VP-330 filters)
(6) a 566-based VCO using Thomas Henry’s schematics
(7) a 4-in, 1-out DC mixer, and
(8) a 4-way mult
The VCO is there basically so that if you want to use the ring modulator with a single input, there’s something there to modulate with. It’s a strange assortment of things, some of which are included because I happened to have the boards sitting around (like the PAiA Roctave).
I couldn’t resist the desire to make something that looked “technical’ from the front. The big central dial is the main frequency control for the oscillator. Pots to the upper left control the PAiA divider; pots to the right are for the mixer, the oscillator has an output attenuator control (left of the big dial) and a wave-shape sweep control (to the right of the big dial). Switches at the bottom left select the Wersivoice modes, switches to the bottom right control the selection of groups of filters in the vocal filter matrix.
Nothing’s blown up yet, so I’m assuming I’ve managed to put it all together right the first time.
MP3s? Eh, eventually…"
Frank
For what its worth, your blog kicks the feathers out of Synthwire.
ReplyDeleteOh I so wanna hear an mp3 of this. I also really love the shade of green.
ReplyDeleteAs an aside: why do so many synth builders not put up any mp3's? While I love looking at breadboards as much as the next fellow, it's more fun to listen to stuff. Even if it's a naff sound.
Same goes for VST synth sites. I'm not always feeling like downloading a demo and 'polluting' my VST or AU folders.
Oh well.
Thanks. I actually set up Synthwire for others to join and post whatever they want. A while back I asked if I should open up Matrixsynth for others to post and I pretty much got a resounding NO. So I set up Synthwire. It's great if you want to post stuff now and then but don't have the time or the desire to post all the time. The surprising thing is not many people have even bothered to sign up and start using it. It's odd in that I envisioned it even becoming more popular than Matrixsynth, because it would be a place to promote your own stuff and others. I'm thinking of also promoting it as a place to link your music to. With songbird you'd be able to play the links like a jukebox. http://www.songbirdnest.com/
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on samples Doctor Future. BTW, if you get a chance, check out songbird and load up my archives. You can play any mp3 linked in them. Now if people started posting their links on Synthwire, we'd have one location to find people's tracks and sites. So much of this just gets lost in various forums and distribution lists.
man, recasing is ALWAYS a great option to snazz up yer sound devices.
ReplyDeleteI have a bunch of stuff that I put on on ruccas.org
ReplyDeleteRuccas.org is this site for odd, algorithmic, computery stuff. Some is really mind blowingly painful. Some is divine.
It's neat cuz their site is just a WIKI, and it has been up for about 2 years now. Very simple, and easy to cope with. If any of you want to host your "thematically compatible" music in that forum (or cross-host it there), it is good and I'd recommend it.
Matrix: I'll also check yer stuff out :)