Modular - 27 September 2009 (01)

flickr by stickjones
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"Top Left Wood Box: Heavily Modified MFOS Weird Sound Generator.

Top Right Wood Box: Baby Ten Sequencer.

First Cabinet:
Top Frac:
Ad Infinitum Multi / Attenuator (modified into frac ear), Blacet I/O, Blacet Binary Zone, Blacet / Wiard Mini Wave, Blacet Filthy Filtre, Blacet VCA Quad Mix, DIY John Hollis Crash Sync (w/ CV input modification).
Middle Frac:
PAiA Power Supply, Blacet Klang Werk, Blacet Improbability Drive (w/ audio input modification), Synthesis Technology MOTM Ladder VCF (Moog Filter Clone), Blacet Dual Linear VCA, Cat Girl Synth Digital Noise, Dave Wright Overdrive.
Bottom Frac:
DIY banana / 1/8” / ¼” multiples, PAiA Midi2CV8, PAiA VCO / LFO / Modulator, PAiA VCF / Modulator, PAiA VCA / Mixer / EG / Noise, Cat Girl Synth Psycho LFO.

Second Cabinet:
Top Frac:
Blacet Multi / Attenuator (modified into frac ear), Blacet Hex Zone Sequencer, Cat Girl Synth Pulse Divider / Boolean Logic / Mixer, Cat Girl Synth Wave Multipliers, Cat Girl Synth Psycho LFO (super slow modification).
Middle Frac:
PAiA Power Supply (modified with lit switch and banana / ¼” converter), DIY Coron DS7 clone drum, Thomas Henry UD-1 drum, Cat Girl Synth Dual Chime, Thomas Henry ADVSnare, Cat Girl Synth Cynare, DIY ¼” / 1/8” / banana multiples.
Bottom frac:
Cat Girl Synth Mixer input, Music From Outer Space VCO, Thomas Henry 566 VCO, Thomas Henry Mankato VCF, Blacet EG, Cat Girl Synth Mixer output.


Designed by / Distributed by / Acquired from:
Blacet, PAiA, Cat Girl Synth / Ken Stone, Thomas Henry, Ad Infinitum, Dave Wright / Not Breathing, Music From Outer Space / Ray Wilson, Scott Deyo / Bridechamber, Midwest Analog, Analogue Haven / Shawn Cleary, Dubchild, SMS, Magic Smoke, John Hollis, eyehue & anomos, etc."

Thomas Henry Designs Forum on Electro-Music.com

Via Scott Stites:

"Electro-Music has started a new sub-forum for Thomas Henry designs. It'll feature discussion of his previous designs, and hopefully even future designs from Thomas Henry. Thomas himself has already been known to drop by the forum."

For the DIY crowd and anyone interested. Title link takes you there.

Previous Thomas Henry Posts

Thomas Henry Strikes Again

via Scott Stites on this electro-music thread. Sample at the post (it sounds gooood).

"From way up north, Mankato way, land of a thousand lakes and even more synth designs, comes a new VCO design from Thomas Henry. Grab your spare 3080 and put it in a safe place.....

Thomas calls it a workhorse VCO - Expo FM, Lin FM, triangle, PWM and one hell of a pure sine wave. On top of that, in typical Thomas Henry fashion, it is an elegantly simple design - I was amazed at how quickly I breadboarded it. But, don't let the simplicity fool you - this thing has got an *amazingly* accurate 9 octave range and it plays beautifully. I love this little VCO already. Page to come, schematics, PCB layout, the works.

Here's a quick sample of it - no big musical event, just the VCO piped through the Mankato filter I've had on breadboard since the summer of 2004. I modulate it here and there with an LFO, and the PW is modulated by another LFO (the wave heard is the PWM wave). And, of course, I use my patented Too Much Reverb(R) effect. Of course, it's the Thomas Henry keyboard controlling it.

Remember, this is with no tempco with a patch held together with alligator clips. I spent about three minutes tuning the VCO (it tuned easier than any VCO I've ever dealt with, don't know why - of course, I haven't tuned it to the gnat's ass yet - I'm having too much fun Very Happy ).

Coming soon to an Internet Near You.

Scott"

Thomas Henry VCO-1

This one is not new, but I don't believe I've posted it in the past. It recently came up on the SDIY email list as a simple affordable DIY VCO.

"The VCO-1: An Uncomplicated VCO That Truly Delivers
Designed By Thomas Henry

Preface: Towards the end of May, 2007 I began to grow excited over the possibilities the summer of 2007 might hold. Through fall, winter and spring, Thomas Henry pursues his career of teaching mathematics in Mankato, Minnesota, but during the brief respite he has from that over summer, he always manages to unleash some new design that has been tickling his imagination throughout the school year. In the summer of 2006, Thomas developed the XR VCO, the SN-Voice, the UD-1 Drum Voice, then nonchanlantly capped off the season with a design *for an entire synthesizer* that contained two different VCOs, a phase shifter, a VCA, a multi-mode filter, a very unique LFO (which would occupy many pages ot text just to describe all of its uses), a sample and hold, a power supply, and a digital noise circuit, the specifications of which are quite astounding. This collection of schematics turned into the publication "An Analog Synthesizer for the 21st Century" which will be available from Magic Smoke Electronics towards the end of Summer 2007.

So, I was not terribly surprised (but very pleased) when Thomas contacted me about a design he wished to make freely available to the public. He sent me the schematic, and I was amazed to see what appeared to be a very simple little VCO circuit..."

"Building a Synthesizer with Thomas Henry" DVDs

via Tim Servo on electro-music.com

"If you’ve ever built your own electronics, and then struggled to find information on how to package them to use on stage or in the studio, then this DVD is for you.

“Building a Synthesizer With Thomas Henry” is a step by step guide with tips and tricks for building panels, cabinets, wiring, and putting those all-important finishing touches on your electronics.

Follow along as Thomas Henry walks you through the “mechanical” side of building a synthesizer. Using easy to find, low-cost tools and supplies, Thomas shares dozens of valuable tips, including how to:

* Build a sturdy and professional looking 19” rack cabinet.
* Drill, paint and label your panels.
* Mount PCBs and wire up your modules like a pro.
* Mount your modules and wire everything together for a finished product.
* Bonus section includes step by step procedures for etching and drilling your own PC Boards.
------------------------------

Even as an experienced builder, I learned some new tricks from this video. These DVDs are available directly from us at Magic Smoke, and we’re having an Introductory Special of $10 + shipping ($2.00 US/Canada, $4.00 EU/UK/Aus) for the first twenty customers. Write to us at
magsmoke@gmail.com to order or for more info. Thanks!

Tim (video fun for the whole family) Servo"

Magic Smoke Electronics Thomas Henry 21st Century LFO

via Tim Servo on this electro-music.com thread:
AS21C "Super LFO" PCBs available
"Call it the "Super LFO," call it the "TH-301," call it the "Cucamonga," call it the "LFO with the three page schematic from Thomas Henry's AS21C book," call it anything you like, but we finally have some available!

With some assistance from the ever-talented Dave Brown, we've finished shaking down the first run of PCBs for the TH-301 "Cucamonga" LFO. This is a nifty little unit with some interesting features:
*VC frequency
*Selectable Sine, Tri, Saw or Ramp output
*Gate and Trigger outputs
*Sync Input
*Built in Lag function for delayed vibrato and other similar effects
*Built in Delay (acts like a gate delay) to delay the onset of the "Lag" function
*Delay time period can be started by a keyboard gate (or other similar signal) or by an NC footswitch
*LED frequency indicator, since we all like blinky lights!

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: These boards are Rev01. As such, they need a few tweaks for things that will be fixed on a later rev. You'll need to do two cuts, add two jumpers, and add a couple of parts. I would NOT recommend this for a first project. You really should have built a few things before this, and have an oscilloscope for tweaking the waveform trims. Still, if you've been wanting a very full-featured LFO, this just might do the trick for you. The LFO schematic in AS21C really is a three pager, so this is something you'll definitely want a PCB for. To my knowlege, Scott Stites is the only person brave enough to have attempted this circuit on a breadboard (more likely two or more breadboards). Note that you'll need an 8038 function gen chip, LM555 timer, 3080 OTA, TL074 quad op amp, 1458 dual op amp and CD4016 analog switch chips for this board.

The normal selling price for the TH-301 LFO board will be $20, but we have about ten of the Rev01 boards and since they need the tweaks mentioned above, we're selling them for $12 each. Shipping will be $3.50 in North America, and $5.50 to UK/EU/Aus. If you're interested, PayPal funds to <see the thread>. If you need more info, either shout out here, or send us a message at the magsmoke Gmail address.

Again, I have to give a huge THANK YOU to Dave Brown for helping with this. I've got other Magic Smoke projects in the pipeline, we've just reissued two Thomas Henry books (with another on the way), and our day jobs keep John and I hopping, so there is NO way we could have gotten the TH-301 out the door this soon without some extra assistance. Dave was a great help, and as always, has made a nifty web page with some details and o-scope screen shots:
http://modularsynthesis.com/magicsmoke/as21c-lfo/lfo.htm

Other AS21C boards will follow, but I wanted to get the most complicated PCB finished first. I should have a TH-301 "Cucamonga" with a quickie DIY face panel at the AH Nor Cal show on the 25th if you want to come check it out (and you happen to be in northern California).

Cheers!
Tim (happens to be in northern California) Servo"

Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synthesizer Circuit Board on Sale

"The Mega Percussive Synthesizer (MPS) is an extremely versatile percussion voice module designed by Thomas Henry. The MPS consists of three seperate tunable oscillators, a ring modulator, a noise generator, a voltage controlled resonant filter with two selectable responses (low pass or band pass), three VCAs, and a mixer section for mixing these elements together to fine tune a very realistic percussive sound. The MPS utilizes a dedicated VCO for generating the impact portion of a percussive voice. This method imparts a surprising level of realism to any voice programmed by the MPS. In addition to its main function as a percussive voice generator, the MPS can be used as an exotic noise/sound generator by switching its VCAs open and using its internal oscillators and noise generators to generate any number of exotic sounds and effects. More information about the Thomas Henry MPS can be found here."

They are currently listed for $15 on electro-music.com.

Thomas Henry Megapercussive Synth - DIY PCB & Panel Now Available

via synthCube

"the classic thomas henry megapercussive synth- now made easier for synth diy!

the bundle includes the main pcb from thomas henry and electro-music.com, the new panel daughterboard pcb from barcode, and a beautiful panel design from papernoise!

euro panel 30hp; the panel pcb eliminates the need for flying wires to pots, jacks and switches

the original mps thread is here on e-m: original 2007 mps post

information on the new panel pcb and panel are here: mps euro panel thread"

Thomas Henry's "Noise Generator Cookbook" Now Available

via Tim Servo on this electro-music.com thread:

"Magic Smoke Electronics has just put the finishing touches on another Thomas Henry book. "The Noise Generator Cookbook" includes analog and digital approaches to noise generation, along with plenty of info and theory to chew on. You can check out a preview and order any of our Thomas Henry books at: www.lulu.com/magsmoke"

The New and Improved Scott Stites Synth DIY

Currently listed:
- Triple Wilson SVVCF
- Thomas Henry UD-1 Drum Voice
- Thomas Henry SN-Voice
- The Thomas Henry XR VCO
- MultiPhase Project Journal
- MultiPhase Project
- The Mutant Vactrol Filter
- Looney Mod For Ray Wilson's Wacky Sound Generator (WSG)
- Sundry Items
- Dim C/TZF
- Construction of the Dim C/TZF
- Dim C Finished!
- Dual René Schmitz Late MS-20 Filter
- The Model 2 Klee Sequencer
- Klee Samples

Title link takes you there. Birth of a Synth pictured.

Serge + Loud Objects Noise Toy + Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synthesizer.mpg

YouTube via JargMarbin

"Serge Synthesizer triggering Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synthesizer (http://1tjb.sl.pt, built by Chris Fluur) and taking audio input from Loud Objects Noise Toy (http://www.loudobjects.com, aquired at HandMade Music Austin, built and programmed by Dr. Bleep). The Loud Objects Noise Toy is outputting mostly digital white noise to create snare type sounds, and the Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synthesizer is outputting all kinds of different sounds."

Thomas Henry's 555-VCO

Thomas Henry's 555-VCO from fonitronik on Vimeo.

"A short unedited demo of my built of Thomas Henry's latest 555 timer based VCO. The 1V/Oct input is fed by a Dopefer Quantizer to show how nicely it tracks.

NOTE that i left off the PWM in my build, but added a switch and a LED to switch from VCO to LFO mode. In this demo i only use the VCO mode, though."

modular synthesizer cabinet no.1

flickr by mirzaa full size
(click through for mouse-overs for each module)

From left to right:
CGS Utility LFO
Klee Sequencer
Thomas Henry XR-VCO
Thomas Henry VCO-1
YuSynth Minimoog VCF Clone
Fonitronik KORG PS-3100 Resonators
YuSynth S&H & Noise
Thomas Henry VCA-1


"Finally finished, missing double envelope generator module. PCB in arrival."
Almost looks like an ARP 2500 plus Buchla 250e Arbitrary Function Generator.

The VCO Chip Cookbook

via electro-music.com:

"Ms Electronics is very proud to publish and distribute the new 118 page book by Thomas Henry entitled :

The VCO Chip Cookbook

It's impossible to do serious analog synthesis with chips like the 566, 8038 and XR-2206, right? Wrong! They've got loads of life left in them, but only if you let an outsider like Thomas Henry steer you in the right direction.

Forget the pessimistic data sheets from the manufacturers; in this amazing guide you'll learn the secrets only a handful of designers are aware of. Drawing extensively from his personal lab notebooks, the author sets the record straight, presenting accurate design details in a friendly yet complete form.

To round out the deal, there are over one-hundred figures, tables, helpful hints, schematics, design equations and simulation graphs, making this the single most important resource for electronic music designers wishing to exploit integrated VCO chips. The only mathematics required is a smattering of simple high school algebra. Best of all, every circuit and technique described has been thoroughly tested at the workbench; you can design neat circuits with confidence now.

Learn how to put the 566, 8038 and XR-2206 chips under linear or exponential control, get square, sub-octave, triangle, sine, ramp and pulse-width modulated outputs, add in hard sync, balanced modulation, temperature compensation, interface to CMOS, and even obtain a wild rampoid output with no commercial equivalent!

As icing on the cake you'll find resource information, a complete bibliography and three appendices showing you how to build your own VCO test equipment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Henry is the author of over 130 articles and eight books on the subjects of mathematics, electronic music, microcomputers, astronomy, magic and caves. Most days of the year, you'll find him as an extremely busy mathematics instructor at South Central College in Minnesota. His leisure time activities include bird watching, exploring grasslands, amateur astronomy, magic, road trips to National Parks and flower gardening. The bat is his favorite mammal.

The attached PDF file contains the books table of contents so please give it a look.

The front and back are made of heavy "red" card stock and has a red spiral binding so that the book may open flat on your workbench.

The price is $22.00 plus $4.60 shipping in the US and Canada and $7.50 all other destinations.

Please PM me if more than one book is requested.

Payment is accepted via Paypal at the following account:

billnrob@optonline.net

PUBLISHED EXCLUSIVELY BY
sMs ELECTRONICS"

9 Live Eurorack Jams - 1 patch, 1 VCO, 3 Filters, 1 WaveFolder, Drums and a touch of Juno 60

Published on Apr 30, 2019 While We Were Sleeping

0. 00:00 Intro
1. 01:00 Its Friday again - 113bpm 8:30s
2. 09:20 To much delay - 98bpm 5:50s
3. 15:04 Juno Arp - 124bpm 5:30s
4. 20:36 Juno Lucina - 100bpm 8:30s
5. 28:14 Groovy Saturday - 113bpm 7:30s
6. 34:57 Up - 103bpm 4:30s
7. 36:41 Minimal - 124bpm 2:30s
8. 39:09 Psychedelic - 104bpm 1:25s
9. 40:30 Ambient - 60bpm 3:05s

🎧 or 🔊 🔊 for Bass and stereo image

CLICK FOR MORE »

Klee Jamming

YouTube via synthdood.
"This is a test of the Electro-Music Klee sequencer. What you hear are three Thomas Henry XR2206 VCO's one CEM3320 filter, two MOTM EG's, one Thomas Henry VCA, a Thomas Henry UD1 drum voice, and a Ken Stone Cynare(which you can barely hear)"

The Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synthesizer

via Scott Stites on this electro-music thread. Keep an eye on the thread for updates. If images or samples come in, let me know.

"I guess I better extricate this from the Clangora thread before it derails that fine conversation. I hope I don't sound like I'm hyping this thing unnecessarily, but I truly am buzzed by this design. This one has been as hard to keep quiet about as the Mankato Filter. In fact, I often think about this as the Mankato of drum voices, it's that good. I'll start at the top:

This summer (summer 2007), Thomas quietly developed a drum voice that just sat me back in my seat. I'm not sure I've ever seen him work so hard on a single design - I'm sure he has, but in my experience breadboard testing things, I'm certain this one took more work than I've experienced with any other project. He literally designed this thing from the ground up, and we very thoroughly rung it out.

In the Clangora thread, Thomas mentioned how versatile it was (and it is extremely versatile). On top of that, the sound of this drum voice for me is simply stunning. A good deal of that is due to an innovation Thomas threw in there; it's something that I've never seen on any other drum voice. It was an idea that he picked up from an interview with Roger Powell years ago (it was Roger Powell, wasn't it Thomas? I'm kinda fuzzy here). It has to do with the impact circuit - I swear, it literally sounds like someone is striking this think with a real stick/mallet/hand/sledgehammer (depending on how it's tuned).

Just to give a rundown of the elements: the voice has three oscillators, a noise source, a balanced modulator (that can be unbalanced as well), three envelope generators, two VCAs, a noise source, a LP/BP switchable resonant VCF, and a versatile mixing section with send/receive loops. This one is a blast to tweak as it plays, BTW. It's the only drum voice I've played that can dissolve from a cowbell to a landing alien craft in a very non-seventies, non-disco-era Simmons way (though it can do that, too, if that's your thing).

Fortunately, Thomas designed it, so it is a very elegantly designed circuit (translation, it will fit on a single PCB). There are a lot of controls, so it won't be a small panel.

Right now, the target for the project is as the next electro-music PCB series, in the same vein as the Klee project. We're working on drafting a certain man from Nambucca Heads to crank out a PCB, and we're going to Klee team it to make sure what you get will be the best quality PCB we can offer. The documentation part already is very well done - can't beat those Thomas Henry schematics! I'm hoping to avoid the whole reservation process which is really a pain, but this is all in the prelim stage so far.

Expect samples. Very Happy

Cheerio,
Scott"

The GM Voice

Produced through a partnership between Dan Lavin and Thomas Henry. via Scott Sites.

"Okay gang,

This one took me way too much time to complete, but I'm ready to start spilling the beans.

What it is: The GM-Voice is a standalone, MIDI driven multiple voice unit. It can create hundreds of pre-programmed high quality instrument sounds---some natural, some electronic---in addition to dozens of percussive instruments. Best of all, the voices respond to dynamics and you can play a minimum of 24 simultaneously! GM stands for General MIDI, as if you hadn't figured that out already.

Total outlay? About $25, if you know how to shop. This is probably the least expensive way to outfit a home recording studio with high quality sounds I can think of.

Here's the scoop. A decade ago our own esteemed Antman wrote me a note on his researches into the possibility of a standalone GM circuit. I was absolutely up to the gills in projects at the time and it's only recently I've been able to return to what he had originally proposed. Moreover, Antman was able to get me the crucial raw ingredient for ten bucks on Ebay a month or two ago, and it's all been downhill since then.


This project takes a Soundblaster type daughterboard, adds a little support circuitry and voila---the computer isn't even needed to extract its magic. It becomes a standalone instrument for the studio.

This is my first joint project with Antman, and it's been a great success. I hope we can encourage him to submit a general overview of the project, the overall process and some purchasing tips for newcomers. (I still have some of your letters from a decade ago---can I post them for general info to builders?) And then, I'll supply the new and improved schems, along with PCB artwork and wiring info.

Here are the features I've included in the Antman/Henry version of the
GM-Voice:

- reset button providing emergency all-notes-off action
- MIDI In
- two MIDI Thru jacks
- stereo and mono outputs
- fully buffered outputs for maximum protection
- improved MIDI activity LED shines brightly!
- internal power supply for true standalone performance
- carefully worked out digital/analog grounding for optimal performance

Attached are two photos of my unit. I only have a $25 digital camera, so the quality is a bit punk. but you'll get the general idea. The whole thing is about the size of a brick and looks very nice.

Okay Antman, care to jump here?

Thomas Henry

======

There's a song Thomas composed and performed using the GM voice posted towards the end of the thread. Check it out!:

http://electro-music.com/forum/download.php?id=10971

"Antman" by the way is Dan Lavin.

Take care,
Scott"

More info on this electro-music.com thread.

Thomas Henry UD-1 Drum Voice

"As the summer of 2006 drew to a close, Thomas Henry returned to his teaching assignment somewhere in greater Mankato, and thus brought to an end a summer of brilliant and inspired synth design on his part. As a parting shot over the bow, warning of things to come, Thomas sent me a design for a drum voice he has chosen to release to all the synth DIYers out there - the UD-1 Drum Voice Module...

Anyone familiar with Thomas' ADV Bass design will recognize the basic architecture of the UD-1 Drum Voice. The UD-1 has an input for pulse, which it uses to 'fire' the drum voice, and, of course an output. Thomas added one more valuable input to the UD-1 - voltage control of the pitch of the drum voice."

Title link takes you there.

Thor's Hammer - Modular Analog Drum Synthesizer

Remember the Homebrew Analog Synthesizer I posted yesterday? Turns out it is an analog modular drum synth based on designed from Thomas Henry and possibly Craig Anderton. Possibly? You can find more info on the entire system here.

Pictured:
"Clangora Hi-Hat Simulator
Thomas Henry's Clangora hi-hat synth project, which was published in the November 2003 issue of Nuts & Volts. The Clangora is practically a complete analog synthesizer, sans voltage control or temperature compensation of the VCOs; features include dual envelope generators, dual VCOs with FM mixer, frequency sweep and filtered pseudorandom digital noise source. The noise source and other sections are specifically engineered to evoke the character of brass percussion, but while the Clangora can certainly provide a convincing hi-hat impersonation it's also capable of a wide range of unique sounds and timbres. The circuit board was made using Mr. Henry's original artwork, and the chassis and faceplace are my own design. I also added front-panel pushbutton triggers for tuning without an external trigger source."