Super JX 10 Vecoven V4 editor

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is my first pass through the Super JX-10 editor, just wired all the pots, sliders, display, buttons etc into the mux and MCP chips. All programmed up for testing. A lot more to do and test as it doesn't do anything with upper and lower sections yet or send out any NRPN or sysex messages."

Cherry Audio MemoryMode Synth

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the Cherry Audio MemoryMode VST realized as a standalone synth. There's a mini pc inside running the standalone VST and outputting to a DAC, the controller can store upto 999 patches."

Cherry Audio Arp Quadra synth/controller

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is a project I built a few years back, always wanted a Quadra since playing one at Chase Music on Oldham Street, so when this VST came about I thought it was possible to build a synth with a tiny pc and a midi keyboard and some electronics to tie it all together. This week I've been spending time breaking down the Cherry Audio factory patches in an effort to load them onto the SD card and have them all at hand. I also decided to give it a spruce up because the panels were going brown in the sunlight."

Five patches created on the Hybrid 8

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I'm not very good at patch creation, but here are the first five patches I've created on the new Hybrid 8 synth. The organ patch is using wavetables, but the rest are just sawtooth VCOs."

A stereo Korg Poly 61

video upload by Craig Barnes

"As my poly 61 is now controlled by a dedicated editor, the editor hardware can be used to control a Behringer June 60 chorus, a simple mod of the June 60 to use 5v relays instead of push buttons and it can be controlled by a micro."

Progress on the Teensy TDM synth

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Latest update of the Teensy 4.1 based audio library synth. I've ditched the hardware envelopes because they lacked real-time control and only changed on a fresh key press, so now the Electric Druid Envgen8c chips are back in their sockets on envelope duty. I've opted for log envelopes although I think the AS2164 has a lin/log converter, I need to check."

Poly 61 editor built into the 61 case

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I'd always thought about doing this, so this afternoon I got it installed. Nice tight fit in the lid of the 61."

Poly 61 hardware midi editor (Tauntek upgrade)

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I quickly built this encoder based hardware editor for Tauntek upgraded poly 61 boards, it's fairly simple and uses an ESP32 Dev board and io port expanders."

First test of replacement AX-80 displays

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Finally got hold of an Akai AX-80 to test my replacement displays and after having to replace one ESP 32 because it refused to load a sketch I finally managed to wire up all 3 displays to the AX, I had to replace the AX power supply as my 220v to 110v converters all gave out. But it does mean the power is 100-260v now for any country. Still need to build the second board and buy some more ESP32 Dev boards."

MOscar fully restored (except knobs)

video upload by Craig Barnes

"First test of the restored MOscar synth. It came to me quite dead with a loose MIDI board and a dead -5v rail, along with quite a few weird pots and strange wiring. Anyways I think it's back to normal now with a Tauntek MIDI upgrade as well."

Fixing up a 1985 Oscar clone

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the repairs to my 1985/86 hand made Osc Oscar clone, the famous Moog Oscar from Sound on Sound June 2004. I finally received it back after around 38 years apart. It's had some refurbs and mods and travelled extensively. Europe and the states and eventually wound up in Berlin. I received it dead with no boot. MIDI board was loose, but it couldn't be that simple. No sound from the synth and after getting it to the panel mode and tweaking a few knobs I eventually got it to make a weak sawtooth sound. Lower half of the keybed was dead so I replaced the 5x 4051 chips that read the keyboard and the 7 that read the front panel. Then I removed the aux input mod and upgraded to the Tauntek midi board. A little scratchy in places but nothing that can't be fixed."

Korg DW6000 rack mount conversion with editor

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I bought this DW6000 for £100 a few years back, after fixing a few issues and adding an editor it didn't warrant taking up a keyboard space, so I'm converting it to a 19" rack. First thing to do is build a condensed front panel."

Polykit-16 with added performance modes

video upload by Craig Barnes

"When I first built this synth although it was bi-timbral I never really made the operation so you could easily use the bi-timbral modes, it had patch setups, but not performances to take advantage of the dual sounds, so this week I went out if my way to add the performance mode."

First testing in its new home.....

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Finally transferred the polysynth from the work bench to the CME UF-70 chassis. it's a tight squeeze, but it all goes in, still a few bits and pieces to do, put a power socket on the back fit the mains and code up a few improvements and bug fixes."

4 quick sound patches for Craig Barnes new synth

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Sound design is one of the hardest parts of building a synth. So as this design contains similar elements to the P5 with polymod, I just added some sounds from the patch book. They are not exact of course."

Unison test of the 8 voice polysynth

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I finally fixed a lot of issues on the filter board with signal routing, a couple of bad connections, a lost ground, some signal inversions etc. All of these hsve now been addressed and I can concentrate on the software side of the synth to fix and implement features."

reSEMble synth and MIDI to CV

video upload by Craig Barnes

"reSEMble synth with a polyphonic MIDI to CV converter, can be used in mono mode and polyphonic (dynamic unison) mode."

You can find additional posts featuring Pm Foundations reSEMble here.

Finally a working polyphonic MIDI to CV converter with auto tune.

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I've been working on this polyphonic MIDI to CV converter for about 2 years. I've built several other polyphonic MIDI to CV devices, but I needed an 8 note 16 bit device for accuracy. So previously signals like modulation, bend, interval, detune were all generated on separate CV lines. This converter combines all signals onto a single wire for each VCO and filter. So in total there are 24 CVs generated, 8 gates, 8 triggers, 8 velocity CV's, plus 8 spare CV lines if needed.

The Teensy has a feedback loop from each VCO via a 16 way mux chip and during auto tune each VCO in turn is fed into the Teensy and the frequency of 8 notes from each VCO is sampled and corrected against the correct frequency. The difference is then stored in a table and the remaining 120 corrections are extrapolated from the 8 samples. These are then stored into the SD card and reloaded at boot time.

It accepts 5 pin DIN MIDI and usb MIDI or it can act as a MIDI host to a usb keyboard. I hope to make it the basis of an 8 note analogue polysynth that actually stays in tune.

Functions are controllable over MIDI

https://github.com/craigyjp/16bit-8-n..."

Akai AX-80 editor in action.

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Completed Akai AX-80 editor, can store upto 5 sysex banks sent from the synth or pc etc."

AX-80 editor for Tauntek equipped AX-80 synths.

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I started building this midi controller for the AX-80, all 45 controls are presented with buttons and LEDs for the switch functions. Pots for the 0-99 controls. It will have 999 patch memories and names and can be used as a master for the AX-80 which means you don't store any sounds on the AX and the editor is in charge. Or normal mode where it just edits parameters. It also acts as a usb to MIDI converter so you can play the AX over USB from your DAW. I've also mapped CC 7 for volume to CC 96 (VCA level) to act as a volume control."