New to Group 2

Well if Dave is going to play show and tell, so am I. My name is George and I've recently re-activated my love/obession with music/electronics. Not going to give my age but i'm old enought to know better.
I live in Victoria and I decided to build a modular, something I always wanted to do. Analog electronics is having a huge resurgence these days, so it seems like the right time.Here's some shots of my fledgling modular. I went with frac format to keep the size down and while there is some issue with getting my fingers to the knobs, I can live with it, 'cause you can pack a lot of noise into a small space.
No cabinet yet, just some rack rails to hang things on. Modules built so far include PAIA Midi2cv8, Thomas Henry VCO and ADSR, both rock, an EFM VCO and VCF, both junk, VCO doesn't track and VCF has limited cutoff, motto: stay away from EFM stuff, poor service and docs and they don't seem to work too well. Also a couple of utility modules, a multiple and an attenuator. I have lots more to go with a Thomas Henry Super Controller and MAnkato filter in the works.(I like T.Henry stuff as you can tell).
The EFM power supply works ok, but a simple p/s is easy to build, I just went with them for the distribution board, which provides 16 power connections for modules.
I have spent at least the same as Dave, so figure on spending double what you thought if you decide to join the madness. If you do, you will find it very rewarding to build and fiddle/troubleshoot a module and you will always be able to fix it in the future and have a good idea on how it works.

I've included a pic of the Klee sequencer panel that has been a pain to get right. I'm going to give it one more go, if that fails, on the backurner it goes!

George

New to the Group!

Hey everyone. My name is Dave. I'm 24 years old and absolutely obsessed with modular synthesis. I come from a very musical background and started on piano way back. I soon after went full force with guitar. I've picked up other instruments such as tenor sax, violin , bass, drums, larynx among others but guitar is still my main thing. I'm a bit if a gear-head. Before we get to the modular stuff, this is my main gear I'm currently rocking:

-'65 reissue fender twin reverb (for sale.. thinking a Dr.Z stang ray and 2X12 instead)

-'61 reissue gibson sg 

-home-made distortion (couldn't stand crappy tonebone switches). 

-home-made digi-delay

-home-made fuzz

-keeley compressor

-line6 modulation modeler

-boss tu-2 tuner

-univox microfazer

-boss dd-20 giga-delay

-roland re-150 space echo tape delay

-akai s5000 sampler with maxed polyphony/ram and full sampled mellotron/rhodes etc...

-macbook pro

-axiom61 midi keyboard

-altoids mintbox theremin

and......

-An ongoing diy modular synth. This is really all of you care about! haha. Let me explain a bit before showing you the pics. I've always loved synths and mainly analog/modular synthesis. I always wanted to buy one but to get a nice oldschool moog style big knob/1/4" jack equivalent.. i was looking to spend at least 3 grand which i simply could not afford. at ONE point, it seemed like it would be less expensive to build my own.... oh what a fool I am. I am only 2 modules in and have spend well over a grand thus far. Either way, it's fine since i'm learning alot, and have something truly unique. I also decided to go a direction that would cost more since i wanted bigger jacks and whatnot. After making a few stompboxes and getting some decent power tools, safety equip, soldering workstation and whatnot, i was ready to start the modular. It's not meant to look great or anything like that. It's a hobby for me and It may never see the light of day. The cool thing, there are no rules. It can get as insane as I want it. I followed the synthesizers.com diy cabinet and made a crappy barely workable cabinet. Made it from inexpenive "knotty pine" from home depot. I had panels cut at a local metal shop. All are moog specs. I had 1/2/3 length panels cut. Just using 1/8" thik aluminum plates. Nothing is properly measured out on the front. Everything's been eye-balled and has worked out this far. Theres so much to do that sometimes I just opted to make a quick decision and press on. I made a paia midi2cv8 for my midi-cv converter. I had to cut a gross hole in the panel since the kit wants to use 1/8" jacks and needed the dip switch to be accessible. My first/only other module past the midi-cv converter is an mfos vco. I purchased the pcb's from their site since they are actually cheaper than me doing it myself. I'm also in an apt. now so less chemicals the better. I bought their vco, 4-pole lowpass vcf, vca, adsr. The other 3 have yet to be created. All parts are in my hands as are all necessary tools. Just need to get it put back together since the move from nan-vic and away she goes. I am using 2 motm distro's. Only 1 connected at this time. I'm just using the 960 right now since the mfos modules are +-12v only and will work off of +-15v. I have the 990 as well setup so if i get my hands on any modules with the additional +5v, I'll have it all ready to go. I know there are other ways to go about this, but i'm still quite new. I'm using a power-one triple output linear power supply. their biggest one. It's rediculous. +-15v, +5v. I generally would run it to the 990 first, then to the 960. So i have groups of connectors for either the dual or triple power needs. I decided to go with mate-n-lok connectors. Connected wires from the +-12v, g, g on the pcb's to one end of the connectors. (they are free hanging but through a hole in the pcb to keep slack on them so they don't get tugged). The other end is the motm style connector to the distro. I had to hack one end of the cable off to create the mate-n-lok. that way i can unclip easily and they all have uniform connectors.... what else... I tuned the converter to 1v/oct using my multimeter and actually used a computer based scope on my mac for the oscillator. I had spent so much already that i wanted to try a free equivalent before buying more hardware. I ended up using the bram and sean smartelectronix s(M)exoscope and it worked like a charm.  had great visuals. I shaped the waves using that tool and listed with my own ears to eliminate sine distortion and whatnot. The synth doesn't do that much yet, but it works and plays in tune. I went for the temperature compensator on the vco as well so it won't slip. Soon enough, i'm going to piece it back together and start on the next module. Probably the vcf. There's alot I'm forgetting right now but it's been about a year of research (never soldered before that) and a year of collecting parts and building. here are a couple of pics. I left my digital cam in Nanaimo by accident so there are better pics on that for later. This is all I've got so far:

So there you have it. Questions/comments/ideas/thoughts? I live in Vic so you guys probably won't see me much at meetings but I'd love to be a part of the community. Bye for now. 

Dave

Now w/Blinking Lights

As per request, here' some colour shots of D. and the ThrobKnob.

J.

Moogin' Foogin' Xmas

Here's some boudoir shots from D's basement from my recent visit. All that was missing was a large P.A. planted on the roof for the interstellar broadcast capturing the ecstatic mumblings from the ThrobKnob.

J.