Synths

  • Isla Instruments,  Personal,  Synths

    Life, the universe and Quadrowave

    Well, the last couple of months have been a challenge. My partner is getting better which is great, but I managed to get COVID and this time it was horrid, 5 weeks on and I’m still not great. I struggle to focus and I’m constantly exhausted.My mood also hasn’t been great and I’ve been told I have arthritis, so yeah life is pretty sucky right now. However, I did manage to get some work done on the Quadrowave card for Isla Instruments; It has 4 voices, each with two oscillators (each with a sub) and 256 waveforms, currently two ADSRs per voice (VCF and VCA) and two LFOs (with 6…

  • Delta,  Isla Instruments

    Life & synths

    September has not been a good month in many ways. Firstly my partner has been in hospital for a week having some major surgery as a result of her having had cancer 6 years ago and A week before that my mum had a stroke and has been in and out of hospital. Suffice to say, I’ve really not had much in the way of energy or enthusiasm to do much with synths, but I have done some bit when I’ve had the beans. Quadrowave Quadrowave has fully functioning ADSRs for VCF and VCA, the VCF and VCA work, two LFOs are also working and the oscillators are working, it’s…

  • Delta,  Isla Instruments,  Synths

    Even more synth updates

    Things have been moving with synth projects this last month, first up the Quardowave card for the Isla Instruments Caladan has arrived, I’ve assembled it, checked power and got blink working on the CPUs. I still have to debug the VCFs but the other parts, like DACs and VCAs are the same as the OPL3 card I’ve been working on for Isla Instruments, so they shouldn’t be a problem. The next job is coding the CPUs and getting some sounds out.I’m looking forward to getting this up and running and making some sounds, it should sound epic. In other news the prototype voice holder for Delta has arrived and been…

  • Delta,  Isla Instruments,  Synths

    Synth updates

    Things have been getting a little better of late and I’ve got some of my mojo back, some. Firstly, I’ve been working with Isla Instruments on their Caladan synth, specifically the OPL3 card for it, this uses a bunch of new old stock YMF262 4 op FM chips and a multimode VCF and VCA. Originally it was 4 voices and has now been expanded to 6 voices. It’s almost done but I have a couple of features I want to add to the firmware yet.I have also been working on a voice card of my own design, I’m calling it the Quadrowave (until I can think of a better name),…

  • 100m,  Personal,  Retro Computing,  Synths

    What’s been happening?

    Well I failed at posting once a month, my bad. A lot has been going on since March. I’ve been talking to the new owners of Modal Electronics on and off, since September, and I just stepped away from it. My reasons? There are a few, but mostly because their vision and what I am passionate about in synths are very different things. There were a number of other factors involved, but I won’t go into them. I’ve also not been well, for the couple of weeks I’ve been having major chest pains that come and go, a few days ago I ended up in an ambulance on my way…

  • PDP11HackPlus,  Personal,  Retro Computing,  Synths

    Time flies

    It’s been a hectic few weeks, well, month. My mood has been all over the place, and generally trending down. But I have been doing some bits and bobs. I’ve been working on a couple of displays, something retro styled. I wanted to do something like the TIL311 but with a full alphanumeric character set in, so I’ve started on that. It’s slightly shorter than a regular EPROM, but the same 0.6″ wide. When I’m done coding it I’d like to coat it in resin, just to give it that classic TIL311/Retro display kind of vibe. I’ve got a few of these, so it’d be fun to do something with…

  • PDP11HackPlus,  Personal,  Synths,  TTL CPU

    Time & motivation

    I am still struggling with my mental health, though it is getting better slowly. I’m getting a bit more motivated and I’ve been some work for Isla Instruments, which is a refreshing change. I’ve had an idea for another synth, curse my head, so I’ve jotted it down and put it in the “laterbase”.My current plan is to get the Synth Voice module I designed completed and running (I have PCBs), work on the Isla Instruments project (which will be on going) and do some bits on Epsilon when I get stuck with that and need to free my mind up a little. I’ve put a self imposed ban on…

  • Personal,  Synths

    Better late than never?

    Well, It’s been a while and yeah I’m failing at updating this blog regularly. First an update on synth stuff, I’ve been working on a front panel for my synths, I’m currently fed up with the sound of the analogue synths I’ve heard (though I will say the GS e7 sounds amazing) and I want to build one for myself, this isn’t a product I plan to sell. I’ve designed the voice, using two SSI VCO chips and an NJM2069 VCF/VCA (as I have a few), I’ve got the PCBs for that but haven’t got around to building any yet. The front panel also uses a lot of the same…

  • Delta,  Synths

    Synth stuff

    It’s been a while since I posted anything to do with synths, and that’s largely down to some family issues (my partner not being well, but she’s getting better now) and my mood taking a massive dive. The recent news about Modal hasn’t helped, it’s a huge shame and I do hope that a solution can be found going forward. I thought it was time to give a quick update on my polsynth, currently known as ‘Delta’. I’ve been thinking it through and I think I got carried away which has meant that some of the bugs are now really difficult to find (read I have no idea). So I’m…

  • Delta,  PDP11HackPlus,  Personal,  Suzi,  Synths

    LTNT (long time no type)

    I am trying to keep my blog (this thing) updated regularly, but I’m failing so here are three updates in one! PDP11 Hack Plus I’ll give a quick update on a number of things, firstly with the PDP11 Hack plus board I’ve been doing. Basically I can’t get it jump into the onboard monitor or ODT (Octal Debugging Technique). Whilst I can see a clock and I can see at power up some address and data lines change as if it is looking for a boot strap of some kind, but I cannot get it into the ODT. Mr Usagi Electric has kindly offered to test my DCJ11 chip for…