Synths
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Delta & Life
Recently my partner was rushed to hospital and has spent 5 days in with a serious condition, thankfully she is now out but will need to have major surgery in 6 to 8 weeks. This has got me thinking a lot about my life and what is important to me. She and Suzi are what matter to me above all else, this trip into hospital has really brought that into focus. So what is the upshot? Well, I’m giving serious thought to Delta being my last commercial synth. It takes a lot of work to make a poly synth, and for one person it can be very hard. There’s a…
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2023 and onward
Well another year has come and gone, 2022 was not a great year. With chip shortages, recessions and friends suffering a lot (for reasons I shan’t go into). I’m not one for new years resolutions, but I do like to have a goal for the year, so my goal is to “declutter” and simplify my life. Things have gotten very complex. So I’ve put some effort into Delta over the holiday and I have most of the prototype UI (screen and knobs) done which let’s me fully test the synth engine and debug that. Though Dove Audio is now closed, I’m unsure what form Delta will take. PJ5 (my TTL…
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Walks, Delta and dogs
The weather here has been cold of the last weeks and yes we had snow, which Suzi was really confused about, she kept running and trying to eat it, rolling in it and generally seeming to enjoy the experience which was wonderful to see. During these walks the colours of the sky are often quite amazing, so I take some pictures, here are a couple from recent days (before the snow). I’m no photographer but I can appreciate the colours 🙂 Delta Delta is now playable, I can set a default patch (pushing a button and it sends a string of commands to the FPGA) and play it via MIDI…
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Speed, Delta & Doves
Speed The world is moving at an incredible rate lately, now I know as you get older your neurons fire slower and time seems to move quicker, but that’s not what I mean. Everyone is in a rush, a rush to make things, a rush to get places a rush to buy and received stuff and people seem to be incredibly impatient, now I caught myself doing this and I was shocked. I blame amazon for their “next day delivery”, and sometimes same day which is just nuts. It’s made us all impatient and rush to do things and expect things. The item in question for me was this uConsole…
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Groove Synthesis 3rd Wave
A few months back (about 3 if I recall) I got in touch with the people at Groove Synthesis about their 3rd wave, and I purchased one. Now I’m a huge fan of wavetable synths and this having 3 oscillators, lots of wavetables and a bunch of other cool features was a chance not to miss. Having owned a PPG Wave 2.2, PRK, EVU and Waveterm I was quite ready to be disappointed and frustrated with the 3rd wave. I was pleasantly proved wrong, very wrong. The third wave is just incredible, you can read up on the specs online, but it sounds amazing and the fact it has 24…
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The future of Dove-Audio
I think everyone is aware of the chip shortage that has been on going for a while now and it’s sadly showing very little sign of improving for the 12 to 18 months. It’s not just chips either, connectors, potentiometers, switches, everything has gone long lead time. Add in the growing rate of inflation, cost of living crises that’s happening in the UK as well as a number of personal changes in my life, I’m considering the future of Dove-Audio and synths. In my life, Suzi is keeping me very busy and I am really enjoying the morning walks, which take around an hour and we go through some beautiful…
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The “Industry”
I was watching several videos about Knobcon, a synthesiser event in Chicago) as I had friends there and I found it really quite enjoyable to see them talking about and showing their latest products. What was disappointing, but not entirely surprising, was to learn that my ex company are still using my old name, in person and online. Sure enough after a quick google there are videos online showing this, followed with multiple “corrections” in the same video. Now for those who don’t know I transitioned over 6 years ago, and it was something that had been in the works 2 years before that. My business partner at the time…
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Synth DIY UK
Finally, after a two year hiatus Synth DIY UK returned and it was a really great event.Lots of catching up with old friends and making of new friends. we had a turn out of around 40 people which is good and we even raised £200 for our chosen charity. Of course on the evening alcohol was consumed, good food eaten and lots of catching up. The event, and more correctly, the people really lifted my mood and made me remember what a wonderful community it is. Below are some of my pictures and you can find more on the Synth DIY UK gallery page The event is open to the…
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It’s ALIVE
After swapping the dead -12V 2A fuse, I powered it up and everything stayed on for about 30 minutes. So I decided to attach the monitor, keyboard and alpha-numeric keyboard and see what happened and sure enough, we have life! Super exciting! Keep in mind this Fairlight hasn’t been powered on for over 20 years!So next the big step, let’s insert a system disk, now I’ve no idea if the disks still work or if the drives have died (I can hear a motor but that’s all), and as I say, it is 20 years old. Yes! it booted much to my amazement, and what’s more I can even load…
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No longer blowing fuses, but….
Having swapped out the bridge rectifier for a high power one and used nice high grade thermal paste I was able to power up the PSU and sure enough, it worked, I can measure the voltages and the mains fuse does not blow. Awesome, I’m really chuffed with this. So I assembled everything (about 2 hours) and powered her on.Only to discover another fault… ARGH!!! Sadly, the -12V rail is dead… Now I’m imagining the worst, so I decide to check the -12V fuse and well, it’s blown. Upon checking someone has replaced the 2A anti surge fuse with a a 1.5A standard blow fuse. So I power off, quickly…