Personal

  • 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…

  • 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,  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…

  • Delta,  Personal

    Life and Delta

    I’ve succumbed to the dreaded black dog that is depression again, but with the help of my partner, Jayne, I’m getting better. She is very good at looking after me and helping me avoid pitfalls. Jayne is also improving, she nearly ended up having emergency surgery, but has pulled through and we’re waiting to see the consultant early April to find out what can be done to stop this from happening again (this has happened before, and will happen to her again). In the meantime I’ve been taking time to enjoy walking with my dog, Suzi, and appreciate some of the good things in my life, like Jayne, Suzi, my…

  • Delta,  Personal

    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…

  • Delta,  Personal,  Synths

    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…

  • Delta,  Personal,  Suzi,  Synths

    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…