More links

Its been busy at the towers this weekend, just finished sanding down the wooden box i've picked up to house my percussion synth.

Found this very nice website this evening, also been looking at trying the Posc Kit

I've been researching the tools i'll require to create my cases, mainly drill bits:

• Mini Pots: 8mm diameter (case hole) 6mm diameter (shaft)
• Pots: 10mm diameter (case hole) 8mm diameter (shaft)
• 1/4 Jack (metal type): 9.5mm diamater case hole
• 1/4 Jack (plastic type): 10.5mm diameter case hole
• Mini Jack (plastic pcb mounted type): 6.3mm diameter case hole

These titanium coated step drill bits might just do the job

Long winter nights

Looking for more fun with electronics I've been searching the internet for more projects. Here's a link to a great article for those of us who are new to electronics.

Links:

Siren kits at affordable prices. These could be modded with pots to vary the tone generated

Tube preamps

Atari Punk Dub Console

DS 7 DS 8 Drum synth clone PCB

Percussive Synthesiser MPC: Part 1

I picked this kit up on Ebay for just over £35. Described as a Coron / Synare clone its reminiscent of 1980s analogue drum synths favoured by the likes of Sly and Robbie, Aba Shanti I, Shaka and so on.

 

The kit was delivered from the US in less than a week and included all components and a comprehensive set of printed instructions.

 

Step 1: add resistors

 

Step 2: add the IC chips

 

Step 3: add the capacitors, voltage regulators and on/off switch

Step 4: Add the piezo trigger, jack output and pots to control the unit.

Finally the unit needs to be calibrated. This involves turning the pcb mounted variable resistor to set the sensitivity of the the piezo trigger. I'm really happy with how this board has turned out. My soldering is improving and I believe this will be a useful addition to my dubwise sound.

If you'd like to find out more about the MPC Percussion synthesiser, click here to view a discussion forum surrounding this great little kit.

Part 2 to come after Christmas on building a suitable enclosure and trigger for my box of delights. In the mean time I'll post a few soundclips.

Colossus Synth Kit: Part 2

Having successfully tested the circuit to make sure the synth would work I coated the pcb with a liberal amount of glue from my glue gun. Hopefully this will make the whole thing more rugged and prevent wires and joins working loose.

Below is a video demonstrating some of the sounds my little synth can make.

Colossus Synth Kit: Part 1

Having successfully built a Tubbys style dub siren based on a simple kit from Maplin, I was eager to create more delights.

The Colossus Mini Synth by ClockworkRobot.com

I purchased the Colossus Synthesiser from www.clockworkrobot.com. This modular synth is based on an Atari Punk Console and all components are provided in the bundle to build your own portable synth that will fit inside an altoids mint tin. Neat.

I decided with this kit I wanted to house the ciruit in a larger enclosure. I also picked up some standard linear pots and extra wire to house the buttons and knobs free from the pcb board.

Very comprehensive instructions can be found on the clockworkrobot.com website and the board is clearly marked.

The completed kit

 

Linear variable resistors replance the surface mount mini pots

 

Minijack outputs, again, mounted away from the board.

 

This kit makes use of two IC chips for the oscillators. The Led flashs in time with the wave of Osc 1.

 An onboard speaker augments the minjack out.

Overall the soldering went well on this project. There are a couple of joints that could have been neater and I have strengthened the joins around the ground and LED, as they were naturally rather weak and exposed. On reflection, I think in future projects I will use a finer tip for the iron and experiment using copper wire instead of single core. The kit was completed in 3 sittings, totalling around 5 hours. 

Now to to think about the enclosure. I'll post a short video of the machine in operation and document the enclosure in my next posts.