Do it yourself crew in the house?

[TubularCorporation]

GPIO from a Raspberry Pi running Sunvox?

 

 

EDIT: just replace the LEDs in that video with relays or something.

Edited May 26, 2017 by RSP

[psn]

MIDI Widget + some solenoids?

 

http://www.midiwidget.com

[TubularCorporation]

I still haven't finished that Jasper synth yet, for the dumbest possible reason - I haven't gotten around to designing a case for it yet, and I don't want to put the stock jacks on just to use it and then have to take them off again when it's time to hook up the final off-board ones. Other than that it's been finished for months.

[Braintree]

Yeah, no need for a full-fledged "robot"

 

Just some solenoids

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKzLCb6uvQE

 

 

I guess you would only need three for blast beats, but it's still $1k 

[TubularCorporation]

Well, I finally got of my ass and finished the Jasper synth that I started before my move last fall.

 

I still need to build an enclosure and add a MIDI interface but it's already working and calibrated and sounds really, really good.

 

I've never been lucky enough to play a real Wasp but this thing sounds as good as any of the demos I've heard.

 

 

 

Looks like partial kits are currently available, plus there's a Jasper-specific MIDI board (I had to get a regular Wasp MIDI retrofit kit back when I was getting parts for mine) and files for 3d printing enclosure now, so if you can solder it's a good time to grab one.  Not the fastest build in the world, but not that difficult, just a lot of parts to source and fiddle with.

 

 

I was a bit skeptical of the keyboard but it's really responsive and easy to play.

Edited April 24, 2018 by RSP

[thawkins]

That looks good. Sounds good too. Damn it's pretty cheap too. Does it have MIDI input also?

 

I have decided my next DIY project should be two wooden blocks to act as some sort of rack enclosure to my MS2000R in order to reclaim some of that sweet sweet desktop real estate.

[TubularCorporation]

No MIDI input stock, but standard Wasp MIDI retrofits work (there's even a place to put a pin header for them) and now there's also a MIDI addon board specifically for this that also has MIDI out, so you can use the capacitve keyboard to play other stuff.  No MIDI from the controls though, and apparently adding CV i/o is a hassle (other than the trigger input for the envelopes that already has a pin header on the stock board but no hole for the jack on the front panel - I'm waiting to install it because I want to put the jack on the i/o panel of my enclosure when I build that).  All of the CV mods for the original Wasp should work but from what I've seen in the Muffwiggler build thread you would need a fair amount of additional circuitry to actually make it work right (and safely) with Eurorack so nobody seems to have bothered trying.  Once it has MIDI i/o and an analog trigger input that'll be enough for me,

 

My only complaint so far is that you have to set the pitch knob for osc 2 to almost 2:00 for unison, and I don't think there's any way to adjust that.  It's not a big deal so I haven't really looked in to it yet.  Also it would be nice if there was hard sync but I don't think that would even be possible with this design, since they're actually primitive digital oscillators.

 

Also I need to recalibrate the glide control, because the procedure in the build guide is a little different fro the original service manual and the original one makes a lot more sense but I'd already put all the knobs on before I noticed that.

[TubularCorporation]

I'm about 75% done with a GSSL it's basically ready to go in the enclosure, but Iv'e still got to wire up some switches, calibrate it, make sure it works, add the sidechain "turbo" mod and upgraded power supply filtering, and recalibrate), half way through one of these (got as far as I could with extra parts on-hand, need to order all of the weird value resistors and caps I didn't have, and a couple ICs, and get it done in time for a show in mid June), and I got all the resistors on the board for one of these before I moved last summer, so finishing it and adding a breakout that moves the little pin header patchbay onto a panel with mini banana plugs is third in line.  I want/need to build a Jurgen Haible Krautrock Phaser (have the PCB, don't have the parts or enclosure) and a Crush-N-Blend (buffered wet/dry box for doing parallel compression) in an enclosure with a patch panel of some sort to pair with the GSSL so I can easily insert it at different points in ITB or OTB effects chains with or without a wet/dry mix (or use the wet/dry for other gear) and then after that it might be time to start saving up and building some video synth modules.  I'm really not that interested in going full Eurorack for music, but modular video synthesis is a whole other story - it's just about my favorite thing ever but it was pretty much unattainable for anyone until the last couple years.   can't afford fancy, prebuilt modules but I can definitely build some kits and DIY stuff.

 

I was really getting in to this stuff at my last apartment, but it was pretty cramped in there and it made working tedious and slow, and then after I moved I was busy unpacking and setting up and then the workshop was cold all winter and I didn't want to hang out in there.  It's been good to get back in to making stuff, and it really keeps me from wanting to buy stuff (other than parts).

 

I also want to start a new guitar this summer, I've had the wood and hardware sitting around for ages but my last place was just too small, any time I worked on anything with wood I'd spend twice as much time cleaning up as I did working and it just took the joy out of it. Now that I have a dedicated workshop space I don't have to worry about cleaning up as much.

 

Should be a fun summer (unless your idea of "fun" involves going outside).

Edited May 7, 2018 by RSP

[Ragnar]

did I post already? I actively use weird scripts in that Reaper JS thing for MIDI generation. Selected Ambient Cubes 92-92 used a sort of 'freeform' variant with no real time signature just 'arcs' of midi with closer to per-sample granularity. It was based on a NURBS-->bezier script I found by some guy named HUNT CHANG and I remember the formula was not INTENSE but large enough the image was rotated and had to rotate it back in MS Paint, lol.

 

I've also made wackier ideas for scripts/plug-ins that weren't as good, again NURBS, I tried to do an MCompressor type thing with with NURBS for the heck of it? Also adapted into a waveshaper cause it's easy enough to 'convert' once you have it made as a compressor. Forgot if it really sounded noticeably interesting or not

 

NURBS for reference

 

http://www.kastenmarine.com/why_NURBS.htm

 

https://www.rhino3d.com/nurbs

 

so like the waveshaper would just be 2D nurbs? Or even 1D nurbs? lol

 

 

I also have a high precision parametric EQ that did realtime calculations that way too but that was stupid. But I still use the version that just calculates the coefficients that way (so there's some lag when moving the EQ around, not used for 'dynamic EQ'), there might be a benefit like danker EQ curves. Not sure. I also heard biquad filters have problems with bass resolution and thought it might stem from limits of floating point? dunno

 

Edit: didn't really explain, the benefit of NURBS is that supposedly ANY curve is possible with them. bezier can't draw a perfect circle, for example

Edited May 7, 2018 by Ragnar

[TubularCorporation]

So I've finally gotten around to making an enclosure for the Jasper, although I don't think it'll be done in time for this Friday's show (it would go faster if I wasn't doing it all with hand tools, apart from a little drilling). I've got the bottom and sides pretty much done, now I'm waiting for the epoxy to cure on the brass standoffs that it will sit on (only the left side for now, I need to take the jacks off of the PCB to make the right side fit flush and I don't want o do that until after the show, rather than risk not having the time to finish it this week and ending up without any output jacks when it's time to use it).

 

Once it's all together with a finish and some black screws to match the front panel I think it's going to look great and it'll be a lot easier to carry around and store.

 

[sweepstakes]

Probably not sexy enough for this thread but I think I'm going to finally buy a spool of Mogami cable and some plugs so I can roll my own cables. I've been meaning to do this for like 10+ years. I probably could have saved myself hundreds if I had done this sooner.

[TubularCorporation]

I need to do that too, although I hate making cables.  I've been getting by on Monoprice stuff pretty well for a few years, but I had a few of them fail recently and the problem is once they fail you can't repair them because they're all potted in epoxy (even hot melt glue would have been manageable), so you have to replace the plugs completely.  Which undoes a lot of the economy of getting them to begin with, especially the short ones.

 

 

Next paycheck I'll loo for some decent quality, bulk 1/4" plugs and get a bunch, start with repairing the stuff I have and then get a spool of bulk cable later in the fall.

 

Making cables really is the worst, though.  Or at least second worst, the worst is either wiring up the controls and jacks in a pedal or making ribbon cables from scratch when you don't own a crimp tool (I don't).

Edited August 19, 2018 by RSP

[sweepstakes]

I'm probably being naive here but I'm actually kind of excited about it. It was fun shopping around for the different plugs. I plan to start by making a couple 1/4" -> RCA stereo cables. However, I couldn't find any nice red & white pairs (I don't think they even had any for 1/4"), so I got red & white heat shrink tubing to color code the ends and some wider black tubing to bind the pairs.  It'll be nice to finally have some classy-looking cables, especially if I made them myself.

[TubularCorporation]

Probably more just me not liking making cables.  It's one of those things that always takes longer than I expect.

[TubularCorporation]

Just barely managed to get it done enough to take to the show tonight.  It was all just hacked together with hand tools and no planning so it's a bit wonky but it's solid and works well enough.

 

Not sure if I'll finish this one up or just go right in to doing a second version from the ground up, I need to shave off about half an inch of width and height from the design to get it to fit in the case I want to keep it in, and that should be no problem if I start from this design, replace all of the internal bracing and mounting rails with aluminum (used some precut 0.5"x0.5" poplar that a neighbor was getting rid of for this version), and shape the end pieces from a single 1/2" board instead of two pieces. Also the final version will have a strip of wood or something mounted over the gap between the keyboard and front panel, but it's not worth the hassle on this version.

 

Only had TS jacks around so I haven't wired up the filter input or headphone output, and I probably won't bother installing the MIDI board in this version since I'll just be rebuilding in the next month or two anyhow.

 

 

Edited August 24, 2018 by RSP

[sweepstakes]

OK, yeah, LOTS of mistakes made / lessons learned from making my first stereo cable, but it was a neat exercise, and now I have one with nice interconnects that's just the length I wanted!

[sweepstakes]

Lessons for posterity (probably obvious to anyone who isn't a dumbass like me):

- Buy the right type of cable. I got mic cable which has 3 contacts instead of 2, so I ended up wasting one and the one I did use was a lot smaller than would have been preferable. This seems to work fine and I'll be able to use it should I ever need it for XLR (or TRS) but it would've been a little easier and probably more resilient otherwise.

- Strip insulation carefully. I made a little hook to compensate, but I broke quite a few of the copper strands on the smaller (not ground) part of the cable, so it'll probably give out at some point. Fortunately it'll actually be repairable, unlike my crumbling empire of Hosas.

- Especially when making a stereo cable, measure everything. I just eyeballed everything so it's funky and imperfect and won't spool nicely, but I don't really mind for my first go at it.

- Get all your stuff in the right order before you commit (i.e. solder) anything. I was dumb and forgot to put one of the plastic sleeves on in the right part so I had to put electrical tape over it instead. Whoops.

- I cut a bunch of 1" strips of wider heat shrink to keep the cables together and put them on every foot or so. Splitting it up like that worked OK but I'd probably go every 6" or so instead, and maybe use slightly longer strips, maybe 1.5" to 2".

- Also on the heat shrink tip, probably get a proper tool for that - I was just using a  Bic lighter and got scorch marks all over the red & white pieces. That said, I think I can just rub those out, so it might not be a big deal. But I did also melt the ends of the  plastic sleeve things that came with the jacks which is a minor bummer. Getting black heat shrink is a good move for the lazy but obviously will remove the ability to color-code.

- Don't put your soldering iron temp too high (duh). I haven't soldered in a while and started it out way too hot, so there was gobs of black gunk in the first couple blobs of solder. Also obvious to most, tin everything first.

Edited August 25, 2018 by sweepstakes

[psn]

Looks great, good job!

[Gnarbot]

Hello. I’m new. Not great with a soldering iron but i managed to complete the half built MFOS expander / ultimate at the top of this pic and a little drone synth not pictured.

Edited August 26, 2018 by Gnarbot

[Hautlle]

Been getting back into DIY after about 18 months of learning/exploring my first 6U x 104hp of eurorack.

 

2 Benjolins and an Antumbra Rot8 sequencer are finished, currently working on a Korb Modular Folder VCO.

 

MI Veils and an Equation Composer are up next.

 

 

Edited September 27, 2018 by hautlle

[TubularCorporation]

I know this is an old post I'm responding to but 1) I want to top the thread and 2) it's really good to see so many modules running OK on that power supply.  I'm going to be converting an old road case into a 9u x 108hp Eurorack case and that's the only power supply I have.  If I buy a new one I won't have money for the parts to convert the case and vice versa.

[Hautlle]

On 5/21/2020 at 5:58 PM, TubularCorporation said:

I know this is an old post I'm responding to but 1) I want to top the thread and 2) it's really good to see so many modules running OK on that power supply.  I'm going to be converting an old road case into a 9u x 108hp Eurorack case and that's the only power supply I have.  If I buy a new one I won't have money for the parts to convert the case and vice versa.

Oh wow, that power supply couldn't power much beyond that.  I upgraded to a Trogotronic M15 not long after because I added some other module and it would just cycle the power constantly when I tried to power up.  I still haven't got that fucking Folder module working properly.....

 

That case is nearing full.  I just ordered the Ryk M185 sequencer kit and I'm eagerly awaiting it!

 

 

 

[psn]

THC Recursive Machine looks like a fun little project. Having built the TTSH and four Syncussions from THC, I can vouch for the quality of his kits.

https://thehumancomparator.net/rm.html

[thawkins]

On 5/23/2020 at 7:06 AM, psn said:

THC Recursive Machine looks like a fun little project. Having built the TTSH and four Syncussions from THC, I can vouch for the quality of his kits.

https://thehumancomparator.net/rm.html

Is that eurorack compatible?

[psn]

23 minutes ago, thawkins said:

Is that eurorack compatible?

Doesn't look like it!