DrBunsen

There was an article about home silkscreening in Makezine.com's blog recently. Didn't look too hard/expensive to set up, and the results looked OK.

2U instrument rack cases

HD44780 VFDs - 16x2, two lots of 10. $US 79.99 buy it now price.

My Digitech Quad 4 can do this. Some of the I/O maps can route one input to two or more effects in parallel. It only uses one DSP though, so it creates virtual independant FX units by timeslicing (I assume) It's a rocking mutiFX btw :) I haven't so far been able to track down specs for the I/O pins on the Propeller. If they're fast enough, independant A/D/As could be multiplexed on one pin. There's 32 pins though, so there's probably enough to be getting along with. Dedicating 8, 12 or 16 to a resistor ladder would be a cheap way of getting audio in and out for a proof-of-concept. 16 for in and 16 for out, for example. Or you could write a software S/PDIF engine and use an external pro ADA or soundcard. I was imagining something like running independant DSP algorhythms on each core and passing results digitally between them.

Found clone plans for the Coron DS7 and DS8 drum synths here. I'll add them to the wiki page.

Hey stryd, I have a box of about 40 LED matrix modules at home, 8x8s if I remember right. They're mounted on 1U rack boxes with some kind of control electronics behind them. I bought them for the boxes :-)

Any word on the interface? If they're HD44780 compatible, we should snap up all four lots of 10 and divvy them out on the forums. SmashTV??

If anyone wants them, bid a dollar or two higher than me. I've got cold feet on the cost - they're dirt cheap if you want motorfaders though.

Like software synthesis and effects? ;D

That link's messed up, cheater.

Wierd and totally offtopic, but it could be a useful tool for someone (softsynth? FX? MBHPTV?) Parallax Propellor Available in DIP form, around $20. 8 x 32 bit cores running at 80 MIPS 80 MHz = 20 MIPs each (each instruction takes 4 clock cycles), 32 shared I/O pins, 512 words of RAM per core and shared space of 8kwords RAM + 8k ROM. High level OO language, free dev tools. VGA, composite and audio out. $200 dev kit or a DIY version being developed in the user forums.

That's a really old design from memory, seen it around before. Any particular reason you decided to go with that rather than a MBHP Midification?

Found this on the Make blog. Modify a cheap inkjet printer and use resist ink. Print your PCB layout direct to the copper. Pass through again for solder mask and component layout "silkscreen". Cheaper (for multiple boards), more accurate and repeatable than toner transfer (they say) [urlhttp://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcb/etch/directinkjetresist.htm]A basic guide - looks like some of the details are yet to be documented, but there should be enough there to get a curious hacker started.

You might also want to check out a tool called a nibbler. It does pretty much what the name implies - it's a hand operated tool with a tiny jaw at the bottom that nibbles out a small cut at a time. You have to drill a start hole for the jaw to fit through.

The lid on those cash boxes would be perfect for protecting knobs in transit. I'd mount a front panel inside the box, and keep the lid as is.

Grr. I really wish I had bought the 16 x 16 POS keyboard on ebay a few months back. Perfect for a drum SEQ.

Fantastic work! I would like to make one small suggestion: it would be nice if the separate output jacks could be set up as an interrupt jack. ie tip-ring-sleeve, so that a mono plug just steals the signal from the mix, but a stereo plug steals it and then returns it to the mix bus. Then you could use a stereo to 2x mono splitter lead to patch each SID to an FX pedal. This would be easier than trying to design in a whole new bus and pots for FX sends. On the other hand, you could always use the left stereo out on the existing board for an FX send and the right as the dry mono mix. A small external headphone amp in a box with a 9V battery, plug it into the SID out you want to cue.

I've seen some 2x40 VFDs around. They look the filth. stryd_one, tell me more about this OLED order??

So cute!

Hi Steve. It would be great if you could add this writeup (or a link to it) to the DocuWIKI

So would I - it would be great for CCs and NRPNs. Will it be possible to add support for more AOUTs? 8 is good, 16 better, 48 (drum mode) best!

OK, I've made my edits, comments and add-ons, alterations welcome. I've defined the following sub-headings to make things clearer. # Preamble: # Defining/minimum Features: # Extended Features: # Desired Features for MIDIbox implementation: # Extended Optional Features for MIDIbox implementation: I mean optional AOUTs, one per instrument/track, replacing a DOUT, and up to the user how many they want to add. I have an idea for a low-low-cost AOUT: a two bit (four values inc max and zero) AOUT could be built based on the AOUT_LC but using only two resistors in the ladder, and a minimum of code space. That would give enough velocity variation for me. Others might want to build a four-bit (16 step) AOUT or the full AOUT_LC. Or I might use some cheap 8 bit DAC ICs I picked up recently: I don't think it's shit. You should feel free to design what you want, that's what MB is all about. Dream it, build it code it, share it, steal it, modify it :)

No, I'm pretty sure everyone here has some improvements in mind over the original, just using the original TRs as a starting point for their familiar and user friendly UI. Hence my suggestions about how to lay out the page - first define "TR-like", then list our suggestions for improvements. Yes, that's my impression of this particular thread. There are other threads with widely varying UI suggestions, which you can find links to under User Projects->Alternative Sequencers in the wiki. But I don't think your design is a huge departure, sonicwarrior. It's definitely TR-like and on-topic for this thread. Leader? We don' need no steenking leader! Anyone's allowed to edit a wiki page. I just suggested some improvements to make clear the difference between documenting the existing TRs and our improvements. And I don't see this as one project either, with a proscriptive approach to what is and isn't right. It's more like a starting point where people can build what suits them. If someone comes up with a firmware and UI that everyone else likes, then cool, but I don't think we're all about The One True Sequencer here. Hence no project leaders. All just my own opinion and impressions. Ah, ok I get you now. Perfect example. I want velocity on my AOUTs, so I'm going to have to work that out for myself, with anyone else who wants to help. I think I will go ahead and make the wiki changes I suggested. Don't worry sonicdude, I'll preserve what you've added.

I thought that list was meant to be a definition of existing "TR like" sequencers. In light of which I'd like to suggest I make the following changes: Insert a preamble about defining "TR like" based on existing sequencers. Define the "TR-like interface" Add a list of our desired features. If there's general approval I'll make the changes. Also the phrase " At least 32 steps per bar as maximum" makes no sense. "At least... as maximum"?

You ought to check out paia.com's synth kits - the modular 9000 series and the Fatman, as well as their Theremin and other stuff. From the front page, click on site map for a full listing of their products.