nebula

Why would you need a decade counter if you've got a PIC?

Old thread, I RESURRECT THEE! I am curious if anybody has built the PAIA 9730 VCF, and if so, what do you think of its sound?

I've never really had the pleasure of using an advanced arpeggiator. I have a few instruments with arpeggiators, and I love to use them, but it always simply arpeggiates the notes played, in some defined order (up, down, order played, random), with the option to add octaves to the range. Things I've always wished for: - rhythmic variance - why must that range enhancement be octaves? certainly nice results could be realized with other intervals - option to always reset the pattern after n steps - because sometimes you want to clip the arpeggiator-generated phrase to a bar, or some other musical value - option to quantize my sloppily played chord right to the beat of the song (i know this would probably be tricky) - ability to change the rhythm - this could be done by delaying and/or muting steps - ability to change the musical passage. for the musical passage, i envision this: typical arpeggiators allow the addition of octaves to the note set. imagine doing away with this mentality for a moment and replacing the "octave" enhancement with simple "varation units", which i call "mutants". each mutant has a list of notes , mathematically related to the notes currently held at input. let's say the arpeggiator has (for the sake of argument) 6 mutants. each mutant could also have arpeggiator parameters unto itself. going back to our "octaves" for a second: if you wanted to achieve a simple arpeggiator that adds notes 1, 2, and 3 octaves up, you would set mutant a, b, and c to +12, +24 and +36 respectively. you would then set the unit to play the entire note list being held down, then play mutant a's note list, then mutant b's note list, and mutant c's note list, all in 8th notes. for something (slightly) more interesting, let's try a simple setup with our base arpeggio and 2 mutants. the base is set to arpeggiate "up", mutant a is set to arpeggiate "down" at +7, and mutant b arpeggiates "up" at +12. if we play a C-Maj triad we'd get this: [pre] C E G D^ B G C^ E^ G^ (notes with a ^ are an octave higher) [/pre] another editable parameter might be how quickly, rhythmically, we move from mutant to mutant. so let's fix the base at 4 steps, mutant a at 2 steps, and mutant b at 2 steps. Then you'd get: [pre] C E G C D^ B C^ E^ [/pre] Continuing with this, set mutant B to play at 16th notes, and you'd get this: [pre] C E G C D^ B G D^ C^ E^ [/PRE] (except that the D-B-G-D phrase would be 16th notes) ... to summarize: - a base arpeggiator - a number of "mutants", each with their own set of arpeggiator parameters and a mathematical (and/or musical scale-based) relationship to the base - a simple, event-driven sequencer that selects between the base and any mutants for a predefined period (in musical and/or logical values) a hardware UI for this would probably have a button to select each of the above (base arpeggiator, each mutant, master sequence). a good-sized display with soft keys could probably show all parameters for any mutant. choose the parameter with a soft key and adjust up or down. ... please understand that this is me dreaming of an arpeggiator that i'd like to have, and since this thread is an open invitation to share, i'm doing exactly that. i am not requesting or presuming anything. so when will it be ready, stryd? ;D

And as much as I'd like to thank those people for choosing my front panel, it seems pretty evident from the results which we're going with, even with a few extra votes.

twin, i just saw your edited first page post. if it's possible to order more fronts than backs, i'll be in for 3 and 1. if fronts=backs, i'll take 2 and 2. plus, my friend analog-x who is away right now will be in for 1 and 1.

I really like that idea. I would love to have a MBFM cosmetically matched to the MB SID. The PT-10 strikes me as a great tweakers' box, so I'd be all over it. I feel the same as the previous poster who suggested that it would be nice to see a MBSEQ with an integrated LED/button matrix in one slick enclosure. My other wish would be an 80-character wide LCD, to overcome the split "two groups of 8" design most people have used so far. Opinions, of course, are like assholes - everybody's got one. I'm sure whatever you design will be awesome.

I'm actually going to order up a couple of extras. If you turn it over, you have a plain panel with the display on the left, and holes suitable for buttons, jacks, switches, whatever. Wanna whip something up in a hurry? Grab a PT-10 (or cut a big hole in another enclosure, etc), stick a spare panel on there, enjoy. Plug the spare holes if desired.

Colour me impressed. Not like "oh that's cute" impressed, more like "I'm not worthy" impressed. I had no idea this was going on behind the scenes, as I was only directed to this thread today when I enquired about MAX525 in the chat, but just let me say to all who have contributed this board: Your dedication, brilliance and selflessness is incredible, and should be an inspiration to us all. As soon as I see a schematic I'm-a-gonna build that bitch.

Cool, but on this page TK uses the term "engine" to describe each mode of operation. The display has an "E." field which stands for "engine" to select Lead, Bassline, Multi, or Drums. Regardless of whether we're discussing V1 or V2, the 4 "SID engine" buttons on the front are being used to select each CORE, regardless of whether they are connected to 1 or 2 SIDs. I'm in for whatever front panel we go with, but to me this is ambiguous enough that somebody should consider a terminology change, whether it's this panel or TK's firmware.

Isn't TK using the term "SID Engine" to describe the SID firmware mode (bass line, multi, lead), yet we are using the word "SID Engine" on this front panel to distinguish between which core we're addressing? I mean, I know I'm being nitpicky, but ... :-\ Maybe we should use the word "core" or something instead?

I like the graphic waveforms in the alternate, but prefer the simple lines of the original (i.e. where LED's are grouped, the "alternate" has the lines go thick and encompass the label, but the original just has a nice, clean line). I wish we could have the original but with graphic waveform selection.

I'm all for the less expensive version even if it's slightly less durable. BTW can somebody post links or something to the diferent versions of the artwork? I see Wilba's two MB-6582 Wiki pages which look very similar (albeit not the same) ... is that what you're talking about?

Awesome. Until I saw that I always kinda questioned if this was real. (Sorry)

Where are you located, goonzy?

Chat room constructive feedback: (1) Because of my own stupidity I left myself in the chat on my computer at work. I'm at home now and I can't get in because I'm already in on another computer. Is there an admin who can "boot" me, or can it be configured to boot the previous instance if I log in from another location? (2) Can we turn off the #%$%$&!! profanity filter?

Attn. people in Ontario, Canada: I have a shipping address in Buffalo NY, and I will be picking up my displays there the weekend after they arrive. (My fiancee lives in Buffalo, so I go there every weekend). Save on shipping and duty by having your displays shipped with mine. If you are in or near Toronto, or otherwise anywhere near the QEW, and you're interested, send me a pm.

In other words: it looks the same except that more current is available on the 5V rail, and the connector is different. So you should be able to easily use a C128 power supply with MIDIBox SID.

I think that's a very nice looking LCD, and I'd be in for one. Sadly, the price is not as good as many LCDs sold individually on eBay. I wonder if they could be negotiated with for a better price, or if we should try to scavenge something really cheap through an eBay vendor. Examples: here, here and here. I would rather buy in with the group, so I'm in for whatever, but we should try to find better pricing than this.

I am interested. I tried to get a bulk order like this going with a friend who works at a major American component vendor (probably PacTec's biggest reseller), and at the time she told me PacTec didn't want to play ball. But if you can put something together, I am interested in one on the cheap! Cheers

NICE SCORE! Will you accept PayPal?

Is anybody working on a bulk order of PacTec PT-10?

Hi Stephen, Building any of the MIDIbox projects, especially for a newbie, takes time and patience. If you're interested enough to have lurked here for a couple of days then you're probably able to do it, but there is always a certain amount of frustration involved. As far as building a MIDIbox SID, the nice thing is that you can start really small and then just keep expanding until you have realized your project. It's not a huge investment to build a very basic MIDIbox SID with just a "Core" and a "SID" module. If it works for you, then add a display, some buttons and a rotary encoder so that you can control it using more than just MIDI. If that works for you, consider adding more Cores and SIDs. If that works for you, consider building a control surface. There's no commitment and you can stop when it becomes too much. The community here is mostly pretty helpful, but you won't get many polite answers if it looks like you're not trying to find info yourself. In the case of the 6581 vs. 8580: there is a very audible difference between the two. Which you prefer is quite subjective, with the general consensus that the 6581 (older one) sounds more like video games while the 8580 sounds more like an analog synth. But -- I've already said enough. There are posts in this very forum with audio examples of both. I think there are even examples to be found right on Thorsten's site at http://ucapps.de that are played on both types of SID. I would say try this: build a Core and SID module. If you have both types of SID chips, try out both kinds and judge for yourself if you want to favour one over the other, or use both. (Don't forget to change the regulator on the SID board when you change your SID chip). The MIDIbox SID is arguably the most comprehensive, flexible, and best sounding SID solution there is, but it is also the most work. Good luck!

A summary of the golden era of Yamaha FM: DX7: 6 sine wave operators, rate/level EGs, monotimbral, 16 voice. (DX1 is like DX7 but bigger UI and keyboard is splittable). DX9: 4 sine wave operators, rate/level EGs, monotimbral, 16 voice. DX27/100: 4 sine wave operators, ADDSR EGs, monotimbral, 8 voice. (DX21 is similar but more storage and keyboard is splittable). TX81Z: 4 8-wave operators, ADDSR EGs, 8-way multitimbral, 8 voice. no pitch envelope (WTF???) DX11: keyboard version of TX81Z with pitch envelope and after-touch. TX816: rack module with 8 individual "TF1" modules, each of which is like a DX7 with virtually no user interface. DX21/27/100 also lacks the "fine" operator frequency control, so not as many carrier/modulator frequency ratios are possible. The 6-op synths have 32 algorithms available, the 4-op synths have only 8 algorithms available.

vibration will knock ic's out of machined sockets if you're not careful...

Is it any wonder? Check out: http://www.unease.se/proone.htm Check out the "Don't Go Replica" mp3 sample - yum!