Artesia

Ok, Access Virus - TI.. Some of the things it contains: * 2X Freescale 150mhz dspb56367ac150 DSP's (the nord lead 3 has 6x 120's), * 6x (?) samsung k6r4008v10-ui10 memory chips, * A totally seperate keyboard controller with 4mhz pic (pic16c238-04/sp) - connected to virus thru midi ! , * lots of ne5532 opamps, * Somesort of ST electronics dsp (lettering unreadable) connected to a samsung kex400874e-uf70 memory chip, * Cirrus logic, one chip adc/dac cs12556-c31, * Texas Instruments tusb3200ac streaming usb controller, * Lots of White leds, * A white finish thats highly prone to shoing up dust, grime & scratches, * Very heavy aluminum end caps (at least it feels solid ;) ), * the front wooden bar is mdf with wooden vineer, lime ? * A 'trailing blob' psu -inside- the case, * a really dodgy looking power cap.. that looked ready to explode.

Nah.. nothing that cleche ;) ...i just dont spend my money on beer, drugs and bling :) ...oh and lets see, the waldorf xt & the pulse wheere ebay adquired dirt cheap due to shot psus, the two matrix 1000's where pickedd up off ebay cheaply (no one sems to blow them up ;) ) ..the nord and the virus where lends, the evolver keys was a returned item due to a fault & ownership of the andromeda and the evolver rack where the result of the kind of agressive bartering in price, that makes store managers cry. :) ..right, photies up inabit ..dentist wants to see me first.

photos edited & on my websapce now ...however too luddy tired to hack out the post ..will do that tommorow at some point. In addition to the andromeda, theres also pics of oberheim matrix 1000 (yup enough of them on the web too), waldorf pulse, waldorf xt, access virus ti & poly evolver rack

Good to see conversations plodding along nicely on these lines :) ..if i get round to it, i'll do a little test with pwm, led & a ldr ... n' let you know how well that solution works :) ..its a sweet way round a dac mind :)

well.. you might want to run by that again, as well.. although the Evolver sounds very prophet/oberheimey ..it's PA397 filters dont sound anything like the cem3396's as seen in the Matrix 1000. Where as they both sound really fat in bottom end and colour (and yes the evolver could compete quite well for that with the moog) ..they have a distinctly different top end; the evolver goes really high and really bright ...where as the matrix 1000 with the cem3396 has a charmingly soft top end. Note: also dont forget, unlike alot of analogs, that the evolver has in additoion to the basic analog oscilators, the capacity to generate any waveform you want.. including a bank of ones borrowed from the original prophet :) ..whilst not as immensely powerful for this, as something like the original wave was or the Q+ ...you do have more analog signal path and processing than waldorf offers. Give them a listen and see what you think... the evolver rack is really fun to program ...and can be coaxed into sounding great quite easily :) ...it takes a little more work with the alesis to really make the sounds shine.

Well after more months than id like to contemplate ..the alesis andromeda finally arrived.. Got a ton of photos of its innards & those of the access virus ti, which i will uplload later when i have time. Theres a hell of alot of stuff inside an andromeda i have to say.. build qualitys much better than expected.. although its tempting to make some replacement cheerywood end panels & some other mods when its out of warranty ;) and if you see one for a good price, its worth bagging as they really do pack quite a punch for programing power.. not as mercilessly agressive & insane as a moog or a dsi poly evolver ..however very nice for silky/gritty complex sounds thatll not overwelm everything else ..does an increabile take on the church organ sound (didn't know an analog could do that !) only downside is i had to take it appart for more reasons than documenting it.. in transit, the little bit of shaking round it had been subjected to.. was enough to loosen up some connections internally ..which prevented it from tuning up the first time round. That remedyed that.. however these things shouldnt really happen :/ Btw heres a shocker.. the virus TI contains just TWO of the freescale dsp chips that the nord lead 3 uses SIX of ! ...hmm food for thought. Right more later :)

interesting points.. so what are peeps thoughts on high fidelity offerings by other companys ?

well.. by the time the $ factor becomes relavent for me ...itll have dropped to something slightly more sensible than £4k ...especially with the general quality of plugins going up ...prices have been dropping for sometime. Mind heres a thought, what would an equivalent quality stack of hardware effects and processors cost ? ..thatd really sting ! ..and think of all the space it would take up ! ..cant exactly put it in a rucksack and go walkabout ;) ...if things got to that point, i would rather invest in really high quality software ...than either mediocre processing ..or huge space invading (scalability limited) hardware.

well at the end of the day... when some money is made from using such softwares.. i will gladly sponsor my given palllete of tools with my wallet & opt for full registration... even if it does set me back afew quid ! (..mind better that, than blowing a whole bunch more money in the short term, finding out which ones you'll actually use in the end). For now i'm just looking to 'test the water' with the current cream of the crop (I'm very picky about fidelity..).

Hi, i've been looking at the most recent plugin collections, to 'demo'; in order to track down the highest fidelty ones of the crop... particularly curious about reverbs and compressors. suggestions here welcome. I've been toying with the plugin collection by Waves (http://www.waves.com/) ...and fairly impressed so far ..however peoples views on them on the web range from resounding praise ...to absolutely slating them to the worst degree ! Whats the real story folks ? ..could do with some balanced oppinions here :) (..however we also have the Cambridge Plugins arriving for vst users soon too ...hmm !)

Yey... Nearly done with the user interface ...come up with some sweet new tricks ..would show you now ..tho it would just spoil it ;) complete UI shots will be up soon as im done... Think of backlit lettering sitting behind smoked perspex ;)

Yeah ...was pretty cruel all things accounted for.. and asdas 24 hour thing is somewhat of a joke.. However heres what happened to heathrow & gatwick airport ...and they got it way worse: http://www.queenhill.demon.co.uk/airspeak/air_speak.htm A colleague emailed this to me, and I just couldn't resist giving it a wider audience. Airport announcers were tricked into making these announcements under the pretence that they were foreign names. Here is the story ... "We‘d go and sit on the balcony at Terminal 3 at Heathrow, directly under one of the speakers as the roof is low. We put the tape machine in our bag with the microphone poking out of the top. We‘d look for a flight that had arrived in the last 40 minutes from somewhere where you‘d expect mental names, then write a letter saying, 'Could you go and pick up etc. etc. from flight, etc.' That way, it looked like it‘d been arranged in advance as the flight arrival details were written on the note. We also wore an ID-style badge and carried a mobile so that we looked like taxi drivers. One of us would get the first one read out and then the other did the second. We‘ d pretend to be unable to pronounce it and then hand them the bit of paper with the name written on it. Long winded, but well worth it! "We got rumbled doing the 'My colleague just, etc.' They actually threatened to arrest us as apparently they‘d actually had complaints over the previous weeks! We were toying with doing it again just to see what they‘d arrest us for, but we rang Chris and all he said was, 'Go to Gatwick!' This is the reason the last one sounds so crap ‘cos Gatwick is a much noisier place and the ceilings are high, and it was difficult to get near a speaker. The lengths we had to go to .... Also On The website: If Operating Systems Ran The Airlines... This is an old chestnut, I couldn't resist bringing it up to date. UNIX Airways: Everyone brings one piece of the plane along when they come to the airport. They all go out on the runway and put the plane together piece by piece, arguing non-stop about what kind of plane they are supposed to be building. Air DOS: Everybody pushes the airplane until it glides, then they jump on and let the plane coast until it hits the ground again. Then they push again, jump on again, and so on ... Mac Airlines: All the stewards, captains, baggage handlers and ticket agents look and act exactly the same. Every time you ask questions about details, you are gently but firmly told that you don't need to know, don't want to know, and everything will be done for you without your ever having to know, so just shut up. Windows Air: The terminal is pretty and colorful, with friendly stewards, easy baggage check and boarding, and a smooth take-off. After about 10 minutes in the air, the plane explodes with no warning whatsoever. This has spawned a huge magazine industry dedicated to customer survival, which eclipses all other aero magazines on the newsagent's shelf and ensures saturation advertising for the airline. Windows NT Air: Just like Windows Air, but costs more, uses much bigger planes, and takes out all the other aircraft within a 40-mile radius when it explodes. Windows XP Air: Having booked your flight, if you change your luggage you have to book a new seat. There is no refund. After flying for an hour the plane lands. The aeroplane is upgraded and the flight resumes. This happens again every hour. After a few hours, you are told that the plane cannot be upgraded further and you have to book a seat on a brand new, more expensive plane. There is no refund. Linux Line: Disgruntled employees of all the other airlines decide to start their own. They build the planes, ticket counters, and pave the runways themselves. They charge a small fee to cover the cost of printing the tickets, but you can also download and print the ticket yourself. When you board the plane, you are given a seat, four bolts, a wrench and a copy of SEAT-HOWTO.HTML. Once settled, the fully adjustable seat is very comfortable, the plane leaves and arrives on time without a single problem; the in-flight meal is wonderful. You try to tell customers of the other airlines about the great trip, but all they can say is, "You had to do *what* with the seat?" RISCOS Airways: You thought this British airline long dead and are amazed to discover they are still in business - flying many types of airplane from several manufacturers. The seats are classic and the staff are a likeable but sometimes limited bunch (they are obviously not paid enough). The plane flies fast and easy. You try to tell your friends about the great trip, but they all pretend to be deaf. BeOS Air: Well-organized, comfortable, reliable, safe, fast. Great! If only they flew your route. Then there are the Feeder Lines... Palm Am: Cool and stylish image, but the decor is a bit cheap when you look closely. Don't think of flying far or carrying more than your lunch box. WinCE Air: Hyped as Windows Air in a smaller plane, but flew v-e-r-y s-l-o-w and soon ran out of gas, landing you in a ploughed field. And there wasn't even room for your lunchbox. Now re-branded as Air Pocket. Symbian Air Services: The Flying EPOC Line was started by a British aircraft manufacturer, rebranded, bought into by a multinational syndicate and is now the biggest in Europe. It gets you there in style, providing its own airport bus to sync with Windows Air's schedule better than Air Pocket does. Some planes even show in-flight movies. But your friends have all gone deaf again.

Theres afew of these around & its probably a wholly inappropriate... However this one nearly had me fall off my chair & just had to share it somewhere... http://homepage.ntlworld.com/nausicaa.valley/ASDAPrank.mp3

Hi, iv'e tried to get a response out of http://www.telesincro.es/ several times. However they are a big telecoms / network hardware company ..and dont seem to be all that interested in questions which wont sell new products. Never get a response back. My guess is that the displays where an internal short run designed to cut the overall project costs on building a specific line of items & its not usually their lne of work. There is indeeed a max232 on the display between the port and the microprocessor; the exact pin names on the chip are written on the connector pint out list in the first post. As for connecting it, there are two sepperate max232 buffered ins and outs fully connected to the user port. i took a pot luck guess that at least one of those ins would actually listen to serial data at a number of low rates tried.. which turned out to be unfruitious. Given that weird configuration, im guessing that the interface is for a totally custom data display solution whereby the original hardware talks bidirectionally to the display pic ...spitting up specific data. As far as i can figure, the nearest point which a sensible connection could be gleaned, is by connecting a suitable driver chip to the OKI c1162 a c1163 VFD Line driver chips ...which accept 'serial' data and dump it in a 'tram line' fashon to the display. Connection speed isnt a huge issue, i just want to make a big, bright display for throwing up Cue's & lyirc prompts on stage... a standard lcd is a little too small and 'dim' at times for this.

yes, you are entrely right on my oversight ;) ...still doesn't get me any closer to utilising them tho ;D

Just dug the sods at the top of this pic back out of the box, Havng alot of trouble working out how to Interface them to anything whatsoever... Anyone able to offer any help ? They Are some 40x2 VFD (floursecent) displays made by a spanish company called telesincro ..model no 209000211/b. the whole thing is self sufficent on 5v ...and powers up with a quick blink of the backlight & with a cursory attempt to spit serial data at it ..i cant get anything to pop up. Im guessing at a chance that it might use a standard protocol ..tho im somewhat baffled & ill informed web-wise... the interface consists of: 1 ? | t1out 2 gnd | 3 ? | r1in 4 ? | r2in 5 ? | t2out 6 +ve | 5V ? 7 gnd | 8 +ve ? | With the above data pins connected to the repective labeled pins of a max232 serial interface chip. this is in turn connected to a philips 80c31bh-3 microcontroller, which has a 74hc373t & 27c256 EEPROM in its vincinity; followed by VFD Line driver chips OKI C1162 & C1163 (and a bunch of ancilliary circuitary to provide VFD Power supply etc) Any ideas ? ...or even a driver chip that can be connected to the c1162 & 1163's ? ....as got three of these huge displays ...and it'd be a shame to waste them !

use 40x2 displays as scribble strips ...about the most economical way to the diy'er ...used as seen on the mbseq. btw on the note of the way this bank unit is layed out ...if another two cv boards where used ...it would be possible to expand the setup to 16 channels of 4 banks ..tho i cant see myself needing that soon. as for the way the bays work, say for instance i wanted a synth with 8 polyphony on moog filters.. i could fill the first slot in each bank with moog filters ...and the less needed ones ..have as few as desired ..besides for non live use can just over dub as many times as you want to make up for lack of filter duplicity. I doubt i'll need access to more than 8 filters simaltainiously ...i expect that if it does expand ..itll just be in the direction of more switchable banks ..so itll be 8x8 ..rather than 8x4 ...eventually. ..right back to building the front panel.

:) These guys rank highly here on the silly factor... what a pose ..lol ! ...oh, and i can think of many uses for insulation tape.. such is the way of the midiboxer ...but this ?

Ha ! ..fixed ...please mystery censor nazi ..have a sense of humour :)

Current INITIAL panel design... with some further refinements and explaination to come ...have started moddding the case already ..btw this is a smoked perspex bonanza ;) (Raised front bezel comes forward by 1/2 inch - Case from Scrap Recycled, HP Infered Laser source/psu) Scematic of internal workings, eight channels of audio in and out (provided by a maudio 1010lt), filters/cv controllable analog thingys grouped togeather in (8) banks of 4. only one 'filter' selectable per an audio channel, two cvs & hard wired trigger can be used where nessusary (ie when installing a VCO). An audio/router is needed to juggle signals around as illistrated, per a bank this will require (in and out) switching of 4 channels between 4 destinations ('filters') Suggestions on practical solutions here are welcome ...got some ideas already :) oh, and the led panel is connected upto the CV & Trigger sources to indicate status.. along with audio in and out levels for the 8 i/o chains.. with the assistance of a vu chip per a bunch of leds (signal indiction below their range provided by plain led)) ...oh and of course indication of which 'filter' is slected needs to be tapped off from the appropriate place. right thats all for now..

ooh ! :)

hmm ...also worth giving optoisolators a try ...allbeit ...may only work with a positive or negative bias over 0v ..mind floating application might work regardless ...shall have to try this when i finally get the remaining components for my moog and arp filters.

funnily enough id noticed it alright :) see the post on new waldorf stuff here: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=8563.0 Only problem with white (got an access virus on loan here) ...is that it shows up muck, dust and scratches like a right sod ..not very good on durability ..looks nice if looked after with a violinists sense of care.. Btw Check out Terratec's komplexer (for me) ..it absolutely slaughters the virus & most other 'virtual analogs' for quality & possibiltys of sound..

yes... ..oh also useful as an overkill way of making any soldering iron temperature 'controlled ' ;)

yeah i truely aborr modern mastering... everying thing is so heavily compresssed, squashed and distorted ..it sounds lifeless and bloody awful.. heres another article on the matter with some indepth comparisons on a number of named recordings.. Btw, as i suspected.. 'la vida loca' is one of the trashiest mastering jobs ever ..its painful to listen to (for more than one reason). http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicrange.htm and http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/radioready.htm and with the clips meantioned: http://www.cdmasteringservices.com/dynamicdeath.htm