Modularman

Hi Thorsten, Thats great, thanks! I will make sure that the new owner is fully aware of this and is able to get this MB Seq up and running. It has never been powered up so hopefully the proceedure will be reasonably straightforward. Keep up the good work! Best regards, Allan

Hi Thorsten, Many thanks for the fast reply. I don't think I have the ability to test usb midi connection and update bootloader, I've been out of MB stuff and electronics for two years and wouldn't know where to start, all of this is just a distant memory to me now :-( Am I ok to sell it as is, obviously making the new owner aware that this needs to be done and debugging may be involved? best regards, Allan

I've had to give up all of my SDIY projects and have a whole bunch of MB parts to sell. I would really prefer to sell everything as one lot rather than split it up Consists of the following parts, all pcb's and parts kits were bought from smashtv 1 of MB Core R4D PCB 1 of MBHP OLP3 PCB 1 x MB SID R2 PCB Fully assembled 1 x Ultracore PCB Fully Assembled 4 x DIN R5 PCB's 3 x DOUT R5 PCB's 1 x MBHP AOUT NG 1 x Set of parts for AOUT NG Including DAC 1 x Pic18F4620 MIOS V1.9F 1 x Pic18F452 MIOS V1.9F 4 x Pic's for Ultracore 16 x 24LC512 4 x DIN R5 parts kits 3 x DOUT R5 Parts kits 1 x Green LCD 80x2 1 x NOS YMF262 and 2 of NOS YAC512 sound chip and dacs for MidiBoxFM Open to sensible offers for the whole lot. I'm in the UK but can also ship to Europe and US.

Hi TK and all, NOW SOLD Seeking permission to sell my nearly completed MB Seq V4, doesn't need many parts or much work to get it up and running. Built most of it a year or two ago and never got the time to complete it. Front panel is 19U rack format, beautifully made by Julian "the beast" Front panel pcb is by Wilba, It has all micro switches fitted, all encoders fitted, turned pin ic sockets fitted. MBHP Core STM32 R1 which I think was from smashtv, fully assembled. I bought this with the Arm STM32 pre soldered in place. Haven't powered it up or tested it but pretty sure it will work fine. Includes two options for LCD display Option 1 - two of 2 x 80 Optrex White transmissive lcd's, white letters on green background (Expensive! these cost GBP28 each) Option 2 - two of 2 x 80 standard green LCD displays Includes 16 of bicolour led's Includes 58 of black push buttons for micro switches Includes 16 of black knobs for encoders Includes one of large black encoder wheel with indent So, all of the knobs, buttons and switches are included to complete the front panel A few hours work and some ribbon cables and TTL IC's and it should be up and running Don't have any time for SDIY anymore so has to go :-(

NOW SOLD! Thanks :-)

Not sure if this should be in this section or the fleamarket but thought it better to seek permission before selling. Sadly I've had to give up electronics so these projects are surplus to requirements and unloved :-( Lots of parts to build an MB-6582, including the following (most of which are in the photo):- Mainboard and control surface pcb's (Both earlier version from Wilba) 8 of NOS SID 6582's, all bought from Wilba - all still in packaging and unopened 4 of PIC 18F4685 (0000 to 0003) From Smash TV 11 of 74HC595 8 of 24LC512 8 of 28 pin wide turned pin IC sockets Two options for LCD Panel, one blue and one green display 100 of 3mm white LED's Encoders, more than enough, with four or five spare Micro switches Front panel and rear panel, both from Schaffer Packtec Case, brand new Not much more needed to build a fully loaded MB6582 Prefer to sell all as one lot rather than split. Price 295 Euros plus shipping

Hi Patrick, Many thanks for the reply. I'd reached the same conclusion on midi merge, I'll probably cheat and use a Philip Rees one I have lying around. I had two Maxtrix 1000's up until a year ago - I sold them because there was no real time panel control; your controller has answered all of the shortcomings of the Matrix 1000 so I've started buying again, I just bought one on ebay three weeks ago and I'm on the lookout for a second unit now, as soon as I get the second one I'll test them both as suggested; 12 voice mode is the one I'd really like to get working, not so bothered about layered mode. I'm in the process of ordering up the components to build my own Chaos Matrix, hope to be starting in the next week or two, think I'll have to build mine into a 3U or 4U rack case as I'm really short on space. I'll share the panel design when I get it completed. Many thanks for this great project, looks like it really brings the Matrix 1000 alive! Allan

This is a great controller and I'm going to build one for my Matrix 1000 :-) Did you get any further with midi merge on the inputs? One question - I actually have 2 of Matrix 1000 synths connected together as detailed in the Matrix owners manual, so I can either have 12 voices or the two synths layered and detuned for a 6 voice 4 vco per voice monster synth!. Will this controller work with both synth modules at the same time in both of these modes or will it only control one of them?

That looks absolutely awesome :) Really nice work, I can appreciate the hours the have gone into building it but I'm sure its all been very worthwhile.

I'd certainly like one set of boards if you would consider doing a small pre production run, I'm happy to pay up front too.........

If you are only wanting to control VCF's and VCA's then the Aout_LC would be fine, however if you are controlling VCO's then zipper noise and resolution may be a problem. You could always run CV output through Doepfer slew module first with a fast slew setting and this would help. My choice would be the Aout _NG, nice quality dac and 8 cv outs (rather than 2cv outs on the Aout_LC), which means you could have independent control of 8 CV Voltages from the MB Sequencer - for example you could control VCO pitch, VCA level, VCF req and VCF resonance all at the same time and still have 4 CV outs spare. Just my 2cents worth 8) Allan

Many thanks for the fast reply Thorsten, I'll go with PIC18F4685 and get the parts ordered up now. Another MBFM will be added to the ranks soon :) Cheers, Allan

Does MBFM work ok with 18F4685 or am I better sticking with original 18F452? I intend building with full control surface and 8 bank sticks, guess there's no advantage in using 24LC512 rather than 24LC256? Thx in advance, Allan

That sounds good to me. I'd be happy to be a "bleeding edge prototyper" at $50 for pcb to get things moving (assuming I could have panel .fpd file too, don't fancy laying that out myself :o). Just need another 9 impatient builders now.............. 8)

I have to say that I think this is the most exciting development yet for the MidiBox sequencer, along with the Ultracore module and panel and case hardware this makes the MBSeq project available to a huge number of people with basic soldering and kit building skills. I would be building one anyhow, but the time I save would probably allow me to build an MB-6582 too and still leave plenty of time to spend actually learning and using them instead of building. The fact that the case and control panel could also be used with the MBSeq 4 makes it even more of a must have............. :) I've added my order to the 100+ already on the list, the only thing that worries me a little is the panel and case seem to be holding things up at the moment. Any chance of just a pcb for those that are able to source their own switches, knobs, led's, encoders and Schaeffer panel? Don't get me wrong, I'd MUCH prefer to buy panel, case and components but I'm just impatient to get building ;)

www.ebay.co.uk item number 7416343058

Many thanks for the help TK, I can now see how easy this is to do from the control surface and you're absolutely right about a global fine tune being unnecessary. Didn't realise the AOUT routing was quite as flexible either - the midibox SID step C really has some very powerful features! Makes me want to get mine finished ASAP :) Best regards, Allan

Hi Carlos, I used to own a polivoks and I added cv and gate inputs to mine with an external midi/cv converter and I also cloned the filter from it for my modular synth. What you are proposing would require a large re-design of many of the circuits. First the easy stuff, - it's very easy to add voltage control of pitch cv and gate, there is a circuit for this here http://www.muztech.com/eng/images/cv_gate.jpg it is not too difficult to arrange voltage control of filter cutoff too. To control the filter and vca ADSR and VCA vibrato would require a complete redesign of the circuitry with transconductance opamps to allow voltage control of ADSR, as there is no internal facility for voltage control. For unison switch you could use a cmos switch such as DG403 or a cmos multiplexer I think this would be a lot of work! I have no experience of the Aelita, but it could be a similar story there. BTW, With the polivoks it is worth changing the psu, I changed mine for an LM317 / LM337 based design and this really improved tuning stability, the original power supply is really not stable enough on these models. It works on a rather unusual +/-12.5 volts, so 7812 and 7912 based psu's don't work. Allan

Hi creekree, The dinsync output of TR606 is about 8V peak to peak, not 5V. To reduce this down the easist way to do it is to use two resistors as a potential divider, the only problem with that is that it has limited drive current, but if thats a problem a single rail op amp (CA3140 or similar) could be used afterwards as a voltage follower. The 606 din sync has fairly hefty buffereing, so I think you'd be fine with just simple 2 resistor potential divider. Try 1k8 and 1k resistors, these will give about 2.8V, or 1k8 and 1K2 will give 3.2 volts. This assumes you have nothing else connected to Dinsync, if you have then you'd need to use much higher values and voltage follower opamp. Allan

Thanks for the info Steve, I think the low cost dac will be a very good solution for filter control, absolute precision is certainly not necessary. Found the other posts on AOUT - oops! Do hope its possible to get a 1v/oct signal for filter tracking. I was thinking of mounting my MBsid in a 3U rack case (which I already have), and having a 3U front panel made by Schaeffer, with panel legends done on clear Lazertran. Still in the planning stage yet though....... Hey, All of my pcb's and parts arrived today ;D Excellent job by SmashTV, I'm most impressed. No excuses left now, gotta get on with it! Cheers, Allan

I've ordered up all of my PCB's and pics from Smash TV and I'll be starting to build my MB Sid with full control surface and 4 sid chips very soon :). I've had a good read of lots of forum posts and changelog and (surpise!) still have a few questions...... I was hoping to use it with an external VCF and the Oakley Superladder http://www.oakleysound.co.uk/super.htm looks an ideal contender to me, for the following reasons:- 1 - It can be built either as a Moog ladder filter or as a TB303 diode filter 2 - It has 4 pole, 1 pole and bandpass outputs - nice complement to the Sid 2 pole filters 3 - It is very near to original moog filter in sound, but has added resonance gain circuit so that the level does not drop as resonance is increased, which was a problem with the original. It will also self resonate and track just like the moog. 4 - It has voltage control of resonance and envelope modulation as well as frequency 5 - It has 4 inputs, so 4 sids could easily be connected to it, and if opamps were added to Sid outputs then the input of the filter could be overloaded too, just like a Minimoog :) It can be bought just as a pcb from Oakley, I've built a couple of them for my modular synth they work really well. I know that the AOUT is still in beta, just trying to get a feel for what is possible - I can't find any mention of a 1v/oct pitch output from the sid via the AOUT module, this is really needed for filter tracking - also, will filter resonance as well as cutoff frequency be available from the AOUT? Is everything from modulation matrix is available to the AOUT module? Now for a completely different question - with the 4 Sid chips sounding in unison on the same patch, is it possible to fine tune each Sid machine to get a big fat unison sound? I'm just wondering if there is a global fine tune for each sid machine or does this have to be done by fine tuning each vco, which would mean seperate patches for each Sid otherwise they would all be the same fine tune offset. With them being DCO's rather than VCO's just wondering how this is acheived? I know nothing about programming, but I'm building the MB_Sid in the hope of learning some coding so I can hopefully add to the community, up until then until then I'm a bit of a drain on it  :-[ Allan

Love the bent MB_SID I have to agree that the Steiner VCF filter from Ken Stone would be an excellent addition to the MB_SID, it has a low parts count but sounds great, but it has another BIG advantage over other filters, the Low pass, Band pass and High pass inputs can be used simultaniously and mixing levels to each input creates some very cool effects..........it is unique in this respect, I've built lots of filters and this one really is nice, the pcb is pretty cheap from Ken too. I've recently seen a mod somewhere to add voltage control to the resonance, I can probably find it if anyone's interested.......... Allan

Many thanks for all the info TK, very helpful. I'm going to order all of my parts for both boxes today. The "super poly mode" on the SID sounds like a very cool feature, yummy :) Any plans for fitting two (or even four!) OLP3 boards into a single unit? This could give 12 (or 24) note poly through 8 separate outputs (16 wouldnt be necessary), and could have 8 analogue fiters added too. Just a thought........... Cheers Allan

Hi, I've just learnt about the Midibox stuff - I know, I must have been living in a cave for the last four or five years ;-) I'd like to build both the Midibox Sid and Midibox FM synths and have a have a couple of questions.... On the MB_FM it seems to be 6 voice polyphonic, with 4 operators per voice, is this true? If so, are the outputs from each voice available separately? I'm asking because I love the sound of this unit with the external 4 pole moog filter, this would allow six external moog filters to be attached to make it a 6 voice poly digital synth with analog VCF's - does the software permit this and can separate filter control cv's be sent for each voice? If this is possible I can build a custom 6 VCF pcb and release Eagle files or foil overlays for other builders........ I was thinking of building the Midibox SID with the four SID chip option, if I build it with two of 6581 and two 8580 chips, can the patches for each synth be stored and accessed from separate banksticks so that I don't play 6581 sounds on 8580 synths? Can the MB SID be used as a four voice poly synth (to play chords), or is it simply four separate monosynths? I realise I'd need four of the same type of SID chip for this to sound right if it's possible. Thanks, Modularman