TheAncientOne

The full story is on the web Here and it's a good one too. the schema, firmware and software is all there as well. Perfboard in an afternoon if you're that way inclined, and they've got layouts up too!

I've just had a classic example of Finagles law ("The Peversity of the universe tends to a maximium"). In my last batch of scrap, I have just discovered a fully working Microchip MPLAB ICD2 programmer/in circuit debugger. Which of course runs from MPASM.......

Wasn't some original Quake soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails? I remember the nailgun ammo boxes having the NIN logo on them. By the way - if you want Doom Music overload: Go Here Somewhere on the web is a full studio run of the doom 1 music, done by Bobby Prince, but I can't find it easily - it used to be on Bobby's site, but it's gone from there. Does anyone have any of the orginal unreal Music, (not tournament), some of the atmospheric stuff was amazing.

That's for a chip. The AL3101 evaluation board from the maker costs $225. http://www.wavefrontsemi.com/products/AL3101pop.html#producteval It's also peaked at 50 MIPS, the Freescale quotes 180 MIPS. The AN3101 is aimed more at certain types of FX. It's done very good work in 'Miss Parker'. The 1000 off price for the AN3101 is around $4. The 1000 off price for the DSP56371 is around $9. Basically different league devices. What I really want is a next generation version of the Chameleon, not a stompbox.

Got a message today about this. Price seems to be about $150 for the board. http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=SYMP_SOUNDBITE I think there may be Blackfin boards in the same price bracket now, but I think affordable DSP seems to be coming.

May I add a small suggestion for an alternative text editor for Windows. I've been using the UK written TextPad, for a long time now. It's a bit cheaper than UltraEdit, and has a lot of community support for it's syntax highlighting. (there are lots of syntax files available for free download). The evaluation version does no more than 'nag' on startup, otherwise you get the full version. I'm not saying it's in any way better than UltraEdit and certainly not Emacs, but it's one I got used to, and does a good job for me. There is an old story that in the full expert version of Emacs there is a 'make universe' command, (they say Emacs is the editor of the gods).

Atari with Pokey chip and tracker s/w. http://snipurl.com/1xvvf

"Bring out the Jimp" 'But the Jimp's process is suspended' "Well, I guess you're gonna have to go wake him up now, won't you?"

Wow! that was fast! It's a lot more readable too - for my rather poor eyesight, having the component values in a contrasting colour help a bit too. I was talking the other day with a PCB designer friend, and he said that the modern trend on SMT boards is to leave most of the silk screening off, just label the connectors etc. The makers figure that no-one but themselves are ever going to work on them, and they might as well save the space. A scary thought for future modders. Best wishes Mike

So, if I meet the Jimp on the road ...... what do I do?

I bought 32 of these in the first bulk buy, meaning to use 15 for my MB6582, put 16 on my sequencer, and have one spare. Having tested my layout, they don't work for my sequencer panel, (I'm hoping to get some thin ReAn ones), so they are for sale. Enough for a MB6582 plus a spare. £13 plus carriage and any funds transfer fees at cost. [edit] I lost track of who was interested in these - if anyone is, please memo me again. Memo me if interested. Mike

I've just been looking at the files on uCApps. The .GIF is wrong when compared to the parts list and the Yamaha data sheet. The sample and hold capacitors should be 2.7nF and the filter caps 68pF. The problem seems to be that the SmashTV board and the original uCApps boards use different parts numbering. The parts list on SmashTV's site is correct for his board: http://www.avishowtech.com/mbhp/mbhp_OPL3R1.html I've just noticed I've forgotten a link, so one of the IC sockets has to come off. Grrr! If it's a very old board, you're going to have to check back with the schematic. Just don't put 68nF caps on - you might not get much sound at all, that's a 25% increase in time constant! HTH Mike

I this is a bit of where I was coming from too. A good set of VCO's in a modular are amazing - but on their own they are not a synth, I agree, SwinSID is an amazing component, but it is a component, not a complete synth. Comparing SwinSID to AVRsynth ia little unfair too, AVRsynth is intended to be a simple, very cheap to build basic synth. Like AVRx the control surface load takes a lot away from the sound generating. A pair of AVR's might have a chance, which is what you effectively have with SwinSID/MIDIbox SID A dedicated sound generator,whether a real or modelled SID, will usually beat a single processor stand alone. Paul Maddox was able to model the whole of the MonoWave in a Chameleon, but that had a Coldfire for control and a DSP for the sound work. I have to agree here - with the exception of the 'dementor' waveshaper stuff, a lot of it sounds a bit clean and simple. Well if it's that limited, some lucky member of the group can get a ready built..... We'll see once I finish it up No real argument here, apart from one factor I do know from personal experience. Filters. Doing filtering on an 8 bit controller is a bit of a lost cause. Not even limited recursion really,and only the more basic filter elgorithms. Now add and external filter, and straight away you've got a potential monster. I think qw'ew bith in solid agreement that the component approach wins. I'm not suggesting AVRx is superior to a MIDIbox SID - in fact I think a multi SID beats an AVRx hands down, but I do think it's a good addition to the world of synth DIY. Review wise, I'm more interested in how it squares up to my MonoWave, which I still haven't managed to chase up the rest of the weird pots for. If anyone here is building one, my suggestions are to either buy the whole front panel kit from Elby Designs, or to forget the front PCB and loose wire it. To me they are very similar devices: Lead/Bass synths with hardware generators and analogue processing. But I know need to reverse the old cliche and put my mouth (or ears!) where my money has been..... A minor thought. With MIDIbox, you've perhaps created a new class of synth. Somewhere between a full repatchable modular, and stand alone: "The Component Synth". Best wishes MIke (If this doesn't make too much sense it's because I've been laid low by that virus - I should be out running an event tonight!)

Comparing AVRx to SwinSID is a bit "Apples and Oranges". AVRx is more comparable to something like MonoWave, because it's a hybrid: digital wave generation, with analogue VCA and Filter. AVRx can also process external signals. I'll have to do a review myself, once I get my AVRx loaded and into it's case. Until another big (non musical) job is done, I'm just stuffing boards and sorting panel designs. One point: AVRx is not an easy assembly job; it's nearly all SMD. @Jack. Propeller is powerful for certain jobs, but having actually done some work with it, helping a student friend with a robotics job, I can't see it as very suited to audio work. If I was looking at a next generation chip, I would be going ARM for controller, (that's a no-brainer, it is de-facto the industry standard 32 bit controller), and Blackfin for audio work. Both have got extensive public domain support. example "BlackStamp" best wishes Mike minor edit for typo

Been doing some more parts scouting. The best solution for some of the 'odd fit' parts is for me to do a lrge order to Dig-key, which will have free postage to the UK. I could get the Grayhill switches, The FT232's, the encoders, and most of the pots - all of which are PCB fit critical. I can get the resonators from RS if need be. Note, Grayhill switches are in short supply. Mike

Pots arrived today - excellent packing BTW. Thanks Phineus. I'm going to try them with one of the Limor Fried, (LadyAda) "MIDIsense" boards I built, though I night need a small code hack to compensate for the 'finger off' state. The MIDIsense works well with LDR's by the way.

A big thank you from here - I had to re-upload a friends site when the owner of their hosting machine died (!). I know it wasn't that easy for a small site, let alone the myriad complexities of the forum, wiki, ucapps etc. Thanks for the prod in the right direction Wilba, (or was that a whack! in the right direction?).

This isn't easy. Most of the easily available merchant account providers are aimed at porn sites, and their rates are appropriate to this, (they get lots of chargebacks). We used Worldpay for tickets, but their annual renewal fee is £188 - way over the top for a small business. It might be worth having a word with your own bank - many of them are belatedly catching up with the idea of on line payments for the masses. We used to use 'Nochex' as well, though I haven't looked at them recently - they seem to have fizzled out a bit as an ebay payment scheme - I can't think of the last time I used them. I do think Paypal are trying to clean up their act - they asre mainly US based and as such are ripe for a class action suit if enough people get mad enough. In their defence, I have to point out that they are often the target of major auction + stolen card frauds, This is where crooks set up a load of auctions, 'buy' stuff with hijacked credit card info, then get the money out of Paypal and vanish before the system catches up with the rip off. There are sophisticated communities of 'carders' out there, engaged in the gathering and selling of credit card info. I think Paypal's detection software is a bit 'hair triggered', and coupled with a lack of investigatory staff causes lots of problems. In their earlier days, some of the problems were alleged to be internal, but there isn't much in the way of proof, just statements by ex staff, who possibly might have their own agenda. On the balance, I feel far happier using PayPal for buying than selling....

Ah, so you see Watson, It was all a cunning ploy to justify his move to 32 bit processors, luckily for us he did his first test with a 32 disc recursive Tower of Hanoi simulation...... (I like the soft option too, for my 2 cents worth)

OK. I'm in for one. Looks very elegant, and useful.

Another link of interest: this time from a history of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, (for those who have never heard of it, The Workshop was responsible for a lot of innovations in electronic music in the UK, not to mention the famous 'Dr Who' theme). http://www.glias.org.uk/glias/rws/pgs/r07.htm

At the data rate of MIDI, it would have to be a really bad cable to mess up the signal in 3 metres. You could always put a 'scope on it for a look. There is a really good set of pages about MIDI delay testing at:Hinton Instruments His other pages have a lot of good stuff too. The basic MIDI test plug is an essential.

I think there is a parallel with an old piece of Air Force wisdom here: "A good landing is any one you can walk away from; and excellent one is when you can use the 'plane again". If the box works, and keeps on working......

He came over with it yesterday. It's not an ML - It was built by a student friend of his at Uni. It's a perfboard clone of the 303, with ordinary transistors, not matched pairs, and a sort of VCA made from a CA3080. Looks like a hybrid between the original and the Oakley TB3030, (that's the old one. not the MIDI controlled TM-3030). No tempco either. I hated moving anything in case any wires fell off. It has some kind of controller that 'needs debugging', based around a ready made PIC board, (might be from Quasar). When I looked at the, notes, it seems the project got as far as getting the sequencer to do notes, but no slides or anything. I looked at it a remembered that I did stuff just as scruffy when I was 16, only not as ambitious. Pretty good try for a first shot, but the experience was the real result. I think he ought to frame it and hang it in the studio.

Thanks TK, I hadn't thought far enough ahead here. I'm going to have to make sure I keep my personal documentation good - and perhaps put labels near the MIDI ports. Best wishes for the New Year