wicked1

I'm interested too..... After reading through the threads, I want one! If anyone wants to back out, I'll buy your parts :).

I'm about to breadboard this VCA, but was thinking...... to the people who have built it, do you really get much use out of it? I built the ssm filters, but don't think I'll have them up to self oscillating very often. Then, since you can only automatically route the volume to it, it must take a bit of effort to re-do your patches and map the EG to the external VCA. So, is it worth the effort? Thanks!

The ebay switches are overseas, and from what I can tell, Frarnell is shipping out of the UK with a $20.00 shipping fee. I had hoped to find them local so I could get them in a few days. Well, thanks anyway.. I guess I'll have to wait. I took a few years break from electronics, and components for synths and these midibox projects have gotten very difficult to find in that time! And it seems 90% of the building community has disappeared :(. Hopefully it's cyclical and people will get in to it again.

Where can I get this special firmware? I asked about it when I purchased my nano swinsids, and the guy at retro-donald said he's got the only available firmware, and that's what is installed.

I just received a couple of the nano swinsid's and have the same issue.. None of the swinsid extensions or waves work. I did enable them, compile, upload, the options are in the menu, but don't work.

I'm looking for alps tactile switches, for the mb-6582. SKHHDTA010, 13mm tall. Mouser is out of them. Digikey doesn't stock them. I only need a few. I melted a few while debugging some control surface problems......... Now the front panel won't fit. Let me know if anyone has a few they could sell me. (5 or 6 would be ideal, but 3 would do). I'm in the USA.

Thanks for the replies! Looks like we're all mostly in agreement on the performance side of things.. Personally, I relate most to what hawkeye said about the gear being inspiring.. Stare at a particular instrument w/ a certain knob and light layout for long enough, and it affects you... The way you play and interact w/ the gear changes the music. I can't even get in to using a midi controller keyboard and having it set up for all my gear... I'd rather hop back and forth between each box. And to what IMP said, about not needing the band.. That's true in a way, but composing music alone is completely different than jamming w/ friends. That's another disturbing aspect to modern music, to me. Looking back on all my favorite electronic music, most of it is a collaboration. Even just the flat out techno acts I like were at least 2 guys working together. Working alone, the music is just about you and your world.. If you have even one other person as a bit of a filter and different look on things, it will make the music accessible to that many more people. But, how about the sound quality aspect? I got in to building hi-fi amplifiers several years ago, and it has ruined me, in a way. I listen for distortion in everything now, and it is there! So to me, I can almost always hear a difference between record and mp3, vst and real analog gear. But to most now days, it seems they don't care. 96k mp3 is the same as analog vinyl to them.. they still hear the notes and beats. So, if that's the case, why bother? Like nILS says, then it's all just software. Why build a sid or real mb FM? Why build filters or 909/808 clones? (Obviously around here, it's because it's our hobby.... but is it worth bothering for the sake of music production? Hopefully people like some of us will always think it is :) )

I continue building real synths, while most of my friends have been getting rid of anything real and moving to all computer based music. Records are gone in favor of traktor, effects, filters, etc, are all gone in favor of digital plug-ins. Synths and sequencers are gone. I personally love my gear and honestly, it sounds better. But does it matter? People don't seem to care that my analog filter sounds a bit better than their VST. They don't notice the thin-ness or aliasing of their digital synths.. they just know it's playing the basic notes and general sound they're going for, and that's good enough. Now it's getting to the point where it's hard to work w/ guys who used to be basically studio partners.. I look at their screens w/ a blank stare, and they're completely intimidated by my mass of cables and faders and knobs. It's also getting sad, because instead of the usual excitement when I bring out a new instrument, now all I get is "well, couldn't you just model that?" "Wouldn't it be easier to set up if you just had to load your program" and most recently when I built a new filter, "why do you bother when you can just download a vst". I think it's sad... The big down side I see to computers, other than the audio quality, is the loss of the band feel. Trying to "jam" w/ people on their ipads is sort of lame... They just pick out pre-recorded (or pre-sequenced) music and press play.. No live, in the heat of the moment tweaks or anything......... Owell.. end of an era, I guess. I'm wondering if I'm the only one bothered by it..

I finished mine last week. The documentation is great. Only problem I had was a few bad IC's which were tricky to figure out. I used 4-6582, 2x6581, and 2xswinsid's (are in the mail). Had a little jam session w/ it last night at a friends house, and it was a LOT of fun!

Anyone know where I can find that firmware?

Well, I suppose like everyone else, I've finally found the problems of the ADSR bug. I pretty much only play live, so fixing things later isn't an option. (Ok, to be honest, it's been years since I've performed at an event, but live play is my general goal) When playing drums and bassline on the sid, and having the ADSR bug workaround turned on with both, are things in sync?(Using 2 separate cores, 4 sids in this example) I think they are.. It sounds better than having the ABW off. But, it's sad what aging and general lack of time for music does to your ability to correctly hear 30ms, and I can't quite tell if it's right! I know an external VCA would get around the issue for lead mode... Can I set drum mode to use an external VCA as well to overcome the issue? And finally, are there any little delay boxes that would add the 30ms delay? DIY would be awesome.. But even some sort of rack equipment that just has in's and outs and a delay time would be great. I still don't use computers in my music! (like I said, I'm old.. and I run an IT company, so I get enough of computers in other parts of my life!) Thanks for any advice. BTW, the mb-sid has far surpassed my expectations.. (other than the expectation of the VCA working :D, but that's not the fault of anyone here...) This thing is seriously amazing!

I found it! It's at least 2 bad ic's, so swapping them internally didn't make the problems go away.

A little more info.. Most the problem parts are with buttons connected to jd8 pin5. So, I swapped it w/ jd8 pin 0, and the problems stayed w/ the buttons.. so now for example the button controlling "select 1", which was the matrix mode button works, but pressing the old select 1 to change the matrix mode still selects si4 and other things... I think that tells me the problem is on the control surface. I've swapped the IC checked everything else on the base board at jd8. I hate to admit it, but I didn't have these problems until I cleaned the flux off the PCB! At post 2 it was all working, other than some LED's that wouldn't go all the way out. Then I cleaned the bottom of each PCB w/ alcohol and that's when these buttons stopped working :(. I'll continue re-soldering and maybe start replacing diodes..

It's not that the LED's aren't lighting up.. It's that they are not turning all the way off. But, I've developed a new issue.. I've never gotten the controls 100%, but now I noticed, if I press the buttons under the display, so the far left button, "select 1" it changes to sid4, if I press select 2, it changes to sid 3, select 3 changes to sid2, and select 4 is like pressing sid1. Occasionally other buttons (like the l/r) thinks it's been pressed as well. So, looking at the wiring PDF, http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=mb-6582:mb-6582_cs_din_wiring.pdf, select1 for example is next to sid4, connected to "JD5" "D0". The same is true for the other buttons that are acting strange, the other button that gets engaged is on the same connection (bus?). But, I have tested all the connections, and there are no shorts (multimeter/beep test).. To be double sure I took a pin and scraped around every solder joint around those buttons and led's, and also around the din and douts on the base PCB. I also swapped IC's. I tested all the diodes. I must be missing something. From those symptoms, an adjacent button getting triggered, what would you suspect the cause? I suppose I'll start reading the din and dout pages on ucapps, too...

Well, I found 2 bad LED's!! I wouldn't have thought bad led's would cause the buttons to act so crazy, but they did! So, it is working!! I still have some partially lit LED's that should be all the way out, though. Anyone know what's up w/ that?

I was hoping to get through the build w/out any questions, but I'm having some trouble Wilba mb-6582 rev1 pcb. I powered it up last night and it works!! sort of.... Some of the control surface LED's never go all the way dim. Some in the matrix, and some regular indicators. When different LED's are lit (like changing settings), different ones 1/2 way light up. (And the ones that are 1/2 lit should be completely dim). then the buttons also don't work. 80% of the time they control what they are supposed to, but the rest of the time it's random.. pressing the filter button changes the sid number and the matrix mode and the envelope mode, etc. It's very random. I've re-soldered all the din and douts. But, I must be missing something. Any advice??? Thanks!

I'm looking for seppo's ssm2044 filter PCB's Also, his ssm2164 VCA PCB, but mostly the filters... I've got all the components sitting here to build 4 of them.

So, now another issue w/ my old parts.. Got the LED's today, and they don't fit! All the LED holes in my panel are a tiny bit too small. I can almost force the LED's in, but not quite. (I tried a different 3mm led I had sitting around, and same issue.. it's not the LED's) I can't find any mention of this issue, either, and I can't be the only one... I got this panel as part of a group buy here, years ago. I guess I'm going to have to drill out all the LED holes! Anyone making panels, should I try to find a 3mm drill bit for 3mm led's, or just use 1/8"? 3mm bits are difficult to find in the US, but I want it to look good, so I'll order one and wait if I have to. -edit- Just FYI for any other US ppl, 1/8" drill is perfect! (at least for my led's)

I'm trying not to think about it too much, because it's probably still an impossible project for now.. But I might have thought of a way to integrate the modulation matrix into the control surface. (Might want to look at the image real quick to know what I'm talking about here..) Since there are a limited number of predefined parameters on my control surface, I've made a little matrix per section. Since each CV can have 2x lfo and 2x eg, you basically select the parameter you want to change and the lfo or eg number. Then the lfo or eg section would light up which of the 16 available is selected. For example: Press PWM, then LFO2, adjust the knob for the level it will be affected (the depth, basically). Then over in the LFO section select your LFO and set the parameters. Say it's lfo6, there. Then you could select osc2, pwm, lfo#, and in the lfo section press 6, and osc2 would have the same pwm settings as osc1. For the filter, you select freq or res, and which of the eg/lfo you want to set. It's not on the sketch, but I'd need a vca section too.. Just button to select the eg/lfo and set the level. There are still some important details and options missing from this scheme, but I don't want to put much time into it yet. Thinking about it more, I can also see where you could get lost in the settings, but that just needs some extra thought. Like maybe selecting the VCO number automatically selects the VCF and VCA, too. Slightly less interesting live-play possibilities that way, but easier. --Guess I should mention, while working on this I've had ideas for a general cv2 control surface. It would be the same size, no set osc and filter, etc, sections. Basically more complex LFO and EG's, and I've been trying to come up w/ ideas for the mod matrix to assign it all to the cv's. I'll follow up on that in a new thread if I continue it. My idea on that is less generalized, too, I guess.. It's more of an ultimate time synchronized modulation box, than a midi-cv converter. I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate the little sequencer into that design.

Thanks! Looks like they're minor issues, but I would have been pulling my hair out for a while trying to figure them out on my own :).

So, I mentioned in the cv2 thread I wanted to build a midi analog synth. I don't know if the cv2 project will work for it, and the more I plan, the less I think it will. But, it's worth trying, so here's my idea. It's a 3 osc synth, 3vcf, and 3vca's. LFO's and EG's will all be digital, thanks to cv2 :D. Basically that should be enough to give one complex voice, or use all 3 individually for simple poly. The idea is that it's usable for most standard playing w/out any patching, and all settings would be saved.. basically like a virtual analog synth. The down side is it would need more than 8cv's. At a minimum, 16. 3 vca, 3 filt freq, 3 filt res, 3 osc tune, 3 osc pwm (and I'm over 16).. So then I'd still want 3x osc fm. Analog implementation would be 3 oscillators with their 4 wave outs going to analog switches (like the CGS analog switch matrix. Gate=switch closed), to select the wave. The selected wave to another switch to select the filter mode (the filters I'd likely use have 3 in's, but you could put the switches on the output if they have 3 outs), then from the filters to the 3 VCA's, mix the signal and out. Few other details and switches, but that's about it. I think the switches could be controlled by douts. I'll attach a quick sketch of a panel I made. I use the "frac rack" format.. 3u. It's 10 frac units long (1.5" per u) which is the size that fits in a standard 19" rack. It's dirty, incomplete, things aren't aligned, but it's a general idea of what I want to build. All the jacks at the bottom are copy/pasted from something else, so they're not really dividers. Those would be the jacks for all the parameters (vco, lfo, vcf, etc in's and out's) for standard CV control. Big circles are buttons, small circles are LED's So that's my dream project. Is there any way the CV2 could control multiple aouts? Even multiple CV2's, but for the idea to work they'd all have to be controlled by one primary cv2, to set and store the parameters. or, is there a different way to accomplish the same thing?

Yeah, I've tried searching, and couldn't figure out why I got no results for anything having to do w/ rev1 or "wilba pcb" etc... How to I manually browse back to them? U know if htere's a way to get google to search the archives? I'll try a PM, too.. I looked at Wilba's profile a few days ago and it had been a while since his last login, though.

Sorry for the double post, but this part of the forum gets some traffic and maybe someone w/ the answer reads this section but not the user project section.... I've had a rev 1 MB-6582 pcb and parts sitting around for a long time. I finally decided to build it and read the wiki, and at the bottom of the base PCB page says "revision 1 errors" and has links that don't work anymore. What are the rev. 1 errors? I'm getting to soldering the final components and don't want to cook any chips when I turn it on, if there are issues w/ the PCB.

If it could be possible to do that and save it all under one patch, w/ one "brain".. (I need to read up on MB stuff again :) ) That would be great!! (But I'm kind of liking the new simple semi-modular synth idea right now.. My modular has grown to the size of my first apartment, and can't leave the house. A little midi-capable analog synth w/ all these time synchronized lfo's and eg's would be amazing (still 16cv's vs the 8 would be ideal))