Futureman

Check out the MB-SEQ. It is capable of many things, including up to 16 different arpeggiators at once.. The SEQ's arpeggiator is incredibly flexible and powerful.. easily the best I've ever come across. Regards Mike

Cool! Din sync has 2 signals.. one is the clock (24ppq) and the other is the start / stop signal.. I think (From memory) it's high when stopped.. The whole 24ppq with computers has been a right royal pain in my arse.. while standard DIN sync has been fine(ish) 48ppq for my LinnDrum has just been unusable..

I think some companies called it Phase Modulation (instead of FM) to avoid law suits from Yamaha, who protected FM quite vigorously. But the Casio CZ synths which use Phase modulation of a Sine wave to achieve other wave forms is quite a bit different to say, the DX-7's FM architecture with it's many operators. To me, the CZ's sound heaps more like an analogue than a digital synth. (A little off topic tho) Regards Mike

This might help? http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php/topic,12413.0.html Instead of trying to resurrect a old keyboard, I just bought a Second hand controller for $20. Was much easier, and more likely cheaper in the long run (And less heart ache) Regards Mike

Hey Julian! Good to see you made it over here from no-future. Your panel looks very nice! I can prob answer your fan questions.. you can get by without it.. A bit of convection is would suffice. The Sids get slightly warm, but thats about it.. Regards Mike

Isn't this inherent with the 808's kick design? It's like if you had a pendulum standing still.. you tap it, and it'll rock for a while.. Thats your kick. Tap it while it's rocking at any time and it might swing further, or it might swing less.. depending at what point the pendulum is at... so the kick might get louder, or get damped (Quiet / shorter) Regards Mike

well done, very brave! You could possibly make a laminated overlay or print a face on clear plastic and stick it to it's face. This would cover up the few wavy holes etc.. (Unless thats what you have planned?) Regards Mike

Acetone is a solvent, and evaporates very very easily. If you "washed" your synth in it, sure, it will wash away the lubrication in the faders and they will feel a bit ratty with no grease in them.. Not sure what you mean about eating the traces, but acetone doesn't do much to copper traces on a PCB. The .0001 Parts per billion that will be floating around inside your juno is going to have the same effect as your neighbor filling up the petrol tank of his motorcycle next door to the room you keep your juno.. ie.. none. I've got no reason to bag out your mate and his filter clones, good on him.. I bet they sound brilliant.. but using some form of scare tactic to avoid people trying a possible fix (Hell, the chip is coming out, so you might as well try the $2 solution) bugs me. Regards Mike

hahahahahahah!!!! don't make me laugh.... While acetone is a nasty solvent... it sure as hell won't "come loose inside the synth, killing all your fader traces".... hahahaha ohhh.. I'm still laughing... my drink came out my nose.. Sounds like your mate is scared that a possible solution that costs $2 might kill some of his business off. Regards Mike

I picked up one of those at the markets about a year ago for $5 I gave it to my friends 5 Year old daughter. Cute little keyboard. For all the effort & money you would put into installing a midi out on that keyboards, you could pick up a 4 octave controller for 1/10th the price. Play it & sample it... (Especially the beats) I know thats not much help... sorry. Regards Mike

Hey there! The limitation on the size of the sequencer is the LCD screens.. As it uses 2 of 2x40 LCDs, that puts a limitation on how narrow it can be.. you could stagger the LCD's ontop of each other like I've seen someone do. (Check the gallery) You don't 'need' the IIC, but it's great for suckers like me with lots of old synths that only run in Midi Omni mode.. (The core already has a MIDI in & out) For my first sequencer, I mounted everything in a big bit of cardboard/thin MDF and got it working.. then I got a feel for how I'd like things laid out etc.. Don't forget knobs for your encoders.. Dont forget the bankstick! you need memory in there.. If you go 'panel' mount for your switches & encoders, you probably could get away with not using vero.. Read read read.. it's all there. Regards Mike

Lard.. hehe.. (one of my favourite words) You have to watch out with stainless as it work hardens.. keeping it cool is pretty important.... hence why coolant is traditionally used..(Pretty much water & oil & detergent) Sharp drill bits and correct drill speed is important, as is moving up through drill sizes. ie start with a centre punch, then say 3mm, then 6mm, then 10mm, then 13mm etc.. Don't drill a 13mm hole straight away, which would be asking for a not very accurately placed hole, and also the hole might not be very neat. As you drill bigger holes, drill more slowly.. A drill press is great for accurate holes (not as likely to drift while you are drilling) but i've done most of my stuff without one. I've got a dremel, and for holes and the like, it's generally crap.. A good small file beats it every time. My massive 2 cents. Regards Mike

Yamaha stopped making that a while ago... Why don't you trust the used ones? did they do something bad in the past? ;]

Or a microphone eater... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeU9204GCaE

You'd be guessing right! Just search ebay for guitar knobs and you'll see the Strat ones.. Regards Mike

Cool!! I like the vice grip marks on the face! Makes it look mean. Regards Mike

So you had no probem with your Moog Source? Mine has been a bitch to calibrate, and then after spending ages trying to get it right, I read in the service manual that it is not at 1v/octave? Funky synth tho! Regards Mike

I agree about the screws, but I like the silver knobs with the black with the timber... looks nice next to my older school Prophet 5 & Minimoog ;] Frigging cool Sid enclosure!

If you have a nice sharp file thats not too coarse & a bit of time and care, it's not too tricky to get a great finish. It does help if the case is made out of a 'forgiving' material, ie something that won't crack or is not too soft. Just take your time and it'll look great. I did this with a drill, jigsaw & a square file. Regards Mike

No problem? Have you actually looked at how complex a piano striker / action / mechanism is ?

Very odd. This sounds like a dumb question, but have you soldered the (Smash supplied) midi sockets to the core or have you soldered leads to midi sockets? (Wondering if polarity might give the garbled midi info?)

Cheers, I did check that seq out, but yes, I *really* want to enter in notes from a keyboard... being a keyboard player lol. The small issue I have with entering note in via an encoder or pot (MB-SEQ, Doepfer MAQ etc) is that I feel it doesn't improve your musical skills at all, it just makes them even more narrrow... Don't get me wrong, tho, I LOVE my MB-SEQ's... they are the hubs of my setup.. I just don't use the encoders to enter in notes. We also play live quite a bit.. don't use computers, and improvise. It's pretty hard to pick out a specific riff you have in mind using a few knobs.. Fine if you are at home alone and have lots of time to kill, but not so great when playing live and you turn out a C# when you wanted a C. I don't know if it's cool to put up a "Bounty" for such a project, but I (And my mates) certainly would if it's allowed? Instead of cash, probably a piece of gear like a drum machine or something like that.. (HR-16, TR-505, Casio SK-1 , Speak and Spell , Speak and Math easily come to mind) Kind regards Mike - Edit - I don't want a finished hardware product, I can do that myself.. it's the code I can't do.. (Just to clarify)

Calling all midibox programmer guru's.. I've got a small idea that I recon would be very handy.. (For me at least, and possibly others) Have any of you used the Rolands SH-101's sequencer , or the very similar JX3p's sequencer? They are very simple, basically you press "load" and then bash in all the notes you want. (The SH-101's is monophonic, while the JX3p's is polyphonic) If you want a rest, you press the "rest" button, if you want a tie or legato, you hold down the "tie" button while pressing the next note. Once you have entered in all your notes etc, then you press "Play" and the sequencer plays.. once it reaches the end, it starts over. The cool thing is that you can give it (5v) triggers to advance the sequencer step by step, so creating very complex or funky riffs is pretty easy. I'm a big fan of the SH-101's sequencer, and use it everyday for various roles.. it's bullet proof and it's simplicity is its power. I want this, but done with midibox via midi and a few extra features. -One MIDI in for clock (for preset time signatures, ie 1/16th, 1/8th ra ra ra) or for a note advance kind of sync.. (a pre-defined note message in here advances the sequencer to the next step) -One Midi in would be from the controller keyboard, programming in da riffs. -One midi out, for, well, playing it back. -One trigger in, for the old schools like me that still use 5v pulses to drive stuff. - A few buttons like "Load" "Tie" "Rest" and maybe a few other buttons for stuff like accessing another sequence etc - Not sure if a screen is needed, but it might be REAL nice to see how many notes & rests (total steps) you have entered so you know when you hit 64 etc.. I might be dreaming in hoping someone out here could program something like this.. but I'll be mighty pleased if they did.. Any thoughts? Kind regards Mike

Did you ground the audio inputs? (Use jumpers to connect them to groud) This will cut down background noise by about 80% Regards Mike

woo hoo! Friends in high places. http://au.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?qs=sGAEpiMZZMv1TUPJeFpwbubHkr%2fbe%252b7anxWzDZ%252bNXe4%3d 6160.0004 Regards Mike