i'm back and have some ideas

[RowanHall]

hey fellow midiboxers! i'm back and have free time now and am going to get this finished!

the current state of my sid build is: fully working single sid/core setup with basic lcd control and optomised psu board.

i want to continue on and get the other three sid/cores pairs made up and installed, and get the full surface finished! so i shall be calling on smash for an order shortly! :)

if by the time i'm done and if i still have time, i'm going to make up a seq! :)

i have an idea but have no idea how to implement it, basically to complement the 80s style commodore, i want to add in some square leds to be used as vu meters, 10 leds: 6 green, 2 orange and 2 red. how difficult would this be to integrate into the box? it would be great to hear some advice on this one!

anyhow, its good to be back and i have a real thirst for some quality sid sounds! so time to get cracking! looking forward to the midibox fm also, the ST was my other favourite 80s computer! :)

Rowan :)

[Jidis]

Hey Rowan,

You probably want to go with "bars". They'd be easier to wire and cut holes for, and there are a bunch on eBay,etc. I've actually got some coming, but they're all red. I've seen the "stoplight" style multi-color ones too. If I can find a link, I'll try to post back later with it.

I thought you meant individual holes at first. I've been wondering lately how anybody cuts those. There are some cool looking rectangulars out there. I saw some today with the plastic mounts too.

-George

[TK.]

Hi Rowan,

i have an idea but have no idea how to implement it, basically to complement the 80s style commodore, i want to add in some square leds to be used as vu meters, 10 leds: 6 green, 2 orange and 2 red. how difficult would this be to integrate into the box? it would be great to hear some advice on this one!

search in the web for "DIY vu meter", most of them are based on the LM3915, which only provides 10 LED outputs. But two of them can be cascaded in order to get up to 20 outputs

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Jidis]

Speaking of DIY VU's:

I searched, but never found a good VU circuit with peak hold. If anyone ever sees one, I'd be interested.

-Thanks!

George

[RowanHall]

hey there! thanks for the input! i shall get reasearching! :) its just an idea though, don't know how useful they would be, but would look damn sweet! :)

another wee thing, since starting off making the synth i have converted to using apple macs and was wondering what good midi software i should get. i used midiox for all the previous things. any help on this would be great! :)

[pay_c]

Just btw: I already made a DIY LM3915 VU-meter (stereo with 10 LEDs) and have to say that it´s NO problem at all. Really easy going. It´s all analoge schematic (just with those comparators in the LM3915). The soldering is partly nerving, but just ok. There is also a good example in the datasheet of the LM3915 for using it as a VU-meter.

Greets.

[RowanHall]

excellent! cheers for that wee nugget of info! i'll get on it! :) i keep changing my mind on how i want it to look eventhough aesthetics should be bottom of the list!! hehe!

[Jidis]

I should mention that I got those light bars. If anyone's looking for some, stay away from these:

They aren't actually the segmented bars like you usually see. They're more like a group of lights hiding behind a tinted lens. You can't really tell where one ends and the next one begins. I don't know what the crap they're for, maybe to create a "varying intensity" light or something. I might chain a bunch up to an LM3915 and see what it looks like in "dot mode".