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Recently I finished putting in all of the components for the analog sections of my x0xb0x. It looks like this means that I’m about halfway through building the thing. The fun part of reaching this stage is that you get to hear it play its first note as part of the testing process. Yes, it [...]

I seem to always have three or four hardware projects going at once; every now and then I actually finish one. I just put up pictures and a description of the module here. It’s a utility module that can add, subtract and scale signals. It also generates the minimum and maximum values of a pair [...]

I’ve run across a few videos demonstrating SMT soldering techniques. An online electronics shop called Curious Inventor has a nice collection of videos here which will show you how to solder SMD devices with relatively inexpensive tools. Their most recent video here shows how to drag-solder the pins of a 0.5mm pitch SOIC. If you [...]

One of my current works-in-progress is a slightly modified version of the CORE_STM32 microcontroller board found at the uCApps.de website. [It's a frame-based site so that first link won't give you the site's navigation links.] A number of years ago I started thinking about building a digital step sequencer, i.e. something that looks and feels [...]

UPDATE: Sold! I’ve got a Lexicon PCM-90 reverb that needs a new and understanding home. It has a problem that’s either a show-stopper or insignificant, depending on how one uses it: its analog input does not work. Its S/PDIF digital I/O works fine, and this is how I’ve been using it. Some googling suggests that [...]

I cleaned out a closet recently. That statement doesn’t adequately express the magnitude of the undertaking. This was a closet in my office/studio into which I would toss things when I couldn’t figure out where else to put them. I’d been operating in this manner for five or six years, and the closet had finally [...]

Tracie’s plushie shinkansen is probably going to retain the title of Most Bestest souvenir, but for the synth geeks in the audience today’s purchase would be the clear winner: Yes, it’s a Gakken SX-150 Analog Synthesizer, possibly the world’s most famous ultra-cheap synth. Yes, you can get them in the US, with some effort, but [...]

You may not know Dave Gamble by name, but if you’re in the music-making biz you’ve probably seen his work bearing the brand names of various companies. He has struck out on his own under the name DMG Audio, and his first product, EQuality, is now available. It looks to be the be-all and end-all [...]

That’s a close-up of one end of the spring tank in my TASCAM RS-20 Spring Reverb. One detail that surprised me a little when I opened it up is that the transducers appear to be symmetric, i.e. the part that feeds audio into the springs appears to be the same as the part that picks [...]

I just put up a lengthy description, with photos, of how I modified a Frontier Design Tango (older 20-bit version) ADAT audio interface for DC output, allowing it to be used with software such as MOTU’s Volta and Expert Sleepers’ Silent Way to control analog synthesizers. It’s able to control my VCOs over nearly a [...]