This old footage from Midnight Special always amuses me because what the musicians are doing has nothing at all to do with the music. However, someone has edited in some other nice footage of her, and it’s also a high-quality copy of the audio.

I miss you, Donna. I’m doing what I’m doing today in part because of what you did back in 1977. Thank you.

Anybody need a 303 clone? As described here, here, and here, I built a x0xb0x about a year ago. It turns out that it hasn’t been getting much use so I think it’s time for it to go to a more appreciative home. It was built from a x0xsh0p.de kit with no modifications except that I used green LEDs for some indicators, and substituted longer standoffs so that the LEDs protrude from the panel. (IMHO it looks stupid to mount the LEDs so that they don’t come through the panel, which is how most kits seem to be built.) It’s in basically unused condition and works fine.
Asking price is $400; that includes an AC adapter and UPS Ground shipping within the lower 48 states. If you want a faster shipping method, or if you live in one of the two far-flung states, you cover the difference.

I vastly prefer PayPal. Sorry, no non-USA orders; shipping stuff out of this country has become too much of a hassle to be worth it.

Email me if you’re interested. Thanks for looking.

Altogether it’s a pretty easy kit to build, although it does have a lot of parts. Building it reminded me how much more labor-intensive working with through-hole parts is compared to building something with SMT. I did make one change: I bought some longer LED standoffs because the 0.25″ standoffs that come with the kit position the LEDs almost flush with the panel, and I personally don’t like the way that looks. I also bought some nicer-looking knobs but they turned out to not work because their D-shaft orientation is opposite that of the x0xb0x’s pots. (Is there a convention for such things? One would think so.)

I’ve gone through only a small part of its features but so far it works the way it’s supposed to. I was somewhat startled to discover how badly it bogs down as you turn the Tempo knob. I suppose I could download the source code and try to fix it, but, well, there are things I’d rather do–like just using the thing, for example.

SynthTech Modules, assembled by me:

MOTM-310 uVCO – $290

MOTM-510 WaveWarper – $320

SynthTech MOTM-700 Dual VC Router Kit – possibly the last unassembled MOTM kit on the planet? $175. I believe that’s what I paid for it. It’s in the same condition as the day I received it several years ago; never got around to building it.

Encore Electronics UEG – $250

Blacet Mini-Wave – $295 I converted this to MOTM format with “vintage” Stooge Panel and bracket, Bourns pots, Switchcraft jacks. This was done with the original Blacet kit before John started selling kits specifically for MOTM conversion. Also has the Socket Rocket second waveform EPROM. SOLD!

All items are in very good to excellent condition. They probably have the usual marring from screw heads but have been used only in my home studio.

Terms:

-PayPal only. I don’t ship the module until you pay me.

-Shipping fee is $10 per module for shipping via USPS Priority mail.

-Shipping to addresses in USA only. Sorry, I hate filling out customs forms and standing in line.

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 sounded just like a TB-303.

It’s a utility module that can add, subtract and scale signals. It also generates the minimum and maximum values of a pair of signals. While describing it to Chris I called it a “CV processor module thingy” which he thought was a perfect name, but that didn’t quite fit on the 1U panel.

If you want to see how the pros do it, there’s a video here done by a certified instructor of soldering. It’s more of an advertisement than a tutorial, but if you watch closely you can pick up some pointers.

Having watched all of these, I’ve arrived at the conclusion that I probably need to use less solder and more flux than I have in the past. Eric Brombaugh (who pointed out the instructor’s videos to me) mentioned to me that he often doesn’t use solder at all when soldering ICs to PCBs that have been HASL plated. He finds that there is enough solder left from the plating to attach the leads.

However, it seems that I’m not the only one obsessed with building digital sequencers. Thorsten Klose, owner of the aforementioned site, has put an astonishing amount of time and effort into his MIDIbox system. The pinnacle of his efforts is version 4 of his sequencer, which he calls MIDIbox SEQ V4, appropriately enough. You can find it about halfway down the left-hand navigation column on the uCApps.de website. When I first started thinking about my sequencer project, the MIDIbox system was far less sophisticated and hence I didn’t pay much attention to it. Also, Thorsten based his system on a PIC microcontroller which wasn’t powerful enough to run the software I envisioned. Since then he has switched to a much more powerful STM32 microcontroller and his sequencer design, while not entirely similar to my own, implements almost all of the functional ideas for a digital sequencer that have occurred to me and quite a few more that haven’t occurred to me. Since he’s kind enough to share all of his source code, schematics, and so forth with the rest of the world, I decided to adopt his system as the basis of my own.

This brings me back to the point of this entry. Rather than using his PCB layout for the STM32 core as-is, I decided to design my own PCB from his schematics. I replaced most of the through-hole components with surface-mount packages, dropped the CAN port because I don’t expect to use it, and added headers for almost all of the STM32 I/O pins. The result looks like this:

The components on the board represent the minimum necessary to determine whether the STM32 runs: the STM32 itself and its clock crystal, a USB socket from which +5V can be drawn, a 3.3V regulator, a connector for a JTAG interface, and an LED that demonstrates that the STM32 is able to execute code. It didn’t seem to work at first but after a bit of head-scratching I figured out that one of the JTAG settings in my IDE was set wrong. (I changed the “nTRST Open Drain” property from Yes to No, whatever that means.) I was then able to succesfully install the MIOS32 bootloader. This made the LED blink in a most gratifying manner. I added the components for the USB interface and MIDI ports and was able to use the MIOS Studio to verify that the STM32 was running the bootloader. This was all very pleasing since this is the most complex PCB I’ve laid out and aside from one incorrect footprint for the voltage regulator it seems to have no flaws. (The footprint problem proved to be due to a mistake made by the makers of my PCB software.)

The next step is to finish stuffing the board and hook up an LCD to see whether the LCD interface works. I ground to a halt at that point because I couldn’t find the ribbon cable for the LCD, and the local electronics shop isn’t open on Sundays. I think my Mouser shopping list is now long enough to meet their $25 minimum so I’ll order the necessary connectors this week. I’ll post a photo of the completed PCB next week.

If you’re wondering about the white blob on the resistor SIP near the top of the board, it’s silicone glue. The board needs a 4-resistor 10K SIP for the JTAG, I had only larger SIPs on hand, and the local shop didn’t have any of the right size either. I ended up cutting down a larger package with wire cutters and put the glue on the end to seal it back up. Works fine.

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 this problem is not uncommon and is usually attributable to a failed ADC chip. Unfortunately that chip is long out of production. It also has some signs of wear and a few odd-looking bubbles in the plastic in front of the display which are faintly annoying but not actually obstructive.

Not long ago I purchased a PCM-91 and PCM-81 for a friend, and while I’d be entirely happy to have three units of Lexicon PCM goodness, I’m about 4U shy of having enough rack space to accommodate all of my signal processors. (It’s something of an occupational hazard, I guess.) Hence my PCM-90 is up for sale. I paid $450 for it in the same condition that it’s currently in and would be delighted to get $300 for it, but I’ll consider offers.

I have a printed, spiral-bound copy of the manual which I’ll include. Paypal only unless I know you. I’ll pay for UPS Ground shipping within the continental US; anything else you pay for. I’ll ship overseas but you’ll have to pay me way more than $300 for it. (Shipping rack gear out of the country is a royal PITA.) Highly collectible leekspin girl not included.

I got rid of a lot of old computer stuff, including a 2x(!) CD-ROM(! yes, no writing capability) drive dating from the days that CD-ROM drives had those annoying little caddy things and were housed in their own cases. As I threw out dozens of yards of Mac ADB and serial cables (with their funny little mini-DIN-8 connectors) and SCSI cables and adapters (including an infamous “Weird-30″ adapter used by some PowerBooks) I reflected about how much electronics junk Apple had created in the world with their decisions to “think different” and use strange connectors rather than the ones that were already established (such as the DB-9 for serial ports).

In terms of volume, the largest amount of stuff I discarded was 3.5″ Mac floppy discs. I’d had most of these stashed on a shelf for over 10 years, untouched, retained on the “just in case I need them someday” pack-rat mentality. I decided that if that day hadn’t arrived in over a decade, it probably wasn’t going to arrive at all–particularly considering that I no longer have any pre-G4 Macintoshes on hand. I think I filled two grocery bags with the things. Here’s a subset:

They provided little reminders of my computing past. This trio provides a nice representation:

On the left we have the “System Tools” disc from my first Mac. That was from 1986, when you could fit the entire MacOS and some utilities onto one 800K floppy. Next to it is Netscape Navigator, probably from around 1999ish, at a guess. Yes, kids, there was a time in which you could obtain a web browser on a physical medium rather than downloading it from the web. (Why? Well, it’s kind of a long story. Fetch me my Geritol and I’ll tell you.) On the right is MS Word version 6. The label says “Install disc 13″. Remember when you had to stuff a dozen floppies into your machine to install an app? I imagine that version 6 was the last version of Word to ship on floppies rather than CD-ROM.

The discs that I lingered over the longest were the master discs for music software. Many of these were so-called “key discs” which meant that they served as the copy-protection mechanism for the (often fairly expensive) software that was contained on them. They usually permitted you to install the software only a few times, and getting them replaced if they failed could be something of a chore. (Yes, it was my experiences with some of these discs that contributed to my somewhat infamous disdain for PACE. These key discs were the predecessor of the iLok.) Hence their value was disproportionately much larger than that of most 3.5″ floppies, and one tended to keep them in special storage containers on a shelf, safely out of harm’s way. I assembled a small gathering for a final photo:

From left to right, back row first: Master Tracks Pro, my first sequencer and possibly the first commercial music software I ever purchased; the first version of Max published by Opcode (dated 1990); OMS, which I won’t even try to explain–you had to be there; the Digidesign Audio Utilities as published by Opcode, system software for their pre-Pro-Tools DSP hardware; and Galaxy Plus Editors, the patch librarian/editing software for numerous MIDI synths. Next row: a demo disc of M, one of David Zicarelli’s first products and still available from Cycling ’74 (I think); a demo disc of Turbosynth, Digidesign’s non-real-time but extremely cool software synth; Steinberg’s ReCycle, the genesis of loop slicing written by the guys who went on to form Propellerheads; editing software for a JL Cooper MIDI fader box; and a very early version of Opcode’s Vision sequencer. Bear in mind that none of the sequencers shown here could record or play audio–this was strictly MIDI sequencing we’re talking about. Next row: Music Mouse, a sort of early “intelligent instrument”/software performance thing written by Laurie Spiegel (whom I spoke to on the phone at some point after buying it); Deck, as published by OSC, the first(?) multi-channel recording app for the Mac; the driver software for the MOTU MIDI Timepiece, the first(?) multi-port Mac MIDI interface; a demo version of Cubase (undoubtedly pre-VST, i.e. no audio); and Band in a Box (don’t ask) Front row: a later verson of Master Tracks Pro which still didn’t have audio; Deck, as published by Macromedia after they acquired it from OSC and before someone else acquired them; Bliss Paint, a sort of abstract animation app that involved scripting sequences of patterns–very cool but fatally flawed because the author didn’t tie the timing to any sort of hardware reference so your animations ran completely differently depending on how fast your hardware was; version 2.2 of Turbosynth, now almost real time because it could use an Audiomedia II card for doing the DSP; and UpBeat, another David Z. creation, as published by Dr. T’s who acquired it from Intelligent Music. (I had discs for it from Intelligent music on hand also.)

In other words, my pack-rat stash of floppies represented a lot of history from the music software world. It was kind of hard to let it go. After all, these programs were not only my tools of musical expression (more or less) but also in some sense the inspiration for Audio Damage and its products. Happily, some of them went to a good home: Turbosynth, UpBeat, and a couple other mutual old favorites are on their way to Chris, where they can sit on his shelf near his alphaSyntauri system.