JonDent - Exploring Electronic Music: Serge

"The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils."
- The Merchant of Venice (V, i, 83-85)

Thursday, 15 May 2014

Testing one of my NLC (NonLinearCircuit) modules with the Morley Serge.
I'm mainly using a 4x4 binary logic module in this video.

Here are a few pics of the setup:
The 4x4 is receiving pulses from the Great Divide & 8-bit Cipher.

And some pics of the Paperface Serge:

These are the filters & reverb. The 4x4 logic module supplies all filter & VCO modulation control voltages.

The oscillator section. There is something very very special about these old VCOs.

The nonlinear circuit (NLC) 4x4 logic module is made up
of 4 identical circuits. Each has a different CMOS chip... which will produce related though different sequences & triggers. These kinds of modules are great for triggering drums.

Suitable ICs for use in these circuits are
4081 AND
4071 OR
4001 NOR
4011 NAND
4077 XNOR
4030 or 4070 XOR

A bit about Binary & Boolean Logic
Boolean logic was first conceived by George Boole (1816-1864). He was an English mathematician & philosopher.

He is now regarded as one of the founders of the digital computer and indeed of digital electronics itself.
In computer programming Boolean data uses binary code: True / False, on/off, or 0/1. His system
consisted of the three most basic operations: AND, OR, and NOT

With all the AND & OR operations there are 2 inputs and one output.

Firstly, the AND gate:

The AND gate is a basic digital logic gate.
You will only get a output if both inputs are 1 (or "high" or "on" or "yes")
If either or both inputs is 0, then the output will be zero.

INPUT     OUTPUT
A     B        A and B
0     0             0
0     1             0
1     0       0
1     1       1

The 4081 IC looks like this:

As you can see, it has 4 AND gates that can be used independently or cascaded together.
A four-input AND gate can be configured using the 4081

The OR Gate
The 4071 IC in surface mounted form looks like this.

Here is the pin layout:

Again you can see we have 4 OR gates that can be used independently or cascaded together.The output of this gate will be "high" (1) if any or both of the inputs are "high" (1).
The output of an OR gate goes "low" (0) if and only if both inputs are "low" (0).

INPUT    OUTPUT
A     B     A OR B
0     0            0
0     1            1
1     0            1
1     1            1

The NOT gate is also called an inverter.
It outputs the exact opposite digital signal as what is input.
It's not part of the 4x4 binary module but I'd thought I'd include it for completeness.

Tuesday, 8 April 2014

Barbarella - classic Sci Fi & Serge Sci Fi sounds

This poster just arrived in the mail today.
It's a vintage (& original) daybill movie poster from 1968.

The Australian daybill is the Aussie equivalent to the US insert and measures approximately 13" x 30" and was issued with 3 folds.

I've not seen one of these... possibly produced in Australia using a stone lithograph.
Quite a few stain marks from spillage, but otherwise in pretty good condition.

The standard Barbarella movie poster looks like this:

This type of poster is called a US R77. It measures 24 x 47.

It also has triple folds (as they all did back then).

It's condition is better than my Aussie Daybill though I quite like the look on Jane Fonda's face in the 68 Ausie Litho.

Watching movies like this, Dr Who,Star Trek and Lost in Space were I guess responsible for introducing me to those electronic sounds I love so much today.

Guess I never grew up.

Below is a video taken of my beloved serge making some sci-fi noises.

And I couldn't resist placing this link:
Barbarella vs the "Excessive Machine" making her own brand of noises. :-)

Thursday, 20 February 2014

Serge Chaos panel restoration pics

Ken Stone has just forwarded some new pics taken during the restoration of the Sherman Chaos panel.
So I though I'd share these with the Serge community.

Copyright Ken Stone

The Unicorn image chosen for the Chaos panel was inspired by the tapestry below. Now in the Museum of Modern Art, NYC. it is part of a series of seven tapestries depicting the magical unicorn.
Purity, fertility, freedom from the lust for money, status and wealth. Unicorns have the ability to assist humans on their journey to the higher dimensions.

And now some of the all important PCB and wiring pics:

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Serge Paperface Acid

A second Morley Serge video.
Mainly exploring the Analog Shift Register (ASR) and the triple wave shaper

Lovely acid mixed with dripping water.

Ken S. says that most of the PCBs date from around 1974/75.
...predating the rise of the Roland 303 by nearly a decade.

The 1973 serge filter is a 2 pole, 12dB LP & HP.
(With 6dB slopes on the BP).
Most of the acid sounds are care of the 12db High Pass.

The modules used are:
Serge '73 Oscillators x 3
10 stage sequencer
programmer x 2
Noise source
Negative Slew x 2
Envelope Generator
Send & receive
Mixer
Filter '73 x 3
Analog Shift Register (ASR).
Triple wave shaper (TWS).

The basic patch:
Patch a Neg Slew to cycle & use it to clock a Programmer Sequencer.

A CV from channel 1 of the programmer is fed into the ASR.
The ASR is clocked by the same Negative Slew.

The ASR produces 3 CVs which control the pitch of 3 VCOs.

VCO 1 (saw) ---> triple wave shaper -----> filter ----> BP out ---> mixer.
TWS is modulated by a 2nd Neg Slew, & the filter with some pink noise.

VCO 2 (saw) ----> filter ----> LP ---Mixer
The filter is further modulated with Cv from the ASR.

VCO 3 (sine) ----> Filter -----HP out ---> mixer
The filter is modulated with Cv from a noise module & the Envelope Generator.

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

To the Beautiful Girls of Milton

Ken just sent me these pics he took during the restoration of the reverb unit from the Morley Serge.

It reads " Folded Line....manufactured by beautiful girls in Milton Wis."

His response:

Ha Ha :-)

Friday, 7 February 2014

Serge paperface (Morley) - Test 1

A first test after restoration.
Just experimenting with some of the modules
looking for cool sounds. This Paperface is 40 years old.:-)

Many thanks to Ken Stone who did
a wonderful job.

Modules used:

Serge '73 Oscillators x 4
10 stage sequencer
programmer x 2
Noise source
Triple comparator
positive Slew
Negative Slew x 2
Send & receive
Mixer
Filter '73 x 2
Phaser

The basic patch:
Patch a Neg Slew to cycle & use it to clock a Programmer Sequencer

Oscillator 1 (saw) is patched into one filter. I've patched it's LP out to the mixer.
This provides the bubbling sounds. I've modulated the filter with some pink noise.
Osc 1 receives a bit of extra modulation from the programmer's row 2.

Oscillator 2 (Saw) patched into the phaser ----> mixer.
I patched a pulse from stage 5 of the programmer to trigger.

Oscillator 3 (Saw) ----> waveshaper ----> Mixer
The waveshaper is modulated by a positive slew.

Oscillator 4 (sine) -----> waveshaper ------> filter (HP out) ------> mixer.
The filter is modulated by a neg slew. This slew is clocked/triggered from a pulse
from the first stage of the programmer.
The waveshaper is modulated by Cv from row 3 of the programmer.

Monday, 3 February 2014

The Morley Serge drawings

One of the first things that drew me to Serge were the beautiful graphics.

Many of these early builders were artists who often covered their synths with collages & drawings.
By placing their own unique marks they imparted some of their personality and soul.

So when I saw the David Morley Serge I wondered where its artwork had come from.
It looked classical???

My sculpture teacher Kevin Norton, suggested I search Michelangelo's drawings & frescos.
The obvious place to start was the Sistine Chapel. A bit daunting as the ceiling covers a large area.
As it turned out, the images came not from the ceiling but from the far altar wall.

For a better picture click here

This fresco, titled "The Last Judgment" was painted by the Italian Renaissance master Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541.

It depicts the second coming of Christ. He is in the centre flanked by saints.
Humanity is being judged. The good rise to heaven and the damned are dragged into hell.

The above image is of St. Bartholomew. He holds his own flayed skin. We might find this image bizarre today, but Christian art commonly showed the saints brandishing the means of their own martyrdom.

There is a funny story surrounding this particular image. Back in the 16th century artists (as is the case today)
had to fight for commissions and often had to suffer the judgement of critics. The flayed skin is apparently a portrait of one of Michelangelo’s harshest critics. “You flayed me while I was alive,” Michelangelo allegedly told the critic. “Now I'll flay you for all eternity.”.

Above we have a section named "The Resurrection of the Dead".

The colours of the Serge pictures have now faded. Probably these images were pulled from an art history text book or a art magazine from the 70's?

The images above show the boatman Charon ferrying the damned into hell. Charon was featured in Dante's Devine Comedy and also in Virgil's Eneid. Legend says that he carried the souls of the dead across the rivers Styx and Acheron.

The Righteous are raised into Heaven.

Baigio da Cesena as Minos (s)

Baigio da Cesena was another severe critic of Michelangelo.
He was a papal Master of Ceremonies & complained that "nude figures had no place in such a sacred place, and .... the paintings would be more at home in a public tavern".

It seems that Michelangelo again had the last laugh. He portrayed Baigio as Minos, one of the three judges of the underworld. Baigio complained, but the Pope refused to force Michelangelo to remove the image, saying "he had no jurisdiction over hell".

Anyway, one can only guess about the religious nature of the images for the Serge.
The builder's name is still unknown. Was he an artist? Is he spiritual?
Anyway, part of the mystery behind the Morley serge is now solved.
Thanks Kev. You're a legend.!!!

Monday, 20 January 2014

Morley Serge - Final restoration pics & notes

The Morley Serge restoration is 99.99% finished.
I can't wait to have a play with it.

Here are some recent pics of the Serge kindly supplied by Ken Stone.

Here a test run video:

According to Ken there are a few quirks. Osc 1 and 3 track each other relatively well.
The others not so well. They are all very very very early (1st Generation) Serge oscillators ... not 1V/Oct
and we are actually lucky to have any tracking at all. :-)

Whether the VCOs track or not is not a problem.  It's all part of

having a vintage paperface. They are fun VCOs all the same.

One Neg Slew is WAY slower than the rest.It was decided to leave

it at that speed because it is of more use for clocks and so on.

More info regarding the Negative Slew can be seen here. :-)

The chaos bank has two inbuilt mixers. One mixes the 8th outputs of each of
the three generators. The other mixes steps 5,6,7 of the bottom generator only.

When nothing is plugged into them, the Black inputs of chaos bank pull high,
while the red ones pull low. That means if you don't plug something into the
black jack, the exclusive or gate is set to invert.

Patching any of the outputs into the red jack then creates a divider, so you

at least get a square wave out of the generator.

Thursday, 16 January 2014

The Morley Serge - Phaser & Reverb repairs

The Morley Serge has two early reverb and one phaser PCB.

The VC Phaser has three separate outputs : 1080 degree, 720 degree, and 360 degree of voltage controllable phase shift.
Here is the Phaser data sheet from the 70's
Ken Stone has a great explanation of this circuit here:
Serge Phaser

The Reverb uses 2 spring tanks mounted together in the upper right compartment.
These were originally found to be magnetically cross-talking as each tank's pickup was too close to the other's drive coil.
Here is the Reverb data sheet from the 70's

Testing of phaser & reverb after repairs. (Ken Stone video):

"VCO to mixer.
Phaser out to mixer.
Mixer to reverb.
Reverb to phaser in.
Phaser modulated by second VCO".

Sherman Chaos Bank restoration - part 2

Herman Gillis , aka Sherman - the man behind the famous Sherman filter bank made approximately 9 Sherman CHAOSBANKS back in the early 1980's / late 70s. This chaos bank may be one of them.
(If you have any info regarding this do shoot me an email).

The bank is almost 50 years old and is being restored.

In this interview, Herman discusses analog vs digital.

It was decided to re-arrange the panel. This is always a dilemma - the conflict between preservation of history and returning something to a working state.
So after much deliberation the final panel art chosen was:

The earlier designs were changed in favor of something more "classical" ... in keeping with the rest of the synthesizer artwork, and special aged paper was sourced to blend things into the whole.
I love the final result. Thanks heaps Ken. :-)

I especially like the dual reference to the unicorn. This mythical beast that is Ken Stone's symbol has also been used countless times in medieval Flemish (Belgium) tapestries. Belgium being the birth place of Herman Gillis..........The unicorn is a link between the two.

Here is a test video of the Chaos Bank:

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Sherman Chaos Bank - David Morley's Serge

This vintage Sherman Chaos Bank is part of the David Morley Serge, currently being restored by Ken Stone. Ken describes it as " basically a random pulse and pitch generator".

I understand that the Chaos Bank was originally designed by Herman Gillis - the man behind the Belgium firm, Sherman (famous for the Sherman filterbank).

This is a very early example of a Chaos bank... extremely interesting from a historical perspective.
It seems that Herman later built 9 Chaosbanks (if any one has more info regarding this please email me so I can correct any errors or omissions).

Prior to restoring the panel these are some of the sounds Ken managed to coax out of it:

The panel layout is unusual especially as much of it was unused.

These +40 year circuits --- are they a short circuit waiting to happen ???

So a decision had to be made --- to leave it as is, or to rebuild.

It was decided to create a new paper panel (without replacing the existing paper), rejack, re-arrange as needed, and finally put that mixer PCB to good use.
The problems with this approach are of course
a) it will change how it looks
b) modern jacks & knobs would have to be used (I would like to keep the components
as original as possible).

Regarding the paper panel. Here are a couple of ideas Ken & I considered:

It was decided to add 2 three-knob mixers to the lower half of the panel. These are to be hard wired to random outputs from the chaos banks. They should allow the creation of some interesting CVs.

Version 2:

Below is an initial test video:

Monday, 16 December 2013

The David Morley Serge

This Serge is a very early example of a "paperface".
It was probably built by CalArts university students in the 1970s.
They were most likely supervised by Serge Tcherepnin himself.

(Correction: recent info has come to light that this was built by Peter Davidson in the 1970s)
http://peterdavison.com/

Ken Stone has more pictures of this synth in his CGS Gallery

In this video David Morley talks about it around 3.50 mins.

I purchased this synthesizer from David Morley in mid 2013 & have placed its' restoration
in the very capable hands of Ken Stone.

The wooden case has 8 compartments.
The top two house the reverb & power supply.
The lower six house the 6 paperface panels:

The top left panel contains the filters, reverb, phasers & a mixer.