Saturday, 5 March 2016

arp 2500 - VCO 1023 Module tests

I thought I'd share some pics and a video of the 1023 VCO.
The shape of the pulse & square waves in particular are very interesting.
I have a few 1023s in my system and each has 2 oscillators. So I did compare
one with the other and found lots of variation.

This oscillator features the same waveforms as the 1004 module with a switch for high and low frequency ranges.

The VCO was tuned to A (440Hz).


Pulse from 1023# 1

The second Pulse wave from 1023# 2 looked like this:

The plugin is from jaggedplanet.com
My favorite oscilloscope vst.

 Ramp/Sawtooth from 1023# 1




The second saw from 1023# 2 looks thus:


And the Square:
 Square of VCO #1


The square of 1023# 2

There doesn't appear to be much variation among sine & triangle waves between the various oscillators.

 Triangle

Sine

These VCOs are nearly 50 years old so it doesn't surprise me to see variations. Those old caps and resistors all add up to give these beautiful differences that add to the richness of the 2500's sound.

Thursday, 3 March 2016

DELAy - deluge

 The shortcuts  use 5 pads

AMOUNT 
Sets the amount of feedback from the output back into the delay.
Amount range 0 - 50.
Delay effect and combined feedback

RATE 
Sets the rate at which to sync the delay. Range is 0-50.

STEREO (PinG) 
Switches to ping-pong stereo delay (on) & traditional delay (off)





Pingpong only works if headphones or stereo l/mono & r connections are connected

ANALOG 
there are two types : DIGItal or ANALog delay
Analog is higher in CPU usage and may lower voices.

SYNC 
sets the Time interval to sync the delay
You can set it OFF. ..... ie free running
Options are 4 bar, 2 bar, 1 bar, 2nd, 4th, 8th, 16th, 32nd, 64th

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To access delay there are a 3 methods:

Shortcuts
1. Enter Clip view
2. Press Shift + Pad
3. Turn Select knob to adjust value

oR

Menu diving (select knob)
1. Enter Clip view
2. press select knob to access the effects menu
3. Turn Select knob to navigate to FX
4. navigate to dELAY
5. Select either
    ‘AmoU’ - amount,
    ‘rATE’ - rate,
    ‘PinG’ - stereo,
     ‘tYPE’ - analog,
     ‘SynC’ - sync.
     Press (SELECT) for the parameter to select.

Sound Level (gold parameter knobs)
1. Enter clip view
2. Press [DELAY TIME / AMOUNT] affect button
3. Turn (UPPER) to change delay-time RATE value
    or turn (LOWER) to change delay AMOUNT.
4. To toggle ping-pong or standard, Press (UPPER).
5. To toggle analog or digital, Press (LOWER).
6. Press [AFFECT ENTIRE] to affect the entire kit.

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Thursday, 25 February 2016

Roland/Boss DR 202 - Dr Groove

Boss Dr. Groove DR-202 Drum.
This is one of the very first drum machines I ever bought. I dusted it off the other day with the intention
to sell it. The DR-202 from BOSS was produced between 1998 - 2002.
It's still (surprisingly) holding it's value on ebay. It's really more than just a drum machine. I might just keep it that little bit longer.


How can I best describe it? ... compact programmable rhythm/drum machine that is very easy to use. Runs on batteries (6 x AA) or a 9V DC adapter (centre negative). Small enough to put into my backpack, but not as compact as the modern Korg Volcas. It does have more features like midi out, and the sequencer is more powerful. It's really a drum & bass machine. It's all digital (as far as I know).
This definitely effects the sound. They are not your producer quality 16 bit sample. But it has it's place if you're searching for low-fi sounds.
Midi in / out (selectable to thru). Sadly just RCA outputs and a mini headphone out.
Control changes can be output via MIDI; can also be used as 24-voice MIDI sound module
There are 207 drum & 49 bass sounds arranged into 128 kits.
The drum was developed for groove music styles like hip-hop, jungle, drum 'n' bass, trip hop, new jack, east coast, west coast, house, Latin, etc.



There are over 400 patterns made up of
- Hip Hop 1: 49 patterns
- Hip Hop 2: 34 patterns
- Hip Hop 3: 36 patterns
- Jungle: 16 patterns
- Drum 'N' Bass: 51 patterns
- Techno: 51 patterns
- House: 36 patterns
- Acid Jazz: 39 patterns
- Latin: 24 patterns
- Rock: 34 patterns
- Other: 30 patterns
- User: 100 patterns
- 20 programmable songs



You can find your classic TR 707, TR-808, TR-909 and TB-303 & CR 78, SH 101 sounds, Lo-Fi drum samples, various synth basses, sound effects. ... mainly Roland sounds.
The 13 instrument pads. 
These are marked with a C to C scale and the names of a basic drum kit: Kick 1, Snare 1, Open HH, Hit 1 and so on. The pads can be played like a piano or to trigger the drum sounds.
 What they do depends on the chosen kit. You can change to other preset and custom kits while patterns are running.

The way the pads are laid out gives you 2 kicks, 2 snares, 2 hi hats (one open, one closed), a ride, a crash, 2 percussion, and 3 hit pads. Each pad also has a separate send to the effects & the effects can also be applied to all the drums at once.
Effects - Reverb (8 types)/ Delay (2 types), Flanger (4 types).
The reverb effects range from halls to rooms, each with adjustable decay time and level.
The two types of delay are a panning delay and a stereo delay. The delay time can be set in milliseconds (5-450mS) or in bpm-related time divisions (10 settings from half-note triplets to sixteenth note triplets).
 There are on-board realtime control knobs for adjusting cutoff, resonance and decay parameters (for instant tweaking of individual instrument sounds);
This is actually a bank of 14 individual digital filters. 13 are for the percussion, and one for the bass.
The instrument knob on the left selects which drum, bass or combination of the two is being modified.



A 3-track sequencer  for the rhythm track, bass track plus a external source track for triggering a sampler or other MIDI device. The sequencer offers a 13-part drum track and a dedicated bass track that lets you build a rhythm from scratch in either step or live edit modes. Sequencer resolution: 96 ppqn.
 Up to 20 complete songs can be stored in the DR-202's internal memory.

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For more info on the history of  Roland Drum Machines click here

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Decksavers for your 808 & 909

These are awesome !!!
Your drums are precious so look after them.




Things of beauty need protection. Now all I need is one for my 303.

New Sound Waves Meet. Sat, 20th Feb, 2016

A fun arvo hanging out with friends doing what I like best.
Next meeting will be on the 16th March.
Kilpatrick Phenol & BEMI Easel (with a korg volca drum).


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These meetings  are held every 2 months (on average). Subscribe to the NSWaves blog for more details: