Thursday, 20 March 2014

Korg PS 3200 - Filter workout

The Korg PS 3200 uses dynamic Low-Pass Filters (DLPF) with Cutoff Frequency and Peak controls.
(resonance or Q) - this emphasises the harmonics at the cutoff point.




It's a 12dB/octave, two-pole design.

 The Doepfer Dark Time provided the sequence.

Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Korg PS 3200

It's a real pleasure and indeed an honor to own this synth.

Weighing in at 37kg the 3200 was much derided due to its lack of the famous Korg triple resonators found in its brothers, the PS3300 & PS3100. Korg replaced the resonator with a graphic equaliser.


 I still love it to bits. It has much warmth & richness ....a truly unique machine.

In this first video the Doepfer Dark Time sequencer is triggering drum sounds.


 The synth is much much deeper than this first demo (I'll post more videos in the future to demonstrate).



The PS3200 is a fully polyphonic, 16 memory semi-modular system.... yes memories / presets.
The system Korg used for editing the sounds is unusual. You pull the knobs out to make your changes, then push them back in to store your new settings. You can see me do this in the video.
Above the Dark Time sequencer you can see a bank of 16 white buttons. These store the presets.

Released in 1978, it has 2 VCOs per voice. You can play all 48 notes simultaneously.
It was the last of the PS series. .... strangely the order was: PS3100,PS3300 then the PS 3200.
You can see a resemblance to the MS20 (but it sounds nothing like an MS20).

My PS3200 has a Kenton MIDI retrofit.
This old video demos this. I used a ipad running an old version of the genome sequencer app.
There is probably a much better version of the app now.



 More videos to come.

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

191 Sharp Cutoff Filter - build notes

My Build notes for the LA191 filter.
It's not a Buchla Module.
It follows the same size & format & the circuits used are I understand based on Don's schematics.
I would love Buchla USA to make a official 191 filter.
Until that day, this will have to do.
 
These are not official build notes Just my personal pics to help trouble shoot.



The vintage Buchla 191 is a very rare filter. I'd love to see or purchase a real one.
Maybe Buchla USA will come out with one ... lets hope.

 Anyway, I'm building this for a friend.
The PCB (LA 67) looks great. An easy build I think.


aLL through hole.

Parts are standard .. all discrete.
Some of the transistors need to be matched.


The switch is a bit confusing.

My wiring guide

These pics are the top section (its upside down in the photo)


nOW it gets confusing ... the bottom bit




tHE heatshrink seemed like a good idea at the time, however, it later made my job harder as the hole the switch fits into was too small.
 
got it in ,,,, but was a real mess.
My apologies to the future techo who needs to service this.





 The "Lamps" are polarized.
THey  are actually LEDs  not incandesent lamps
(Incandescent Panel Mount Indicators Panel Mount Indicator Lamps)







A bit of a mess...
But the filter seems to work.
Anyway, I have no idea how this stacks up to a real 191.

Monday, 10 March 2014

Future Music Festival - 2014 - Sydney - Australia

March 8, 2014
Sydney Australia.

The Future Music Festival is held every year at Royal Randwick racecourse.
I like to think of it as the reverse of Gladstonbury -
Future is electronic mainly, with the odd smattering of rock/indy bands.

The forecast was for rain but the weather gods were smiling. This turned out to be a glorious autumn day.

There are 10 stages. Each stage is a little nightclub, all with a loyal audience. I think there are too many stages and have often considered flying interstate to see the acts I missed.
It's very difficult to decide who to see .

In between we danced knee-deep in the thick white suds that pelted down from the DJ podium.
The Foamarama stage...It's a annual ritual.



 The day started with Dannic on the future soundsystem stage. From Breda in the Netherlands
– the hometown of Tiësto & Hardwell
He is famous for his amazing mashups. A DJ and producer. His star is def on the rise.
Is there something special about the water in Holland that keeps producing DJ after DJ?

..

We then headed to the Safari stage where we managed to catch the last 10 minutes of Martin Garrix's set,
followed by R3HAB.

The "haunted House" hosted by Knife Party looked full of promise.
I see monsters... :-)
Creepy..spiderwebs everywhere. It was a prefect place to escape the harsh sun and any possible rain.



 Back to the main stage to catch Dada Life & Pharrell.





 Pharrell Williams is a very cool dude with a reputation as a ladies man.
demonstrated when he invited a bevy of beautiful women from the front row to dance
with him. One can only imagine the jealous boyfriends.

Some guys have all the luck.



Pharrell was on at 4'15. Possibly too early.
Out he came in his hat. His interaction with the audience is wonderful.
He of course performed his massive hits 'Blurred Lines' and 'Get Lucky.



After this ... to the Green Room to see Minx.
Love this sexy gal. then back to the main stage to see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
Macklemore has a wonderful presence. Esp when he raps. His lyrics are full of passion,meaning
and emotion.

The night finished with Eric PRYTZ, Hardwell & Deadmau5.
I Just caught the tail of Pjanoo.... one of my fave anthems of all time.

..

Eric Prydz is famous for the' "Pryda Snare" (contained in his song Miami 2 Atlanta).



It is a popular in house and trance music... consisting of using a compressed and sustained snare sample at the end of a bar to cause a sudden pause. This is possibly one of the most sampled sounds in electronic dance music.

The night finished with Hardwell & Deadmau5.



Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Alessandro Cortini (of NIN) - Solo Perfromance on a Buchla Easel

Alessandro Cortini performs on a Buchla Easel.

4th March, 2014.
107 Projects Gallery, 107 Redfern Street, Redfern, Sydney,Australia.
Many thanks to the New Sound Waves Modular Synth group for helping to make this possible.





 OMG - I'm Gobsmacked - standing next to Alessandro Cortini. :-)
What a cool dude!!!


The great visuals are by Cobramatic/Autoglider.

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Buchla 144 & Touch Voltage Sources

This video uses just one Buchla 144 to create all these sounds .....with a little help from the following other modules:

110 - Dual VC Gate (Two voltage controlled amplifiers)
194 - Fixed Bandpass Filter
190 - Reverb -" the sound" of the System 100
106 - six channel mixer.
156 - Dual Control Voltage Processor (to mix, compress and invert control voltages)
107 - voltage Controlled Mixer
123 - Sequential Voltage source (in other words it's a sequencer).
140 - timing pulse generator (It's the Clock).
114 - Ten touch-controlled voltage sources (capacitive keyboard). Each also plate has it's own AD envelope
180 - Dual Attack Generator.
and a Touch Activated voltage source - care of Jason Butcher. similar to a 112 &/or 216


The basic patch uses one dual 144 VCO.
One VCO supplies all the sounds.
The second VCO FMs & AMs the first.



                      Jason Butcher"s Touch Voltage Source. Inspired by the Buchla 112 & 216
The CV from the Butcher 112 & the 114 is mixed/inverted by the 156 and modulates the left 144.
The right 144 provides the sounds. It's sequenced by the 123.

All audio is processed via the 194 filter and then 190 reverb.

The 114 opens/closes the 107 mixer. (they are a great combo).
112 transposes pitch.

Sunday, 23 February 2014

Phuture - Acid Tracks - TB 303 remix

Released way back in 1987, Acid Tracks (Trax) is credited as being the first track to
feature the "squelch" sound of the Roland TB 303.
The 12 inch single lays claim to being the first-ever acid house record.



Original 12" Track listing
1   "Acid Tracks" (11.17)
2  "Phuture Jacks" (4:45)
3 "Your Only Friend" (5:10)



 Phuture (also called Phuture 303) was a Chicago-based group  founded in 1985 by Spanky, DJ Pierre (Nathaniel Pierre Jones) and Herb J.

This version is not meant to be an exact remake. The original was 11.17 mins long and is drenched in reverb. The track is very simple. Just 8 notes repeated over and over again.B,B,C,C',C,D#,D#,C'.



Mine is rather shorter .. 5.5 mins, without any external processing.
Recorded in a single take with just a Roland TB 303 & TR 606 on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

The drums are on the right channel & the 303 on the left. So to hear it properly listen on some good speakers.
Headphones might be a problem.


Thursday, 20 February 2014

Warren Burt Serge 2 - WAD & TKB panels restoration

The WAD pics are care of Ken Stone.
The TKB care of Andrew F. of Non-Linear Circuits.






WAD PCBs:

Copyright Ken Stone


And the TKB.

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



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:

Copyright Ken Stone

Copyright Ken Stone

Copyright Ken Stone

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Miley Cyrus spotted in Port Kembla

Miley Cyrus made a surprise visit to Wollongong today.
Finally, there is a use for that wrecking ball.




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.

Petra Panoramas

Some pics taken in Petra, Jordan. Capital city of the Nabataeans. 

The Treasury. Al Khazneh. dated around 1st century BC. Cut right out of the sandstone cliff.
A nice fusion of Greek & Middle Eastern Architecture.
It's quite amazing how well preserved it is. Probably due to its well protected location in the valley.
The details in the upper capitals are still crisp... like they were carved yesterday.


Petra was discovered as late as 1812 by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.

 Felt pen drawing done on an earlier 1999 trip.

This is the eastern entrance to the city. Its a dark, narrow gorge called the Siq (The Shaft). About 1.2 Km long it at times opens up into large sunlit spaces. Dotted with trees here & there, you walk over ancient Roman/Nabatean road.

The famous Indiana Jones view.




The place of high sacrifice. Perched high above Wadi Musa there are dramatic views over Petra below.
The two 6m obelisks  probably probably represent the chief male and female Nabatean deities, Dushara and al-Uzza. Whats amazing is that these are solid. The mountain top was removed to leave them standing.

Most likely animal sacrifice, ritual exposure of the dead (as practiced by Zoroastrians of Persia) and offerings to the god Dushara took place here. Did human sacrifice occur?  Maybe, though no one is certain.

This is the view from the place of high sacrifice as are the two directly below.




The amphitheatre has been cut directly into the hillside. Dated to the 1st Century AD its most likely
Hellenistic not Roman. The Greeks tended to build their theatres into the natural hillside.
The Romans probably restored the theatre after they took over. Seats about 9,000.



Roman road ... about 106 CE

The Monastery ... 1st century BC. Dedicated to the god Obodas. Getting here is a hour's hike from the city centre (1.5 hrs from the Treasury). It's well worth the effort.... hiking up through rocky gorges. Lots to see along the way.

The name "Monastery" is a misnomer. It was probably a temple dedicated to King Obodas I. He was worshiped as a god after his death.

Though not as ornate as the Treasury it looks like it's much bigger. Carved out of the side of the mountain it dominates the surrounding landscape.

View of the Monastery from the "High Place". Breathtaking views over Petra.


Petra Byzantine Church