Saturday, 19 June 2021

Korg WaveState - Arpeggio

Playing around with the Korg Wavestate.
All samples - wave sequencing

..

Layers A, C & D are Arpeggios 
Layer B is a Pad 
I'm using a Roland Tr-707 drum as the master clock. It's supplying a very basic kick. 
The 707 is connected via midi.
 
The rest of the sound is just the Wavestate without any extra effects. 
Patch Jono2021b
These are some primary performance notes.
The patch is quite flexible and no performance will ever sound the same.

 The top row of the eight performance mod knobs set the overall pitch of each layer.
The bottom row of the 8 performance knobs are the volume of each layer.
The MOD wheel controls filter frequency.

Layer B is actually a chord layer, though I havent used it this way in the video.
In layer A, the gate lane is impt. It has 16 steps made up of rests & fully open notes.
Play around with the start and end points of the loop in the gate lane.

In layer C, play around with the start and end points of the loop in the sample lane.

The joystick modulates the Delay & reverb.
Do muck around with the dedicated effects knobs ..esp the wet/dry mix and change the types of delay & reverbs.

The filter cutoff/ resonance and intensity are really tweakable.
as are the envelope settings... esp the amp & filter attack and decay.

Finally, play with the LFO .. esp the filter & amp frequency/intensity.

Friday, 18 June 2021

I can't believe it's not a VCO - NLC Build notes - part 2

 These  notes are a continuation of an earlier NLC eurorack build.
The module is the " I can't believe it's not a VCO"
It's a odd but good name as the module was originally intended to be a filter, but it turned
out to also be a really neat oscillator.

This is the build so far


The first part of my build is here:


some useful Links:


This if the zener diode I was waiting for from mouser.
Be careful of the orientation


Install trimpots, the 10 pin power connector, etc


...These are the headers that connect the two PCBs



Its time for the pots.
One 1 x 1M 
5 x 100K





Some NLC words of wisdom.



We all know him as the director of The Holy Mountain and a early film adaptation of Dune. I didn't know he was a writer.
Where the Bird Sings Best tells the fantastic story of the Jodorowskys' emigration from Ukraine to Chile.

These are the jacks. Use resistor offcuts for the grounds


I forgot to add the 1k tempco

I actually just used a normal resistor

You're Done :-)



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click here to return to the NLC Build Index:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/non-linear-circuits-ncl-index.html 
 

Sunday, 13 June 2021

Roland 106 & ju-06a arpeggios

Some experiments with two Roland Synths.
A old Juno 106 and a brand new Boutique JU-06a
I actually purchased the JU-06a for its arpeggiator but alas, it wasn't what I wanted.
However the Arturia Keystep came to the rescue.

..

 The Arturia Keystep is eight-note polyphonic, meaning it can sequence any synthesizer (monophonic or not) with up to eight different notes in a chord.
 
Still, I think the ju-06a sounds great, and compliments the 106 really well.

Patches 1.7 on the juno 106 and 3.1 on the ju06a

I'm just playing different chords on the Keystep and this is sent via midi to the 106 & 06a

Roland 6, 60, Boutique 06 - Arpeggiator

The Roland Juno 60 has a highly acclaimed arpeggiator.
I was listening to a friend's Juno 60 the other day and he turned on that arp.
Those melodies floated in the studio. They just went on and on.
 
The Juno 60's arpeggiator also has a clock input which was designed for a feed from a drum machine or sequencer. By using the clock-in, you can play with different arpeggio styles and adjust the tempo.
 
It's actually a 1/4" input, using a 1 pulse per note system, instead of the 24ppqn DIN Sync standard.
 
Other Roland synths with clock inputs for arps (that I know of) include:

Juno 06, 60
Jupiter 4
Jupiter 6
Jupiter 8 (both pulse trigger input and DIN Sync24 input)

Korg also produce quite a few synths with arpeggiators.
Eg the Minilogue, Wavestate, Monopoly, Poly-61

 Getting back to the Junos
The Juno 6 came out in 1982.
 A six voice, analog, manual controlled synth. It had the lushest, most beautiful, pads.
A five octave keyboard
 There is no MIDI.
This is a pic of its arp.
The arpeggiator of the Juno will sync to a clock signal (+5v) , it does not have an internal sequencer like the sh-101.
 
This is the rear.
Just plug in the rimshot of your TR 808 or the Tom of the 606, etc
 

I sadly don't have a juno 06 or 60. I opted for a Juno 106 back in the day
since it had midi. 
I do wish it had an arp.
 

So I recently purchased a Boutique JU-06
It's small & portable,  sounds great and is a welcome addition to my arsenal. It will be handy esp for live gigs.


The only regret I have is the arpeggator can't be clocked with a external trigger or via midi. The Arp seems to be driven by its own separate internal clock
I tried everything last night.... different drum machines, with triggers, midi, din etc etc.
Nothing would lock onto the arp.
The sequencer was easily synced to incoming clock, so I'm sure the arp
could be synced too. 
I'm hoping Roland's engineers will one day fix this issue with a firmware update.
 



Anyway, the solution was to bypass the JU-06 's arp completely and just use the Arturia keystep. It's arp does the job ok.

I've synced the 606 drum via a midi/din converter directly to the keystep's midi out

...

 One final prob you may encounter is everytime you start the arp, the ju-06a's sequencer will begin playing. The best way around this problem is to erase one of the patterns and use this when playing remotely.
I erased pattern 16, so when I send midi clock to the synth, it doesn't start playing the sequencer on top of the arpeggio.

Monday, 7 June 2021

Roland TR 606 - tear down

Some pics of a Roland Tr-606

 
Since it's 606 day I thought it would be fun to see inside of one.
I usually use my modded Analogue Solutions 606. The regular 606 has (in my humble opinion) a less than "boomy" BD.
Still, it's a great drum machine



This particular 606 has been sitting in storage for years.
It seems to work OK except for a scratchy main volume pot.
This is it's only "problem".
 
 To open it up just unscrew the back

It's held together with 7 screws.

After you lift off the back you can see the main PCB.
It will still be connected to the front panel via the battery compartment.




Remove the two screws holding the battery compartment to the front section.
You can then see the front of the 606
BTW, the 606 uses a DC PSU
Output: 9 volts 300mA regulated - centre negative 2.1mm DC plug

The front section looks OK,
The dust covers for the pots are still there.
That's a good sign it hasn't been tampered with.
And the plastic standoffs look original.... and not broken either :-)

A close up of the main PCB.
Nice, seems it's never been repaired ??
 

 A side pic of the DIN connector, RUN/STOP jack section

 
The other side
 

 The 606 is built of 3 PCBs.
They are very tightly stacked together.

I kind of intended to take this drum completely apart when I first opened it up.
However, it looks like no one has touched it since it left the factory.
Since it only has one scratchy pot, I think I'll try to restrain my urge to pull it to 
pieces till the time comes when it needs a proper service.
 
Links

Saturday, 5 June 2021

Happy 606 Day

 Happy 606 day to everyone.
 
 
 
I love my funky little Roland drum.
Small in stature, but big in sounds

The TR-606 Drumatrix was designed to compliment the TB 303.
Launched in 1981, it was neglected in favor of it's bigger brothers the 808 & 909.
It still sounds great, esp with the Analogue Solutions mods.

The 606 is a useful interfacing device.
In the insta video, its the master clock.
It can also be the slave, and receive DIN clock (or MIDI clock if you use a midi to din converter).

DIN sync sends 24 pulses per quarter note.
Also known as Sync24
 
This is the rear view of the DIN cable.
It looks just like a MIDI cable, but the signals it carries are different.
 
Pin 3 is the clock
Pin 2 is ground
Pin 1 is Start/stop

 The important signals are the clock & Start/stop
The clock is a pulse wave 0/+5 volt.
stop = 0 volt, start = +5 volt 

There are plenty of Midi to Din converters in the market, however conversion of
DIN to MIDI clock is more complicated.
Conversion from din to midi requires a microprocessor.  
So this might be possible using an arduino.
Currently, the only devices that can do this, that I'm aware of are:
Roland SBX10
Korg KMS30
Innerclock Systems Sync-Split2
 
The Pioneer Toraiz may also do this job, though I haven't tested this yet.
The roland TR-707s and 727s have both din and midi.  .... though its a bit weird needing to use a drum to sync a drum.
The Roland SBX-80 may be another option
 
sOME pics of the Analogue Solutions/Roland TR 606

This is it's breakout box