Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Midwinter Modular Meeting

 Thanks to everyone who attended the Midwinter Modular Meeting.
(aka modular on the lounge).

Some pics:




A big thanks to Chris K who came all the way from Bega with his video synths






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Italy - Hardians Villa

 Hadrian's Villa is a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising the ruins and archaeological remains of a large villa complex built c. AD 120 by Roman Emperor Hadrian at Tivoli outside Rome.
 

Villa Adriana Tivoli (Hadrians Villa)
The Three Exedras

This was a retreat for the Emperor Hadrian.
It was built during the second and third decades of the 2nd century AD

 Grand Thermae
 
 During the later years of his reign, Hadrian actually governed the empire from the villa.
 


 
Canopus, Hadrian's Villa

Grand Thermae

Hadrian's villa tunnels.



The Maritime theatre 
It consists of a round portico with a barrel vault supported by pillars. Inside the portico was a ring-shaped pool with a central island.

 

The temple of Venus




Cat Full of Ghosts Video Equations workshop - Elk elektroniks

 I'm looking forward to this workshop.

 Video Equations is a video synth of course..

Here is an in depth look at the synth


 The workshop will be hosted by Elk Elektroniks in Wollongong Australia
on Sat the 30th of July.
 

Monday, 4 July 2022

Build notes - NLC Intimacy

These are my build notes for the Intimacy module.
Its a  Nonlinear Circuits Eurorack format that is useful for processing sounds.



Links:

Its based on the Intersound IVP Pre-amp.
It's not a clone.
The Intersound IVP (Instrument Voicing Preamp) from 1978 is a studio-quality rackmounted preamp with powerful EQ and a unique overdrive 


Steve Albini and The Grateful Dead are famous for having this as part of their rigs.

There are 2 parts to this module.
1. EQ
2. drive

The EQ section consists of a dual band shelving EQ (bass & treble), 
followed by the 4 band parametric EQ. 

The Drive bit is transformer based with an added VCA on the input to control the drive level and volume.
It's a transformer based circuit , which makes it sound different from tube distortion

The modules can be used separately or in series. The output of the EQ stage is wired to the switching pin of the DRIVE input jack.

The BOM is here:

There are 2 PCBs



Most of the parts seem easy to find.
I bought the transformer from mouser.



The  C1M (antilog) pots are not a common pot  - best place to get them is Tayda.



I usually start with ICs... all op amps.... 072s and a 13700

ordered 430K, 1.6K, 1.1k, 430r - mouser
820pf, 1.2nf (1200pf), 6.8nf, 68nf (0.068uF),120nf (0.12uF),270nf (0.27uF)


Diodes: - Zener 5.6V & LL4148 radio


transistors
BC847B & BC857b

 
 
to be continued.......
 

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Saturday, 2 July 2022

Italy - Tivoli Gardens

Some pics from the Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy.
The villa dates from the 16th century.
The villa is impressive, but its Renaissance garden is truly magnificent. 
It has inspired many gardens around the world.
The garden is listed under UNESCO as a world heritage site.
 
Terrace of 100 fountains.

The Villa was commissioned by Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este (1509–1572).
It was built on a site already in use. 
The emperor Hadrian built his villa here. 

The Este family had been lords of Ferrara since 1393, and were 
famous as patrons of the arts. Because of his royal connections, Ippolito became
one of the wealthiest cardinals of the time.
He was a lavish patron of the arts, supporting among others, the sculptor Benvenuto Cellini.


The Oval Fountain in the gardens of the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, Rome

In the 16th century, the path to power was the church.
Cardinal Ippolito II d'Este was working towards the goal of pope, but his lavish lifestyle worked against him. In spite of his great wealth, he was always in debt. (Isn't this often the way).
His first candidacy for the papal position, in 1549, with the support of the French King, was blocked by the Habsburg Emperor. 


As mentioned earlier, 
Tivoli had been a popular summer retreat since ancient Roman 
times due to its altitude, and cooler temperatures. 
The Villa Hadriana, which is in the same region, was the summer residence of the Emperor Hadrian I.
 
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Ephesian Diana Statue, Villa d'Este
 
The residence has an abundant water supply. Prefect for all its fountains.

The statue above is Diana of Ephesus . She was an ancient goddess of fertility to the people of Ephesus in modern day Turkey.
Diana was “Artemis” to the ancient Greeks.
To the Greeks, Artemis was  the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, vegetation, of chastity and of childbirth
Her temple at Ephesus (Temple of Artemis) was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. There is much argument among scholars as to her appendages . Are they breasts?
Some argue they are bull penises


The Neptune fountain and Water Organ in the gardens of the Villa d'Este

Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Trackydacks build notes - part 2 - NLC

This is part 2 of my Tracky dacks build notes.
Its an envelope generator.

Part 1 is here:

Some links:

The official NLC Build guide is here

The wiki page is here:

Here is the build so far.


The module uses just one PCB
Most of the SMD components are on.


Installing the Schottky, power rectifier.
This protects the module if it is plugged into the power supply backwards.
You can also use a 10R resistor.


This module is a voltage controlled envelope generator.
Its a simple circuit based on the Triad module.


The circuit uses 2 vactrols. you can use manufactured ones but I like DIY.
Very easy to do. Just a LDR and an LED.
For more info about rolling your own vactrols, click here:


Andrew has suggested using GL5516 LDRs.
These give a resistance of about 5 to 10 Kohms at full brightness.
Dark resistance is 0.5M.
I'll stick with this but vary it if you like to experiment.
The choice of LED  and its resistor will also have a bearing on how this all works.
I'm using a 10M LED resistor, though the official build notes use 2.2M.


Suggested LED colours are red/green/orange/yellow.
I read somewhere, that yellow LEDs make the most efficient circuit.
The best match is I think between green and green/yellow.  A blue LED is probably the worst possible choice.
Also remember that LED colours are normally not standard or very precise from one manufacturer to another.

Im using a Yellow LED & GL5516 LDR

So if you take this DIY path each build will be different & unique which I think is kind of cool.
So do experiment if you have the time.


The 4 100K pots are linear.
(b-type)

Solder pots, jacks and the switch 
on-off-on SPDT
This is the range switch.
The Range switch allows normal (centre), slow (up) and very slow (down) operation.
 The cycle rates can be controlled by CVs on Up and Down, which makes it a very unusual LFO.

The 2 LEDs : Doing (envelope) & done (trigger) are quite important.
Im using some orange LEDs.
The 1k and 4k7 resistors on the outputs act as voltage dividers to give 5-6V outputs and serve as current limiters for the LEDs. 

The LED on the DOING (envelope) output also serves to ensure the output returns to 0V. So you want to choose LEDs that have a nice brightness with 5k7Ω (1k + 4k7 = 5k7). 
Usually most diffused lens LEDs will be fine. 
The trigger LED (DONE) only ever flashes very briefly so a very bright LED is ok here. If you need to change the resistors to suit your LEDs, try to keep the approx. 1:5 ratio (1k:4k7). 


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You can find more NLC builds here.
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