Tuesday, 1 November 2022

Syria - Cathedral of St.Simeon Stylite

 This is one of the oldest surviving church complexes, founded in the 5th century.
 
 
It is located approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) northwestern of Aleppo, Syria
Located in the region of Qalaat Semaan in Byzantine Syria between the cities of Aleppo and Antioch.
It was constructed on the site of the pillar of Saint Simeon Stylites, a renowned stylite monk


San Simeon,  lived most of his life at the top of a sixty
 foot column to pray to God and to get away from believers that came to see him.

The column with the stone, is what was left of the famous column in 1999.

On 28 May 2015, the church was captured by the Kurdish YPG/YPJ and then lost to 
factions opposing the Assad government.
In May 2016, the Russian Air Force attacked the church, damaging the remains of the pillar of St Simeon as well as the rest of the ruins.
On the 8th February 2020, the hilltop near the site was occupied by the Turkish Land Forces.
I wonder what condition its in now.

It was designed in a cruciform made up of four distinct basilica complexes..

 

The basilica was built in 473AD


St Simeon lived on top of this pillar for 37 years.
He was one of the  first of the early Christians to live in this extremely solitary way.

By living on top a pillar he was able to shut himself off from the world .

The first pillar he occupied was three meters tall. He later moved to other higher pillars to get even
further away from people.











Sunday, 23 October 2022

Clump - NLC - Build notes

 These are my build notes for the CLUMP module.
\

Its a NLC eurorack module
Its a 4x4 CV controlled matrix mixer
This means there are 16 VCAs on-board along with 4 mixers.

Each VCA gets a 1k trimpot to remove any offset voltages,
 each input gets a switch to 
turn off or invert the incoming signal and the pots act as gain pots 
with no CV patched in and as attenuators when CV is patched.

Its DIY

 
 
 
Links
+ BOM


I'm using these Transconductance Amplifiers 

Thursday, 20 October 2022

Korg Kaptivator - video sampler effects mixer

 The Korg Kaptivator dates from the 1990s
This is a mix between a Roland Edirol video mixer and an Akai MPC style sampling playback machine except its for video clips. 
They are pretty rare so I am luckly to have scored one the last time I was in Japan.
 
Its a mixer, a sampler and a FX all in one.
 Very useful if you have a limited amount of space.
 
My basic video set up usually is either a 


Korg KrossFour (4 channel Mixer and effects)
and 
Korg Kaptivator (sampler, effects & mixer)
with cameras & the odd video synth
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
or a  


Korg Entrancer (effects)
and
Edriol/Roland P10 (Sampler)
and
1 or 2 cameras for live feed and a video synth.

 
 






each system has its strengths and weaknesses.
The edirol P10 uses SD cards , so is easier to connect to a PC.
The Kaptivator does have a firewire connection which Ive never tested.
 


Combining both is a awesome  way to go, though ,maybe a bit overkill ??

Anyway, the reason for this post....
I was having trouble last night getting my cameras to input a live feed into the Kaptivator.
They just wouldnt sync.
 
 
 Notice the right screen  is divided into 4.
The lower right corner is the video input... its blank
 ----------------------------
Page 14 of the manual is the important bit to read:
 
To select an external video source
Press the INPUT key to select one of the external video sources connected to the kaptivator.
 


The VIDEO INPUT indicator shows the status of the selected input.
Input 1 Lit: Currently selected
Blinking rapidly: No connection, or wrong signal format
Blinking slowly: Copy-protected signal was detected

Input 2 Lit: Currently selected
Blinking rapidly: No connection, or wrong signal format
Blinking slowly: Copy-protected signal was detected

DV Input Lit red: Currently selected (DV set to input)
Blinking rapidly: No connection
Blinking slowly: Copy-protected signal was detected
Green: Indicates that the DV connector is set to “Out”
dark (unlit) Input is off (black screen), or Main Out Capture is selected

For some reason it all works fine today.

The important thing to look for is the red lit numbers 1, 2, DV as you press that green input button
If its Blinking rapidly: No connection, or wrong signal format
You need to see a solid RED 

This is how everything should work if your routing is 3 Layers

This is setting 31
 


There is only one pot  for mixing 3 inputs.
This mixer setting mixes between the two clips 1st then adds the external input last.
This can be changed.

For the record,
the cameras I've successfully used with the Kaptivator for live feeds are:

 
 Panasonic SDR-H80
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Sony HDR-XR260VE
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

a standard CCTV camera
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PAL setting (as I'm in Australia)
 
The Kaptivator's input 1 is a composite.
Input 2 is S-video
I used a simple composite to S-video cable for this input as both cameras are 
only composite out.
 



Wednesday, 19 October 2022

Frolic - NLC Build notes - part 1

 These are my build notes for the nonlinear circuits "Frolic" module.

Its Eurorack format.
DIY
This module is an 8 stage sequencer/sequential switch. 
The stages can be controlled by CV or by gates and triggers or both. 

Links
+ BOM

ICs:
TL072 & TL074
CD4516
CD4028 or HEF4028
CD4532
DG408 or DG508
I'll use a s1JL for power protection

I ordered all these from mouser.


--------------------------------
 
 There are 2 PCBs

 
Amyl and the Sniffers , the Chats & The Cosmic Psychos are Australian pub rock and punk rock bands
 

...

 


Get the ICs on first
DG508
CD 4028
CD4532
CD4516

opamps.. then the rest of the caps and resistors

BC847 trannies

 

Ive used rectifiers SL1 rather than schottky diodes
 

 


LL4148 diodes
To be continued ...........

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You can find more NLC builds here.
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Tuesday, 18 October 2022

Krak des Chevaliers - Syria

 Krak des Chevaliers is approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) west of the city of Homs, 
close to the border of Lebanon.
 
This pic was taken from a bus on its way to Homs from Damascus.
 


 
This is one of the most important preserved medieval castles in the world.
Well, at least it was until the recent war.
 
 

The Crac des Chevaliers was built by the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem from 1142 to 1271. With further construction by the Mamluks in the late 13th century, it ranks among the best-preserved examples of the Crusader castles.
 

..




The inside of the krak de C..
 

 

..













i CAME across some more recent pics of the Krak De C recently.
So sad to see this damage. The Syrian war has been so hard on people and history

                               1999                                                                        2016??
..

A few quick sketches from the taxi. Magnificent place !