The mighty modular synth

Advanced kit. ;-)
All simple stuff, really. 

Oh, this is normal. ;-) 

Having built anything for the synth, it's usual to kiss it goodbye before plugging it in, switching the power on and watching the Magic Smoke escape. This is what's prematurely aged me. 

Had a good few months, no minor fires or substations knocked out in Macclesfield recently. ;-)

Oh yes, soldered that bit up wrong. ;-)

Actually, I blew up a sequencer last week. Boxes on top of the right hand case. No idea how, I think I connected the clock out to some with a hot output. So it's out with the multimeter or find £300 for a replacement. I choose the multimeter. ;-)

Currently in the synth - 9 oscillators, four filters, 8 sequencers, etc etc. 

I'll be building some clock generators this weekend and then some envelope generators after that. Fun with a soldering iron. 

Edited by Davesax1965 - March 08 2018 at 06:41

I think my bank manager wishes I did. ;-)

To build. 5 voltage controlled oscillators

I think I have enough case lighting for now. ;-)

Sequencer madness. 

As a quick aside, anyone in the Manchester UK area fancy learning how to play the audio generator ? Spare seat during jam sessions. No musical ability (or technical ability) required. 

Occasionally, it's great to just switch the system on and look at all the flashy lights. OOooooooOoOoo ! ;-)

Well, to be honest, it's not a very random process. ;-) 

For example, if you want to do a harmonic filter sweep, turn the filter resonance up or down. Same thing with the waveslicers or phaser - it's just learning a whole new system. It's all very logical, but you need some knowledge of signal paths and how analogue synthesizers actually work.  

In the shot above, nothing is plugged in. Of course, a modular synth has to be cabled up, or it does nothing. So imagine this with 100 leads coming out of it. Eurorack is a very compact format and it can get a little tight to work with at times. 

Just ordered a shed load of panels and PCBs from Switzerland. The next step is to build a load of sequencers and sequential switches which will synchronise with the two sequencers (and three synths) to the rack system on the left of the photo. There are four eight step sequencers and one sequential switch coming. This means "Tangerine Dream roll over", basically. I'm thinking of putting the output through an arpeggiator, it'll sound like Ricochet Part 2, but even more so, if that makes sense. 

The bottom cabinet is going to have joysticks and mod wheels added. There will probably be another large cabinet added to the system - you can just grow and grow these without any upper limit, apart from your sanity and bank balance. It's already much, much more complicated than Keith Emerson's Moog or the system used by Tangerine Dream.