all things SYNTH & KEYBOARD thread

[RAGER]

I'll try putting a boost pedal in front the next time I run a guitar or something through it but that's not how I use mine mainly.  I have it running through reverb, overdrive, phase, delay, and ring mod pedals.  Fucking love it.  Overdriven glitchy apreggios midi sync'd with some drum beats on the Electribe and leads with the Novation along with knob twirling via LFO and cutoff is hours of fun.

Speaking of the Novation SuperNova.  No wonder they call it a super synth.  This thing is super badass.  Spent quite a lot of time with it yesterday.  I found it's problems.  When it gets heated up, the parameters on a couple things start to drift.  This isn't a huge deal to me because I like glitchy serendipitous things like that.  I might still look into getting it fixed.  Just sent an email off to a tech to see what he thinks.  Way worth the $100 I paid for it.

[jibberish]

the novation ultranova is based on that supernova, except it is several generations newer and costs $450 new. has input and vocoder too. need to play with one of those too.

I am truly loving life now that all these mfrs are putting this shit into the cheap range. mostly eliminating expensive hardware it seems.  the brains go onto a 2 dollar DAC or something. I just wish dave smith would put that prophet 12 out in some uber cheap form.

[Beta Cloud]

I'll try putting a boost pedal in front the next time I run a guitar or something through it-

about that RAGER; if you want to 'filter section' another source through a synth i HIGHLY suggest trying to get your hands on a moog sub phatty. the 'multidrive' is amazing, and when used with the filter section, just stellar.
not just distorted saturation, but warm volume and compression like nothing else out there i've used beside old analog rack stuff in studios years ago.
haven't recorded samples of other input sources i can share through mine yet, but when i have time i will.
take your ipod to guitar center and rock one bro- it's so fantastic.

[RAGER]

I just ordered one of these in kit form from Framce. <(Botch reference)  Can't wait to spend some quality time with my soldering iron.

[Beta Cloud]

I just ordered one of these in kit form from Framce. <(Botch reference)  Can't wait to spend some quality time with my soldering iron.

dude, i've seen these and have been lusting for one but i'm no builder... lemme know how hard it is.
and enjoy!

[RAGER]

Prolly not hard for me at least.  I've got quite a bit of time on a soldering iron but I'll let you know.  They say there's about 200 components to solder.  Lots of resistors and multi pin dac's or whatever.  The destructions are usually pretty good.

[Beta Cloud]

maybe if it's not too bad and i pay ya'... make me one?

[RAGER]

That's a possibility.  There's one on CL here for $350.

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/msg/4228750069.html

[Beta Cloud]

*BRAIN EXPLODES*

[RAGER]

Pretty sure you can buy one already built from the mfr but if you want a fellow jamroomer to build you one I could do that.  just need to figure oot the logistics.

[jibberish]

that looks fun.
here is some fun tips from being an electronics mfr employee for many years:
bend resistor, etc leads with needlenoses to make consistent even bends. if you really want to be pro, you will make jig for like that set of similar resistors all in a row. then every component lead is bent in parallel and it just looks sexy. people like jake don't understand those little details that maintain the lines and feng shui. but people sense that on a subconscious level

solder first, trim later, JUST IN CASE you need to move something. trim after the thing works.

you can be super pro by washing the rosin crap off. watch putting heat up the legs of a many pin chip. those components inside are microns thin and a heat dose from holding the iron too long can kill it.  I would hope they have many pin sockets. then you solder the socket to the board, or maybe even the board has all SMD sockets and was wave soldered. the labor disparity is off the charts between wave soldering SMD's and hand soldering regular sized components, especialy fucking centipede components.

watch caps for polarity. some are polarized and some are not.  orient the polarized ones correctly. some of those little ones are printed for shit and you really have to make sure of what you have.

having some copper de-solder braid or a solder sucker is a really good idea. the odds of nailing everything perfectly is slim, and you might need to pull a component or clean up a massive solder blob. those tools make it doable. still kind of messy, but you get the solder off and the component out without pulling any donuts or traces off the board.

use lead tin solder. that antimony stuff sucks ass. it barely flows the first time, and then forget it if you have to reflow. it looks all crystally like a cold solder joint almost immediately. that shit is better for automated production where the parameters can be tweaked to get nice solders consistently on the first quick shot.
just use lead and do not let anyone talk you into antimony regardless of how much they cry the lead is bad eco song. fuck them. you have a project to do, and you do not need any further constraints on the soldering game.

that being said, have fun, and test when they tell you to test.

I like ttl level projects too. way safer and more forgiving if you mess up a little.   tube DC is a different animal needing a whole different set of "play" rules.

edit: the board looks like the holes are positioned to look neat just feeding the resistor leads through. and all the dips do look like they pop into sockets, so you shouldn't have any high risk soldering from what I see.   hi risk is when it involves semiconductors mostly. Si dies at I think 450-475, and that is way easy to hit with the iron.

[RAGER]

My Shruthi came in the mail today I guess.  Can't wait to get home and check it out.  Hopefully build it on my next day off.

[eyeprod]

nice. noise machine

[jibberish]

rager, I cant wait to hear a full on concert out of your mad scientist lab

frankensteinway booyah

ps, I wish moog would wise up and drop their prices. fuckers.

[RAGER]

Ha!  My major shortfall in that scenario is that I've always been more of a player than an engineer.  When I get frustrated and confused with the recording side I just bag it and play.

[RAGER]

So I finished the build of my Shruthi mono-synth.  Lot's of soldering.  Everything is ok on the filter board but I donlt get a correct read out on the lcd.  so now it's research time to figure out where I went wrong.  hopefully I didn;t lift a trace.  They have a pretty good support system on the forums.  Lot's of users there to build your unit for you.  Frustrating.  it works and makes sounds and stuff but nothing but blocks of green on the lcd readout.  No characters.

[mortlock]

So I finished the build of my Shruthi mono-synth.  Lot's of soldering.  Everything is ok on the filter board but I donlt get a correct read out on the lcd.  so now it's research time to figure out where I went wrong.  hopefully I didn;t lift a trace.  They have a pretty good support system on the forums.  Lot's of users there to build your unit for you.  Frustrating.  it works and makes sounds and stuff but nothing but blocks of green on the lcd readout.  No characters.

where the hell do you find the time..

[RAGER]

I was home sick from work. Rather than sit in bed I grabbed a soldering iron and went to work. I wanted it done by my days off so i could jam.  I also made a rad dinner last night of seared mahi mahi and a lentil veg hash. 

[mortlock]

what the frequency that you are in the grocery store. im thinking youre shopping daily.

[RAGER]

The checker ladies know me and ask me what I'm making all the time. Yesterday I bought just a cheap multimeter. My good one busted  needed one in a hurry.

[RAGER]

So on top of having to go through the control board for my Shruthi tomorrow to see what I did wrong, the problems with my Supernova have really manifested themselves with being heated up and played for hours.  About unusable until I get it fixed.  So in the interim I'm looking into buying a Korg MS2000r.  Hopefully tomorrow.

[RAGER]

This Little clip about sums up my mood. 

Minibrute and Alesis Micron.  Lots of gain and delay and amped up lfo sluper slow arpeggio.

[jibberish]

here is all korg x50, except that one guitar bend up thing that periodically appears.
straight up mort garson "black mass" worship



[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/doktordeath/fearofthetrance[/soundcloud]

if you are still stuck on your kit synth and want a hand on tech'ing your board pm me, or heck, maybe post so everyone can live and learn your experience

edits: wtf?  i'm an idiot. it's a soundcloud haha. I had youtube tags..derrr to the 3rd power

[RAGER]

Re post that youtube link man.  I'm curious. 

Didn't get a chance to look into my shruthi.  Gonna walk away from it for a few.  Come back to it with fresh eyes.  However I did make contact with a synth tech and will be dropping off my supernova on Saturday.  No shit, he works on Geddy's stuff.  So I feel confident he can fix it.  If not, it's probably not repairable.  Haven't heard back from the guy on the ms2000r.

[jibberish]

^ ^ ok fixed