Category The Compound Studio

In category Documents on  May 3, 2010  No comments

In category Outboard on  April 28, 2010  No comments

Crazy! Wacky! Out of this world! Only $30! At least I think that is what I paid for this odd little 12-bit digital reverb unit.

In category Self Built Machines on  April 12, 2010  No comments

I’m building a dual delay machine using the PT2399 chip. The schematics I have are for a single circuit – so I’m building two side-by-side. The circuit is pretty cool and it emulates an analog delay. I’ve added a couple slight mods to the circuit to extend the delay times and extend feedback. Once I decide which mods I like the best I’ll throw this in a box.

In category Self Built Machines on  April 12, 2010  No comments

I have one of these about 90% done. I haven’t had the time lately to finish it.

In category Synthesizer Keyboards on  April 12, 2010  No comments

My friend came over to my house with this DX11 under his arm. He said it had some issues, he tried to fix it, but couldn’t. He said something like “I figured if anyone could get it going, you could. If it works, have fun. If not, TURF IT”.

So,. I threw it on my bench, did a little this, did a little that, and got it running. The first synth of 2010 for me.

Acquired: 2010

In category On The Bench (not working) on  April 12, 2010  No comments

The Korg Poly-61 was released in 1982 as the successor to the Polysix. It’s the first synth that adopted what KORG calls “Digital Access Control” user interface that is also used in POLY-800. I answered an advert which was offering two of these (one working, one not). The working one works well. The non-working one does not. The battery blew up inside and made a corrosive mess.  I think I’ll turn the non-working one into a clock or something.

• Polyphony – 6 Voices
• Oscillators – DCO1:sawtooth, pulse, and square; DCO-2: sawtooth, square
• LFO – 1 LFO can modulate the DCOs or the Filter
• Filter – 1 lowpass filter w/ ADSR
• Memory – 64 patches
• VCA – ADSR
• Keyboard – 61 keys
• Arpeggiator with external sync
• Effects – Chorus
• Control – MIDI (on later Poly-61M models)
• Dat...

In category Retired Gear on  April 12, 2010  No comments

I bought this for next to nothing as it has the leaked battery problem. Someone has started the repair work but after doing a few traces it looks like they gave up. Cosmetically it was in great shape. This synth sat around for a couple years and I never got inspired to repair it. Sold it for what I bought it for.

In category Retired Gear on  April 12, 2010  No comments

Built like a tank, I love this synth. It’s really weird. Mine stands out a bit because it was actually shot with a .22 pistol (long story.. don’t ask). The bullet just bounced off this beast. In fact, you have to look hard to see the damage. I’ll give you a hint. It’s under F6.

Sadly, my Bit One has electronic issues (not related to the drive by shooting). It used to work, then it didn’t work right, then it got shot. I fully planed on having this beast repaired one day – but got tired of packing it around. So I sold it.

The Guts

The guts - yes, I know the backup battery is missing

More Guts

Specs, specs, we got specs…
Polyphony – 6 voices
Oscillators – 2 DCOs per voice (triangle, sawtooth, pulse waveforms, noise)
LFO – 2 LFO’s (triangle, ramp and square waveforms)
Filter – 1 VCF Resonant...

In category The Compound Studio, Videos on  April 11, 2010  3 comments

In category Documents on  April 10, 2010  No comments

MIDI Connection Overview

I’ve had a lot of people ask me how all my keyboards are connected. Are they all MIDI connected? How did you wire it? How do you keep it all straight?

I’m not sure how other people with 30+ keyboards wire their rooms, but here is the method I’ve come up with through trial and error. It seems to work well and isn’t that hard to keep track of things.

MIDI Basics

If you already understand the basics of MIDI you can jump to Part 2. If you don’t have a full understanding (or you have a limited understanding of MIDI) I’ll do my best to explain it. Let’s start with a couple analogizes to fully confuse you right out of the gate.

In simple mechanical terms MIDI is like a player piano. Paper piano rolls are covered in holes...