an idea ...

[Magnus Danielson]

Heia!!!

> All these wonderful projects on the DIY list made me think:
> First Genes synth pcb, then a professional method for front panels,recently
> someone who will have digisound pcbs made in larger quantities -
> great things are going on here!

There is some discussions over here in Sweden to make a Moog VCF card... maybe
that would be interesting as well...

> Now, there's something that *I* would like to have, and others may find
> it useful, too: I'd like to have a programmer module for general 
> applications.
> I'd like to use it for home-built FX devices and synths, and it should
> only do what evey old storable analogue synth does: Scanning voltages,
> storing them in a buffered RAM, putting them out over multiplexers
> again. Plus all the handling: Edit mode, compare function and handling
> of memory locations. 32 MUX channels would be good, 64 would be
> better. Maybe it could be expandable: Solder one MUX into the
> pcb for a small FX device, and all MUX chips if you want to make
> a large synth storable.
> 
> I am sure that this is easy for anybody who
> writes uC programms, and well it is implemented in many synths,
> but I'd *love* to have a little stand-alone module that does exactly
> this.
> I wonder if I am the only one who would find this useful, but doesn't
> have the skill to do it himself?
> Would anybody like to do such a project? Personally, I'd surely buy
> quite a lot of these pcb's and eproms, if someone would devellop
> such a project! (Unfortunately, all my energy goes into analogue
> circuits, so I am still a complete idiot in uC programming.)
> 
> What do you think?
> Would there be some demand for such a module?
> Would anybody feel  capable (time and skill ...) to devellop it ?
> Let me know what you think ...

It's great idea.... but it breaks up into a few pieces to consider:

Is we heading only for this CV memory unit or do we long for a bigger and more
expandable system?

The upside to reduceing the system is that we are closer to getting it of the
drawing board, the downside is that fewer people migth feel interested in it
since it may not expand and maybe not really fit the needs either...

Personally I think that some kind of unifying of various ideas and tasks could
be done and if building an stable enougth ground we could get an expanable
system where we can make additions later on...

So, first, let us just brainstorm and see what we could have such a beast doing
for us...

CV Storage (input/output)
CV Processing (nonlinear CV processing)
Autotuneing of VCO's and VCF's
Sequencing w editing
Arpegator
Sync interfaceing
MIDI Interfaceing (to/from MIDI as well as "patch" storage)
MIDI/CV processing
Storage and editing of "normalized" patch
and the great MMP - Mystical and Magical Processing
Disc storage

I can come up with lot's of more subtle things which can be done once you have
combined CPU power, memory, MIDI in/outs, signal routeing/patch, CV in/outs and
ideas....

I think that there is a few things that should be a few things in there if
we look for a relative success:

Expandable in Hardware
	Leaving possibilities for hardware expansion will avoid haveing the
	system die. Both the bus and memory structure may not be tooo limited.

User adaptability
	There is seldom two users with the same needs, therefore would various
	modules be needed. Not everyone needs to have a 32 x 32 switch matrix...

Expandable in Software
	Letting software upgrades to become easy and keeping the system
	expandable in various ways (includeing simplicity of adding code!).

Stability
	Let's face it. Unless there is stability in software and hardware
	implementations I think there woun't be many users... and not many
	migth proud implementors and builders either...

Personally I think such a system together with a computerized control companion
could be a quite interesting idea....

But maybe this is a bit above what Juergen originally thougth... but let's
brainstorm first...

Cheers,
Magnus