Kits n stuff

[Steve Varner]

Irish,

You are way ahead of a lot of people with your knowledge of electronics! I'm a
physicist, so I know some theory but lack all your experience. I think all you
need are some books. You should have no trouble building synth modules. One thing
you might do is to build a few simple modules and not worry about drift, tracking,
controllers, etc. There are some "utility" voltage controlled oscillator designs
and even some that use only transistors (no ICs!). You could build a VCO, a simple
filter, a voltage controlled amplifier, a simple triangle-square low frequency
oscillator, and a simple attack-decay envelope generator to define the note's
beginning and end. With your experience you could probably build these very
quickly.
One experience I *did* have was taking three semesters of electronic music at
university. One of our machines was a very big modular in a very tiny room (think
closet). Patching all those modules together in weird ways really taught me a lot.
You might look around for classes, it could happen that some university near you
has some synth studio in the basement.

SV

Irish wrote:

> Alright, I've read for a couple of days now, and to be truthful a bunch of this
> is over my head.
> Let me explain; I am (was) a GMP/MilSpec rated assembler. I can ID almost any
> part made, interpret schematics and drawings, and perform amazing feats of art
> in solder using a dizzying array of tools from $2.98 snips to $160,000 PnP
> machines.
> What I am not is an engineer. I know what various components are and do, and
> in a general way I know what happens when you put certain ones in a circuit
> together. I can use a meter but not a scope.
>
> Now, what I'd like to do is learn some theory, specifically as it relates
> to our mutual interest :) , but to start out it might help me to understand
> what all these things (like LFOs, VCFs, filters, modulators, etc. ) DO
> individually and when hooked together. To that end I would like to find some
> kits. I've already ordered the MadMouse - looks like fun to make and use. I'd
> also like to find some signal processing / effects type stuff. Ring Mod maybe,
> or analog delay? Stuff that's a kit, but winds up being cool useable gear. I've
> tried a few web searches, but come up empty. Any pointers folks?
>
> If I may, I'd also like to ask your patience if I come up with some
> ridiculously simple sounding questions. For example, I want to build a Midi
> Thru box. I have a very simple diagram (it's not rocket science...) that calls
> for a 74LS14. I can get it at RS or a local distrib for under a buck, BUT it's
> a 14 pin DIP and the diagram naturally just shows the symbols, not the pinout.
> Where can I find pinout for this and other common-as-dirt ICs? Again, web
> searches I made were fruitless. This really seems silly - these must be
> referenced somewhere on the net!
>
> Thanks for your help,
> Irish