DAC08 and TB-3030

[Tony Allgood]

Hi all,

Regarding our bash with the DAC-08 last week, I have fitted my midi2cv8
with Analogue Devices DAC-08H from Farnell. It offers 0.1% of full scale
linearity, not perfect, I know. In fact I worked it out to give a
maximum error of 13cents, but for a mono bass synth it appears to be OK.
It is four times better than the one supplied with the Paia kit, at
least by the spec sheet. By my ears, it does tune better and sounds much
more correct. Existing owners can easily upgrade... it is worth it.

My prototype TB3030 project is now in my rack. Its all very well getting
it work right on the bench, but what does it play like. A few subtle
changes had to be made, mainly more places one could stick an external
CV. What does it sound like? Great, actually I had my doubts on the
usabilty of such a limited amount of controls, but it really does work
very well. Nice sound, and the overdrive is really good. The balanced
out is very useful too. That means I can earth the case and local
ground, without screwing up the earthing of my system. I might add, that
no other interface is used other than midi in and out, and audio out.
This would become more problematic with external CVs, but we all have
our little ways of solving those.

I had to put a 3V negative offset into the VCO CV summer (new) to
account for the 3V positive offset produced by the midi2cv8. I know you
can sort this out by sending various midi messages to it while you power
on and recite 'bolocks to this' backwards. But adding -3V to the VCO
summer was easier. I will leave this on the pcb, for other users of the
Paia kit.

Works very well with a MC303, gives a new use to the rather good arp on
it.

I will post the new circuit to the archive when I can face up to my
edwin to jpg convertor.

Regards,

Tony Allgood, Cumbria, UK

Rack mounted moog filter and the TB3030 SuperBassline projects:

http://aupe.phys.andrews.edu/diy_archive/schematics/oakley/