More tubes

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At 2:43 PM -0700 11/23/99, Doug Tymofichuk wrote:
>Greetings, all,
>
>Wow, there sure is a lot of excitement in tubeland these
>days. :)

You're excited??  Feel my nipples!! ;)

>Over the weekend I built a dual VCO module based on Eric
>Barbour's design.

Where did you get the schematic??  How are you controlling it??

>Construction was straightforward, mount
>the tube sockets and connector strips, solder all the parts
>in place, insert tubes, and power up. Worked flawlessly,
>first time. Love that warm, rich sound!

That's one of the advantages of building tube circuits -- you don't have to
etch pcb's, which is the main reason I build so few things.

>Patch cords are an issue I had not considered yet.
>Converting all of the inputs and outputs to lower voltages
>seems impractical to me, so maybe some type of mechanically
>shielded connector would be needed to prevent electrical
>shock. I was planning on using standard 1/4" jacks, I may
>have to rethink that. Any suggestions for reasonably
>priced, safe connectors? BNC perhaps?

XLR might give you enough protection, but I still don't like the idea of
massive control voltages.  One late night mistake and you could blow up one
of your regular synths, or worse.

>BTW, I have just been the lucky recipient of a couple of
>boxes of old, surplus tubes. They contain everything from
>diodes to pentodes, sub-miniature to high power, with nixie
>tubes and photomultipliers as well, over 150 tubes in all!

Wow!!!