MiniModular testimonial

[Harry Bissell]

My MiniModular Lives !!!

Its a really nice piece of work. I had a bug or two, but nost of the
problems were
my own.  I had a bad output jack (not my fault) and a backwards LED (now
who
put THAT in there)

Took about 1 hour to cal the VCO's and they zero beat beautifully, much
better than
my ProOne (which maybe needs a cal too....).  The DAC trim is easy,
offset trims are
easy... and the VCO well... they are stable at least (everyone knows VCO
cal sucks!!!)

Danger... do not sub the NE555 with an LM555 or 7555... no workey !!!

I'm going to let it age (for about 10-15 minutes) and then start
chopping it up.

First mod is two microswitches (NKK B23JP DPDT center off recommended)
to allow those
LFO's to do upramp, triangle, and downramp.  This will also give pulse
outs...
center off switch will remove the mod...

Then a couple MORE microswitches (NKK B22JP DPDT) stuck inbetween the
jacks for pulse / sawtooth on the VCO's so you can select which wave is
normalled
to the VCF mixer... so SAW/SAW, PULSE/PULSE... etc.  It'll be nice to
have the
choice of which pulse to use, since they have a different PWM source...
BTW there is an
On-On-On three way switch, which could be used to get saw and pulse at
the same time... Hmmm do I want that too ???  (yeah probably....)

I'm choosing the DPDT for extra mechanical strength. The versions with
the bracket are
about .050 too tall. I cut off the little titties (sadist!) on the
bottom for flux removal to get the height. I think the C&K equivalent
would be a little lower in height.  The small toggle
handles are nicer (hard to operate...) because the match the low profile
of the panel.

THEN I hack Chris'  VCO board... the one with triangle and sine outs...
and slave it to
VCO1 ??? VCO2... hey what do you think ?  VCO 2 has the sync on it so it
might be
a better choice ???  Or VCO 1 for a nice fundamental ??? Or... another
switch ???

THEN.... maybe a ring mod and suboctaves... or maybe not.

I'm thinking of Linear glide (an easy hack)...

and Linear attack on  ADSR  (NOT an easy hack...)

Maybe I will go play some more first...

Hats off to Chris MacDonald for a VERY nice project. I really recommend
it for
anyone who has the chops to build it. Its straightforward... but it is a
complex build
so if you are a rank newbie you will need help IMHO.  Other hand... most
of my troubles
I did to myself...  BUT that shorted jack was a little bastard to locate
.

Now should I buy three more and call it an Oberheim 4-voice clone ???

H^)  harry