[Slightly OT] Wiard fun

[Michael A. Firman]

Hi all,

I thought that I would post this because it would be of general
interest to this group and just because I think this stuff is way cool.

This does have a little to do with DIY since Grant is a member of
the DIY list and the modules that he has recently put together
are certainly hackable and perhaps also useable in different contexts.

I just got another set of products from Grant Richter (Wiard Synthesizer
Company). Now I'll preface this with the fact that Grant is a friend of
mine. I think, however, that my feelings about the Wiard products are
not particularly colored by our friendship. 

I already own a twelve module Wiard system and just got through
expanding it with what Grant is calling his Wavemonger. This setup
consists of two joystick controllers (with gate buttons) and two
Wiard MiniWave modules. I've mounted these modules in a FracRac
enclosure (purchased from Paia) and added a DIN connector on the 
back for power (power for this set of modules is gotten from my
existing Wiard rack via a connector I built into the case and
a DIN cable that I got from RadioShack - but stand alone WallWart
style supplies with DIN connectors are available from Allied).
I was in the process of creating a joystick controller with a few
other bells and whistles but grant beat me to the punch (I'll still
build my little box since it will be usable as a hand held device
and have a few different features on it).

"What does this new MiniWave module do?" you may ask. Well the MiniWave
is constructed from the Wave Table board found in a 300 Series
Wiard module called the "Wave Form City". Grant has brought out some
of the front panel functions of the board not found in the WFC module
however (now the bank select and the wave select are both voltage
controllable). As it turns out this module can be (and indeed was
designed to be) used as a non-linear function generator. Say what?!
Well, basically this is a module that you can use to distort any
input wave (sine, triangle, square, or whatever) in a very controllable
manner. You can do this with a Wave Form City module (one of the
very unique features of this module) but since the WFC does that
and much much more - including being a VCO and VCA, it's often nice
to use that module in it's other capacities. With the MiniWave you
have an inexpensive, very interesting, sound modifier at your disposal. 

[Warning DIY content begin]
In the past, I have used my WFC to do some experiments using transfer
functions as a synthesis technique. I've burned new EPROMS with various
functions generated using Chebyshev polynomials. The new MiniWave
is perfect for such experiments.
[End DIY content]

I like low droning sounds that slowly morph around in the background.
Over such a drone or drones I can layer other rhythmic or melodic (or
both) patterns. Well, the MiniWave is just the ticket to create such
drones (using it as a transfer function generator). Hooking one of the
joystick outputs to the wave select input allows interesting control of
such a drone in real-time (given that you have filled the wave bank
with waves that are continuous deformations of their neighbors in the
bank, to the extent they can be). Of course you can connect an LFO or
some other modulation source to this input if you wanted to do things
in a little more automated manner.

Of course this module works great for modifying sounds outside of those
generated on a Wiard system (signals form other modular systems, output
of other synthesizers in general - drum machines perhaps). Grant uses
mini-jacks and a 1V/Oct standard, which means that the module is directly
compatible with synths and modules like those made by Wiard, ARP,
Digisound-80, Doepfer, etc. It seems like the panels could be hacked,
however, to easily fit banana jacks (for all you Serge and Modcanfans) and
there is probably enough space on the panel to even replace the 1/8th"
jacks with 1/4th" jacks (for all the Moog and MOTM fans).

The MiniWave can also be used to quantize control voltages to predetermined
scales (the scales are determined by the wave tables - the MiniWave comes
with one of it's banks programmed to have a whole raft of different scale
quantizations, but, again, if you have the ability to burn your own EPROMS
you can create your own scales - Grant supplies software on the Wiard web
site to do wave creation and some bank management).

Grant has a good technical write up of this module (and the very simple but
elegant joystick as well) on his personal website (www.musicsynthesizer.com).
He also gives a table of the waves found in the default EPROM and some patch
ideas, you should check it out.

Again I just thought that these little guys (the MiniWaves) were pretty cool,
unusual, useful, and cost effective (at $199.00 US).

Note that I am neither employed by Wiard nor do I get any kind of a kickback
from Wiard, I'm just a happy customer (although I'll take any charitable
module donations :-)).

Later,
-- 
| Michael A. Firman <maf at mcs.net>
| Naperville, IL USA (finger maf at cluster.mcs.net for PGP key)
| http://www.mcs.net/~maf