[sdiy] Taking a Step towards - - --((FUTURE-PREDICTIONS))-- - -

[TIm Daugard]

> > Most of my customers have a midi-CV convertor and I bet many of them use
> > a digital reverb, effects etc. Many have built Colin's P3 Sequencer.
> > What folk don't want is a module that quantises inputs and outputs to
> > ugly glitching.
>
> Agreed, people are willing to allow 'some' aspects of digital technology
> into their modulars. But when I suggested the digital EG, I got a shed load

This is at least part of the point I made earlier. I use both analog and digital
in my DIY. Octave dividers are easy with a J/K flip flop. I have also
incorporated analog logic.

The point was it is much easier to build complex analog than complex digital.
Digital reverbs are great! And they are so inexpensive that it is easier to buy
them then build them. I have a small reverb that I plan on pulling out of the
foot pedal and putting in a module. It works okay and requires no engineering. A
one hour module instead of the gathering the parts to do it with a uP and RAM or
ADC, RAM and clock/address generators.

I am fully capable of building a reverb. But life is short. Why build a reverb
when commercial reverbs are so good, when I can use the same time to build a
dead quite ring mod or a VCF that would cost a fortune to buy.

For commercial use - not DIY - I would go digital all the way. Probably off chip
ADC, DAC and then some uP to process. Though for costs purposes a single chip is
even better. Then spend time/money on software to provide different effects. A
different color and different software and I can resell the same hardware as an
all new foot pedal. Who knows, If I build 500 if each version and store 150 of
each. I could make a fortune selling "Classic" pedals (or modules, or cars, or
widgets) when some genus grabs one of the early pedals at a pawn shop and uses
it as the heart of his sound.

How about instead of analog v. digital (both of which are terms so wide as to be
meaningless), some one says I have just implemented this great VCO that uses the
ADC input and the DAC output of XXX uProcessor. The processor is 16 pins through
hole. Who wants some?

If some one build some delay or stable oscillators that can be used in modules,
I'm interested. If we are talking about how I turned my $1000 computer into a
VCF and the resolution ISN'T THAT BAD. I'm not really interested. Development
boards are fine for experimenting but the don't fit my form factor.

Off the soapbox - it's someone else's turn,

Tim Daugard

BTW - This news group wastes far more of my time then I would like to admit to.
Keep it up. I just finished building a burst generator similar to CYN
industries? (I would have to dig out the advertising printout from my work shop)
using only a 556 and opamps. Voltage controlled number of pulses put out.
Digital isn't necessary, just sometimes slightly easier.