[sdiy] New here

[Thomas Dunker]

 Hello synth-hackers,

 My name is Thomas Dunker, I live in Trondheim, Norway. I signed up on
this list a few days ago (man, is it ALIVE!) and felt like introducing
myself.

 I haven't really been into synths for very long. It's kind of something I
dreamt about when I was in my teens (am 31 now), listening to lots of
Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Depeche Mode,
Alphaville etc. during the 80s. As far as electronics, it's been a hobby
of mine since I was about 6 or 7. For years it mostly amounted to picking
stuff apart and only occasionally putting things together, like FM
transmitters and small amps, speakers etc. Around 1990 I began to get
seriously interested in everything TUBED and still consider myself kind of
a hardcore retro-analog tube nerd. During the 90s I must have built a
total 20 or so tube preamps and power amps. Some have been butchered or
modified beyond recognition but I have a large amp rig wired into my
stereo system, tri-amplified with electronic crossovers and everything.

 I got really obsessive about distortion in speakers and resolved to build
a system that would be built to belt out super-big dynamics with minimum
distortion at minimal effort, the recipe being ultra efficient speakers
(including horns and a battery of pro JBL compression drivers, tweeters
etc. along with a very different dipole bass system using 16 8"-woofers
per side), and class A triode amplification for uncompromising low-level
linearity.

 Because of moving to a smaller apartment (with girlfriend) I haven't done
much work on the stereo the past few years and also I have all the
amplification I need and then some. Having stepped down the audio mania
for a while, I decided to take up music again (used to play trombone, sing
in choirs etc.) and started playing the silver flute about 4 years ago,
which I enjoy a lot.

 I acquired my first synth last winter, when I had to get rid of a Studer
B67 tape machine that was dying away in a damp basement, so I talked to
this guy at a local recording studio and he'd been looking for an analog
tape machine for a while. Since I'd got the Studer cheap at an auction I
agreed to trade it for a Roland Juno-1. I'm still looking for a PG-300
programmer for it, unless I decide to sell the Juno-1 and get more of the
older analog stuff instead.

 Last year me and a couple of friends were jamming regularly for a while,
trying to do some sort of psychedelic-progressive-synth-dub-spacerock
thing (not just a little inspired by Ozric Tentacles), when I made friends
with one of my buddies' Korg Polysix. So much in fact that I resolved to buy
one if I got the opportunity. Before Christmas I was able to make some cash by
selling some rare and very nice tubes on eBay to this guy in Hong Kong and
before I knew it I'd won an eBay auction for a Polysix. It's a definite
"fixer-upper" and I'm still working on it (it's getting there, but it's had
the infamous battery leak syndrome and also had some sticky beverage
spilled all over the boards etc, a massive cleanup job.) It's been a very
educational experience so far and I absolutely love that crazy machine.

 Also, for a while me and an experimental music friend have been
collecting signal generators and gearing up to build little effects and
things to make music and silly noises with all the old lab gear. Only a
few months ago, the Trondheim Electronic Art Center, TEKS, had a course
where some 10-15 people built a super nice MOTM modular synth.

 It started occurring to me and my friend that a modular synth would be a
perfect way to get all the generators, sound samples, my friend's Chinese
toy organs etc. wired into a multitude of effects and modulations to make
new sounds. We started looking for something affordable that would be
reasonably easy to get off the ground. We ended up using designs we found
on Ray J. Wilson's "Music From Outer Space" site, since he had good
circuit descriptions, ready made PCB layouts etc. We've been working on
that project for a little over a month now and got the first module
working only last night, the 24dB/oct VCF, which worked super great.

 We'll be making some 10-12 modules each for starters, so we got our hands
full (and empty wallets!). The idea is to make a small, portable modular
that can be used for gigging and that has most of the usual mono
synth stuff, multiple noise generators, filters etc. but that will
probably end up being used with a lot of odd peripherials wired to it,
less so the usual keyboard, sequencers etc. although we might build
additional modules later.
 Personally I hope to come up with ways to play my flute through some of
the synth and make some interesting spaced out sounds that way. I figure
I'll be needing some kind of envelope follower, audio input to gate/trig,
waveform clipper etc. I figure a flute is well suited for "synthing up", since
it's "monophonic" anyway. If anyone has experimented with something like
this, I'd like to get in touch with them.

 My friend Jonas is kind of a newbie to electronics, so it's a big learning
experience for him. To me, the tubes guy, op-amps and semiconductors are
things I'm not really used to working with, and at a certain level of
complexity I'm just glad it's possible to get the things working at all, but
obviously as long as it's analog I'm enjoying it...

 After a few days on this list I realize I've visited many of you guys'
websites looking for inspiration and ideas already and there seems to be a
super good community vibe here. I've been on a progressive diy audio
mailing list for about ten years, the "sound" list (aka. JoeNet, after
Sound Practices editor Joe Roberts who started it) but my focus lately has
been on musician-related hardware, effects etc. so this seems like a great
place.

 I must warn you that I'm known for writing long, digressing messages to
mailing lists, so please bear with me... I'll try to keep things more to
the point in the future, just wanted to let you guys know who I am as I
might be tempted to ask for some advice during the modular synth project
I'm into...

 Cheers,

Thomas Dunker

Trondheim,
Norway