Hi Thomas! Re: [sdiy] New here (Hey Harry!)

[Cynthia Webster]

Hello and Welcome Thomas!

Sounds like you've been having too much fun with those tubes eh?

LOL!  (Stereo-of-the-Gods)

You are so fortunate to be a flute player because it is probably
the single best choice of instrument for Pitch-to-Voltage circuitry.
The pure sine wave like tone is easier say than trying to extract a
pitch from all the harmonics from the six strings of an electric guitar
for example...

Keep your eyes out for one of the legendary pitch to Voltage converters
such as the one made in the 70's by the Gentle Electric company or
from 360 Systems, (some vintage Serge panels you may find could have the
Gentle Electric Pitch-to-Voltage converters in them too...)

EFM (Electronics for Music) used to sell a DIY kit
designed by our own Harry Bissell.  Perhaps Harry can point you towards a
good circuit as this is a particular specialty of his!

http://undergroundpassage.com/HarryPage.html

As far as the PolySix goes... I totally understand, (I have two of them
myself!)  What a wonderful instrument!

Here are some Korg PolySix related email lists of interest

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PolySix/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/korgkornucopia/

Best Wishes!

Cynthia

www.cyndustries.com










on 1/27/04 7:37 AM, Thomas Dunker at dunker at invalid.ed.ntnu.no wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
> 
>