[sdiy] I'm back!

[Michael Ruberto]

Hey everybody!

I've finally come back to SDIY. I admit I have been miserable without stuff 
to tinker with. Since I left I have been working my ass off to get my 
family's lives back to normal. I even dragged my old butt through boot camp 
and am now serving in the US Navy. Things are slowly returning to normal.

Without a creative outlet I tend to get pretty frustrated and I have been 
driving my poor wife nuts for awhile now. She suggested that I try to make 
some music with the software synths in my computer. So out of desperation I 
began to play around with stuff and rediscovered my beloved SynthEdit. Next 
thing I knew I was designing new circuits with it's building blocks and 
drawing schematics of real circuits that would emulate the SynthEdit 
"circuits". I made a really cool Arpeggiator too - I'll post scematics when 
I find some web space.

So where am I now? Starting all over again from scratch. A former employer 
was kind enough to donate some obsolete NOS parts and of course the ever 
generous semiconductor companies still send samples :)
I have also won an auction of surplus military electronics equipment so I 
will have things to cannibalize for parts. I have absolutely no test 
equipment though.

I have begun construction on a new power supply. I'm using the schematic for 
the SEM PSU I found online. It will serve as a preregulator for the +/- 15V 
tracking supply found in the datasheet of the 7815 regulator IC. This PSU is 
being built into the chassis of an old air ionizer I got from the garbage. 
It just happened to have the perfect transformers!

I guess my 1st actual module will once again be an LFO. Any suggestions for 
a good design?

Here's a list of things I have in the planning stage now:

Arpeggiator - the one I designed with SynthEdit. I'm calling it the 
Arpegginator ;-)
Aztec Processor MkII - this will be redesigned from the ground up.
Ian Fritz's Double Pulse and 5Pulser processors - may need some help here...
SEM VCO clone with JH's linear detune mod.

Lastly, my old employer gave me some NOS parts that are pretty rare and 
useful for repairing old synths. I'll inventory and list them in hopes I can 
trade 'em for parts I need.

BTW I missed you people!

M. A. Ruberto