[sdiy] PE Minisonic synthesizer scans

[Steven Cook]

Hi Tim,

Cheers for this - I've not seen these articles in years. I built a PE 
Minisonic when the magazines were published back in '74/5 which took a full 
year's worth of £1 a week pocket money. A pattern maker friend of my Dad 
made a beautiful hardwood case for it with a black plastic covered wooden 
front panel, which was about 1/2 inch thick so had to be milled out around 
all the pot holes. I used black knobs with silver tops to get a more 'Moogy' 
look, white Letraset for all the control legends and 'Letraline' (I think it 
was called) to divide the panel sections up. It had a mains PSU built on a 
PCB (dangerous for a 13 year old), everything else was Veroboard. I bought a 
PCB from some sort of 'Stylophone' organ project from another magazine and 
cut off the keyboard bit to use in the Minisonic. When it was finally all 
working, the VCOs drifted so badly with temperature changes that they would 
go up half an octave from breathing on the board! I still remember my 
excitement at hearing a VCF for the first time and spending about two weeks 
just fiddling with different settings - I've felt a bit bored with filters 
ever since then...

About a year and a half later my 15 year old brain decided that it would be 
a brilliant idea to dismantle the Minisonic and use the parts for other 
projects. How could I have been so stupid!? All that's left of it now are a 
few 741s, an SG3402N, a pair of 35ohm speakers and a noise diode.

Sorry, started to ramble a bit there. It's that nostalgia factor.

While I'm here, does anyone know if G.D. Shaw (Minisonic designer) is still 
around? His website was still up the last time I looked but it must be the 
only site I've ever seen with no contact email address and I'd like to send 
him a message.

Steve Cook.
http://www.spcplugins.com/

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Tim Stinchcombe" <tim102 at tstinchcombe.freeserve.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, May 28, 2010 7:49 PM
To: "'analog heaven'" <analogue at hyperreal.org>; 
<synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Subject: [sdiy] PE Minisonic synthesizer scans

> Hi list(s),
>
> Very recently it was suggested to me that nowhere on the web were
> there scans of the Practical Electronics 'Minisonic' synthesizer, from
> 1974/5 (as opposed to the 'Minisonic 2' which *are* to be found in several
> places), so if true, I have just rectified this:
>
> http://www.timstinchcombe.co.uk/synth/pe_mini/pe_mini.html
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Tim
> __________________________________________________________
> Tim Stinchcombe
>
> Cheltenham, Glos, UK
> email: tim102 at tstinchcombe.freeserve.co.uk
> www.timstinchcombe.co.uk
>
>
>
>
>
>
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