[sdiy] UK meet up, intro, and a wavetable module plan

[David Evans]

Hi, all!

It was great to attend the UK meet-up (ok, the pub fiasco wasn't that good, but even though it was because of something I did, I maintain that it wasn't my fault :P ). I've never been a member of the S-DIY community, though I've been on AH for 18 years or something similarly silly.

Anyway, to the point! The chap with the grungy silverish wavetable synth inspired me to think about something that I actually want to build: wavetable VCO modules to be used with the Fenix. Here is my rough plan:

- Fit with the Fenix in an SKB case, so it can't be too tall
- 16 or so wavetables of 16 samples each (8-bit is good since the goal is gunge)
- Obvious CV inputs for pitch, maybe some traditional FM--unsure yet
- CV input to select the wavetable
- CV input to select the position within the wavetable, effectively letting you do PM
- The wave shaping ideas from the guy whose name I can't remember! The stuff he had sounded great.
- A cool 16x8 LED display showing the current wavetable

I'm thinking two of these. I'm uncertain whether each should have its own DAC or whether digital outputs should be available to a generic digital function module providing AND, OR, XOR, MAX, and so on. Thoughts? There's no analogue in this because I like the filters etc. in the Fenix; maybe later in life I'll make it more stand-alone.

Now, for medical reasons I can't really solder, so I'd look to build as much of this as possible in an FPGA and CPU so as to minimise the amount of work I need to exact from friends/electronics mercenaries. :)

Does my basic idea sound daft to anyone? It seems quite aligned with the beaten path of the Waveform City and such.

Anyway, that's my stream of consciousness for now. :)