[sdiy] Modulars & Guitars & Life & Stuff....

[James Elliott]

Howdy!

So.... I have just relocated to a new town/apt for an engineering coop 
assignment and consequentially I have far less room for my musical equipment 
than before. Needless to say I packed everything away except for a guitar (which 
I need to learn how to play) a Peavey VTX Classic amp that was given to me (that 
I have to repair, solid state preamp, tube  poweramp, and w/analog fx) and a 
'handful' of synth PCBs (which I am almost done stuffing). In short, I can't 
just simply quit my modular synth 'hobby' cold turkey for 15 months. So, I 
decided to build a modular guitar processor.

Now, for the idiotic questions. Will I have to amplify/buffer the guitar's 
signal before running it into the modular for processing? The modules that will 
directly interface with the guitar signal are DJ White's LPG & Ken Stone's 
Synthacon filters, Fonik's PS3100 Resonator, and Mr. Haible's Tau Phaser. 


Second dumb question. Will I have to attenuate/buffer the output signals which 
will be heading to the amp? These signals will most likely be going directly 
from the modules named or a MFOS Dual VCA or CGS Tube VCA.

Third dumb question if amplification & attenuation is needed, is the common 
route to send the signal to the modular through the effect loop output on the 
amp (which I think is post amp-preamp) and then from the modular to the amp's 
effect loop input thereby negating the need to amp/attenuate which I think goes 
directly to the power amp stage.

Fourth dumb question. If I am going straight from the guitar to the modular, 
should I run the guitar through a DI box first?

Fifth dumb question. If I am going straight from the guitar to the modular and 
if I have to amplify the guitar signal's first, does anyone have any DIY amp 
circuits that they can recommend for this purpose?

How do you people do this stuff?

My modular will be running off of +/-15V

And just for the curious, the other modules that I am incorporating are:
Ian Fritz TZ VCO x2 (I figured they would be awesome for LFOs as well as VCOs)
MFOS VC LFO
Yusynth Random/S&H
Barton Music's Simple Quantizer
Fonik's Attenuverting Mixer
Blacet VC ADSR (or MFOS ADSR x2 if I can find where the hell I put those boards)
Homemade PS2399 Delays x2
(I'm sure you will all quickly see that my guitar processor is really a 
monosynth in disguise, one who will emerge from chrysalis with an appendage 
ribbon controller, keyboard, and klee sequencer years down the road when I am 
done with this second degree and my child is old enough to know not to break 
daddy's toys... shhhh don't tell the fiance lol ;)

-Jim