OK, for those who want a glimpse into "knob and LED insanity" here are a
few hastily-taken pictures of the only piece of the behemoth DX-7 patch
programmer ("DXPatchMaster") I still have in my possession. This first
picture is of the front, showing the following controls/displays:
http://oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/crow/DXPatchMaster.jpg Controls and displays:
00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99
R1 L1 R2 L2 R3 L3 R4 L4 Output-Level
0000-nnnn LED/LED 0-7 00-99 00-99 00-99 00-99
Frequency Ratio/Hz Detune Brkpt. L<Depth>R AMS
switch switch 0-3 0-3 0-7 0-7 1-6
on/off Ratio/Hz L R Kbd Velocity Operator #
(operator) Curve rate
scaling
http://oldcrows.net/~oldcrow/synth/crow/DXPatchMaster2.jpg The back side, showing the circuit cards (Bishop Graphics-taped
artwork, using about 300 meters of tape :) and about 2 miles of ribbon
cables.
Cards are,left to right, display driver, knob digitizer, CPU card, power
supply/MIDI interface/ "panel ID" selector for the MIDI-hub scheme.
Remember, there were six of these "operator" panels and one "everything
else" panel.
I would make this thing sooooooo much differently today...
--Crow
/∗∗/