From: Nathan Alan Hunsicker <
nate@...>
For those of us who are unaware (me included) what is
"Larry's Magic Bus?" I've heard it mentioned before, but
never asked, I tried searching the archives, but it came
up with every archive since #6 and the few i checked
had nothing to do with this subject. -Nate
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From: "Dave Bradley" <
daveb@...>
I'll let Larry answer since he thought it up, and I've blabbed
too much today already.
----------------
Oh sure Dave ! Open a can of worms and then leave me to eat the damn
things.<snicker>
Nathan,
Some of us on the list have decided that we want to build wooden cases for
our MOTM modulars to give them that classic vintage synth look (how's that
for avoiding the "M" word boys). The idea is that it would be nice if the
cables that connected modules could be organized in a fashion that made
that huge patch, neat, easily repeatable, and easy to get to all the knobs
and controls.
Paul was kind enough to place all the jacks along the bottom of the MOTM
modules. So, the idea came about that a cool multiple would be horizontal
instead of vertical. First, think about a 1U blank panel below your row of
MOTM modules. The jack spacing is exactly equal to MOTM modules, so the
multiple row looks almost like an extension of jacks at the bottom of the
modules. And, the cables are very short. You could of course have a row
like this below each row of MOTM with some connections in between the mults
(behind the rack). So if you wanted to connect a modules on the top row to
one on the bottom row, two short cables would be used to the mults directly
below and nothing is draped all across the panel in your way of knob
tweaking.
Now, it does not take a genius to figure out the problem with this. One
1U panel like this would have 40 1/4 phone jacks in a 19" rack space or 96
in the 24 Unit wide wood case that I am planning. That is simply more
jacks than needed AND a waste of good panel space. So, I decided if that
could be cut in half, the number of jacks would be just about right. So, I
have found a nice piece of aluminum that is exactly 1/2 rack space tall and
comes in 4 and 8 foot lengths available at any hardware store. It is three
sided, so it is super strong and will not flex from jack pluggin' and such.
It is not that neat for a rack, because then every other row of your MOTM
is offset 1/2 space. However, for the case builders, it provides 48 jacks
across a 24 unit, one jack directly below each jack in the MOTM modules
above. So, a 48 unit MOTM wood case could that classic looking two rows
high, but actually 11 rack spaces. 1/2 extra rack space below each MOTM
row.
I have two magic busses cut and drilled for my wood cabinet (which is on
hold for now). All I have to do is locate a good paint shop to get the
same finish Paul uses. We know what the paint is (Paul told us). Now,
once you have all these jacks, you have more possibilities of multiples
that one can imagine. Mine will not be grouped but distributed. For
example, those 48 jacks could be 8 different 6-unit mults. They could be
distributed across the strip 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, etc... with all the 1s being connected together, 2s together, etc. So,
if you connect modules on the same row together, you can just jump down to
the magic bus, again with short cables that are not stretched across the
panels. I have replaced the metal washers with colored washers so that the
colored washers indicate how the mults are connected. If you decode to
change the grouping down the road, it is easy to change the ID on the
front. Just change washers. Now colored washers, THAT is a whole
different thread.
Now let your mind wander a little further, and start thinking about how you
might normalize some of these things for distributed CVs, gates, triggers
and you realize that every module would be within short distance of the
connections it needed. The possibilities are endless. John Barlow and I
have discussed at LEAST 1/2 million combinations using toggles, rotary
switches, and even push button hex coded dial thingies. Just let your mind
wander.
Enjoy.
Larry