MOTM

>what i'm looking for (gate delay may not be the correct term per se) is
>something that will take a gate signal, and delay it - shit,
>erm, imagine - and this is only an illustration chaps - i have a synth
>hi-hat programmmed on the beat, and i can't be bother to re-program my
>sequencer but i want it off beat. i put my gate or trigger for the hit-hat
>into the gate delay and adjust the delay time accordingly
>does this make sense..?

Yes, that makes sense, although my first reaction would be to run the
output of the hi-hat through a digital delay :)

When I first read through what you wanted, I thought to myself, "Oh, that's
easy it just takes a couple of 555's" (I don't use 556's as I still have
half a sleeve of 555's I bought during the Bush administration).  Then
after I gave it some thought, I realized it's not so easy.

It all depends on what you want this thing to do.

If you only want triggers such that the pulse width of the incoming gate is
ignored (ie. only the leading edge of the incoming pulse matters) and the
output pulse is some fixed pre-determined length, then that's rather easy
as long as the incoming gates are spaced farther apart than the delay time.

You could even use a counter and sync the delay to an incoming clock.

If you want to preserve the pulse width of the incoming gate, that can be
built with two 555's, two NOR gates, a flip-flop (such as a 7474), and
perhaps a couple of op-amps for interfacing.  However, the pulse width of
the incoming gate must be less than the delay time, and the period between
these incoming gates must be more than the delay time.

Now, if you want to be able to set the delay time such that it is longer
than the time between incoming gates, that looks like it's going be very
difficult.  It's an interesting problem and I'm going to look into it, but
my intuition tells me that no matter how it's designed there is going to be
a limit on the number of gates delayed (I'm thinking at least two
flip-flops per gate).  It might be easier to use some sort of PAL or uP,
which is beyond my ability.

While we're at it, does anyone know of a good way to get a regulated 5V
from a 15V supply??


>i was shying away from suggesting the modules be too fully functioned as
>Paul S has both a delay and a clock divider in the pipeline

Really??  What sort of delay line??

>- the stuff i was proposing would be very much in the stooge diy spirit,
>>more of a learning tool, but with MOTM standards

Oh, I'm not up to MOTM standards.  Anything I design requires a team of
midgets and a halon system.

>we'll see where this one goes, whatever the outcome, they'll be a useful
>little set of modules - apart from the EFM boolean logic module, does
>>anyone know of any other synth manufactuer who makes a similar thing
>(Emu excepted)

Serge came out with one a few years ago.

>once you get into the modular habit you will never be 'the man who has
>everything' :-)
>for a technical interpretation see the human league's "black hit of space"
>i just cannot wait to see where the 500 series takes us - the more
>mathmatical the better (not that i understand anything past simple algebra)

What's algebra??

>sorry i forgot, the schematics i refered to the other day
>(schmitt trigger & divide by control voltage counter) can be found at
>something like www.scsiband.com/diy  the diy page isn't linked to
>the main page i've not gotten the x/cv counter to work properly yet
>- but then i've not gotten around to looking yet

Thanks for the URL.  I'm patiently waiting for the MOTM VC Pulse Divider,
but it seems that the other Paul is insistent on building more filters.
Good thing I know people in Dallas.  I figure if I don't see it by next
year, I'll have one of their kids shoot out his porch light with a BB gun ;)