MOTM

>I agree with your assessment of the Nord Modular.  I started there and now
>work both with it and MOTM.  The Nord is very, very clean.  Sometimes too
>clean for my taste... sounds tend to be very dry.  Don't get me wrong, I can
>get noisey with by Nord, but its a dry noise.  (Is that anything like a dry
>heat?  I'll try to avoid investigating that one.)

-yeah, it might cause dry heaves.:-/

I like the "dryness" of the Nord sound, it seems to fit into mixes very
well. You can get really punchy basses from it because the frequency
response is so focused. I use a lot of FM sounds from the Nord also, you
can get some great DX-style sounds with realtime control and psuedo-analog
filters.
>
>At any rate, I think the two have been co-existing very nicely.  Routing one
>into the other doesn't seem terribly useful at the moment (because the
>Nord's outs are too quiet, and I don't have anything that generates sound in
>the MOTM), but they are still very complimentary.
>
I can see down the road (like when the MOTM Preamp comes out) that
interconnecting the two could be pretty cool. 410 filter on a formant
oscillator, anyone?

____________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...
Minus Web Site: http://listen.to/minusmusic
Minus MP3's: http://www.mp3.com/-minus-
____________________________________________

In a message dated 3/30/2000 1:06:34 PM, improv@... writes:

>First, the mail-lady just dropped of my 440! Cool! I wasn't even expecting
>it yet. Now that we'll all be occupied with building these things for a
>few
>days, the list will get back from the Sci-Fi soundtrack digressions.


Yeah, I've been wanting to reply to some of the stuff that was said. I hope 
some OTHERS will comment about BOTH SCI FI soundtracks (I guess other 
electronic/experimental scores as well), and HISTORICAL 
ELECTRONIC/EXPERIMENTAL too -- which are most important to you, most 
important influential to modern music, which would you take to a desert 
island, which would you play to break a lease.

>>From: mark scetta <n0nspaz@...>
>>
>>yes this is what i'm doing with the PC Jr. joystick, leaving the cord
>>length to use it remotely (not housed in a module), just cutting off the
>>end connector, removing the internal capacitors and bringing the X & Y
>100k
>>pot outputs to 1/4" neutrik plugs.  i have not yet determined if i'll
>want
>>to put trimmer pots on them. it's working so far.
>>
>>the FIRE button (oops i'm shouting 'fire' in a small room) will go to
>a
>>custom 1/4" jack in my MOTM custom preamp module, wired to +15v thru a
>>couple of resistors for use as a trigger button. can anyone recommend
>what
>>voltage i should use for this? i was thinking that 7v  was a nice
>>compromise. (?)
>>
>Based on your message, I did this with mine, cut the end off the joystick
>and wired it to the +15V lead, and the outputs to 4 jacks (X + Y CV out,
>top and front button out). Works great, with a few quirks. First, the X
>voltage decreases as you move the stick left. That is, if I patch it to
>control pitch on a VCO, the lowest pitch is at the far left and the highest
>at far right. This seems counter-intuitive, but workable, I can always
>patch it through an inverter.

Is that what you meant to type? Pitch ascends as one moves from left to right 
is counter intuitive? Last time I saw a keyboard.... 

JB

>In a message dated 3/30/2000 1:06:34 PM, improv@... writes:
>
>Is that what you meant to type? Pitch ascends as one moves from left to right
>is counter intuitive? Last time I saw a keyboard....
>
Doh! Dyslexia strikes again. On my joystick, low pitch is on the right,
high on the left. That's what I meant. Sorry.

____________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...
Minus Web Site: http://listen.to/minusmusic
Minus MP3's: http://www.mp3.com/-minus-
____________________________________________

So dyslexia again, eh? Maybe that explains your gate problem -- it's really 
off when you write it's on.


OK, now...

In a message dated 3/30/2000 1:06:34 PM, improv@... writes:

>Based on your message, I did this with mine, cut the end off the joystick
>and wired it to the +15V lead, and the outputs to 4 jacks (X + Y CV out,
>top and front button out). Works great, with a few quirks. First, the X
>voltage decreases as you move the stick left. That is, if I patch it to
>control pitch on a VCO, the lowest pitch is at the far left and the highest
>at far right. This seems counter-intuitive, but workable, I can always
>patch it through an inverter.

Several ideas come to mind:
1) turn the joystick around 180 degrees, or
2) turn the keyboard around (now they match at least), or
3) stand on your head (think of what a great stage gimmick this would be), or 
4) open up the joystick and move the one wire (and I'm pretty sure there's 
only one wire) from the one leg of the X pot (the Y pot too?) to the other 
leg -- while you're in there, fix that problem with the trigger switches 
(BTW, these are both reasons why I suggested previously that it would be 
better to change out the original joystick cable with one with more 
conductors, maybe 9 to 11, I forget).

>Next, the front button acts wierd. The top button acts as expected, sending
>out +15V when pushed. The front button has 2 odd behaviours. It only sends
>a change when released, not when pushed, and pushing the top button also
>sends a pulse through the front button. Again, not a large problem, but
>curious. I'm sure my near-total lack of electronics knowledge is pretty
>glaring here. What's a recommeded resistor value for bringing the button
>voltage down to a level the 800 EG's can handle?

Good question. I'd put maybe two 10K resistors as a voltage divider (this 
will halve the voltage to about 7.5V) at the output. As far as the buttons go 
(see above) I'm not sure how much you can modify these without a new cable -- 
no help here.

>And, I have to confess, I guess last night I went over to the dark side.

 makes for a very
>portable system for throwing in some noise. Until I can afford to pay
>roadies, I think the MOTM is staying home.


Weren't you the guy who was chastising the rest of the list last year for not 
taking MOTM out on stage? You burst my bubble!
JB

>Several ideas come to mind:
>1) turn the joystick around 180 degrees, or

I tried holding it behind my back, but my arms got tired!

>2) turn the keyboard around (now they match at least), or

I wrote a max patch that does this years ago. Loads of fun!

>3) stand on your head (think of what a great stage gimmick this would be), or
>4) open up the joystick and move the one wire (and I'm pretty sure there's
>only one wire) from the one leg of the X pot (the Y pot too?) to the other
>leg -- while you're in there, fix that problem with the trigger switches
>(BTW, these are both reasons why I suggested previously that it would be
>better to change out the original joystick cable with one with more
>conductors, maybe 9 to 11, I forget).

I should've guessed this'd do it...


>
>Good question. I'd put maybe two 10K resistors as a voltage divider (this
>will halve the voltage to about 7.5V) at the output. As far as the buttons go
>(see above) I'm not sure how much you can modify these without a new cable --
>no help here.

Cool thanks, I'll give that a shot. Will 7.5 volts still trigger the EG?
>
>>And, I have to confess, I guess last night I went over to the dark side.
>
> makes for a very
>>portable system for throwing in some noise. Until I can afford to pay
>>roadies, I think the MOTM is staying home.
>
>
>Weren't you the guy who was chastising the rest of the list last year for not
>taking MOTM out on stage? You burst my bubble!

Sorry! To my credit, I did take the MOTM out to about 4 gigs with a
(short-lived) acid jazz band I had going. In the main band I gig with now,
I play bass 90% of the gig, and just use the electronics as ocaisional
improv spice. Before the Micro, I was seriously considering building an
adjunct MOTM into an SKB pop-up, may still do that.

____________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...
Minus Web Site: http://listen.to/minusmusic
Minus MP3's: http://www.mp3.com/-minus-
____________________________________________