Soundlab finished, kinda, need help

Wild Zebra

Well first I'd like to start by saying thanks to everyones advice and help. I don't think I would have made it this far without this forum. All right here goes. I made the patched out SL following to the best of my abilities the patch schem on MFOS. Heres what I got:

LFO seems to be working great only thing I don't get it the out put, I hear sound with it turned off and it gets more and more pronounced as it turns up. Is this correct

AR same as above works fine just not sure about output

Noise- seems to be connected to the LFO, I don't just get staight noise

Osc 1 and 2 getting sound seem to work fine

Filter Seems to work fine

Heres the weird part the Mixer, if nothing is patched and I turn up the mixer I get sound, without patching like its normalized and it overides the patches, I can still patch in AR or LFO. Should it be like that I wouldn't think so. Also the filter is always on same deal even if its not patched.
So essentially if its not patched I have the 2 Osc's Noise and filter normalized. I don't know about this either I think it might have went away
but if I turn the volume down fast it sounds like I get some sort of reverse leakage it makes a farting sound.

well sorry for the long post Hope I get some help. I'm so close and it sounds really awesome so far.
thanks

v-un-v · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 8:56 am Post subject:

Zebra,

I don't quite understand where you are coming from. But the lfo and Envelope shouldn't normally create any sound. If you are trying to get them to create sound, you will hear series of clicks rather than a tone- this is because they are modulation sources and not audio sources.

If the noise is feeding into the lfo, check the board to see if you haven't got any shorts accross the traces. (I seem to remember that they are fairly intertwined.

As for the mixer, it should just turn up the loudness of the 2 vco's and the noise. that is all.

Perhaps you should start again and leave out the jack sockets and see if it works then. Once everything seems to be normal, then resolder in your sockets.

It's human nature to make things more over complicated than necessary. I keep thinking "hmmm it would be so cool if it had this and that". I have to keep telling myself to slow down and just get it working in its basic form- boring I know- but you learn more that way.

Any chance of some photos of your sound lab? It can sometimes be easier to see something than trying to visualise it from text in order to make head or tail of it.

Tom :-)

Wild Zebra · Posted: Fri Jun 24, 2005 9:22 am Post subject:

I figure I'll take it a step at a time heres a lttle diagram I made of the AR I modded

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Man you don't wanna see a pic of this birdsnest. I know I should have done it the normal way first. The good thing is I'm getting all the right sounds everything seems to work sonic wise. I just for one don't understand why the filter is always on. No matter what its patched to it filter evrything O1 O2 and Noise. Shoot maybe its working right and I don't know. Like I said maybe walking through one mod at a time may help. I have a friend who's a synth freak I'm hoping we can get together after the weekend maybe he can let me know whats working correctly and whats not.

thanks with a littl e help I'm sure it will be fixed soon, maybe I can get adigi cam and take a pic.

v-un-v · Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2005 2:48 am Post subject:

hey zebra, r u putting one pot after another here? this maybe your problem- 2 pots in series? although I don't quite understand what you are trying to do by looking at the diagram (any chance of a slightly higher resolution/ jpeg?-its a bit difficult to see)

Tom

Wild Zebra · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:38 am Post subject:

Sorry about that. Its just one pot. I got to wind down and play around with the synth this weekend and i'm starting to think maybe it is working properly and I just didn't know it. I'm going to let my buddy check it out see if he can shed more light on it. I got the noise source working properly so thats cool. I just not sure about the filter sometimes. I like to make another sometime and make it normalized so I know for sure.

Hopefully get a pic soon just have to put it in a case. Still have to hook up the fine tuners and the VCO mod. Well anyway thanks for all the help
this is a fantastic project. Big time kudos to Ray!!!! Thanks for everthing can't wait to start some new projects.

dnny · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:50 am Post subject:

hi Zebra

first congratulations for your new SL.

the AR output looks just fine wired.

and i think i know whats wrong whit your filter.

the mixer in the Patched out schematic is connected from OSC1, OSC2, and NOISE to FILTER and there is two non-attenuated signal inputs to FILTER also. and the FILTER is connected to VCA. so that´s why you get the osc´s and noise even when nothing is patched.

its no malfunction is planed to work that way.

so to use only external signal filtering turn mixer´s pots to zero

points O1, O2 & NS in the left side of VCF schematic are the connected points -
O1 = point 1 of R29 = (wire) E from board
O2 = point 1 of R38 = middle of S10 or (wire) V from board
NS = point 1 of R44 = (wire) A from board

hope this helps

daniel

v-un-v · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:16 pm Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:23 pm Post subject:

dnny · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 1:32 am Post subject:

v-un-v · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 2:59 am Post subject:

Daniel- First Class! This makes total sense now :)

I think what was confusing me was the arrows in Zebra's mock-up diagram. however, respect due to Zebra- I know how hard it is to draw with a mouse!

I was a bit stoned and drunk last night-after the last of a series I've been doing of local community radio transmissions. Oddly enough a mad psych/garage track got played on the radio last night which was produced by Wendy (then Walter) Carlos in the late-ish 60's!

Wild Zebra · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:21 am Post subject:

Hey guys thanks. Been playing with it more and more I think everything is working well, and i'm going to a friends to show it off tonight. he's been into modular synthesis since I can remember.

Dnny thanks for clearing the filter business. I was looking over the schematic and thats what I thought was going on. Also that diagram is exactly what I was trying to do thanks for clearing it up for v-un-v.

I do have a question about the filter its the only other thing acting weird right now. I read about the bleeding issue and I'm pretty sure everthing is hooked up right, but up to say 1 or 2 on the cut off it leaks real bad. Thats why I think I was so confused at first. cause no matter what if I turned the mixer on I got the bleed through. Do you know how to correct this is it my increasing the resistor to get rid of that space on the first turn of the pot. I'm probably being confusing again.

I just wanna say thanks again some pics soon I hope

Mike Walters · Joined: Mar 24, 2005 Posts: 29 Location: Chapel Hill NC

For the filter, have you made sure the AR is not routed to it? When I have the AR switched (or patched) to the filter, it still passes some even when turned all the way down. I have to take all modulation (LFO and AR) off of the filter for it to filter 100%.

Wild Zebra · Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2005 11:32 am Post subject:

Yes I'm pretty sure. If I just patch the O1 out to the VCA directly it will leak. Or if I just turn up O1 on the mixer. Just for that first little bit of the pot rotation. So if I set the pot to 1 or 2 it kind of resets or starts with no leak. Do you understand what I'm getting at its hard to describe sorry.

If I give the cut off a quick little turn in the 1-2 position(the leak area) it makes a little wump noise.

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My ? is if I increase the resistor on the-9v side of the CutOff will it shrink the leak area

v-un-v · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 12:22 am Post subject:

Wild Zebra · Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2005 7:23 am Post subject:

Thanks v-un-v,
I am happy to announce to everyone that I think my annoying and hard to understand questions are over.(for the time being) I took the ole synth to a friends house last night and he cleared alot of things up and I did some debugging. It was a collective opinion that everthing is now working correctly Razz

. I just have to hook up led's and the fine tuners and I'm making a box tonight. On that note v-un-v my computer is down at home so I can't do any recording to the net. Wish I could. Maybe when I'm all done I'll take it to a friends for a pic and sound sample.
Thanks again to everyone I hope that now I may be able to answer some questions from all of my trials.

thanks, take care
Timothy