Soundlab Ultimate - Build diary & difficulties

magman · Joined: Feb 04, 2009 Posts: 363 Location: Liverpool, UK

I'd be tempted to look at the Audio Mixer side of things for this.

If you put 3 more pots (1 for each VCO) into the mixer, you could connect pin 3 of the pots to the VCO outputs before the switch. This would allow you to individually mix the outputs of the oscillator as well as doing away with the switches.

In detail - for VCO1 - connect pin 3 of the pot R127 to X8 (for the Triangle output), bypassing the MXA connection. For the second output, connect X6 to pin 3 of a new pot. Connect pin 1 of the pot to ground. Solder a 200k resistor to pin 2 of the pot than run a wire to pin 2 of R128. There are a couple of similar ways that you can do this, but this will do for starters.

Repeat for VCO's 2 and 3.

It might also be useful to used screened cable to connect to the pots to reduce crosstalk (Ray does mention this as an option with the normal build). You can ground the screen on a convenient connection on the PCB, but only at the PCB end.

A little caveat here though, this is theoretical only, I've not actually tried this (Though I do plan to build an Ultimate and Expander later in the year with a bit of luck).

Regards

Magman

LektroiD · Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 3:33 am Post subject:

Hi Magman, definitely a good alternative!

However, the reason I chose the crossfade method was due to not having to butcher the panel too much; variables would look ok in place of the switches, as the print would still make sense.

ashleym · Joined: Aug 20, 2009 Posts: 181 Location: uk

I have got my circuit boards but I ended up ordering components from all over the place, Farnell, Mouser, Rapid and RS. Some of the rare resistor values needed searching out. RS had the SSM2210s and Farnell the LM13700s. Getting every value of ceramic cap with a 5mm pitch is driving me a little crazy, I might end up re-ordering some mistakes!!!

Because I am going for a coloured panel silver toggle switches wouldnt look right so I have gone for some rocker switches in the style of Minimoogs and ARP Soloists. You get a choice of colour and style of switch cap if that makes sense.

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/level5/module.jsp?moduleId=en/311854.xml

They are a little larger than toggles resulting in some cramped panel action

LektroiD · Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:54 pm Post subject:

I've finished my board now, just mounting the panel in the case and wiring up now

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LektroiD · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 4:02 pm Post subject:

I have mismatching voltages coming from the PSU..

Unloaded:
+ 11.94V
G 0V
- 12.47V

Is this offset likely to cause any major problems?

LektroiD · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2010 10:16 pm Post subject:

Just finished calibrating the baby:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyp9bQeYL3U&fmt=18

Thalassa · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 2:44 am Post subject:

crazeydazey · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:51 am Post subject:

AWESOME.....

I wish I was good enough to build one of those..

I started building a normal soundlab about 2 years ago, completed the board, came to wiring the panel and chickened out... it's just sat with lots of other circuits I have started and never finished Sad

Thalassa · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:04 am Post subject:

crazeydazey · Posted: Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:19 am Post subject:

loydb · Joined: Feb 04, 2010 Posts: 393 Location: Providence, RI

Nice build!

ashleym · Joined: Aug 20, 2009 Posts: 181 Location: uk

Great youtube clip.

I had my Shaeffer panels delivered today, so apart from your musical talent I should have something similar ready to play soon.....ish.....

ashleym · Joined: Aug 20, 2009 Posts: 181 Location: uk

I'm not sure what is going on with attachments but hopefully you can see the panels I am using for my Ultimate/expander build. They are basically Ray's design but with a couple of minor changes. The second panel is the Expander and I have added the aux panels to this so all connections are on a front panel. This left me with a bit of panel real estate so I am adding a couple of variable voltage sources, a clock divider and a distortion unit.

The square cut outs are for the rocker switches I will use- I dont think silver toggles would work on my panel design. funnily enough the rocker switches are toggles with a cover!

More as it happens.

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LektroiD · Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 4:07 am Post subject:

ashleym, they look great! What did they cost to get made?

ashleym · Joined: Aug 20, 2009 Posts: 181 Location: uk

Many Thanks.

Don't be fooled....looks arent everything, I made a couple of layout errors but they wont affect the useability. Both panels delivered to my door were 250 euros, I will have to wait for my credit card statement for the exact £s. Not the cheapest but the quality is absolutely superb. The lettering is engraved and filled and it is razor sharp. I wanted a front panel I had a hand in designing to help put my own stamp of the instrument but I don't want to disrespect the huge amount of work Ray has put into the design. And I like blue.

As I progress I will put the Shaeffer files on line for people to have a fiddle themselves

State Machine · Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2010 5:15 am Post subject:

Just taking a peek here guys and really like the panels and that suitcase unit to. NICE !!! I have been using FPE for a while also and, yes, a bit pricy BUT superb quality. I use them in my profession also.

Keep up the nice work guys !! Cool

Bill

LektroiD · Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 8:35 am Post subject:

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eXisteNz · Joined: Jun 08, 2010 Posts: 48 Location: Italy

Hi i'm Nicola, i have 4 question about ultimate and ultimate expander and i would be very grateful to anyone can help me...

1) i have a doepfer midi to cv converter with one pitch output, i would to control all the three oscillators of the ultimate...it's possible to do that by connecting the output of the miditocv to the Expander's cv distributor input and connecting the three outputs in the 3 cvinputs of the ultimate's oscillators??

2) twisted pairs/shielded wire : the pcb's side of the ground goes to the holes with green squares, but where i have to connect the other ground panel side of the wire?

3) Since i play guitar, i think that i will use the external input to connect my guitar so i have to change r128,130,135,133,131 on the mixer section as ray suggested or the gain in quite good for an electric guitar?

4) what is the procedure to select the noisest transistor for the noise gnerator? i've read about ray's suggestion about those argument but i have no idea how i can do that!

thanks a lot in advance, cheers nicola