Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:28 am Post subject:
Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
People,
I'm pleased to announce Oscillographics. A DIY analogue visualiser for all those redundant oscilloscopes out there.
I first found this circuit back in 1978 when the original article was released. I mentioned it on the old NordModular@code404 forum a few years back- but nobody believed me that it actually existed (especially the Dutch! )
So all you disbelievers out there, I now have full permission from Jan Buiting, Editor of Elektor Magazine to reproduce the article as a World Wide Web exclusive here on electro-music.com
I'm still scanning and organising the article but until that's ready (sometime this evening), here's a taster of some screenshots
Here is a brief description how the circuit works;
"Oscillographics" connects to an oscilloscope via the x and y inputs. By creating signals produced by two identical dampened sinusoidal oscillators, a infinite amount of highly complex 3D wireframe-type Lissajous patterns can be obtained. The patterns are then further manipulated by altering the phase of their output. This can be done either manually, or by introducing an external signal as a modulation source. In a nutshell, it's a lot of fun, and your DIY modular will love you for it
First some legal blurb;
Reproduced from Elektor magazine, with written permission from Segment
BV publishers. Ref. QW-665629l-PS/JB. Publishers website at
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:25 am Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
v-un-v wrote:
(especially the Dutch! )
Bloody nonsense The device is called "spiroskoop" in the dutch edition, but it has the same images in the articles that you posted - except that in my "elektuur" they are white on black, well nearly black, the black was never black enough for diy pcb making.
Quote:
IMO Elektor were the kings for DIY electro-music back in the 70's. Their groovy and inventive graphic design too was also an inspiration to me.
Yes they had a lot of music related stuf in those days, 1978 saw the last articles of the formant series, the sept. issue (where the oscillographics are in) also features a piano, a top octave synthesizer, and a 24 dB VCF - not bad at all. And the PCB's still look good, even these days.
Saw a nice little addie in the issue as well for matrox "video ram", which must have been there first video cards, including a 512 x 512 b/w graphics version for just about 1750 €.
Anyway, great you got permission to publish this nice little gem _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:00 am Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
Blue Hell wrote:
in my "elektuur" they are white on black, well nearly black, the black was never black enough for diy pcb making.
Well mine too were white on black. I just had to make it a little more realistic with some Photoshop trickery
I've been going over the PCB making it nice and Lith so a good copy can be made. It may have to be resized as I scanned it at 1200dpi ( ) to make sure I got a good transfer. Elektor in those days made the coolest looking boards in the planet. If only they would write a piece of software which produced boards in the same manner
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:24 am Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
v-un-v wrote:
Blue Hell wrote:
v-un-v wrote:
(especially the Dutch! )
Bloody nonsense
I knew this statement would annoy you Jan
I knew it was meant to annoy me
A few months ago I dumped most of my elektors BTW, but kept a few volumes (77 and 78) for nostalgic reasons. _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
Last edited by blue hell on Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:27 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Sep 07, 2003 Posts: 4529 Location: The Hague - The Netherlands
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:25 am Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
v-un-v wrote:
Blue Hell wrote:
in my "elektuur" they are white on black, well nearly black, the black was never black enough for diy pcb making.
Well mine too were white on black. I just had to make it a little more realistic with some Photoshop trickery
I'm Dutch, so I don't believe it at all...
In The Netherlands the synth was called 'Formant'.
Anyway, lets keep information clear and honest. If something is changed, in any way, and is published, please write a note about this. It makes the information more valuable.
Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 12:42 pm Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
Wout Blommers wrote:
In The Netherlands the synth was called 'Formant'.
Yes, here too the Formant was known as the ....."Formant"
Do you also remember the "Formant II"? I seem to remember it being made by someone called Peter Baumann. Somehow I don't think it was the same Peter Baumann!!
Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:43 pm Post subject:
Wout Blommers wrote:
aren't you the same guy who once was interested in the work of Tom Disselvelt?
I am
Who wants to know? hehe
IMHO, I think Henk Baddings was a far better composer though, although the story about Dissevelt trying to get a job at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop is a very sad one, especially after knowing that Brian Hodgson took the credit for Dissevelt's Vibration piece- which was used on the BBC's Alchemists of Sound documentary a few years back.
And before you suggest Basta's superb box-set of Dissevelt, Baddings and Raiilmaker's original music, can I remind you that the reason why all the EP's were separated into individual audio tracks on the CD was probably because I phoned up Basta 2 years previous to its release asking if they fancied doing a remix EP
Unfortunately Basta weren't into it (but I reckon they were toying with the idea? )
Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
v-un-v wrote:
Do you also remember the "Formant II"?
I should have a copy of the book or some articles from it maybe, somewhere, but can't find it, but thought it were just some additions to the formant. I got it when I bought the Formant I now have.
What I can find is a polyphonic version of the formant (Elektor 1982), that one seems to be done by U. Götz and R. Mester. I bult just the CPU card from that one, it would be my first self built computer, but I didn't really use it for music then but as a development thing to build even more computers - somw for musical purposes. _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 2:51 pm Post subject:
No it wasn't a polyphonic version.....hmm perhaps it was an article on the series of chips put out by Curtis?
I had stopped buying elektor by then. I'd picked it up in a newsagent reading it in a casual manner (without buying it!), didn't buy it because I thought the Digisound 80 featured in ETI was a better, more versatile design.
Joined: Sep 07, 2003 Posts: 4529 Location: The Hague - The Netherlands
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject:
v-un-v wrote:
And before you suggest Basta's superb box-set of Dissevelt, Baddings and Raiilmaker's original music, can I remind you that the reason why all the EP's were separated into individual audio tracks on the CD was probably because I phoned up Basta 2 years previous to its release asking if they fancied doing a remix EP
Unfortunately Basta weren't into it (but I reckon they were toying with the idea? )
Basta has nothing to do with it, I can tell you.
If you want to do something with it, you have to contact Kees Tazelaar, head of the electronic music department of the Royal Conservatorium in The Hague, although he doesn't posses the right either, but he knows the children of Tom Dissevelt, who have it all. Kees conceived the Basta CD, BTW.
Of course is Badings a much better composer then the two others. He was a serious modern composer in his days, but due to his co-operation with the Germans during the occupation '40-'45 he wasn't allowed to compose 'normal' musical pieces anymore, so he turned to electronic music instead. He wasn't a Nazi and he even was able to keep most jewish students and teachers of the conservatorium away from deportation, although they weren't allowed to teach and study anymore. The fact most Germans had very high respect of musicians was a help to him, which he really knew how to use...
Joined: Dec 10, 2005 Posts: 766 Location: oakland, ca
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Posted: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:59 pm Post subject:
oh didnt know that
Quote:
but it was the one we've all seen countless times before.
yeah the TV thing is pretty easy. i have come up with a pretty good drive circuit for the deflection coils- nothing special- uses power op-amps with "snubbers" and schottkys on the outputs to protect them from a voltage surge that occurs when the magnetic field breaks down in the coils.
next i need to drive the "z" axis or intensity- this is done in an LSI chip so i gotta figure it out. but yeah it will be cool. this circuit yopu posted looks good. and yes, those elektor PCBs are tha bizniss.
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Posted: Mon Jan 08, 2007 3:51 pm Post subject:
Re: Elektor Oscillographics Subject description: THE oscilloscope visualiser for your Modular
Blue Hell wrote:
the sept. issue (where the oscillographics are in) also features a piano, a top octave synthesizer, and a 24 dB VCF - not bad at all. And the PCB's still look good, even these days.
AND I may add, a 2-page "Applikator" feature spread just before the filter, on the SN76477!
Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 846 Location: Bristol, UK
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:30 am Post subject:
Hey, I've been chomping to make this circuit -- I had thought about using the basic idea but modify it to run at less strange voltage supplies.. But then I got lost in trying to make a pcb... (was trying to use 40106 for clocking and SM2404 quad switch (free samples from analog.com) for switching -- that'd allow more standard synth power)
Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Thu Jan 25, 2007 9:44 am Post subject:
Yeah, again, that's the one that has been doing the rounds for a while. However, I think Elektor's one is more interesting. I bet it could also be knocked up using a Clavia Nord Modular. I don't have a working oscilloscope any more so I can't say- but I know that 'asteroids' has been written on the Nord
Joined: Nov 27, 2005 Posts: 846 Location: Bristol, UK
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Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:50 pm Post subject:
Hey, so I made this up over the weekend...
(The elektor design rather than the ScopeArt one)
Slight confusion to start with 'cos there are some extra parts on the pcb layout that aren't on the schematic. I've done a schematic of these extra - image below.
Oh damn the images are amazing.
& you can hear the sounds too - all sorts of harmonics.
Plus modulation.
I'm sure there's a lot of tweaks possible to mess with it.
(actually, its not 100% yet 'cos I haven't yet done the right power supply for it -- 'cos its for my modular I will have to drop the +/- 12v supply) -- but its working already so...
Ok --- you've seen screenshots already, but you've got to see it moving...
So here's a youtube video I did - there's sound in the 2nd half of it...
The video starts off with images produced just by using the standard controls. The 2nd part introduces lfo modulation - varishape triange wave lfo. And then there are the sounds.
Mmmmm loose yourself in those patterns!
... here's what the module looks like:
Top to bottom -
X Section -- Modulation input with depth control
Osc Level, Osc Damping, X Output
Y Section -- Same again..
Ground connection, Z Output
(I haven't actually used the Z output yet - its working without.)
And here's the schematic of the extra parts (I think its correct, but maybe...):
(note - I left off D1 & D4 & supplied +/-12v -- should be more like +/-6v so you'd then have proper +/-5v after the regulation etc)
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Elektor Oscillographics
) 
) to make sure I got a good transfer. Elektor in those days made the coolest looking boards in the planet. If only they would write a piece of software which produced boards in the same manner 
)
