DIY Drum Synth Progress

[droffset]

Just thought y'all might get a kick out of this. PCBs for the drum synth I'm building. Can't put it in the build thread because it's not even started yet.

MD24 MIDI to Gate PCB by Highly liquid
2x CGS Gate to Trigger Converters
4x Thomas Henry Mega Percussive Synth
1x CGS Cynare
3x Coron DS8 clones by m.Bareille
2x Thomas Henry UD-1
1 set of Klee Sequencer PCBs by Scott Sites

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Testing some panel designs for the quad MPSs based on the four elements. Can you tell which is which?

[adambee7]

nice. Was thinking of doing something similar myself. Will keep an eye on this thread.

[DETOX]

sounds (and looks) like a nice project, keep us informed !!! how much will it cost you???

[droffset]

[RF]

Looks like a great project, droff!

[Skrog Productions]

crikey, 4 MPS's , loadsa controls.
This will be great when you finish it and post some sounds up
After using my drum synth i've grown to love the bass ++.
When using the Synare try turning the shimmer vol right down , just using the noise and it's controls you'll get some great snare sounds, fiddly at first but then they start appearing with little effort.
Since the DS8's only output line level you will probly need a preamp to boost them up to compete with the big MPS sound.

Must not hold you back , a lot of soldering & designing you've to do

[droffset]

Thanks guys, need to look into the Bass++ i guess

Here is a mock-up of some panel design for the quad MPSs based on the four elements. Each 19" panel is 3U tall.




It's really sketchy, will replace that with nice crisp vector graphics when it's all said and done. Will get it printed out on a nice surface. It might be a bit too busy.

Currently going through inner conflict...torn between spending the money on the tiny 9mm pots or going for the bigger ones that are WAY less expensive.

[Uncle Krunkus]

It may save you some space, time and cash droff, but unless you have heaps of modular level signal processors that you plan to patch into the MPSs, you will hardly (if) ever use the send/recieve jacks.
If you plan on having some extra VCFs under separate controllers handy though, I'd leave at least some of them there.

[droffset]

Gosh darnit gee golly willikers.
I will finish this project gosh darnit.

I've been on a break or something. There are too many factors to name, life, summer fun in the southern hemisphere, work, the little hater, getting ready to move to a new rental place, finding lost hobbies, finding new ones too.

I think that the realization of the hugeness of the project brought on some procrastination, in addition to not having the parts on hand immediately to make use of the momentum I had. I tricked myself into wanting to have every single part on hand before populating the boards and getting it hooked up. The general strategy is to get all the parts together and then spend several evenings soldering everything to the boards in one big glorious synth building orgy. Sourcing the parts proved slower than expected.

Also I got hooked on a miniatures wargame called Warmachine, but that's another long story.

But there has been progress.

Here's the status.

1. Power supply sorted.

2. All resistors for every board have been collected and taped to sheets of paper in their respective values. Just need to stuff them in.

3. All ICs and sockets on hand except two 556s

4. Need to collect remaining componenents and panel parts for most things.

5. SN voice kit on hand, need to get panel stuff together.

6. Klee parts kit on hand (THANK YOU!) Need panel stuff.

So yeah, the boards and bits are sitting there looking at me. I won't give up. It will just take time. Lots of time...

[neandrewthal]

Looks great!

I'm building a drum synth too, but I have limited space and I keep looking at my 2 MPS pcbs and wondering whether to build them or save them for later. They would take up 2/3 of the space I have available which could be filled with numerous smaller, more dedicated voices, 909, dual chime, dual drum, cynare, etc...

[droffset]

Quick update, 3 DS8 pcbs are now completed and I have the panel cut and drilled, and the pots/etc fitted onto them. Just need wiring and to simply mix them together, then maybe do a little preamp, then the DS8 section is hopefully done.

Still working on this!

[droffset]

3x DS8s complete!

They sound pretty good. I'm getting a little signal bleed from one of them but the others I think will be ok.

I'll hook up a Lunetta patch to act as triggers so I can record a demo....OHH I'm excited now!

[fupersly]

[droffset]

That's a good tip, I need to check my auction site, thanks!

[fupersly]

[Uncle Krunkus]

Just remember fupersly, to throw out the electrolytic caps. Even NOS electrolytics from the "Realistic" era would be dried up and unreliable now. They're not worth desoldering.

[droffset]

Hmm, I hadn't considered that, and I just pulled some off an old walkman board this past weekend. I'll not go for those anymore.

[droffset]

Ok sorry for spamming but this is huge for me.



So here we have tonight's progress. The TR-505 is sending MIDI out, which is being interpreted by the MD24 MIDI to Gate board, which is sending a trigger to a Coron DS8 clone. It's only one voice but it sounds Awesome.

The trigger is picking up faint triggers from neighboring gates and while it isn't supposed to do that it sounds pretty cool because the tones are lower and it's like getting free voices and rhythm.

yay!

The channel mapping is funky, everything on the 505 has to be on channel 1, and the corresponding gate numbers are not sequential with my buttons on the 505. Strange but it works.

Sounds soon when I can get three voices going.

This is very fun.

[RF]

Looks like fun Droffset!
Can't wait to hear some of the sounds...

bruce

[hadal-drop]

Excellent work!

you have inspired me to do something similar. make an analog drum box.

I am thinking:
TH MPS
BASS++ (2 voices only?)
CYNARE
DUAL CHIME

but I am also thinking of adding heaps of gate/trigger modules like gate extractors, logic modules, gate delays, cgs burst gen, perhaps a small gate sequencer?

any thoughts or suggestions?

[Uncle Krunkus]

I'm thinking of building some similar modules hadal-drop.
Most important for me is a trigger only sequencer. I've already got the Klee for dealing with CVs, but I'm working on a noise source which will be triggerable, and my next project is to finish my roboride, which needs a trigger input as well. I've also got the MPS to hang off a similar unit.
What I'd like is something which can be fed a master trigger and then provide a number of programmable derivatives of that. It might just be a case of putting a load of 4017s and switches in a box. Maybe something I can design from scratch, but it would be cool if someone else has already done the hard yards.
Any suggestions anyone?

Or should I just bite the bullet and build a MIDI to Gate/Trigger interface and run everything off it's own dedicated MIDI data stream?

[loydb]

Krunk -

Would this work for you?
http://yusynth.net/Modular/EN/DIVIDER/index.html

[hadal-drop]

[droffset]

I went the MIDI to Gate route but that Yusynth module looks cool too(4017 is our friend). The master clock idea is interesting to me since I want to synch several different kinds of things, like drum modules, toy things, the Klee I'll eventually build, etc. I've always wanted to learn more about MIDI ,so there it is.

This is also a way to go about the clock divisions that looks promising:
http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-34417.html

Of course I also came up with a Lunettaesque way,where selected digital outputs get routed to one-shots, and the oneshots go to the various devices. Just need a good one-shot circuitt, like on this page:
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/mmlogic.html
with optional inverters.

From a circuit-bending point of view I want to trigger button presses for various soundfx, was thinking about using 4066 connected to the switches of the toys, so whatever digital output comes along will trigger a variable oneshot that will connect the switches and 'push the buttons.'

On another note, once more modules get built there will be a voltage difference between things. The D8 runs ono 9volts and the MPS and others run on 15, so that's going to be intresting.

There's a good trigger converter on the CGS site that will take a 5v trigger and turn it into something else. not sure where to use them:
http://www.cgs.synth.net/modules/cgs24_gatetotrigger.html
There's also a Gate converter that will go from 0 to 5v to -5v to +5v , thats the pcb I bought by accident...drats.

@hadal-drop Those modules look pretty cool, you should check out the other awesome drum synth threads here, Ill find some links for you. There are some very experienced drum synth builders around here.

[diablojoy]

I am still planning mine also though i have made a small start
probably be a few years before i finish it though
3 x MPS working waiting on panels may add a 4th
4 x UD-1 working waiting on panels
2 x CLANGORA have all the parts but still to etch boards
4 x SDS-3 [hopefully when the the boards finally get sorted]
2 quad bass++ in the mail yay!
4 x 6 ch panning mixer but still to etch
8 channel sub mixer with sends and receive loops still to etch
possibly a couple of liquid hihats or cynares not sure yet.
was looking at cgs dividers and yusynth's as well, a cgs burst gen will get a look in for sure.
think i will go down the path of lots of dividers and logic gates
rather than midi-gate /trigger interface
need to sort a master clock though so still looking at that
need bpm and also an ext midi in so i can synch to my daw when i need too