Uncle Kruckus: What happened to The SLIDE?

[Coriolis]

I was just wondering if it worked, and how well. Did you try controlling your Soundlab with it, or something else? Was it possible to play a scale on it, or were there too few steps (resistors)? I'd like to build a ribboncontroller, but since the right materials are a bit difficult to find (at least for me), that little contraption of yours might be something to try until Paia's kit comes out...
So: Was it any good?

C

[dnny]

[toppobrillo]

i wonder what is happening at paia? doesn't seem like anything at all.

the spectrasymbol stuff is pretty good.

[mosc]

[Coriolis]

dnny, I sent you a PM.

I did look at that SpectraSymbol, and it looks nice. Did anyone actually do something woth their samples? What was the resistance of it?

Hmm, I hope Paia makes it through somehow. It would be cool if they could somehow stay in business with what they've got. Maybe they could offer Thomas Henry a job? He seems to be so diverse in what he does, just like John Simonton was.
What worries me, is I mailed them for a quote on shipping a midi2cv8 kit to Denmark about 2 weeks ago, and haven't heard anything yet. That's not a good sign in terms of them continuing their business, I think.

I have to say, The SLIDE still looks interesting, simply because resistors and veroboard are easily obtainable components.

C

[Uncle Krunkus]

I actually dug out the pieces for the slide the other day. (I found them under a 6' long by 6" high pile of stuff which has accumulated on my bench since Hannah was born!)
The theory is still sound, it's just a case of which project do I attempt to finish first?
I am thinking of making the Slide able to be plugged into both the Soundlab and the DS7 clone.
If you want any extra pics to help get you started on one let me know.

[Coriolis]

Yeah, congratulations btw! I'm going to be a father myself by september, so now is the time for me to build some stuff...

The pictures you posted seemed to show that what you did (basically) was stringing a bunch of resistors together into one large resistor. You alternated between resistor and jumper wire to get a bit longer scale, and just soldered it to pieces of vero to have something other than the resistors themselves to slide on. Is that it?

C

[Uncle Krunkus]

Almost,
The trick is that the links and the resistors alternate. So it actually becomes 2 separate spirals which travel around each other. The way you described would still work but the 'wiper' of the pot would have to be a wire which you held in your hand. This way the links and every second strip become a continuous wiper which you only need to short out with something metallic.
One end of the resistors goes to a pot so you can control how far away from +9V the slide starts. the other end goes to anther pot so you can control how far away from -9V it ends. With say 100 resistors you can then dial up whether the slide is 2 semitones long, or 2 octaves long.
I think I worked out that 2 octaves across 100 resistors (1K) would give me about 6 increments per semitone.

[toppobrillo]

[dnny]

here are some alternative and easy methods for ribbon controller construction.

The Synthstick

15 Minutes to a Ribbon Controller

[Coriolis]

Thanks for the links dnny - hadn't seen the last one before, and btw, today I got the tape you sent me in the mail! Thanks again for that!
I loved the homemade envelope too... ...cute cows!

topp: I'd very much like to see that schematic, once you get the chance. Been looking at that Paia project myself, but it's always nice to hear from someone with a bit of building experience...
What did you use for opamps? Any special demands? And what about that bilateral switch? Something from the CD 4xxx series I guess?

C

[dnny]