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The Integrator Circuit - analog computers, Buchla, Serge & eurorack modules

January 23, 2019, 9:03 pm
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The Op-amp integrator is a very important electronic circuit which I come across again and again.
In the synth world what is possibly the most popular of all modules, The Make Noise Maths uses this circuit.



The op-amp integrator is, as the name implies, based on the operational amplifier (op-amp). It performs the mathematical operation of integration (with respect to time). 

In other words, the magnitude of the output voltage is proportional to amplitude as well as the length of time a voltage is present at its input.

Electronic integrator circuits can be found  in old analogue computers:

The COMDYNA GP-6

Integrators, mutipliers, dividers, counters, function generators, operational amplifiers, differential amplifiers, voltmeters... etc etc


 Digital systems Lab

Probably my favorite module, the Buchla 281 QUAD FUNCTION GENERATOR uses it, as does the Buchla 257..... this is a voltage processor.


Buchla Dual voltage processor


 In the Serge world the DUSG (Dual Universal Slope Generator)... often referred to as the "Swiss army knife" is all about the integrator. It's an amazing module. 


These Positive & Negative Slews preceded the DUSG


Depending on how one patches it the DUSG can be a VCLFO;  a envelope generator; a oscillator; a  slew generator; a voltage and audio mixer; an attenuator and inverter; an envelope follower; a comparator; a VC pulse delay, a audio processor, ...........pure genius !!!!

Bananalogue put out the  VCS almost a decade ago I think

MATHS = DUSG/Buchla 281 and Buchla 257.???

The Befaco Rampage is another variation of the DUSG.



In most op amp circuits, the feedback that is used is usually a resistor. However for the integrator this is not the case - the component providing the feedback between the output and input of the op amp is a capacitor.


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Happy Australia Day 2019

January 25, 2019, 6:17 pm
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Happy Australia Day everyone.



Here is a list of some Australian Synth manufacturers:
Analog-ordance
Beast-Tek
Cat full of Ghosts
CGS - Cat Girl Synths
Elby Designs
NLC
Oscillosaurus
Woring
Innerclock Systems
Metromodular
GOLT ! 

I'f I've missed anyone please let me know.


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CMP-DIV Video Effecter - Vidiffektor

January 26, 2019, 1:04 am
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I came across an old post on Electro-Music for a video effects box.
 http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=54113

It looks very cool
Credit for this goes to James Schidowsky.
His website is here:
http://www.jamesschidlowsky.ca/electronics.html

The info in the post is very clear with lots of schematics and even a breadboard.
The parts count is very low.
Just two ICs ... a LM339 quad voltage comparator and a CMOS 4040
Should be a fun DIY build.

Links:
youtube 1
youtube 2
Workshop
Facebook workshop Aug 2018

I've ordered some parts and will document the build on this page.
To be continued................... 

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SOMA Laboratory - DVINA

January 26, 2019, 12:23 pm
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SOMA Laboratory, the company behind innovative electronic instruments such as LYRA and PIPE,
is once again breaking new ground & exploring new sonic territories. Soma Laboratory has a new instrument in the pipeline (in addition to the upcoming PULSAR-23 organismic drum machine).

This new instrument is called DVINA. It's such a radical step for Soma, that the company is first seeking feedback from the public before putting it into production.

This is what it looks like:

DVINA (laboratory prototype)

“We want to show it to the world to get an idea if there is a market for an instrument like this,” said
Vlad Kreimer, the designer of DVINA. “If the reaction is positive, we can start mass production.”

DVINA is the first electro-acoustic experiment created by Soma. This unique string instrument was
inspired by classical Hindustani music, but lends itself to Western music just as well. References
include the bowed instruments - the Sarangi and the Dilruba which have more in common in spirit, than in design.

The DVINA produces a similarly full, warm and organic sound using modern technical innovations.



This DEMO video shows DVINA's construction and possibilities. 

A key feature of DVINA and its sound is that there is no pick-up inside. Instead, the electric signal
is taken directly from the strings that vibrate in the strong magnetic field of a neodymium magnet,
hidden in the neck. Sound is generated by strumming, plucking the strings (pizzicato) and by
playing with a bow (not included). DVINA has a minimalist design – no one part can be removed
without losing the functionality of the instrument. 
The length of the neck is 88cm, and the scale length is 52cm. The instrument weighs 1.2kg. The DVINA in the demo video is tuned C#, G#, but other tunings are of course possible. You can also use strings with a different gauge. Aside from the wooden body, an integral part of DVINA is the special step-up transformer that boosts the weak signal from the strings, enough for further processing.

After the transformer, the signal is ready to be put into stompboxes, mixer or a guitar cube.
The final part of DVINA is a custom built high quality pre-amp with one-tap delay and a soft distortion in the delay’s feedback. This is the pre-amp used in the demo.

You can of course use your own processing chain instead, but the Soma pre-amp does play a role in shaping the unique sound of DVINA.

Like with Soma's other instruments, there are some underlying concepts to DVINA.
There is the minimalism in design, and the link to the Hindustani tradition's meditative roots that can help the contemporary person focus on his/her inner state. 

 
“Two sticks, two strings, no frets, it's as simple as possible, everything unnecessary has been removed,” said Vlad. “It's only you and your spirit, mastery and imagination. This is a very simple but powerful instrument, with a strong connection to your body.”

DVINA is lightweight, small and very portable. It's actually the only bowed instrument that can be assembled from pieces that can be folded into a compact container.

“This instrument is perfect for the 21st century cultural ninja-spy, who travels alone with little luggage, is hopeful, flexible and completely independent, trying hard to still be a human in a complex time of impetuous changes.”

PRICE: The main part (wooden DVINA + step-up transformer) will cost in the range of 200-500 euros, while the pre-amp/delay/distortion unit will be around 200-300 euros. The exact price will be known once SOMA has a better idea of the market interest and the volume of production.

If you're interested in this kind of instrument, please let SOMA Laboratory know at omhohom@gmail.com

PS:
DVINA is also the name of a major river in Russia.
" (The) Northern Dvina River is the major river of the North zone of  European Russia and the White Sea basin. The river irrigates the Vologda and Arkhangelsk region and drains into Dvina Bay in the White Sea. Along with the Pechora River to the east, it drains most of Northwest Russia into the Arctic Ocean.

PSS:
Spotted at a Prodigy concert on their instagram account

The Lyra-8
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Korg Volca Modular

January 27, 2019, 10:31 pm
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I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on one of the new Korg Volca Modular synthesizers.
I've got quite a few Volcas and even modded some in the past.
I wonder if this is hackable too?

Please Korg, do release the schematics. You will probably find people buying more than one just so they can hack this.

Apart from this being wonderful news for the DIY synth community, it's a great introduction to what is termed West Coast synthesis. (Google Don Buchla & Serge Tcherepnin)
Usually, its really expensive to enter this world, or you have to be OK with DIY in order to build something like a Serge synth.

The KORG  looks like it is following the Buchla Easel in its colour scheme, its signal path & its modules.



I love my old easel because it is so flexible. I hope the new Volca will be just as nimble and
introduce the wider synth community to the joys of the West..

I also don't think Korg have ever made a West Coast style synth before (message me if I'm wrong).

Part of the West Coast philosophy is instead of having standard filters that remove content from the VCOs (subtractive synthesis), it uses wave folders. (Though I don't think I can strictly say this is an additive synth).
Wave folders do exactly that ... they fold oscillator waves in on themselves to generate more harmonic content (above the fundamental).

The volca modular has no envelope generators or VCAs ... instead it has functions ... or function generators and LPGs (Low Pass Gates).... all very Buchla.

East Coast synths use ADSR style envelope generators ....
Here, were have functions or slope generators (if you are into Serge).
Function generators are much more flexible ...you can get many more different envelope shapes
than your standard AD or ADSR envelopes.....& you can loop these too.

For more info on function generators click here:
https://djjondent.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-integrator-circuit-analog-computers.html
But be warned ... it's a bit nerdy
:-)
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hARMONIC experiments

February 1, 2019, 1:13 pm
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Playing around with the Verbos 262v


I'm surprised how many vactrols it uses.


Apologies for the poor sound on this instagram video, but it does sound really amazing.
I'll do a proper recording one of these days.

It started me wondering how many other "harmonic" related modules there are out there.
In Euro I can only find The Verbos Harmonic Oscillator and his Bark Filter.
Both look related to the Buchla 148, 262v and the 296/295/294 filters.

The other euro modules that I think can be added to this list are the Make Noise Telharmonic and Make Noise Echophon.

Do let me know if you know of any other modules that you think fall into this category.

The Echophon's depth control of the pitch shifter can be used to roughly approximate the harmonic series of the imputed  audio .. these are the frequencies that are multiples of the fundamental. To do this the large black pitch control knob must be set to max.

Every musical sound has these harmonics.A sine wave has only the fundamental or first harmonic, a saw tooth contains all harmonics in inverse proportion to their number. A square wave has all the odd harmonics in the same ratio, etc etc.
So with the Echophon, we can for example, just use a sine wave which has only the fundamental harmonic, and then add more harmonics by turning the depth control knob (the blue one).

Maybe this is use of pitch shifting modules to obtain spectral shifting is worth further investigation.
I understand that shifting the pitch of signal components retains their harmonic relationships.

This brings up the topic of additive vs subtractive synthesis.
and begs the question why are there so few Synth modules that do additive synthesis?

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Statues - NLC - Build notes

February 3, 2019, 9:41 pm
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These are my build notes for the Nonlinearcircuits Statues Module.
Its in eurorack format.

The name comes from the children's game Musical Statues also known as Red Light Green Light.
This is a 1 to 8 multiplexor/multiplexer….with a thru and hold circuit attached to each output.
The active output is chosen by whichever combination of the x00, 0x0 & 00x inputs is high.

The multiplexer IC can be either a DG408 or DG508 (DIP package)

You can put any signal into these, crossing 1V will send it high. In the demo video, I used the /2, /4 & /8 outputs from a Divide & Conquer which gives it a regular 1-8 count.

Using any old signals will give a more random effect but patterns will still emerge.
IN is the signal getting processed. This module can be used to process CV and/or audio signals.
-----------------------------------

Which multiplexer to use? the DG408 or DG508?....
The DG stands for Double-Gate .... its a CMOS chip..... ie there are 2 gates in the one device.

"Multigate transistors are one of the several strategies being developed by CMOS semiconductor manufacturers to create ever-smaller microprocessors and memory cells, colloquially referred to as extending Moore's law."

The DG408 is an 8 channel single-ended analog multiplexer designed to connect one of eight inputs to a common output as determined by a 3-bit binary address.
https://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Renesas-Intersil/DG408DJZ?qs=sGAEpiMZZMutXGli8Ay4kA%2fBPd2gF8jLzm9LT6sd4BM%3d

The DG 508 is a Multiplexer Switch ICs 8:1 CMOS Mid Voltage MUX
 https://au.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Maxim-Integrated/DG509ADJ%2b?qs=%2fha2pyFaduielkf44kdqC6FI6vY%2fkDwFpufrTM%252bGuAk%3d



To be continued....

Links:
+ NLC wiki
+ BOM
+ DIY index
+ All about CMOS

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You can find more NLC builds here.
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/non-linear-circuits-ncl-index.html
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Microcontrollers & Synths

February 4, 2019, 12:23 am
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This page is an index relating to microcontrollers (MCU - microcontroller unit) and how they relate to synthesizers.
It will grow over time so keep coming back

I'm seeing  these chips time and again when building synths.

They usually take the form of a single IC that contains these basic parts:
1. CPU - a microprocessor (4-bit or more)
2. non-volatile flash memory --- this holds the program to be run.
3. RAM - random access memory (volatile memory for data storage)
4. EEPROM - Electrically erasable programmable read-only memory 
    used for non volatile storage of program data
5. GPIO pins - General purpose in/out pins - used to interface with switches, LEDs etc etc.
    These can be configured to be either inputs or outputs.

Microcontrollers are basically tiny computers.
They perform things one step at a time and use a clock to trigger each step.
The clock is an oscillator (usually 1MHz to 20Mhz).

The GPIOs are very flexible ... can be ins or outs because they are controlled with software not hardware
unlike CMOS for example where the pins have a fixed function.
They are limited only by the speed and memory of the chip ( and the ability of the programmer)

Microcontrollers are also able to bridge the divide between digital and analog. So we can use them in the
world of analog synths.

There are plenty of examples of the use of microcontrollers in synthesizers.

Motorola  produced the 6800 in 1974. It's a 8-bit microprocessor
    Some of the synthesizers using the 6800 & its variants were:
    The 6800 was used in the Fairlight CMI series II. The IIx used the later 6809.
    The Fairlight series III used the 6809 & 68000
    Ensoniq EPS-16 (68000),
    Oberheim Xpander, Oberheim Matrix, ( 6809)
    PPG Wave 2.x , PPG Waverterm A (6809)
    Ensoniq SDP-1  , Ensoniq ESQ1, Ensoniq SQ80 (6809)
    Quasar M8 (6800)

 Texas Instruments produced the TMC0281 Speech Synthesizer in 1978.
 The TMC0281 was the world's first single-chip speech synthesizer.

Zilog  made the Z80 microprocessor in 1976.
This was used in many home computers of the early 1980s  like the Dick Smith System 80 which was my first computer.  

Synthesizers that used the Z80 include: Roland Jupiter 8, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 & 10,
      Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, Roland MC4, E-mu 4060, Roland MSQ700, Oberheim OB-8,
      MemoryMoog, Emulator I and II, Akai 2700, E-mu SP-1200, E-mu Drumulator,
      Sequential Circuits Drumtraks.

Microchip Technology  introduced the PIC 16C84 Microcontroller in 1993.
      The PIC 16C84 used a new type of memory called EEPROM
      (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory).
      You will find this type of memory used in lots of drum machines from the 90's

These are some of the microprocessors used in modern synths. (It's by no means a full list).

Atmel (AVR, ARM, Arduino, ATtiny, ATmega, ATxmega, AT89, AT90, AT91)
+  Mutable Instrument
      Branches (ATMEGA88PA), Grids (ATMEGA328P), Edges (ATXMEGA32A4U)
+  ADDAC -  VCC (Voltage Controlled Computer) Atmega2560
+ Elby AVR synth (AT90S8535)
+ Modular Synthesis AVR synth ATMEGA32
+ Bastl Grandpa - Atmega328-PU


Seeeduino.
+  meng qi voltage memory

STM32 
+ Mutable Instruments
     Tides, Peaks, Streams, Yarns, Braids, Frames (STM32F103CBT6)
     Clouds, Elements STM32F405RGT6
+ Owl modular - STM32F4
+ PER|FORMER sequencer STM32F405RGT6

 Teensy
 + Ornament and Crime (Teesny 3.2)
 + Radio Music / chord organ
 + Temps Utile (Teesny 3.2)
 + Malekko Varigate8+ ???
 + Orgone Accumulator
 + TELEX Teletype
 + Euroshield from 1010music

---------------------------------------------------------

Useful Links
+ List of common microcontrollers
+ Wikipedia
+ Atmel
+ AVR synth video
+ Popular IC's

Please let me know if there are any mistakes or omissions.

To be continued .........................

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Buchla - CV vs Audio

February 8, 2019, 1:11 am
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Have you ever wondered why Don Buchla separated control voltages from audio signals.

In virtually every other modular synthesizer system there is no division between the two.
Eurorack use 3.5mm cables.
Serge use Bananas
Moog and the rest of the 5U community use 1/4 inch jacks.
This democracy of connectors seems very practical. All voltages are treated the same and this gives increased flexibility and scope for experimenting.

So why did Don decide to separate the two



I just read an old interview of Don Buchla which may shed some light on the subject.
http://www.vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_Eigenwelt/pdf/096-099.pdf

"I would say that philosophically the prime difference in my (Don Buchla) approach from that of Robert Moog was that I separated sound and structure, and he didn’t. 

Control voltages were interchangeable with audio (in the Moog world).  
The advantage of that is that he required only one kind of connector and that modules could serve more than one purpose. 

There were several draw-backs to that kind of general approach, one of them being that a module designed to work in the structural domain at the same time as the audio domain has to make compromises. DC offset doesn’t make any difference in the sound domain but it makes a big difference in the structural domain, whereas harmonic distortion makes very little difference in the control area but it can be very significant in the audio areas. 

You also have a matter of just being able to discern what’s happening in a system by looking at it. If you have a very complex patch, it’s nice to be able to tell what aspect of the patch is the structural part of the music versus what is the signal path and so on.  

There’s a big difference in whether you deal with linear versus exponential functions at the control level..."
D.B. 1964.

The last point raises questions re linear vs. audio taper, bipolar vs. unipolar, and shielded vs. unshielded cables.

Another article from SOS shines more light on the subject:

"One significant difference between Buchla's approach and that of Bob Moog was his separation of the signals used in synthesis into three distinct classes. 
First, there were the audio signals, which could be generated by oscillators, or injected into the system from devices such as microphones or tape machines. 
Secondly, there were the control voltages. 
Finally, there were timing pulses, which we nowadays call clocks, gates, and triggers. By today's standards, the audio levels were quite low (about 1V peak-to-peak) and the CVs and pulses were rather hot, with a maximum voltage of around 15V."
 http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec05/articles/buchla200e.htm

 --------------
I'm looking forward to seeing and testing out the new Red Panel Buchla 100 which was released during NAMM 2019
It's interesting that this separation of CV & Audio is gone. I guess this makes it more compatible with Eurorack
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An evening with This Is Not Rocket Science

February 8, 2019, 4:39 am
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Adding anchor links within the same webpage

February 9, 2019, 3:48 pm
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This is not related to synths at all but may help some who are trying to add links within
a single page when using google blogger.
esp if the page is very long.and needs a index for example.

Inside the Html mode ,write the code like:

<a href="#1">Index</a>


The link :

<h1 id="1">index</h1>


<a > contains href element to refer the link
<h1> contains the ID of href element.
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NewSoundWaves Synth Meet Feb 10

February 10, 2019, 4:35 am
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Fenix IV

February 11, 2019, 3:18 am
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I met Stijn and Priscilla Haring-Kuipers of TINRS (This Is Not Rocket Science) yesterday and was excited to learn that there is a new Fenix in the works.



I love my Fenixes. I wander what the new synth will be like.

Some links to follow:
Fenix IV 
Fenix – ongoing experiments
Experiment Board no 2 – halfway
Experiment Board no 2
Fenix Experiment board no 3 

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egypt 2

February 11, 2019, 3:49 pm
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Beast-Tek Microbe - build notes

February 11, 2019, 3:54 pm
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Dual LPG - NLC build notes

February 13, 2019, 1:24 am
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This is a  Nonlinear circuit eurorack module. It's DIY.
Andrew describes this as based on the buchla 292 except it uses the "black box vactrol method" seen in the Shat-noir Phaser and Noiro-ze VCF/VCA.
This involves making a light proof box. .... basically you will build your own vactrol using some light sensitive resistors and diodes.

Low pass gates basically combine a gentle low pass filter (6db/oct) and a VCA. The old buchla 292 used vactrols. (VTL5C)

Your choice of resistor/ vactrol greatly influences how this circuit will behave.
Since we are building this in a non perfect light proof box, and your position of the diode, its brightness,  etc etc... there is a lot of variation.... ripe for experiment. Of course if you wanted reproducibility you could just use a factory vactrol, but that would be boring. :-)

DG analogue switches are used for changing between filter and gate modes.... so we have voltage control over the different modes which is nice. It would be nice to have a combo as well... LPF/Gate/Combo.
Maybe Andrew will add this in a future module ???

Clone #042 ???


Links:
+ Dual LPG Wiki
+ BOM & Build notes



Original LPG 
LPG - Jondent 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
DG202 or DG212 - these are quad SPST CMOS analog switches.
What doe the DG stand for???

Double Gate CMOS  (DG)
 Traditional CMOS technology is approaching physicial limitations was we approach the nanoscale regime.
One such solution is the double gate transistor, proposed in the 1980s.
"Multigate transistors are one of the several strategies being developed by CMOS semiconductor manufacturers to create ever-smaller microprocessors and memory cells, colloquially referred to as extending Moore's law." 
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To be continued..................
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Make Noise Maths Revisited

February 17, 2019, 1:03 am
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The Make Noise Maths has been around for a long time.
This is one of the first modules I ever bought. It's often described as an analog computer.
One of my friends is going to buy one and wanted to know the difference between the two.
I have the "classic" (original) version on the right. It's pre 2013.
I've read that the two versions sounds different when used to process sounds as a filter or mixer.
If anyone out there has both I'd love to hear your opinion.


There are some obvious external differences between the two such as the different knob layout
and the addition of LEDs to indicate +ve & -ve voltages and to show the state of the (EOR) End Of Rise and (EOC) End Of Cycle.
You will  also see there are 13 outputs on the update & just 10 on the classic.

One important difference is the Function output (or Unity Output on channels 1 & 4) of the new module. 

The Signal OUT Multiple (from the original MATHS) has been changed to a Unity Signal OUTput which is the non attenuated output of the
function generator (different from Ch 1 & 4 outs)


This non-attenuated out is a good output to use when you do not require attenuation or inversion or when you want to use the signal both independently and within the SUM/OR Bus.


And an INVerted SUM OUTput has been added for greater modulation possibilities.
Finally, the new MATHS has added +/-10V offset range (CH. 2). User has choice of +/-10V offset at CH. 2 or +/-5V offset at CH. 3. (The original only has a +/- 5V offset on both channels 2 & 3),

According to the Make Noise manual
MATHS revision 2013 is a direct decendent of the original MATHS,  sharing the same core circuit and generating all the fantastic control signals that the original was capable of generating, but with some upgrades,
additions and evolutions:

The new Maths has a Cycle input (24)
This allows for voltage control of the CYCLE state in Channels 1 and 4.
On Gate HIGH, the MATHS will CYCLE.
On Gate LOW MATHS will not CYCLE (unless the CYCLE button is engaged).

It's useful to think of this module as a processor of equations.
There are 4 inputs: CH1, CH2, CH3, CH4.
The two outer channels are function generators. The 2 inner are basically simple inputs that are normalled to a DC offset using attenuverters.

 Each channel has a coefficient which multiplies the value by +/- voltages (using the associated attenuverters).
 

The outputs can be OR/SUM/Inverted.
The inverted is only present on the new version.

OR = MAX ie it takes the largest value.
Eg. if the outputs from channels 1-4 are 1V, 3V, 5V, & 5.2V , then OR will output 5.2V.
It does not respond to negative voltages, therefore it could also be used to rectify a signal.

SUM adds the outputs from all the channels.
Depending upon how the Attenuverters are set, you could add, invert or subtract voltages from each other using this circuit. This is a good output to use for combining several control signals in order to generate more complex modulations.

INV = inverted SUM. It allows you to modulate backwards!

When utilizing the SUM, INV and OR OUTputs, set any unused channels to NOON to avoid unwanted offsets.
The output jacks 1, 2, 3 & 4 are normalled to the output jacks OR, SUM & invert.
That is, if you plug a cable into any of those 1,2,3,4 jacks, that voltage is subtracted from the OR, SUM & invert output jacks.

Using the Function Generator:

Its different to a standard LFO in that the rise and fall knobs sculpt the envelope and set the frequency.
They determine the rise & fall times... that is the time it takes for the envelope to rise to the peak (10V) and then fall to 0V. Also you can use the Log/linear/exponential knob to determine the shape of the rise & fall. Longer cycles will be achieved with more Logarithmic response curves. The fastest, sharpest
functions will be achieved with extreme exponential response curves.

This style of envelope generation is classic "west coast" and follows in the footsteps of the Serge DUSG and the Buchla 281. It's so very different to the ADSR type envelope generators of the "East".



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Resistance is Futile - Wiard BORG filter

February 20, 2019, 4:22 am
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Some pics of a Wiard Synthesizer Company GR-1204 Joyrider module.
 This is a 4.5" Frac module with a pair of Vactrol-based Borg 1 Filters.

When I first came across this filter I thought it was a reference to the Star Trek movie "First Contact"
Then I realised the name BORG is a cross between Buchla & Korg.
Which is what it is... a.marriage of "two divergent influences, the Buchla 292 Low Pass Gate and the Korg MS20 filter". I promptly forgot all references to that ancient race of aliens from Star Trek until today.

Designer Grant Richter settled on the FracRak format for his series 1200 series modular.... probably early 2000 ish ???
Sadly the Frac Rack format is almost dead. But I intend to install this with other Wiard modules (Euro & series 300) and anything else I feel is worthy


Apparently, there are only 11 of these in existence so I will look after it.
Lovingly  hand-built, panel silk-screened &.hand wired by I guess Grant Richter himself.

The Joystick:
"x" controls the type 1 filter, joystick "y" controls Type 2.
There is a common resonance control called Peaking.
In the new eurorack version, If you turn the control all the way off this engages a switch which changes to VCA mode. Max setting will produce self oscillation.

Individual mode controls... one for each filter.
Each filter is adjustable through Low pass, Band Pass, and High Pass modes. 
LP= 12dB/oct
BP= Resonator gain of 1 except Peaking ... controls gain at Fc
HP= 6/dB/oct


The modern Borg 1 filter looks like this:
 Sadly the new filter has lost its joystick.
It's an interesting design. Two filter inputs.. Input 1 mixes 50/50 with input 2.


The PCB appears to be only partly stuffed. There are those famous vactrols that create the famous  natural, very musical decay. In Low Pass Gate (LPG) mode, the Borg will act as a filter and a VCA simultaneously. ... just like the Buchla 292.




The rear of the PCB. I'm amazed how deep this module is.



A close up of the top of the PCB:



The Star Trek reference returns.



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Russia -

February 24, 2019, 2:50 pm
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russia 2

February 24, 2019, 2:50 pm
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