Been a while since there was an update, so let’s see what’s on the bench of late:
- x0xb0x – Yeah, I took the plunge and self-sourced a kit (not that hard since there’s a guy on the forums selling the rare parts kit for a reasonably fair price). It’s soldered up and mostly working, except for an extremely weird intermittent problem I haven’t completely solved yet. It’s unclear what the actual problem is, but I think I have a pretty good workaround ready to go. I also had issues with the USB chip early on, and then pulled since it was highly suspect when I first started having trouble. Now I’ll have to try to re-solder it again…
- Haible varislope filter/phaser – Pretty much done! I think I need to reverse some of the pots and adjust some things, but it’s working reasonably well.
- A trigger-to-MIDI Sync converter – Decided to do this with an Arduino so that I could at least clumsily sync my DR-110 to other stuff (x0xb0x, AN200, etc.). Code will be posted soon, once I add in start/stop functionality and test it a bit more thoroughly.
- MIDIBox SID – I’ve got the CORE, SID, LCD, and a pair of Banksticks up and running. Worked great under computer/MIDI control, though I think a noise gate will be necessary for the bad 6581 VCA. Waiting for DINx4 and DOUTx4 boards, and then I’ll have to figure out the control surface – it will be more complicated than the basic one, but less complicated than the “full control surface”.
Whenever the PCBs show up, I also plan on building a pair of XR2206 VCO modules, as well as a few other modules on the horizon. Gotta start thinking about a new rack as well. I’ve got the first pair of Vector rails, but lining it all up is going to be careful work.
Also coming soon: A pair of PAiA Tube Mic preamps- the phantom on my mixer died (just as I got some condenser mics! curses!), so these are going to replace that functionality. I’m going to hotrod them a bit with better parts and some ECC83 tubes to replace the 12AX7s it ships with. Ordered some pedal PCBs as well – a Big Muff Pi clone, and a Rebote 2.5 delay.
I think I’m also going to have to move the electronics area to a bigger room with bigger tables, but that’s probably at least a month or two out.