Skating For Jesus

glide/portamento/slew/lag whatever

I think I like the name portamento best, it makes it sound fancy. But whatever you call it, when you play different notes on the keyboard and it slides between the notes.

I gave my friend my kraftzwerg last month, which doesn't have a portmento, and while he likes it he is really missing that glide. Because that is what an analog synth is all about, slidey sounds. 90% of all synth patches I make have at least a bit of glide. I decided I would make him a glide circuit in a tiny little tupperware container., using parts I already had laying around. 

So, I used this extremely simple circuit by Harry Bissell:

I didn't add input or output resistors because he won't be driving multiple things, and I wanted to keep the control voltage intact without voltage drop or that 1k output resistor causing problems. I don't think it will matter and tl072s are very cheap. I used a tl072 instead of the LM1458 in the circuit because thats what I had.

I didn't have any of the correct capacitor sizes. So I used a 15uf electrolytic and put a 100k potentiometer in series with the 1M, so he has more control. Otherwise, it was difficult to dial in the desired glide time on the 1M pot.

I ran it off of two 9v batteries

So here it is

UPDATE in April, I don't think it worked which is sad. Good thing it was cheap and easy

Degenerate

Titles

Coming up with names for music is harder than making music. I have always just named my music nonsense words and random words that I thought of when I started making it. Nishi, it means west in Japanese. Metter, it rhymes with better. Usim, just random. Clest, just random. But recently, for a good reason, I have to come up with real names for music. It's very difficult. It sounds pompous going the fake classical route, like "Concerto in F major for Synthesizers". It's too arbitrary coming up with names that mean something like "Autumn Leaves" or whatever. So I have settled on longish names that are about various things that hopefully invoke a response. Maybe some descriptive titles. But I spent half of a 14 hour airplane ride coming up with 8 titles.

Kraftzwerg

This is my mfb kraftzwerg that I am letting my friend Dr. M/Tim/Gaius Jeepers/Chestnut Juno borrow for a while. It's a really great little synth. It's analog, semi-modular, and loosely based on the minimoog. Like a minimoog, It has 3 vcos, noise, a ladder filter, and a vca. Then unlike the minimoog, it has two ADSRs, two LFOs, and midi. And unlike the minimoog, its much more cheaply made, has a plastic body, and no keyboard. Small knobs, too. So its definitely not a minimoog, but it is cool in its own way and much easier to acquire.

It's not perfect, because its missing glide/slew/portamento. Which I feel is a pretty important part of an analog synthesizer. One of the most important parts. How are you going to do wonky slides around town? Another problem is the midi is not quite perfect and can get hung up with too many midi messages. Both of these problems are completely fixed when its used in conjunction with Expert Sleeper's Silent Way, but that means you have to be tethered to a computer. 

Here is a short video of it where I play a clunky midi and the kraftzwerg is through a guitar amp

I am letting my friend borrow it who I have only met once before and who lives in a different country just because I love his music. He makes really great synthesizer songs, but only occasionally since he generally lacks motivation. Analog synthesizers are never cheap, and he doesn't see the point, but I am hoping that if he borrows this one he might make some more cool songs with it. 

Just listen to this song that he made

Eurorack is too small

I don't have any eurorack modules, but right now I am making a few modules for a friend of mine who has a bunch. Eurorack is so small and fiddly! I have no problems with how Eurorack looks and I like 1/8th of inch (3.5mm) jacks and plugs. My complaint is that the panel size is just too small. It's really hard cramming front panel components in there.


Here is a picture. See how those pots and connectors are jammed in there? In my own modular format, there is always at least 40mm spacing between potentiometer centers. Easier to solder, easier to twiddle on the front when its done.

 

  It's a combination VCO and transistor mixer. The transistor mixer distorts in a special transistor way when the inputs are set to a certain gain. Also, I am building him a transistor filter and a dual slope generator, but I haven't told him about those yet. I want to see if I can finish this one first, before my trip to where he lives in Virginia.

I forgot I had a blog and I built a minimoog filter clone

this one on stripboard
http://www.yusynth.net/Modular/EN/MOOGVCF/index.html

I didn't want to believe all the words people describe that filter as, because it usually is nonsense I thought. warm and fat and whatever. But actually, it really is great. I have a new favorite. It clips when the input signal is too loud, and that makes an interesting sound. Something about when the resonance is approaching self-oscillation but not quite, it warbles just a little.

I even built it with vintage transistors, instead of the recommended bc557/547 because I happened to have some from a couple years ago when I bought a box of random components.

Anyway, its not going to help me make better music, but it sure is a fun toy


here it is but it doesn't have labels or knobs yet.