Spring reverb. I remember Analogue Stu raving about spring reverbs back in the day and I always use a lot of reverb, so it seemed like a good option to get some verb in the rack without spending a lot. I found a spring tank from an old Fender Blues Junior guitar amp on eBay … Read moreSpring Reverb
Yes, I know I already did a “second row complete” post, but it wasn’t really and this is the “final” configuration for the G6 case. And it’s a nicer picture. And I decorated the rack ears!
As I’ve been building drums, I’m going to need some groove! I’ve always used shuffle/swing a lot, particularly on my drums, so I needed some of that in the rack. The Ladik S-188 is cheap as chips, so I grabbed one. I had to cut the bottom off the PCB to fit it in the … Read moreLadik S-188 Shuffler
Still on a quest for more interesting timbres, I’d read a lot about wavefolders and tried out the digital model in the Disting Mk4, so I knew I wanted to build one. I looked around for a cheap, simple PCB but couldn’t find anything suitable, so I started looking for schematics instead and came across … Read moreDiode Wavefolder
I’d also picked up the FM Drum from Barton Musical Circuits along with the Analog Drum. This is a slightly different beast, using frequency modulation between two internal oscillators to generate harsher and more metallic percussion tones. It was a very similar build to the Analog Drum, so I put it together very quickly. Much … Read moreBMC FM Drum
Having not found the kick drum I was looking for in the Bass++, I looked around for other analogue bass drum circuits and found the Barton Musical Circuits Analog Drum and FM Drum. They looked like fairly simple through hole builds, so I decided to give them a try. I started with the Analog Drum. … Read moreBMC Analog Drum
I’d been thinking about adding some FX to the rack when I discovered this dirt cheap karaoke delay board on eBay via a post in one of the synth DIY groups on Facebook, which uses the PT2399 digital “bucket brigade” chip. I ordered one from China for about £4 and followed the instructions I’d found … Read moreKaraoke Delay
After my first SMD disaster, I thought I’d keep it simple for my second attempt, and picked up a PCB/panel for the Antumbra DIST, a simple diode distortion. I use a lot of distortion in my music so another unit seemed a good idea and this looked like a simple build. There are a couple … Read moreAntumbra DIST
This was my first major disaster. I’d decided I needed a noise generator for synthesising percussive sounds and other noise-related duties. I’d also started looking at surface mount (SMD) soldering as many of the interesting projects I’d been looking at involved SMD. Surface mount soldering is quite different to what I’ve been doing so far, … Read morePure Noise
Looking for cheap DIY power options, I ended up back at Frequency Central again, where I found the Routemaster combined PSU/bus board PCB. This looked like a perfect solution for my new case, with a dozen power headers and plenty of power. It was easy enough to build and fitted nicely in my prototype case. … Read moreRoutemaster PSU