28.5.10

the Hohner Bass Threemörk, pt.VI

well. the tuba, string, arpeggiator and straight sounds all play together nicely now.
allpass filter on the tuba, inverter on the strings.
arpeggiator and straight sounds all got buffered, to avoid mixing problems
and to be able to give them separate jack outs if i feel like it. we'll see.

my first plan was to have two switches - between Straight/Tuba/String for the A voice, and between Straight and Arpeggiator for B. i changed my mind about that last one.
while testing everything (aka noodling for hours without actually soldering) i decided i wanted to be able to blend in the arpeggiator with it's own volume knob. so now the final mixing section would look like this:

the filter switch for A + A volume
B straight volume
B arpeggiator volume
Master volume.

the 4 octave mixing knobs will work for both B sounds at the same time, but they actually seem to complement one another nicely that way. maybe it's just me getting used to the limitations of the instrument - and actually starting to like them.

only thing i still want to try is to add a Q control on the tuba and string section.
since the resonant frequencies of the filters are fixed (and so is the alpass filter f on the tuba, so there) i'm not sure if it will add a lot to what i have. will have to hear it and see what it does, and if it's interesting enough of an effect to merit extra pots.

the second LFO for the gapper on the Arpegg is getting switchable caps i think. i really like it when it's driven high up the audio range, but the slow chopping tremolo effect is nice as well.. think extra switch. gon' be funki.

dus berijden, die blokgolf!

15.5.10

thee Gristleizer, Pt.III / Hohner continued

testing if you could throw control voltages at the Gristleizer instead of the internal LFO.
why yes you could.

running things off a crude - be honest: unfinished - CV sequencer (think Baby10), 0-5v CV works perfectly. it actually provides a slightly wider range than the LFO.
needs a little tweak of the Bias knob of course, but works like a charm.
or is that unlike a charm? i forget. (rabbit's foot,anyone?)

for demo purposes, and to keep things interesting for myself, i used the gate out of the external sequencer to step the Hohner Arpeggiator. every new rising edge is a step, so you can make some really random sounding sequences indeed. well, unless you put some effort in, in which case you could make it sound like a 4 to the Floor.
on MDMA drinking watered down RedBullVodka, that is, but hey.
hitting the sync gapper on the arpeggiator makes for a silence every time the gate drops to 0v. nice.

the whole thing is quite promising.
makes me want to finish that sequencer.

Hohner3000 + gristlizer + sequencer demo by Remörk138

13.5.10

Thee Gristleizer, Pt.II

yay!

Hohner3000 + gristlizer demo by Remörk138

the arpeggiator section through the VCA, well - some, and then quickly on to the VCF.
tweakle dee and tweakle dum, as one might say.


// small postrecording edit: been toying with the clock cap, and i have the LFO running pretty pretty slow -am listening to the ramp up doing about 6 minutes per cycle right now. all in good fun, of course. //


oh, and kids: when you're handling sharp objects
such as knives, axes and the like,
always move them AWAY from your other hand.

Thee Gristleizer, Pt.I

All the info you can eat on the effects box made famous by Chris Carter & Throbbing Gristle.
decided to try it, especially with the Hohner thing in mind..

as i mentioned it to one of the boys of the WCCC, out came the obvious: "switch between VCA and VCF? so you need two, basically?"

well. let's first try to get one to work, shall we?



temporarily housed in a neat little thriftstore box (former ampere meter) and a piece of cardboard - i like cardboard! - it's got that
Bissy Bunder Science Project look to it for now.
not only is it working, it's got one of the best LFO's in terms of range and Vpp steadiness that i have come across in such a relatively simple circuit. that said, the bias pot is indeed essential, a welcome addition, even for 'normal' operation. so if you build it: put that one on the front panel! some worthwile effects there, and you don't want to have to open 'er up every time.. only problem (well.) is that the bias pot is not really interesting throughout its full range, so there's some room for improvement there ('standard' bias at 50% and then a useful range would be nice. MultiMeterMan to the rescue).

bypass will be added later. and maybe a higher impedance input for guitar, have to try if that matters at all.

anyone noticed i tried to have some room for n°2 in the layout?
oh joy.

7.5.10

the Hohner Bass Threemörk, pt.V

small update..
haven't had a lot of time
but we don't need time, we're already in eternity.
some clever man's quote i remember reading on a Kosjer D album sometime during the 9ties.
i'll look up that name later rather than sooner.

tried different blending options and filters, and decided - in order to finish this thing this century - to stick with the original filters (aka the tuba and string presets) on voice A. although some parts of those are still waiting to be tweaked.
the arpeggiator voice didn't sound too hot through those filters, but i'll probably be giving it a dedicated output so i can run it through whatever external filter i damn well please. same reason i'm giving A a straight option as well - no filtering.
i tried blending the 3 sounds (straight/string/tuba) with 3 pots but it didn't amount to much, so they're back on a switch now.

reading up on buffers (inverting/non inverting), needed for separation between the straight and filtered sound.
filters loaded the original so much it wasn't usable for the straight sound anymore.. buffered and splitted, sounds perfect.
more lecture on all-pass filters, needed to compensate for the phase shift in the tuba sound. the filtered sounds don't play together too nicely with the straight voice B without phase correction - too much cancellation on the pot rotation.. also, a lot better now.

in the process, i came across a nice Spice Circuit Simulation Program for mac as well: Qucs.
Silly name, but open source, and a great alternative to MacSpice which only does text-based analysis.. Qucs starts from the schemo yo. which is great if you're more into circuitry than programming.

i've a feeling i'm getting close to having all the options mapped and cut and dried and decided and all that.
when i reach the final stage, i'll do a schematic comparison.
should be interesting.
to me, that is.
more interesting than a flow-chart comparison - made one earlier to keep my head clear
and it seems there's not too much difference with the original, haha.. but i'm a sucker for flow charts.







.. my inner nerd is weeping silently.