Thanks for the reply, yes… I totally get the ‘stay sane’ activities. Have months long periods where I can’t move much, so having some sitting down thing to do is always welcome. The general stress of the current situation is coming out as a flare up.
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Please share what you do, its really a highlight to me to see everyone working on their little projects. If you are looking for some components to build up a kit, check out the below thread:
There are a lot of folks on here that are learning too with all kinds of backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses. We kinda just learn from each other, so dont be afraid to drop a thread about a problem, idea, or sharing a thing you are doing! 
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Hi. Farabide here (Scots Doric for “where I live.”)
Been a maker of many things from rockets and robots to instruments and art since I was old enough to own my own safety scissors.
Studied music, trained as an opera singer, worked as a session musician playing anything but brass (I was cheaper than samplers were then). Taught MIDI and Steinberg when the Atari St came out and played in national orchestras (flute and violin) and a lot of bands (mostly guitar,bass, sax and keys). Finally, with bills to pay, I was seduced by the dark side of regular income and took a job in IT for a bit which backfired and I ended up director of IT for a multinational (still played bass and keys in bands in the evening) . Jacked it in to be a single dad / contract pm. Then got ill with m.e. and now my girls look after me.
I saw a video of sam playing guitar through his modular (its an oldie) and remembered my first mims apc and though I can make that!
After that I was hooked.
As I can’t move much there is little build progress but I’m a fanatical notebook filler and sketcher of ideas. Some progress is now being made having moved my old studio into my livingroom and a small solder workbench in my bedroom. The notebooks fill up and I make the ideas real as I’m able.
Love Sam’s work and energy (to me a real tonic) and especially grateful to have found this group. Not many builds to share but happy to share ideas or help out in any way. Cheers
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Hi all!!
I’m from Helsinki, Finland. I’m a 40+aged life-long guitarist who’s just recently (last year or so) trying to get into digital/electronic/bedroom produced music, mainly because there doesn’t seem to be very many people around anymore to play with “real” music with.
There’s something about my brain that doesn’t work very well with DAW’s and such; I just get really frustrated really fast when I have an musical idea in my head and then the DAW starts giving me some sh*t and it goes all to hell in about two minutes… 
So I’ve started looking at real synths to get rid of the computer, and it didn’t take long to get to the idea that modular systems would be the sh*t. But then I found out how expensive those things are!! Are people filling the modular forums earning at least 6 figures or are they just really deep in debt? IDK but I’m a pretty broke a** guy and it got me pretty desperate when I realized I would never be able to buy a boutique modular. But then I found LMNC! It seems like a revelation 
Seems like something that even I can do and afford. Thanks so much!
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Welcome! Glad to have another guitarist like me in the group. I know what you mean about DAWs, my productivity has never been the same since my Yamaha 4 track tape days.
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Welcome, look around and see whether you can find anything you like. I’d also invite you to have a look at Modular in a Week on youtube. You’ll be surprised what you can build in a short time for little money.
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Hi Guy’s, Been into modular for a few month’s now, built LMNC 8 step sequencer works fine. Been interested in analogue 1 or 2 years really ha ha, (Elektor Formant!) remember that? not many will 70’s era. Most bits for that were expensive. Finally got around to building, usual modules already built and coming together…all good fun
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Also in times past we had another tv show called ‘How?’, now an updated electronics version of that with Sam would be fantastic!
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Hi everyone
Haven’t introduced myself yet. But I’m a classical singer. Finishing my education as a director and teacher this year… But this whole situation makes both quite difficult. So I made this video.
I’m the guy in the top right. You might notice I also like to ride my bike and do some virtual cycling on zwift… Although I’ve been quite lazy the last half year or so.
Back to that education. I’m writing a paper on synths… Or it’s more of me reflecting on me working on these schematics. And getting myself acquainted with an artistic process. I’m finally getting somewhere, artistically… Doing something with it, instead of copy pasting schematics and putting them in a standard eurorack case. (which actually I’m still doing, but I’m trying to expand upon that, because you first have to get the knowledge and then do something with it?)
Today I tried to put an oscillator in a tiny glass jar. Which failed horribly, because I don’t have drill bits to drill glass… Etc… Which reminds me I love juanito moore. With the tuna can enclosure… He has very few views, frankly because he’s video editing is non-existent, but the content is a goldmine if you want to crawl through it.
For the paper, I’m still waiting on conductive paint to do some fun stuff with… Would be cool to combine it with the above… Message in a bottle style. It’s going to be in Dutch… So I probably won’t share it here when it’s finished. Besides… You probably need the conductivity of the paint, so you can’t copy paste it, or send it digitally.
I’m especially looking at fun interactive ways to get some fun inputs into a synth (the prothese arm is just amazing, I think!)… Or anything really! Using the same inputs for lights is interesting as well. But I have yet to do that. It’s in the idea bin… Thinking about a theatre idea, to pitch tomorrow…
Uh… What else… I don’t know… Really just wanted to say hi and shamelessly plug a video.
Oh… This discourse is a real goldmine too! So I’ll try and put as much back as time lets me (baby and all seems to be quite time consuming)
My thoughts often times also go all over the place. It’s a curse and a blessing… Oh! A bird…
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‘How’ with Fred Dineage? I vaguely remember that, but we were BBC poshos in our house. None of yer ‘Magpie’, only wholesome Valerie Singleton.
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There was a series called Secret Life Of Machines that goes into detail, and even making the machines. It’s a fun thing to watch!
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What do fellow builders of Kosmo format synthesizers call one another? I’d begin by saying Hello, who we call ourselves.
I’m Fumu, also known as Esopus. There’s a factoid that says a civilization has built some technology to run off of KIC 8462852, a star 1470 lightyears (give or take 20) from Earth and data has shown it dimming 20% in an unusual pattern which gave someone license to say that the civilization is silicon based life. They said, in essence, they’re the borg. I want a Kosmo so one can live here which because the link cabling and the phone cabling is kind of like the borg made enough sense for me to go right into my first modular synthesizer. I like it more as a story more than if it made any sense. Kardashev Type II is the scale at which they’ve measured this civilization where the entirety of the star’s power is controlled by them.
I have a background of not finishing things. I focused on animation until I got distracted with synthesizer music until I started to get distracted with information. Some of my projects are back in my attention. I’m more certain about which ones must get done. I must find a way to turn a 1980’s camcorder that has my attention into a video synthesizer which perhaps this turns it back to my interest in animation which was mostly in an abstract style.
This is my first time building a synthesizer or building the Kosmo. Since March I’ve bought parts for a filter and an oscillator. I learned more than I would have expected on buying parts. Since December of last year I have hopefully every part for a RE-303. The majority of the parting of the RE-303 was not done by me so I hadn’t any of previous projects to be my experience. The Kosmo has been a brand new realm for me. I need is a set up so I can build. The first time nerves are so tough. Once I build a filter I won’t be so expecting to fail.
I have projects saved on Mouser with most of my parts and orders on the stores that had a few parts I couldn’t get on Mouser. Ask me about those projects if you want any help around Mouser which I’d be glad to do so. I have some vintage knobs in the mail that I think are close to Sam’s style. They weren’t easy to source after I bought a couple of sets. I have reason to think I’m going to have a diversity of knobs on the Kosmo just because of the vintage or restoration knobs aren’t easy to source.
-Fumu / Esopus
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you are truly at another level if you can find what you are looking for with the Mouser search thing . that said they do have everything . there are a couple threads here that point out different suppliers [ UK,US,etc.] but of coarse I couldn’t find them to show you .
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here’s one of them .
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Device X,
Maybe? I didn’t figure it out for about a month. January through February was a dead time where I only found about one part after a couple of days of cursing the site’s interface. As of right now I’m happy with my oscillator bom, my envelope generator bom and my dual amplifier bom. I did the filter bom rather quickly but I can try again. Then again I’m also just starting to understand these components that come in so many various ways.
-Fumu / Esopus
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Device X,
I’m going to give this further reading. Thanks.
-Fumu / Esopus
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Well, I did suggest “Kosmonuts” in this thread but not everyone was into it, so most of the time I think we just think of each other as respected and valued friends (though most of whom we’ve never been within a hundred km of. 
)
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You know, I grew up and for years and years my favourite music has been organ and synth. Boards of Canada is a firm favourite of mine and I really like the covers and tutorials people have done, especially of Roygibv.
But, whilst nice to look at, it just settled into the back of my mind and didn’t do much.
Then somehow, youtube reccomendations said “oh, you like synth do you? Look Mum, no computer.”
Then quarantine happened and I put in a bid for a secondhand microkorg, having seen the videos of the soft warm synth tones that BoC use.
Since then, got that, got a usb to MIDI cable pair, and having played guitar for ten years I gotta say that a keyboard is so much more intuitive. A seperate button for each note, no fumbling as my trembling fingers hunt for a fret? Ace.
Since then i’ve done a few short single instrument melodies, a two voice theme that’s being used on a paranormal podcast (using the free HERC Abakos software synth and the minikorg as a MIDI keyboard as I didn’t have the 1/4" stereo to 2x 1/4" mono jack then and I wanted to record something) and now I want to try something a little more complex. I got fruityloops and have barely figured out how to configure it, finally got it to monitor, the idea is I’ll be doing a multi track composition, with a bassline, melody, percussion and me singing something in those wobbly dulcet tones that I’m sure many a pub patron has enjoyed as I walk out, bellowing out “Gloucester Wassail.” or “Jerusalem.”
But last night I felt really glum, didn’t get paid last week, not furloughed, not unemployed, it’s made me feel quite low energy. Couldn’t bother with all that complex bollocks so I just played out something, no idea what key it was but I was playing A, A flat, F and recorded it in audacity. Done three takes so far, not quite satisfied with it yet.
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Welcome to the forum! Feel free to post whatcha got in the musitc share thread:
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