My build progress

I didn’t socket mine…but the leads were long enough I could have made it flush. I went back and forth a few times debating if I wanted it flush or inset. I finally went with inset because I figured it would help shade it in brighter light. And I’d like to add a piece of acrylic filter over it at some point for a more finished look. (I’m half tempted to just SLA resin print a lens out of clear resin…but it takes quite a bit of post processing to actually get it clear and just buying a chunk of appropriately colored acrylic is simpler.)

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A few thoughts about my next project … This is the VCO-1 from Skull & Circuits a good friend gave me as a kit. This is the first “real” module that I will build. I’ve never built a purchased module before, just stripboards. Now I’m a little torn. Of course, I’m really happy and excited about it. On the other hand, I’m a little afraid that it’s just so many better than the modules I built myself. And I just don’t have enough money to buy modules like this myself. I am a little afraid of losing the desire to build myself. does any of you know that too?

Of course, we know that a purchased module will always be a tad better than a self-made one. I just hope the difference doesn’t get too big

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Do we know that?

There’s no reason that’s necessarily so. Yes, a lot of the modules out there are produced by people who know a lot more about circuit design than we (or at least I) do, but not all of them. (There wouldn’t be as many ferrite beads called for if they were, I think.) Just because there’s PCBs and a company name and a fancypants front panel and a higher price tag doesn’t always mean it’s better… and the more you build and learn, the better your self-made modules become.

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Indeed. It does!

While we’re talking about making things aesthetically more pleasing …

Because I didn’t like the visible white lines caused by the side panes of the 7-segment display being white in one of my modules (with a black panel) and kept on talking about it my therapist advised me to use a black felt tipped pen to darken the white sides of the display. That did the trick.

In this picture you can still see the white line on the RHS of the bottom display. How disturbingly ugly, I hear you cry out! Indeed, something had to be done. Well, in In the final version this is not visible anymore.

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I agree with analogoutput there is no reason that you couldn’t build good modules. For example the one you are building. Designs are online and available. Plus it isn’t necessary even perfect as the octave switch isn’t really on point. I am building the Kassutronics VCO with minor wave shape adjustments and built in LFO. There is no reason it will be worse than this one.

Of course there is limit as these things go, there will always be big and expensive modules that are closed source, but there is a lot of good stuff between super simple and those monsters.

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I started experimenting with capacitive touch buttons and combined an arduino nano and two CD4051 multiplexers to read their values. A DA-converter was added to create a CV-output (perpendicular board with the test connector attached to it). I had 10 of those keys, that’s the reason I’m using 10 here. 12 would maybe make more sense musically speaking? Depending on how you use the output values of the buttons you can of course create many more than 12 discrete values using some sort of a glide function to interpolate between button values. I’m thinking of using the time a button is touched to set its value.

B.t.w. pointing at these buttons from a short distance makes them trigger. And they auto calibrate after a while if you put something close to them that triggers them.

Working title: Sense-O-Matic 2D

Hmm, maybe I could make the 31 * 31 matrix of Vocode-O-Matic using touch keys like this. Imagine a panel of 961 touch keys, that would be about 31 x 31 cm !

Edit: forgot to include a picture …

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? not sure what you mean

image

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oops yeah lol . maybe should slow down and proof read . working a lot of hours and barely have time for anything these days .

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Leave it. It’s better this way.

btw, I spent five minutes make another input for the mikrokosmos. in this demo, i have the signal from it much higher than when actually playing. It’s great for adding spice to bass lines via CV:

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Is that a magnetic pickup plugged into the Mikrokosmos? That even works?

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Yep. Literally a guitar pickup soldered to a jack and plugged into the mikrokosmos.

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Huh. Wonder how it compares to an actual Electrophone module.

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I think it’s near identical. I suspect the electrophone is an ears module with a guitar pickup instead of a piezo on the switched input jack. I’ve already accidentally made a few of the sounds just having my phone near it.

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You’re right, the Electrophone has a switchable fuzz circuit added but other than that it’s basically identical. Hadn’t realized that.

Tried a magnet table with the pickup yet?

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what’s a magnet table?

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Whoa. Not yet, but I did just get some magnets. :thinking:

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Soo, a few more thoughts on my first module that is not built on stripboard. Today I soldered in the resistors and it’s unbelievable how easy it is! In addition, I have good solder with 3.5% flux, you can really see how it flows into the holes and hugs the component on the other side. Absolutely great. However, none of this helps if the thing sounds shit at the end … we will see … and hear

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