"I can't fit all these amazing modules in my system!"

I'm going to NAMM

BTW. If anyone is going to be at NAMM and would like to meet. Please email me in private.

MARF making

I repaired a MArF a few years back, but nothing was like the undertaking of getting the 248-3206 from the Buchla garage sale working. I only know of a couple of these in existence and I don't know that any of them work. Someone bought the panels with only the motherboards attached. I have had them in my possession for more than 2 years. I had to design, assemble and troubleshoot the input board and 3 output boards for this beast. Each board is 14" x 6" or so, no small task. Today it worked for the first time.

Pictured is the working MArF as a reference. and the 2 panels from the double size expanded unit. A 3206 is a normal 1602 unit with an additional 4 space panel added to it. The expander adds another 16 stages of sliders and memory as well as 4 more output channels. The 6 total output channels can address the 32 steps in any way. This thing could be a 200 system's only source of modulation generators. LFOs, Envelopes, Sequencers, Quantizers, Voltage Processors are all possible. More infos to come.

Much more info to follow.

Finally

I got the panels finished.

Some audio demos

I have thrown together some quick examples of what the different functions of the Time Domain Processor sound like. There's no art here, it's just an ARP sequencer, 259, 281, 292 together with the delay unit. I think this thing takes simple stuff to the next level.

DELAYS


this is the simple sequence run through the module in delay mode. Since it has 8 delays happening at once, the sound can be very complex. I add a little feedback, just to make things interesting. Later in the clip I position the sliders so that the delays get louder as they go to the right, creating the reverse reverb type sound I mentioned in the last post.

PITCH


In this clip, the module is in pitch mode. The sense is set to turn on with each note. When the envelope follower opens, it hard syncs a sawtooth oscillator that is sweeping the delay time. This sounds like a pitch shift. With feedback it sounds like rising or falling echos.

SAMPLE FX


Here I send some sound in and then grab it in the loop mode. I retune the sample and sequence it. Basic loop stuff.

SAMPLE AS OSCILLATOR

Sometimes Experiments Work

I have been talking about digging into the 288 schematics and redesigning the digital section to eliminate the obsolete shift registers. It's an 8 stage voltage controlled digital delay, BTW.

Well, upon building up the prototype, I came to find that several of my original ideas didn't work as I hoped they would. After some rethinking and experimenting, I solved those digital problems. I now have a working version of the design. It makes some very interesting sounds, that I haven't heard before. It's cool sounding to have the short delays very quiet and them get louder as they get longer, it sounds like reverse reverb. Also, the looping stuff is out of this world. Woah. Now I just need to get my silk screening done.

Tinnermanned

Buchla 100 cabinets have wood strips that the modules screw into. It's a functional system, except that wood is not grounded or protective from RF interference. Early 200 cabinets had each module in it's own chassis box, then these boxes were held down from the front with metal strips between the rows. The strips cover the module name and the bottom credits, probably why modules form that era don't even have "Buchla & Associates" or "CBS Musical Instruments" even "San Francisco Tape Music Center Incorporated" at the bottom. ;)

The later 200 series cabinets, the model 203 series, use the "boat" system, that is still in use by B&A today. The cabinets fold in half, and the boats are relatively shallow, not wasting huge amounts of space like a Moog type cabinet. Sometimes this shallowness bites you in the ass, (like when trying to mount a 208 module in your cabinet for instance) but usually it is great. The only time I lose my temper is when I get "Tinnermanned."

The Tinnerman nut is named after noted mechanical engineer.... I don't know who Tinnerman was, but I bet Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners, and Plumbing Handbook has that information in it. Tinnerman Nuts, or Speed Nuts, are used instead of threading the rear piece, when attaching a piece of sheet metal to another. The Buchla 200 and 300 series boats have larger holes milled into them and then a Tinnerman nut that the panel screw threads into. To be "Tinnermanned" (a term Reed Hays and I coined after being victimized by it repeatedly) is to start threading in the screw and realize that the threads on the back half of the Tinnerman Nut have not grabbed on the screw and you are in fact screwed and have to take the panel off again and reposition it.

New 200e cabinets have threads built into the boats' rails. Although this means that some of the modules I have built have mounting holes that are slightly out of allignment with these boats, users of these cabinets will never be Tinnermanned. All that said, I have been asked where to get some Tinnerman Nuts.

I've gotten them from here

http://www.mcmaster.com/#94808A158

They look slightly different than the ones that came on Buchla cabinets, but they work the same. In fact, they are a little tighter fitting, so I have had better luck with these than vintage ones.

Happy screwing!