SteamSynth Modular

Mooger5 · Post by **Mooger5** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:08 am

Yes, and a line of bicycle light bulbs as VU meters for the mad scientist´s electronic brain look.

Mooger5 · Post by **Mooger5** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:17 am

Crazy idea, but these shurikens would look nice as pitch/mod wheels. Shame about the bloody ergonomics.
Then again, only one person in the World would notice a Ninjasynth in the mix. Well, just forget it

mayidunk · Post by **mayidunk** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:01 pm

Yikes!! You gots to be hardcore to play that synth!

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 2:54 pm

::insert random Chuck Norris joke here::

mayidunk · Post by **mayidunk** » Fri Sep 04, 2009 3:02 pm

Mooger5 · Post by **Mooger5** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 12:36 am

Oops... me and my sense of humour. Sorry about that.

Well, to keep OT in the 19th Century the typical materials were brass, glass, steel and wood. So, plastic knobs don´t seem as "authentic", if it´s not going too far. At least Bakelite chickenheads or the ones used by MXR, or something like these, perhaps. Use shellac and carve the pointers.

I´m out. Peace.

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:24 am

Bakelite is seen by many steampunks as the beginning of plastic, and it is generally shunned. Wood knobs would be best, as brass and copper are quite heavy and expensive. FWIW, I am working on a steampunk passive voltage processor and will be using wooden beads for the knobs. Very cheap, and looks good, too.

dslocum · Post by **dslocum** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:00 pm

Voltor07 wrote:Bakelite is seen by many steampunks as the beginning of plastic, and it is generally shunned. Wood knobs would be best, as brass and copper are quite heavy and expensive. FWIW, I am working on a steampunk passive voltage processor and will be using wooden beads for the knobs. Very cheap, and looks good, too.

Mooger5
Thanks for the great suggestions. I'll keep those shurikens in mind, but the cost of bandages might prove to be expensive.

Voltor07
I'd like to be a SteamPunk purist, but I realized early on in this project that I'd have to give up some Victorian era designs and materials in favor of buildable and practical. Besides, isn't SteamPunk about an ALTERNATE timeline? Who said plastics weren't invented in then????

dslocum · Post by **dslocum** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 5:07 pm

Mooger5 wrote:Yes, and a line of bicycle light bulbs as VU meters for the mad scientist´s electronic brain look.

You're really close to my thinking!!!

I'm working on the panel design for my 8 channel modified Paia vocoder (Poly-Phonemic Duple-Orator). It will have eight vertical "sight glass" tubes with 20 orange LEDs showing each frequency band. Sould be cool once I get it finished.

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 6:27 pm

dslocum wrote:
Mooger5 wrote:Yes, and a line of bicycle light bulbs as VU meters for the mad scientist´s electronic brain look.
You're really close to my thinking!!!

I'm working on the panel design for my 8 channel modified Paia vocoder (Poly-Phonemic Duple-Orator). It will have eight vertical "sight glass" tubes with 20 orange LEDs showing each frequency band. Sould be cool once I get it finished.

You could also utilize magic eye tubes for that. Could get expensive and bulky once the required power source is added, but would look super cool!

Here's a video of one, in case people don't know what these antiques look like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHXT_Asi ... 17&index=6

dslocum · Post by **dslocum** » Mon Sep 21, 2009 7:20 pm

You could also utilize magic eye tubes for that. Could get expensive and bulky once the required power source is added, but would look super cool!

Here's a video of one, in case people don't know what these antiques look like. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHXT_Asi ... 17&index=6

I've been wanting to use Nixies and Magic Eyes in the design. I need a source of the Magic Eye bezels - haven't found one yet. I'm also concerned about the HV. I don't want to run HV around the synth, but I'll put a stepup converter on the module's PCB - I'm concerned about high frequency noise from the inverted getting into the synth. Guess I'll try anyway.

I'm also putting a PIC CPU based LCD oscilloscope in the lineup soon. It's pretty cool! Maybe later I'll add a Nixie frequency counter!

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:04 am

Doug, FWiW, not everything that utilized magic eyes used the bezels. If you are really looking for them, try ham radio shows and flea markets. Also, sometimes they show up on E-bay.

tubeampguy · Post by **tubeampguy** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 2:14 am

Voltor07 wrote:Model railroaders use a heating element and 3 in 1 oil. At least that's how my dad's toy train worked when he was growing up. A setup like that could prove to be a disaster with a synth if not done right. Done correctly, it could be incredibly awesome! A bit smelly, perhaps, but awesome! Great idea Bryan!

No, On the 3 in 1! There in now Non Toxic, coffee scented smoke fluid. Mikes Train House makes the best stuff!

www.mthhotrains.com/

Voltor07 · Post by **Voltor07** » Tue Sep 22, 2009 4:33 am

tubeampguy wrote:
Voltor07 wrote:Model railroaders use a heating element and 3 in 1 oil. At least that's how my dad's toy train worked when he was growing up. A setup like that could prove to be a disaster with a synth if not done right. Done correctly, it could be incredibly awesome! A bit smelly, perhaps, but awesome! Great idea Bryan!
No, On the 3 in 1! There in now Non Toxic, coffee scented smoke fluid. Mikes Train House makes the best stuff!

www.mthhotrains.com/

Coffee scented, huh? Pretty cool! Great info, there!

dslocum · Post by **dslocum** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:02 pm

Electro-Music 2009 is nipping at my heels. Only a few days away, but I've managed to complete (for the most part) enough of the SteamSynth to make what I hope will be a good impression. Here's a link that I recorded early this morning (quick - sorry for the bad lighting). This is the first patch on this machine. (Large .MOV download - please be patient)

http://www.steamsynth.com/images/firstpatch.mov

It all came together yesterday. Lots of planning , lots of good luck, lots of great support from folks like Ray Wilson, Scott Stites, Yves Usson, Ken Stone, Thomas Henry, Bill Manganaro, and other unsung heros (Did I forget you? Sorry!)