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Breathe Controller for Voyager

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2004 11:55 am
by taschenmusikant
Hi there everybody,

does anybody know if there exists a breathe controller (like the DX-7 one) for voltage controlled Synthesizers?

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2004 6:20 pm
by Tim Kleinert
The Yamaha BC3 Breath Controller (used for DX7 and all others) produces a control voltage.

The standard BC input wants to see 0 to -10V at the ring of a stereo input plug. The tip is the sourced -10V. So, the closer the received voltage is to -10V the greater the volume/modulation.

To use BC with a voltage controlled synthesiser using standard CV ranges (0 to 5V), you therefore need a powered inverting/attenuating circuit. It's just an opamp and a few resistors, powered by a 9V battery. A competent EE can build it easily.

Re:

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 4:16 pm
by GovernorSilver
Tim Kleinert wrote:The Yamaha BC3 Breath Controller (used for DX7 and all others) produces a control voltage.

The standard BC input wants to see 0 to -10V at the ring of a stereo input plug. The tip is the sourced -10V. So, the closer the received voltage is to -10V the greater the volume/modulation.

To use BC with a voltage controlled synthesiser using standard CV ranges (0 to 5V), you therefore need a powered inverting/attenuating circuit. It's just an opamp and a few resistors, powered by a 9V battery. A competent EE can build it easily.
Looks like a Moogerfooger CP-251 can be used for attenuation, but can it also be used to invert the voltage? Or would an additional device/circuit be needed?

Re: Breathe Controller for Voyager

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 6:12 pm
by Just Me
The white ring CP-251 can do it. (I use a Yamaha MCS2 for breath control.)

Re: Breathe Controller for Voyager

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 7:52 pm
by EricK
Sweet idea.

Re: Breathe Controller for Voyager

Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 2:25 pm
by mikemilton
One could also use any wind instrument as a controller (eg: a WX5) routed either vis a mp201>CV or directly via MIDI. I really like the WX5 because it provides a very nice analog (hehehe) of an actual instrument so that things like bending into a note are natural gestures. One downside is that the breath and lip sensor are fairly low resolution (but would benefit from cv smoothing)

Re: Breathe Controller for Voyager

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:33 am
by Niko
Hi Taschenmusikant,

just a question beside, your homepage link does not work anymore. Do you have a new one?

Greetings from Offenbach, the true pearl of the RheinMain-Area

Niko

p.s. in that content I'd like to mention following new page from Peter Maith from HR3 radio station about Offenbach Rock Music

http://www.offenbachrockt.de/bandlexikon/k/koma/

ahem, some Frankfurt musicians are included as well

Re: Breathe Controller for Voyager

Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:44 pm
by GovernorSilver
Just Me wrote:The white ring CP-251 can do it. (I use a Yamaha MCS2 for breath control.)
Thanks! The CP-251 has already been on my short list of next pieces of gear to add to my Voyager, for other reasons. The ability to easily convert a Yamaha BC-series breath controller voltage for use with Moog gear is nice bonus.