$harkToootth wrote:crochambeau wrote:
Aha! No, you're the first to mention RMA on this thread, I've just been posting pics of old drum machines. I can't bring myself to say "hey, you could use THIS, but you've got to wait if you actually want to buy one", so self promotion waits until I get caught up (improving a bit on that front). I do love seeing praise in print though, so thank you!
No. Thank you! Literally... anything. For (Imo) something tamer, people should reference your mudlark videos. IMO, those are the "friendliest" of your machines.
Disagree. The Tetanus Booster is the friendliest of the bunch. Early Mudlarks are fairly tame, but the current version is... an acquired taste.
$harkToootth wrote:crochambeau wrote:Regarding erosive processing for drum machines, I really like a mixer I built that uses a discrete opamp stage I assembled incorrectly (I believe beer was involved, and it was a social gathering climate, so it's a wonder the fucking thing works at all). I should blueprint that mistake and recreate it with intent.
Yes, if you reverse engineer that and put it out... I would guess there is at least 5 people here who would be interested in an RMA mixer. If it's a smaller one. You tell me though?
I have some stuff in the works that is mixing related, but I am, in no uncertain terms, not getting into the mixer market as long as I am still building everything myself by hand. I would just recreate the faulty discrete opamp stage (two of which were the final output of the mixer), package that in a unity gain enclosure with a bypass switch and call it a day... unless I fall down a rabbit hole, which happens, a lot.
Anything actually mixer related (once I work the bugs out of the circuits for my own use) will probably be offered in kit form.
$harkToootth wrote:crochambeau wrote:Another type of thing I love feeding a drum machine is old (tubed) laboratory decade amplifiers, voltmeters (with record/measure outputs), and oscilloscopes (via the vertical output port). The ones I've used have produced a similar class of distortion (what you may expect to hear by feeding a volt of signal into gain set up for mV or nV). Not unlike some of the fine tracks you posted above. Mmmmmhmmm, noisy.
1. Can you elaborate on this? I'm a dumb ass and not following how you're feeding the drum machine?
This is a Ballantine 320 voltmeter:
Input (via banana) is straight forward, the "MONITOR OUTPUT" 1/4" phone jack on the face is natively wired as a post gain feedthrough. The gain switch is more or less unity at 3.2 volt section, and dialing that counter clockwise increases gain in 10 dB steps. I find the blast furnace that occurs at 50 or 60 dB gain is usually sufficient, as nearer the 80 dB setting has what could be described as a really pronounced noise floor. I have one unit I need to service (making a pair), so it may be possible that I can exploit the higher gain regions more fruitfully with a freshened up device, but seriously, mid range on the scale is enough.
So, that's just a fuzz box for all intents and purposes.
These are early lab (pre)amps, the TIC 500AR:
Similar story to above, but without the VU measuring function. They also register gain in a more conventional "clockwise is UP" layout, but list it as voltage gain, not the dB (20, 40, 60) audio is used to.
Finally, the oscilloscope is basically just another wide band amplifier feeding sophisticated other stages that don't come into play where root distortion/fuzz is involved. Here's a shot of a Tektronix 545A with dual trace input (side note, those two input gain stages CAN be set to switch back and forth at the rate of horizontal sweep - which itself can be trigger via an external pulse signal). Again, gobs of gain on tap, and the vertical output (arrowed) can be exploited as a post gain signal tap. More recent machines (like my Tektronix 7633 from the 1970s) have the vertical output on the back. And I guess I should mention that the scope that gets used as an actual scope (Tektronix TDS460A) does NOT have this function built in at all, so apparently the need died out at some point or was not overly commonplace - but it's COOL.
$harkToootth wrote:2. What in the fuck is that?
Sakata DPM-48 (they became Hammonds later, for a moment or two). A pre-MIDI digital sample drum machine that only syncs via DIN sync (ala TR-606 or Korg KPR-77). It has a goofy connector that I hope takes trigger data so I can avoid fussing about with it as an actual drum machine, which is a shitty experience let me tell you. I want to say the sounds are underwhelming as well, but it's been a while since I've run it through the courses.
Also, what's this about mid 90s Eugene Oregon as your location? If you can deliver a message to an earlier me in that timeline that would be rad..
