mdz

why would someone drop a 909 to the floor while it´s running?
i got no idea either, but recently it happened to a friend. his TR threw a few sparks before the main fuse of his studio blew and gone was the bumm-bumm :(

not to rain on roland´s designing skills (and given the fact usually you don´t throw a 909 on the floor) but the position of the original PSU board is somehow dangerous for flying 909s; since the AC solder pads directly face the bottom plate any impact in that area possibly short-circuits the main AC power. you better put some cardboard or isolating rubber between the PSU board and the bottom plate - well, it´s best not to throw 909s on the floor too ;)

unfortunatelly in our case the the shorted AC line was led to the voiceboard PCB through the metal battery compartment, blasting a few semiconductors and GND traces there. see the picture for details (note the PSU has been exchanged on the image already):

certainly the main transformer was blown after this accident. as the 909 had to be returned into its productivity environment asap (sic!) there was no time to organize a suitable transformer so i had to exchange the PSU completely…
More »« Less

thinking about the first cd masterings we did back in the days i mostly remember the phrase the opening track has to be loud. admittetly when playing back a brand new cd the speaker should be pumping or you’ll gonna be disappointed. however good dynamic response is a must, for this has been one of the killer features when compact discs were introduced. nowadays peak meters barely move anymore and music suffers from flat overcompressed programme material:
More »« Less

fun with breadboards:

electronic circuits tend to be really simple when it comes to basic applications. like the simple LFO found at machines.hyperreal.org/categories/DIY/schematics/LFO.circuit.txt. a repetetive modulation is just one of the most desired effects, and one never got enough sources to create tremolos, vibratos or slow rising sweeps. unlike modern ‘closed’ synthesizers where the modulation matrix is limited by whatever is built in, the analog/modular domain offers plenty of modulation inputs (aka CV). time to build one, two, many LFOs ;)
More »« Less

why should music producers always release on vinyl, cd or mp3 only? i get you the raumagent alpha sound for your home studio: here comes REALLY SIMPLE DCF, my new music application for commodore 64:

sounds like: »this.

about the program »info [myspace/raumagentalpha] und download.
even more »about the code [robotsinmotion.com]

recently my friend dirk lent me his LinnDrum so i was in chance to play around with that legendary drum machine (which is quite
enjoyable…). however, since it did neither got any MiDi modifications nor a sync box, it has been somehow authistic and i wanted to integrate my other studio equipment.
without buying some synchronizer i needed some workaround and finally i found out how to sync that LinnDrum to logic (or any other sequencer) without additional hardware (except for some soundcard or sampling unit):

More »« Less