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What is PRO-CESSOR?

Well I figured I'd post this as I don't see too many demos of the projects used with synths and drum machines. Nautilus is just amazing with any synth and drum machine. But this jam is just drum machines.

Roland TR-606 and a Jomox Xbase 09.

I used the Nautilus, Lowrider, Zero Point SDX, Rub a Dub and Multiplex. There is also an Alesis 3630 comp. Only the kick from the Jomox is going into 1 channel of the 3630. The 606 doesn't have individual outs so it is all going into the 3630. I use the gate set to it's fastest setting to cut the snare short but I mess with it during this jam.

https://soundcloud.com/zvonx-1/tr606-and-xbase-09-jam

well i'm happy to report that the nautilus sounds awesome with synths. as does the zero point sdx, DMM, as does the multiplex and the rub a dub. for reverb it sounds more realistic than the the tc hall of fame with synths.

deluxe electric mistress, and roger mayer voodoo vibe don't do a whole lot. i'm guessing its a freq issue. i was hoping the DEM would sound great on drums but nope. pretty subtle. i wonder how one would build / mod a flanger for drums? Same with phaser. very little effect. I love phaser on electronic sounds but don't really want to spend $200 on a moogerfooger phaser which i'd assume would handle the full freq range. although i guess $200 for a good phaser is fairly normal. modulation is my favorite and i was really hoping that all the money i've spent on mod effects would transfer to the synth / drum world but it looks like that's a no.

a tc electronic 2290 and roland space echo all sound sweet.

i have a byoc chorus which acts strange. more of a drive / distortion which is nice and subtle, more rounded edge sounding than clipped.

lowrider acts more as a distortion / bit crusher. i'm guessing the freq are out of range for the octave effects but it kills on drums (lofi) and really makes synths jump out in the mix.

i'm curious to run discreet drum or synth tracks through a clean tube amp to get a little saturation. i'm guessing i'd need that reamp or just turn the level way down. i have a 74 hiwatt and i'm really curious. i'm guessing i'm going to run into a problem with freq range. be it the amp or the cab.

edit to add:

i have an electric mistress 1C from 78 that self oscillates with guitar into a tube amp.

turns out it works great at line level! ha, who knew? way better than the DEM.

i tried my MB flangers. both the current lover and collosalus sound interesting. the current lover sounded best but the collosalus had some interesting sounds. both subtle.

the battery is dead in my 1A2 electric mistress which works properly with guitar. will be interesting to see if a properly (guitar) working EM works.

thanks for all the replies.

just to clarify after the synth runs through a flanger it doesn't go out to an amp, just back to the computer. so for now i think i'll just run with if it sounds good it works.

on my audio interface if i choose instrument level the synth is way too loud so i've been using line level.

good point on the frequencies. i'll make sure to listen for that.

i'm super excited to try a synth though a nautilus!

hey,

just wondering what concerns / modifications there should be with synths and guitar pedals.

i'm assuming synths output line level. does the input impedance need to be modded on the pedal? is it safe to run line level through a guitar pedal?

i've been using a deluxe electric mistress without problems. i'd also like to use a ada flanger, tc electronic hall of fame reverb, roger mayer voodoo vibe and some diy phasers, chorus, filters, delays.

i did try some diy fuzz pedals but those really didn't work at all.

ideally the pedals would be integrated on a mixer aux send.

thanks for any help!

jaidee - Did you solder the FT232 or have them do it?

aballen - I've seen those! They look really cool. How difficult was the Shruthi?

I'm thinking it might be worth it to have them solder and test the Ft232 chip. It would really suck to mess that up and I've never soldered a chip like that and always use sockets for the ICs in all my other builds.

$25 seems a little steep but better than messing it up

Hey there,

I'm thinking of building a x0xb0x. It's a Roland TB-303 clone.

http://www.willzyx.com/products/x0xb0x-complete-black

And here is the build manual and links to mods that look pretty cool:

http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/fab/index.html

And a youtube demo:
http://youtu.be/i7BU9xmits8

It looks really cool and doesn't sound like it should be all that difficult after building and troubleshooting delays and flangers. Anyone have experience with it?

Great. Thanks everyone.

How about their application in the audio world? Are the bumblebee's the only ones worth using?

Are the foil caps electrolytic (i.e. they may be no good anymore) or just polarized? Many of the foil caps are values I could use in my tweed deluxe build - but not sure if they should be used...

I was given an old tube osciliscope. All the tubes were already pulled but I went through and took out the caps and resistors...plus a 100 feet or so of cloth covered wire.

I'd love some help figuring out what I have here. I have a capacitence meter on the way to see if any of these caps are good but this is a sample of what I pulled:

These are wax covered. Are these electrolytic caps? Labeled Sprague Made in USA



These look like PIO bumblebess but huge! No label, just the color bands. On the bottom it looks like another PIO labeled Cornell Dubilier Cub


I have never seen these square caps before. Labeled Astrovox and Micamold, Brooklyn NY. The resistors on the bottom are labeled Lectrohm. I have seen once before in a Tweed Deluxe that I built.

Oh yeah an attack and decay mod would be awesome! I'd love to hear how you did it. I have been finding myself wishing for more controls as I've been playing with it.

Great posts guys. Thanks a lot!

Sounds to me like you could spend a small fortune on caps or a few dollars and the difference may be fairly subtle in studio and unnoticeable live. I'd guess OpAmps are most important for sound fidelity?

I've come to the understanding that the TL072 is far superior to the JRC4558 but I see the JRC4558 used in a lot of projects here. I'm guessing it's more complicated that just one chip is better than the other, how it's used, filtered. etc.

In my own experience I've found that replacing the JRC4558 with TL072 in vintage EH boxes can make a great improvement. I decided to try it after I saw that Analogman was surprised at how much of a difference they make.

BUT perhaps this is just because of the circuit and low input impedance present in vintage EH designs?

It took a little while to figure out how to use it and get the trim pot set but now it all sounds great. If a few knobs are set wrong it seems to give little or no effect but once you find the sweet spot it sounds awesome!!

Well.....I started reflowing again and I got it to work.

Should the Peak control be noisy at high settings?

It sits around 3.4v with no guitar. It jumps up to 6+ depending on how hard the guitar is strum...

I verified all caps and resistors by color and number codes and I verified IC and diode orientation.

Also I noticed now that I shut off my bench light that the LED is brightest with no signal. If I strum the guitar it shuts off. As the sound decays the LED slowly starts to light back up again.

If I flip the range switch the other way the LED is normally about half bright. When I strum the LED goes full brightness.