Space Harp (with demo!)

[JakeFuzz]

Here is an epic take on the small stone phaser by Keefe (haberdasher) and Scruffie. This is a very early version of the circuit and it sounds great. I believe the newer versions have a different output stage, feedback loop and a slightly different LFO. Four stage OTA based phaser with a rate control and color switch (which changes the LFO waveform and adds feedback) in the stock configuration. The space harp also has a switchable jFET input buffer and a BJT output gain makeup stage (with output volume trimmer). I made a few modifications to mine bumping up some of the coupling cap values, changing the phase capacitor ratios and adding a feedback and mix control. Details of the modification will be available a little later. Rustoleum silver hammertone finish over a 125B and I used one of Josh's 3PDT boards.

The sound is really great. With the modification it is easily the most versatile phaser I have built. It can get crazy warbling sounds but I find it can be dialed to sit in the background quite nicely; this has replaced a univibe clone on my 125B board! The stock sound is great too. The demo is a collection of sound clips at different settings. Fender Stratocaster w/ Fat 50's, 5F2A Princeton Clone. VIPFX Tweedy Bird and a modified DOD FX90 on some of the clips. Thanks and Kudos to Keefe and Scruff for such an excellent project.

[soundcloud]
https://soundcloud.com/jakefuzz/space-harp[/soundcloud]

[jubal81]

That's just fantastic. I gotta have one!

[G.G.]

great stuff at 3:09! Sounds excellent!! But, no fair playing it through a Leslie. 

[pryde]

Fantastic! I'm a phaser nut and this is goodness. I really dig the weirdo sounds at the 3:08 mark.

Nice job on the build, and Keefe and Scruffie on the circuit 

[Haberdasher]

ahh, nice to see a build report on this.  sounds great
i don't have a buid doc for these yet (working on it) but I do have the pcb's available-  $10.99 on sale.  anyone interested can send me a pm for now.  working on some kind of official announcement of the project with build doc.

[JakeFuzz]

Thanks guys. Cant really say enough about this one. For me it merges the gap between the more subtle swirl of the Univibe and the almost modulated filter type sound from the Stage Phaser. Being able to control the amount of feedback allows you to take it through that whole range.

But, no fair playing it through a Leslie. 

Me and my buddy were playing a Univibe and BBD Delay through the leslie the other night. It was an incredible sound!  I picked up that Model 120 for $100 in almost mint condition!

[G.G.]

Leslie Score! I'll bet that sounded fantastic!

[midwayfair]

This sounds great.

[jimilee]

Hey keefe, is tis the one I got too?

[JakeFuzz]

Thanks Jon! What do you guys think of that FX90? I am running it @ 12V and to me it sounds like a short delay DMM. For $50 used I would say it is a serious sleeper 

[Haberdasher]

Hey keefe, is tis the one I got too?

the very same but yours was the purple prototype

[Scruffie]

Guess the cats out the bag now, I was going to the stay in the shadows a bit not to distract from dashers fantastic skills.

Just to clarify this one is based off the V1 Small Stone originally designed by synth legend David Cockerell in the smaller steel box with 6 x CA3094 (EH1048) , the audio path and feedback is different to the later V2 or Issue J Small Stone (tonepad version) as is the LFO and has a DIP switchable J-FET input buffer than can be hard wired on or off if you don't want to deal with DIP switches and output volume boost as the original suffered a hefty volume cut but circuit wise is identical to the V1, just using modern available OTAs.

The V1 is a hell of lot more colorful in color mode and has a massive range of speeds too compared to V2 IMO and also had a hyper triangle sweep that at higher speeds is filtered to a triangle for a smoother sound compared to later versions.

If there's call for it we might do a V2 small stone too later down the line

Jake has done an incredible demo of what it can do here but for one knob and a toggle it covers a surprising amount of ground.

[alanp]

Do not need another phaser... do not need another phaser... do not need.... need... nrrrrrgh...

More seriously, I was kinda expecting to see a copy of J M Jarre's laser harp, but this is still pretty damn cool

[Thomas_H]

I am impressed!

[peAk]

I absolutely love the settings at 2:29 & 4:54!