Things are going well with the DM77. A new revision of the PCB is on my desk, ready for some tests.
In the meantime, I’ve just received the new 10HP Front Panel. It’s cute in black!
Continue reading DM77 progress – Interactive BOM, schematics and new Black Panel!
Reduced size for the latest DM77 proto version (0.4). Now only 10HP wide!
The next prototype revision should be final. The current one requires some small mods.
See more pictures in the Photo album.
One of my first projects (and one of my first posts here) was about a clone of the classic funky/cheesy drum synth, the Coron DS8. You know the piouuu piouuu drum sounds from disco era? Well it’s probably the DS8.
Continue reading From DS8 to DM77
While I’m still designing my DS8 drum clone, I’m preparing some new modules. In fact, they are designed as build bricks for the drum module.
I made a simple square and triangle LFO, a simple AR Envelope Generator and a 3 way mono mixer.
In the meanwhile, I tried for the very first time the Front Panel Express service (Schaeffer AG actually here in Europe), and I just received my first panels yesterday.
I have to say 2 things: first, their service is not cheap at all. But, wow! I’m really happy with the result! What a nice and professional result! Check it out:
It’s absolutely brilliant! If it wasn’t the price, I would definitely recommend their service!
They are 2mm thick black anodised aluminium panels. Texts and drawings are raw cuts with no white infills. Still, the result is very good: it’s perfectly readable.
Edges can be a bit rough though. Anodised aluminium doesn’t catch finger prints. (PMA glass does it a lot!) At 2mm thick, the panels are really stiff. Surface is pretty hard to scratch.
All in all, I’m very pleased.
If everything goes nicely, I will build several of these and sell ’em as separate simple modules. Keep in touch!
Next to come are an impact gen (actually a clone of a 606 bass drum), and probably the noise generator.
I’m still working on my DS8 Clone. I made 2 previous versions, but I’m not satisfied enough. The fact is DS7 or DS8 drums and their “clones” suffer from the original design flaws. All those clones are copies from the original model, with some additions. But they inherit the poor quality design. To mention a few, the low amplitude output, the poor noise source, the linear release enveloppe shape, the lack of punch on attack, the lack of 1 V/Oct tracking… And it’s not easy to debug.
So, I decided to completely redesign the guts of my next Drum Synth. Same behaviour, better characteristics.
Continue reading My new DS8 Clone isn’t ready yet, but…
