Quote of the Day

"When our relationship is professional, and you're not doing what you're supposed to, forget it."
--Bill Murray

Thoughts for the day...

In no particular order:

• We're almost out of CA3080's. I think I have one left to put up on eBay.


• When you are no longer able to provide people with what they want, you find out who your true friends are.


• That monster of an Oberheim 8 voice is finally out of my house. That was a nightmare which only served to make me more jaded about the synth world.


• Even though life is a bit rough right now, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Weird...

I don't know why my System 700 videos on YouTube generate so many snarky comments. *sigh*

Public Service Announcement

Do not try to use me to try to get to my husband.
It shows you have no true idea of what a good marriage entails, and it shows you underestimate my intelligence.

Thoughts for the Day

1. Don't pretend to be my friend to get what you want from me.
2. Don't project your own experiences and ego onto me.
3. Knowledge and experience should not be mistaken for ego.
4. In the 13 years I've been around the vintage synth world, I'm constantly amazed at the kind of people this world attracts.
5. When people call you "buddy" in this world, they're guilty of, or about to be guilty of, #1 above.
6. And finally...
7. If you feel inclined to take any of this personally... see #2.

A Tribute

This picture was taken about 20 years ago. That's me on the left, obviously. :)
The old man next to me is my paternal Grandfather, Luís Adame. Behind him is eldest living son, my Daddy.



Why post this here? Read on:
Grandpa got into electronics in 1930, at the age of 15, when he saved up 75 cents to buy a crystal to make a radio.
Then he had to save up another 75 cents to buy an antenna for it. :)
That started an interest and later a living from fixing electronics (TV's, radios, etc.). He was into CB Radio when I was little, too. I remember seeing his test equipment and CB stuff as a kid and being fascinated by it.

So when I met Synthfool on AOL 13+ years ago and first saw his shop, that fascination was sparked again. And some DNA kicked in after a few years, and here I am today, happily upgrading components on vintage synth circuit boards and rebushing keyboards.

Grandpa was pleased by the fact that one of his Grandchildren shared his interest in electronics, and he told my Dad once that he was impressed that I know what I diode is. :) I have his soldering iron, which I will treasure forever.

Grandpa turned 94 three days before he died, so he had a long, good life full of love and laughter. We should all be so lucky.

Public Service Announcement

If you see any eBay auctions that claim that Kevin Lightner worked on the synth up for auction, please email: support@synthfool.com for verification before you bid.

Happy Halloween, and Happy Samhain to those who celebrate it. :)

Have you seen the new Jameco catalog?

If not, here it is, along with their justification for using such a cover.




Oh, and if anyone needs a Rogue or Taurus 2 supply, these guys have 'em. Look for part #10102

As seen on AH... ;)

We're bringing Synthfool back! :)

First step is the Docs section.
I'm working on better index pages and zipping up a lot of the files for ease of download. It's quite a task, so please be patient! :)

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts. :)

A World Without Bob

Last Friday marked the 4th anniversary of Bob Moog leaving Planet Earth.

I did a very small tribute to him... I toasted him with a friend when we were at a Steely Dan concert.

I'm proud to say I did meet the Esteemed Dr. Moog a couple times, and somewhere I have a picture of his signature on my first iPod. He signed that when he debuted the Voyager back in '02, the same year he earned a technical Grammy. (Refrained from laughing at the guy who brought his MG-1 to have it signed that night, btw.)

Two years before that, there was the AH party where I danced near Bob. Fun night, but a little bittersweet now because of what happened later that year when someone I had a great conversation with that night got butthurt over the Sage Hoax.

I do wish that idea to have 1 volt/octave known as a "Moog" had gone somewhere. That would have been cool.

So Dr. Moog, I hope you're enjoying the afterlife. You deserve it after the impact you made while on Earth.

Finite Things

This blog will end someday in the not too distant future, as the content will be moved to a much nicer place. :)

No date for this is set, but I thought I'd let y'all know.

Speaking of finite, if you want a Technical Service Information Manual for a Memorymoog, click on that link and grab one now! This is part of my "sell or recycle" series of auctions.

Yes, this part of the manual has no large schemos, but it does have instructions on how to take a Memorymoog apart as well as how to troubleshoot it. :)

Getting Jiggy With Synthfool #9: Match Game

This little setup enables me to match resistors, with the end goal of making Minimoog oscillator boards happier! :)

For what it's worth...

My parts sales are for repairs & restorations.
I won't sell parts in bulk.
I also won't lie on customs forms, especially if I say so in an auction!
If a shipping price is kinda high, it means that's the best method of shipping the item, and/or it requires insurance.

Shameless Plug alert!

Got a few things on eBay for prices you'll never see again. :)

Thought for the night...

Had fun fumbling around with a Buchla, but I've got a LOT to learn before I can actually make decent sounds out of it!

At least I continued my tradition of finding the noise source. ;)

Jitter, Revisited

Taking a break from the jiggy series to tell a "jittery" story...

A couple years before I met Kevin, Hans Zimmer hired him to build him a very large Moog modular.
(HZ just wrote Kevin to say it's still fine 16 years later, too!)
According to Kevin, they both discussed synths right and left then and what made them sound good.

Hans said that he preferred the sound of the Moog 901 oscillators.
At the time, Kevin didn't understand what he meant--An oscillator to him had pitch, waveform shape, volume and that was about it.
But Hans was certain this wasn't the case.

Two years later, right as Kevin was putting the finishing touches on Hans' big Moog, he found himself with many extra parts left over.
One part was a blank Moog 921B panel.
Kevin decided to use it to build a CEM3340-based oscillator, which is used in Jupiter 6's, Memorymoogs and many other synths we all know and love. (And Kevin's portable VCO!)

You'd think that using a VCO on a chip wouldn't be any different than what Moog used in a 921B... they're both oscillators, right?
Wrong.
When Kevin installed and made a patch with this new "CEM" 921B, he suddenly realized Hans was right.
There was some sort of sound the Moog's had that this new oscillator didn't.
In Kevin's words, the CEM3340-based oscillator "sounded razor sharp and sterile."

This keen observation wasn't thought of much for several years.
Then, a couple years ago, while restoring a Moog modular, Kevin made a video showing a Moog 901 oscillator plugged directly into an oscilloscope.
Here it is: http://www.minimoog.net/moogjitter.mp4
This video showed some sort of "jitter" in the waveform that wasn't present in the CEM3340 chip.

In an interesting and semi-amusing round of "shoot the messenger," Kevin was slammed when he showed this video to others.
They insisted that the video showed nothing that could actually be heard, and anyone who thought otherwise was probably hearing things.

Ken Elhardt took this position after looking for this jitter with his DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).
However, he didn't use an actual 901 oscillator. He used an mp3 of one. (That always struck me as odd, trying to analyze a digital sample of an analog waveform. But hey, I only change caps and rebush keyboards!)
Mr. Elhardt and others added that they prefer a very accurate and stable VCO and if they wanted any "jitter", they'd add it in with noise or whatever. (Personally, I'm not much for ultra-accurate, sterile-sounding oscillators.)

One person even said that Kevin had documented how Moog power supplies were actually responsible for this jitter.
This made me laugh, as the video clearly shows that he used a precision laboratory power supply, not a Moog power supply.
(More on that supply in future posts, as it's the heart of many things that will be featured in the "jiggy series".)

Finally, several people didn't understand what Kevin was showing at all and said whatever great Moog sound there might be is due to drift. (I hope these folks weren't the same ones who like their oscillators sterile!)

But one very well respected tech, Juergen Haible, also countered that Kevin was wrong.
This hurt Kevin's feelings because Kevin used to be friends with him.
He used to share parts, photos and music with him and hosted his site for free.

With all that in mind, I submit for your perusal:
http://www.jhaible.de/living_vcos/jh_living_vcos.html
It's a vco design made by Mr. Haible that he calls "living VCOs."

In reading his description, Mr. Haible describes things this way:
"...A good part of that special sound of early Moog and EMS oscillators is not because of any "randomness", "unstability", "instability" or "noisyness", as so often is said. A good deal of their behavior is because of that, but it is not the whole story. There are also some very deterministic factors in these old circuits which have been unpleasant side effects for the designers back then, but which are worth a closer analysis when we're designing a musical VCO today. "

Kevin found this amusing. (Once he reminded me of this whole jittery debacle, so did I.)
He pointed out that while Mr. Haible says what his VCO's aren't, he doesn't say what they are. No schematic or analysis was provided (at least yet.)
No mention of the word jitter either. ;-)


But Mr. Haible's board layout suggests a design very close to the Minimoog and Moog 921B oscillators. Many of the same exact parts are used as in Moog oscillators.
Mr. Haible's comments suggest that he learned something new here.
He designed his oscillators not to be super accurate, but to be musical instead.
He just built his "living VCOs" upon Moog's basic design.
He intentionally sacrificed perfection for musicality.
Isn't that what Hans originally observed and Kevin documented?

I think Mr. Haible changed his mind, and is skittish about using the word, "jitter."
No harm in a man having to change his position after being so insistent on it previously! (Though I suppose admitting that might be difficult.)

By the way, Kevin said he's has no hard feelings and would love one of his boards.
If we can find the extra cash, I wonder if Mr. Haible will sell us one? :)

Just a reminder...

Synths are how we make our living, not a substitution for other kinds of wank material.

That is all.

When restoring a Minimoog...

"Drill, baby, drill!" is NOT a phrase to keep in mind!








Y'see, you're most likely going to leave tiny bits of metal in the pots when you drill them. That's a disaster waiting to happen!

If you're gonna change caps...

... do yourself and the synth a favor and put the value of the cap face up, and make sure the lead isn't smushed up against the positive side of the cap. That way you look like you know what you're doing. ;-)

Changed some resistors today, too. That always takes me back to my early days with Synthfool, when I helped assemble Polyfusion modules. :)

International Shipping

I will no longer offer Overnight shipping for International (non-USA) orders.

That said. . . if you're outside the USA and you need to order parts, please do not do so at the last minute. Lack of planning on your part does not mean an emergency on my part.