A few days ago I suddenly found myself unable to log in to the admin section of this Web site. That's understandably a problem when I'm running a business through the site. Upon investigation, it turns out that my e-commerce provider had made some…
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This is Part 12 of a series that started with Part 1. Many beginners say they're interested in making "drones" with their modular synths - musical textures that eschew conventional musical notions like rhythm and melody. I think part of the appea…
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Much of musical harmony comes down to combining notes that share harmonics. Sounds produced by (some...) physical objects typically have consistent waveforms, where each wave is the same shape as the last. That is also typical of modular-synth osci…
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This is Part 11 of a series that started with Part 1. Trying to divide modules into "analog" and "digital" may be a losing game, and it's certainly a recipe for flame wars on Web forums, because strictly speaking, "analog" and "digital" are proper…
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Some wigglers want "fast" envelopes that will turn a signal on and off without any delay and without any perceptible clicking sound. Some wigglers want spectral effects, like frequency shift or vocoding, without any latency between the input and out…
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE New mixer from North Coast uses only six transistors TORONTO, Ontario - April 3, 2018 - North Coast Synthesis Ltd., Toronto-based manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, today released its Transistor Mixer, a f…
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This is Part 10 of a series that started with Part 1. Once you have an electrical signal that represents a sound, you can process it into music with such modules as filters and VCAs. But where does that sound come from in the first place? Quite…
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We're coming up to the end of the first quarter of 2018, and I'm happy to note that based on the current projection, it looks like the company will actually have a profit this quarter - probably about $10. (Edit: Well, not quite. The quarter ended…
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This is Part 9 of a series that started with Part 1. Although the Moog ladder and basic two-pole state-variable designs cover very many synthesizer VCFs, there are still a number of other kinds worth mentioning. In this, probably the las…
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You can understand most op amp circuits with just three simple rules. If, through negative feedback, the op amp can bring its inputs to equal voltage, then it will do so. Otherwise, it will drive its output near whichever power supply voltage co…
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This is Part 8 in a series that started with Part 1. Voltage-controlled filters (VCFs), as I've said before, are critically important in modular synthesis because more than any other type of module, they define the sound of a synthesizer voice. T…
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There's a recurring thread that comes up again and again in SDIY fora, where someone asks how to "mod" an existing device that is not voltage-controlled to give it a CV input. Sometimes this question is asked in relation to a specific product, in wh…
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