[sdiy] dx mods (was:FM Synth Designs)

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow Paul 'n' all.

At 09:32 AM 8/14/02 +0100, Paul Maddox \(QinetiQ\) wrote:
>Hi,
>
>   I have a TX7, which I quite enjoy..
>Im thinking about doing two things to it.
>
>1) 19" rackmount, The display is a standard 16 character LCD, and I have
>some nice VFDs that will work in its place, It'll also easily fit into a 1U
>19" rack

Yeah. Funny you should mention that. This will be an up-coming project for 
me too. But mainly because, several years ago, mine burst into flames -I'm 
not joking - and ever since it's been running from the switchmode supply 
inside a computer in which it now resides. The TX has a small switcher for 
a supply. I can't remember what exactly went wrong but I couldn't get a 
replacement transformer so I had to cobble together an alternative.

Now I can get a complete replacement switcher for 12 bux from a local 
toyshop so I can think about addressing the core problem. Which is very 
timely since I need to upgrade that system to a new one and de-commission 
that boxen. The problem with the display in the TX7 is that the board is 
huge. Not a chance of fitting that in a 1U box. But as you say, it looks 
like a standard hitachi display module of sorts so a smaller, even back-lit 
one should be feasible. (I don't have any cool VFs running a hitachi i/face 
sadly.)

Since I use mine mainly for bass in mono (What a waste I can hear you all 
saying already) I'm toying with the idea of throwing in a VCF of some kind 
on the end of it. As standard, I have the TX coupled through an old korg 
DDL and then through an ART multiverb. But it would be nice if I could also 
shoe horn a DDL into the box with the TX7. Anyone got any ideas on that?

I'll probably also shove an old BOSS blue-box chorus board I've got on the 
end as well. Nothing makes a bass sound like a TX run through a blue box 
peddle. It's a bit noisy but fuck it sounds nice. The trick here is to go 
against your better judgement and have the LFO spinning quite fast. It'll 
blow your mind. I just wish I had a board from one of the stereo versions. 
When you sim stereo like that, who needs reverb? (Because it's pretty easy 
to simulate a huge reverb effect with 6OP FM and all you need is for it to 
sound wide.)

The thing is that I need all this to be MIDI controlled. Mounted in the 
computer, as it is currently, I use to actually control the chorus with an 
opto on the printer port. But then I got one of those MOTU things that had 
to use the printer port so that put paid to that. I could of course, do all 
this with a micro but I don't want to go to too much trouble. And to make 
matters just a little more interesting, I need the DDL to have a hugely 
long delay. In excess of 500mS.

And of course I need to be able to afford to do this. I'm still very much 
in the "How the fuck are you going to pull this one off smart arse?" stage. 
So if anyone has any suggestions, I'd really appreciate it.

Which brings me to the final question. Paul, how are you planning to fudge 
the front panel for the thing? I know there aren't many buttons but that 
PCB won't fit in a 1U box either. And copying the dial markings and making 
it look reasonable is a whole other story.

Anyway. Thanks in advance. Glad you brought that up Paul. Most apprecaited.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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