MOTM

Hi y'all

I'm looking for comments-

Recently there was a comment about the PAiA MIDI2CV convertor being, er,
well, about as good as one might expect for the price. (Larry H, I
think?)

After the er, ah, <cough> modest financial outpouring required to get me
MOTMing, I'm not inclined to spend a great boatload of cash on a
MIDI->CV convertor *right at the moment*.  

When I got my 300 VCO going, I did the calibration with the Mono/Poly,
which I discovered is my only V/Oct synth (particularly strange since
it's a Korg) with actual CV connections out the back. Happily, the M/P
was putting out precisely, to the best determination of the DVM, one
volt per octave. Yahoo!

So, I've got a simple CV source for now.

But what of the future? I was reading in Tom Moravansky's site about a
CV-Gate in/out modification for the Roland Jupiter 4.

http://www.synthservices.com/jp4.html
(and beware, the files are big, for no apparent reason)

It seems as though this could be a neat way to have up to 4 voices worth
of CV and Gate -- hand played, that is, or arpeggiated by the JP-4. As
you might have guessed by all this hemming and hawing, MIDI is not a top
priority with me. (Though please don't get the impression that I'm a
MIDI nay-sayer!)

So, is anyone else out there sorta wandering in this direction for a CV
generation contraption? (or is everyone using the lovely Kenton
convertor?)

Just idly wondering-

Frank Vanaman
Baltimore

Frank,

I have a PAiA MV-8 that is collecting dust.  I always had a hard time
getting it calibrated just right with a Korg Mono/Poly.  I got an Encore
Expressionist last year and it has worked very well for driving multiple
synths.  I've also heard good things about the JKJ Electronics converter for
driving a single synth.

I tend to work with both MIDI and CV so I can't really help you decide.  For
some things, like good exponential portamento, you can't beat a good
monophonic CV keyboard.  I try to use MIDI and sequence most parts through
MIDI/CV but sometimes you just gotta control it in real time and put down
the audio.

The JP-4 mods look very interesting.  I hadn't seen them before.  The synth
that I've owned the longest is my JP-4.  I bought it new in 1980 and I doubt
that I will ever part with it.  [I sold a Moog CDX (aka The White Elephant)
and a Fender Rhodes to get it!] I've wondered about getting CV into it and
now I know that it can be done!  I doubt that I would use it as a 4-voice CV
keyboard but ya never know.  I always could get great control out of the
sideways mounted Roland pitch bender.  It is a lot easier for me to get
natural vibrato out of that bender than any vertically mounted wheel.  I
guess an alternative would be to find a Roland System 100M model 184 4-voice
keyboard but that would be more than a really good MIDI/CV converter!

-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Vanaman
To: motm list
Sent: 2/9/2000 8:47 PM
Subject: [motm] MIDI->CV; KBD->CV

From: Frank Vanaman <fvanaman@...>

Hi y'all

I'm looking for comments-

Recently there was a comment about the PAiA MIDI2CV convertor being, er,
well, about as good as one might expect for the price. (Larry H, I
think?)

After the er, ah, <cough> modest financial outpouring required to get me
MOTMing, I'm not inclined to spend a great boatload of cash on a
MIDI->CV convertor *right at the moment*.  

When I got my 300 VCO going, I did the calibration with the Mono/Poly,
which I discovered is my only V/Oct synth (particularly strange since
it's a Korg) with actual CV connections out the back. Happily, the M/P
was putting out precisely, to the best determination of the DVM, one
volt per octave. Yahoo!

So, I've got a simple CV source for now.

But what of the future? I was reading in Tom Moravansky's site about a
CV-Gate in/out modification for the Roland Jupiter 4.

http://www.synthservices.com/jp4.html
(and beware, the files are big, for no apparent reason)

It seems as though this could be a neat way to have up to 4 voices worth
of CV and Gate -- hand played, that is, or arpeggiated by the JP-4. As
you might have guessed by all this hemming and hawing, MIDI is not a top
priority with me. (Though please don't get the impression that I'm a
MIDI nay-sayer!)

So, is anyone else out there sorta wandering in this direction for a CV
generation contraption? (or is everyone using the lovely Kenton
convertor?)

Just idly wondering-

Frank Vanaman
Baltimore

Hi Frank n All !

Hi Frank n All !

The Paia does not look too bad, if a fairly precise dac is used, or 
the hack with the 12bit dac is done (leave 4 lsb bit's at 0) .  This 
is the hack Harry mentioned .  And yes, use multiturn pots to 
calibrate .  Got an old Philip Rees M->CV, with simple trimpots on 
the front .  A pain to calibrate, and i had to leave the top shell 
off of the case, as the thing was seriously overheating and getting 
erratic .

Another diy solution could be :

http://www.techrepairs.freeserve.co.uk/mididac.htm

Tony Allgood is on the diy-list, and pretty helpful .

Pic and pcb available, but the Omeg pots, well they're of UK origin, 
(www.maplin.com sells them-not the best of sources :) ) he even 
mounted it on a MOTM compatible sized panel . 12 bit this .

As a full kit the Paia is hard to beat for it's price .  You could 
get one of these now, and later use it as secondary controller, or as 
drum trigger with velocity .

I plan to get a couple of these, but i get by with what i got, right 
now (that Rees box, Kenton Pro One (Hz/V too), Roland MPU101) .  The 
usd is too high vs. the eur to go on a spending spree (MOTM excepted, 
of course ;-) ) .  So European stuff is cheap, right now .  Ok, ok, 
the ukp is not in the euro zone, and England is bloody expensive for 
us as well .  Hmm, where's the time records cost me less than half of 
Belgian prices, argggggg ...

Hope this helps .

Cheers .


Keep 'em oscillating :)


Hugo
=

--- "Crawley, Eric" <esc@...>
wrote:
> I guess an alternative would be to find a Roland
> System 100M model 184 4-voice
> keyboard but that would be more than a really good
> MIDI/CV converter!

I have a Roland System 100M model 184 4-voice keyboard
but no manual/schematics. And no System 100M
unfortunately.
 
Anyone able to point to a URL or oblige with a
(photo)copy? Expenses paid of course.

Thanks
Stephen

=====
end

Stephen K J Punt
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
http://im.yahoo.com

Schematics for most of the Roland 100m Series are available on the web.
Can't remember where I got them though. I have them as a Zip file, but it's
a ridiculous 11 Megabytes.

This is because most people still do not understand the vast differences
between LZW compression (ala GIF files) and JPEG, so whoever scanned them
used Jpeg and I never bothered to convert them. As a general rule, folks,
use *GIF* for schematics, graphics, and all line drawings!!!!!! Jpeg is only
*useful* for photographs! If these schematics were in GIF format they would
fit easily on a floppy and be much clearer than they are!

(Off soap box.)

If you want me to send them, email me off-list. You should know that many
mail servers don't allow attachments bigger than 2 Meg, though. I'm not
limited on my end (joys of being the admin).

Like I say, they're Jpeg'd so there are a lot of compression artifacts. 

		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Stephen Punt [mailto:stephenpunt@...]
		Sent:	Thursday, February 10, 2000 11:26 AM
		To:	motm@onelist.com
		Subject:	RE: [motm] MIDI->CV; KBD->CV


		 Anyone able to point to a URL or oblige with a (photo)copy?
Expenses paid of course.

		Thanks
		Stephen

I have one, too!

I *think* it is a JP-4 with no audio circuitry.

Paul S.

----- Original Message -----

From: Stephen Punt <stephenpunt@...>
To: <motm@onelist.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 10:26 AM
Subject: RE: [motm] MIDI->CV; KBD->CV


> From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Stephen=20Punt?= <stephenpunt@...>
>
> --- "Crawley, Eric" <esc@...>
> wrote:
> > I guess an alternative would be to find a Roland
> > System 100M model 184 4-voice
> > keyboard but that would be more than a really good
> > MIDI/CV converter!
>
> I have a Roland System 100M model 184 4-voice keyboard
> but no manual/schematics. And no System 100M
> unfortunately.
>
> Anyone able to point to a URL or oblige with a
> (photo)copy? Expenses paid of course.
>
> Thanks
> Stephen
>
> =====
> end
>
> Stephen K J Punt
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger.
> http://im.yahoo.com
>
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>

In a message dated 2/10/2000 11:31:37 AM, stephenpunt@... writes:

<< I have a Roland System 100M model 184 4-voice keyboard

but no manual/schematics. And no System 100M

unfortunately. >>

Roland US is usually very good about supplying copies of its old service 
manuals.  I bought one from them for my Roland CR-5000 drum machine just a 
few months ago.  No problem; I think it was around $12.  Call them at 
323-890-3700.

Ivan