And so it begins... Blacet Research carries on

[synthcube]

We have begun to organize, sort and inventory the various bits that came over from the West Coast when we acquired Blacet Research. We will be adding Blacet products to the synthCube webstore, and also setting up a new 'store page' attached to the original Blacet website.

For starters, we have put up the RAK-3 system and a few of the VCO2100 kits we have here. We will be adding additional kits and modules from the legacy Blacet stock as they get inventoried.
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Here's an unusual kind of promotion that is intended to bring a few new people into FRAC and bring some attention back to the format--

We are giving away three FREE RAK-3 case+power system kits, one to each of three synth DIY builders. To qualify you must email us and confirm you are:

a) New to Frac- this is for new Frac builders, not for expanding existing Frac systems
b) Willing to put some time and $$ into building up a Frac/Blacet system along the way as we bring out more Blacet and other Frac modules
c) Willing to participate in occasional posts/discussions in this forum about the journey of building up a new Frac system in the post-Blacet era
d) Be willing and able to stick with it for a few years--- its going to take time to roll out and develop more Frac modules

So if you Frac/Blacet enthusiasts know of certain 5U, 4U or Euro guys who may want to add a Frac system to their studio, get a free powered case to start, and brag about it on the journey, please let them know about the promotion.

We'll keep the offer open only for a few days; like most things in life, the offer has an expiration date - in this instance 25 June 2020.

[mamonu]

nice one!.





Good luck to people winning those tasty RAK3s.

I suppose certain parts like the PSCONN + connectors (0.156 4-pin to 6-pin) will be sold seperately soon?

[BugBrand]

Very nice work & offer Synthcube!

[KSS]

[chachi]

[mome rath]

I've always been bummed that I seemingly missed the blacet party

this is very exciting, thank you!

[soup]

Yay!

[werock]

Good news and good promo

[diophantine]

Great news, and awesome promotion!

I have 7 Blacet VCOs... they're really good. Blacet stuff is always a joy to build, too. Now the question is... do I want to build another?

Do you plan to just keep the RAK-3, or do you plan to offer the RAK-2 Bare + PSCONN + PSU? I know John discontinued the RAK-2 Bare, which was a bummer. I wouldn't mind ordering just rails and making the rack ears via FPE, and I need to do that with a pair of single rails that John gave me last year.

[uniqview]

Just a quick note on the RAK-3: unlike the RAK-2, Blacet did not make or sell a compatible cover for it. So, there is no top, bottom, or back cover for this chassis. Not necessarily a show stopper for some, but I only learned this when I bought from Blacet what was supposed to be a RAK-3 cover, but it in no way matched the RAK-3; it was for the RAK-2.

[soup]

The rak-3 does have a back for the lower 3u, the upper 3u is open to accommodate deeper modules. For me this is a feature rather than a bug. I think they work very nicely on their own on a desk but nowadays mine are in cheap, shallow 6u rack cases. The older, larger rak-2 did have optional top and bottom panels which made it fully enclosed but I have no idea how many of those are out there.

[soft_ctrl]

these are military grade racks & blacet oscillators are based on designs from old test radios. i wonder if you could find the racks through a wholesale distributor? i'm not really sure why you would use this rack size unless you had to. the aesthetic is nice though.

[KSS]

i wonder if you could find the racks through a wholesale distributor? i'm not really sure why you would use this rack size unless you had to. the aesthetic is nice though.

Frac format was designed by John Simonton of PAIA. It was not based on any indiustrial racks and only keeps the 3U faceplate height and overall 19" width of standard racks. Everything else is straight out of John S head.. Even the mounting screws and 1/2" flange wasting so much space is due to sheet metal work and capabilities PAIA had at the time.

[diophantine]

blacet oscillators are based on designs from old test radios.

Not sure where this info comes from; they're an adaptation of an iteration of a popular design by Terry Michael:
http://search.retrosynth.com/ah/search/ ... -v0403.219

[sizone]

SBM3200 please

[southphillysynths]

AH missed this by a day!!! would have been super interested in building or sharing! In the process of building some MFOS stuff and would love to expand my banana stuff!

[3hands]

Coming from Euro, and with no other experience in any other format, this would have been something I would have jumped on, had it been in the general modular discussion forum. For next time, if you want to appeal to potential first time frac users, perhaps don’t put the offer in the frac forum. Doh!

[3hands]

Double post

[southphillysynths]

Coming from Euro, and with no other experience in any other format, this would have been something I would have jumped on, had it been in the general modular discussion forum. For next time, if you want to appeal to potential first time frac users, perhaps don’t put the offer in the frac forum. Doh!

I agree, I emailed anyway though I missed the deadline, but getting new people to a format on the format subforum is a bit silly with all do respect!

[eef]

I’m glad to hear this. My first modular was Blacet, and it is still great stuff!

[dp4]

great news!

[chachi]

i got the last panel and board rev and had to ask for the manual which they sent without comment. i’m probably asking for too much for a little bedside manner but i guess john was pretty brief too. i used to live in Concord, i know how it is. not stoked on how SC dumped ALLLL their NLC backstock on reverb, making it suck to search that brand. oh well, thanks for making this stuff still available. i noticed today 3 more VCO boards and panel sets went up.

[aphantomvaper]

Coming from Euro, and with no other experience in any other format, this would have been something I would have jumped on, had it been in the general modular discussion forum. For next time, if you want to appeal to potential first time frac users, perhaps don’t put the offer in the frac forum. Doh!

Same here, Frac looks awesome!

[synthcube]

i got the last panel and board rev and had to ask for the manual which they sent without comment. i’m probably asking for too much for a little bedside manner but i guess john was pretty brief too. i used to live in Concord, i know how it is. not stoked on how SC dumped ALLLL their NLC backstock on reverb, making it suck to search that brand. oh well, thanks for making this stuff still available. i noticed today 3 more VCO boards and panel sets went up.

we always appreciate the feedback---
- yes, we will send the blacet build guides, BOMs, etc with every panel+pcb set--- would not be fair to DIY builders if we held all that back.
- we often get conflicting feedback about our emails'-- for every 'they sent the doc but didn't say anything else' feedback note, we get a 'they sent the doc and a whole bunch of nonsense words, popups and marketing stuff'-- SO we will keep trying to get it generally right
- reverb-- our intention was not to put everything out there-- mostly kits and assembled modules only--- its an issue with how we integrate our product data to Reverb and we are working to sort it. Although with the new seller fee increase.. we shall see :(

[chachi]

thanks for the response and thanks for clearing that up about reverb, it’s a surmountable problem for sure. i forgot to say you guys shipped like lightning and dangit, i just really appreciate you’re doing this. sorry to be critical!