deftinwulf wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 10:28 am
Hi Chris, I've been following this thread (and therefore your company) with interest as it has developed. I'm interested in a few of your modules, including the 1847 VCDO which appears to be the best (IMO) implementation of the electric druid VCDO that I've seen. (Or is it not based on the electric druid, after all?
)
But I guess I have enough oscillators, so what has my eye at the moment is the new stereo mixer/output and VU modules. I'm thinking of maybe replacing a Make Noise Rosie with this combo.
Questions:
1) Are any of the 3.5mm outputs on the mixer at Modular level, or are all of them Line?
2) are the Headphone outputs just "normal" Line level, or are they somehow different?
3) Could the VU and Mixer modules connect via ribbon on the back for normalization? If not, maybe something to consider in the next revision.
4) What pot shafts do you use? I'm not a big fan of Davies knobs so I like to know if it will be possible to swap them to a knob of choice.
Aside from my comment about Davies knobs, I love the overall aesthetic of your system, especially the spacious silver panels and big 5mm LEDs. Keep doing what you're doing.
Thanks, I appreciate the interest and feedback! The 1847 VCDO does use the Druid IC, as you mention. I think it sounds great though. Tom Wiltshire did a nice job on that chip.
The Stereo Panning Mixer and Dual VU Meter are well matched and are good as an output module combo. To answer your questions:
1) The Stereo Panning Mixer is optimised to output line-level signals. Having said that, the levels of the channels on the Stereo Panning Mixer are all adjustable (with the front panel controls) up to unity-gain and therefore it can be used as a modular-level stereo mixer also. In other words, if you input a 10Vpp audio signal into one of the inputs and turned the level knob fully CW, then the output level would also be 10Vpp (panning would change this slightly). So the outputs can be adapted to both levels. The VU Meters are set to line-level by default, but can be adjusted with trimmers on the PCB to match pretty much any level that is desired e.g. 10Vpp, 5Vpp etc.
2) The headphone outputs are optimised for monitoring standard, consumer line-level (-10dBV) signals, so the volume may be too high for monitoring modular-level signals with very low-impedance headphones e.g. 32-ohms etc. Higher impedance e.g. 600-ohms etc. may be fine for monitoring modular-level, although not optimal. But I think most of the time, users would mainly use the headphone outputs to monitor a line-level output to an external device. With so many different types of headphones, it's difficult to match them all. However I may include a gain switch that allows the user to change between line-level and modular when I do a new revision. This would allow it to be optimised for both.
3) That's a good idea with the ribbon cable. Thanks for the suggestion. I could even build the VU meter into the mixer as one module, but the only issue with this is that you can't have one without the other, which some users may want to. The ribbon cable idea solves both problems though. I'll look into it.
4) I use the Alpha 9mm vertical D-shaft pots (
www.thonk.co.uk/shop/alpha-9mm-pots-dshaft). Thonk have lots of different knobs, so I'm sure that would be absolutely fine. I know the Davies knobs aren't everyone's cup of tea.
Hope this helps anyway. Once again; thanks for the comments. It really helps with knowing where to improve designs too.
Chris
