Pics of CalArts Black Serge?

DJBRUTAL · Post by **DJBRUTAL** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:01 am

Anyone have detailed (preferably hi-res) photos of the CalArts Black Serge? The few pics I've been able to find on the web are pretty terrible quality.

phisynth · Post by **phisynth** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:09 am

DJBRUTAL · Post by **DJBRUTAL** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:23 am

Wow, that was fast. Thanks phisynth!

flo · Post by **flo** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:49 am

My god the sexiness!

exeterdown · Post by **exeterdown** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 4:22 am

Damn baby.
Why don't all Serge systems look like this?

Synesthesia · Post by **Synesthesia** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:37 am

???? waow!!!

tobb · Post by **tobb** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 5:41 am

Anyone know if these panels are silkscreened or metalphoto inversed?

nathanxl · Post by **nathanxl** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:10 am

tobb wrote:Anyone know if these panels are silkscreened or metalphoto inversed?

I think I read somewhere, many moons ago, that they are inversed... Using the leftover bits from the regular panels.

jondent · Post by **jondent** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 8:25 am

CJ Miller · Post by **CJ Miller** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 8:47 am

nathanxl wrote:
tobb wrote:Anyone know if these panels are silkscreened or metalphoto inversed?
I think I read somewhere, many moons ago, that they are inversed... Using the leftover bits from the regular panels.

Yes indeed. I have done a lot of research into Serge panel graphics. Panels of this era were printed on a special adhesive aluminum film called Scotchcal. (I think there is still something sold called Scotchcal, but it is not comparable - their product names are confusing) Basically, it is a thin sheet of aluminum with a photoresist sheet. You apply the graphics to the photoresist and peel it apart. So if you get black, usually you'd keep the half with black text, and apply it to the aluminum. The aluminum with the graphics then gets adhered to the thicker drilled panel, and sealed over with a clear film.

What happened with black Serges is that they used the other half of the Scotchcal, the one which was solid black but with the letters, lines, and swooshes removed. So once this was applied to the panel you get black with the metal shining through for your graphics. They just did this on a lark, because they had the extra layers of Scotchcal. In theory, there could be a black counterpart for every silver Serge which used this process. But the black films tended to be discarded.

jondent · Post by **jondent** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:07 pm

Thanks for the info. Love hearing about Serge History.

Vsyevolod · Post by **Vsyevolod** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:35 pm

This 6 panel system was made by Darrel Johansen, Serge's right hand man for many years through Hollywood and later in San Francisco. Yes, he just inverted the layout. You can also see all the many mod's that he populated the panel with, most of them I recognize, some I don't though even they seem pretty obvious for the most part.

Darrel later donated this system to Cal Arts, his Alma Mater.

Stephen

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CJ Miller · Post by **CJ Miller** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 6:51 pm

Vsyevolod wrote:This 6 panel system was made by Darrel Johansen, Serge's right hand man for many years through Hollywood and later in San Francisco. Yes, he just inverted the layout. You can also see all the many mod's that he populated the panel with, most of them I recognize, some I don't though even they seem pretty obvious for the most part.

Darrel later donated this system to Cal Arts, his Alma Mater.

Yes! And there's an excellent video of him visiting there and giving a talk about it and his days at Serge. I don't remember where I got it from, but it's called...: 89690488.mkv

Here it is!
[video][/video]

opsysbug · Post by **opsysbug** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:25 pm

Black black black.

DJBRUTAL · Post by **DJBRUTAL** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 7:46 pm

Vsyevolod wrote:You can also see all the many mod's that he populated the panel with, most of them I recognize, some I don't though even they seem pretty obvious for the most part.

Any chance you could list the known mods?

Vsyevolod · Post by **Vsyevolod** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 1:09 am

DJBRUTAL wrote:Any chance you could list the known mods?

Sure, here goes from the first panel on the upper left.

Triple Waveshaper has the series/single switch that is standard today.

Audio Mixer has a switch that probably sends the upper output to the IN-4 (aka Aux-In) of the lower unit.

Dual Phaser is probably the 360, 720, and 1080 outputs as well as a wet/dry VC in (just guessing there).

Attenuation of the Aux In on the VC Stereo Mixer.

Next panel, upper right:

Audio Mixer same as previous panel.

NTO and PCO both have the 3 position octave switch which sends the pitch up or down by one octave, as well as tiny holes to access the calibration trim pot with a screwdriver.

Cycle switch on the Smooth Generator.

Middle panel left:

Cycle switches and Inputs on the DTG (now commonplace though sometimes done instead of another jack or knob).

Octave switches and trim pot access holes on the two PCO's.

Hi/Low switch on the VCFQ (the original didn't have it, though there was a similar module called the VCFX which substituted the Manual Gain knob for a extended range switch). I think the other blue jack was a second 1V/octave input.

Second 1V/oct on the VCF2

Bipolar input on the Slope Generator (now standard) plus a cycle switch.

Middle panel on right:

DUSG and VCFQ, same as previous panel.

Wave Multiplier, no idea.

PCO's, same as above.

Dual Analog Shift Register has a switch to gang the two sides together. No idea what the pot is for.

DTG as before.

Bottom left panel:

Bi-Directional Router, no idea what the switches were for.

VCFS, secondary 1V/oct input.

DUSG and DTG, same as above.

Lower right panel (TKB)

The earlier TKB's had double clock and reset inputs, so the extra switch and jack are just what's on there today.

Any other guesses welcome...

Stephen

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phisynth · Post by **phisynth** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:53 am

Here are some other pics I found in my library. BTW, I should add I am not the author of these pictures, can't remember where these came from, and don't know who the gentlemen on the picture is, but I give credit to whoever took these...

CJ Miller · Post by **CJ Miller** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 1:59 pm

Vsyevolod wrote:Wave Multiplier, no idea.

A popular mod to these is input signal attenuators, since the level makes a big different in the effect. Pot saves using VCA+EG

Vsyevolod wrote:-Directional Router, no idea what the switches were for.

Probably manual control over routing. So it could be done by logic or by hand.

Vsyevolod · Post by **Vsyevolod** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 7:12 pm

CJ Miller wrote:
Vsyevolod wrote:Wave Multiplier, no idea.
A popular mod to these is input signal attenuators, since the level makes a big different in the effect. Pot saves using VCA+EG

Thanks for adding to the list.

A pot would save running though some sort of mixer (X fader, Active Processor, Matrix Mixer, etc) but the EG would not be included in the Wave Mult mod... or am I missing something here?

Stephen

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CJ Miller · Post by **CJ Miller** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 7:50 pm

Vsyevolod wrote:A pot would save running though some sort of mixer (X fader, Active Processor, Matrix Mixer, etc) but the EG would not be included in the Wave Mult mod... or am I missing something here?

What I meant was just that one could feed an enveloped signal into a stock Wave Multipliers anyway. Input attenuators alone are less flexible, but still good to have in many situations.

Sorry that I was unclear, I was in a hurry to type before going out.

Vsyevolod · Post by **Vsyevolod** » Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:05 pm

Ahhhh, thanks for the clarification.

Stephen

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pannikel · Post by **pannikel** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:41 am

Revived.

anyone hazard a guess as to what the module with the red push button is on the lower left hand panel? between the Bi-Directional Router and the Variable slope vcf.

Is it a noise and some sot of random gen? [which Darrel Johansen mentions toward the end of the talk]

vgermuse · Post by **vgermuse** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 7:58 am

pannikel wrote:Revived.

anyone hazard a guess as to what the module with the red push button is on the lower left hand panel? between the Bi-Directional Router and the Variable slope vcf.

Is it a noise and some sot of random gen? [which Darrel Johansen mentions toward the end of the talk]

Yeah, it looks like a modified Noise Source

I'm guessing the knobs on the white and pink noise are attenuators.

pannikel · Post by **pannikel** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 11:13 am

ah, so the trigger will pulse a random voltage each press then, thanks for pulling that up. I guess the blue led must be related to that pulse.

Johansen seems to have put convenience attenuation on several modules, useful

ryangaston · Post by **ryangaston** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 12:10 pm

vgermuse wrote:
pannikel wrote:Revived.

anyone hazard a guess as to what the module with the red push button is on the lower left hand panel? between the Bi-Directional Router and the Variable slope vcf.

Is it a noise and some sot of random gen? [which Darrel Johansen mentions toward the end of the talk]
Yeah, it looks like a modified Noise Source

I'm guessing the knobs on the white and pink noise are attenuators.

Yeah, Todd hits it right on the money, it's a modded Noise Source. Also, Stephen's list of mods above is pretty thorough, I don't believe he missed anything. I'll update if anything else comes to mind. Awesome instrument, though--Darrel really added a ton of utility conveniences that make this instrument a pleasure to play.

I'll take some decent pictures next time I'm around. I was hoping perhaps to visit it later today.

MUFF WIGGLER

MUFF WIGGLER

Pics of CalArts Black Serge?

Pics of CalArts Black Serge?