Rule de riddim, mon
Mar. 30th, 2009 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dweniusSome months ago, after an email conversation wherein I asked about a custom order and mentioned my (voluminous) DIY work on modular synth panel design, I was invited to collaborate with the Flame electronics company in Germany to create the panel for the modular version of their Clockwork device. In return, Flame offered to send me a completed module for my efforts. Today, I received it :)
So behold, here is the result of my first paid, professional Hardware User Interface Design gig, which will debut at the Frankfurt Musikmesse this Wednesday.
The knobs and nuts and little rubber switch caps are not mounted because...wait for it...I am going to move this module into the custom panel previously mentioned and mount it into my Wiard modular rack :) The production version is a +/- 12V module for Euro format synthesizers; this is the Euro panel but the guts of it have been modified for my +/- 15V power supply format.
If you are not a musician who has fought with the vagaries of midi and analog timing in music production, it may not be apparent what, exactly, this thing does. Basically, it's a MIDI to CV converter with one note channel (a neglected and relatively unimportant side feature) and three independent clock/gate channels that can be set to any time division including triplets and dotted variations, can have variable swing, can be shifted forward or backwards against the primary beat, can be recorded, randomized, have variable gate length from "off" to "hold", and have an associated LFO on a separate output jack that fires in sync with the beat (whatever the beat may be for that channel). Getting all that into a 6" x 5.25" panel without having the cables interfere with the primary function knobs and switches took more than a few drafts, at which point the folks at Flame took over and designed the PCB to fit behind the panel. This is, of course, Rule #1 in electronic music design: FIRST, write the manual and design the panel. THEN do your circuit and/or software work.
In an ideal world there would be a huge market for this kind of work, because seriously? This was the most personally rewarding "job" I've had in longer than I care to think about.
So behold, here is the result of my first paid, professional Hardware User Interface Design gig, which will debut at the Frankfurt Musikmesse this Wednesday.
The knobs and nuts and little rubber switch caps are not mounted because...wait for it...I am going to move this module into the custom panel previously mentioned and mount it into my Wiard modular rack :) The production version is a +/- 12V module for Euro format synthesizers; this is the Euro panel but the guts of it have been modified for my +/- 15V power supply format.
If you are not a musician who has fought with the vagaries of midi and analog timing in music production, it may not be apparent what, exactly, this thing does. Basically, it's a MIDI to CV converter with one note channel (a neglected and relatively unimportant side feature) and three independent clock/gate channels that can be set to any time division including triplets and dotted variations, can have variable swing, can be shifted forward or backwards against the primary beat, can be recorded, randomized, have variable gate length from "off" to "hold", and have an associated LFO on a separate output jack that fires in sync with the beat (whatever the beat may be for that channel). Getting all that into a 6" x 5.25" panel without having the cables interfere with the primary function knobs and switches took more than a few drafts, at which point the folks at Flame took over and designed the PCB to fit behind the panel. This is, of course, Rule #1 in electronic music design: FIRST, write the manual and design the panel. THEN do your circuit and/or software work.
In an ideal world there would be a huge market for this kind of work, because seriously? This was the most personally rewarding "job" I've had in longer than I care to think about.
