Some goofing off with a Moog modular

The Moog Forum Moog Music General Topics Forum
1

Short story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRFRFnrNni0

Long story:

I (very quickly) hacked together an analog style sequencer using an Apple II computer equipped with an old Mountain Computer ADC / DAC board.
This board can read in or output 16 channels of analog voltages.
Voltage ranges are -5 volts to +5 volts (though I can change this.)
Resolution is 8 bit, though it’s still fairly accurate hitting note CVs closely.

I made the panel from a piece of scrap aluminum I found here
Used 16 100K linear pots (NOS Moog) and some new Cosmo (Moog style) knobs.
Built and wired it up along with some vinyl lettering in around 2 hrs.

For software, I programmed a traveling bar graph that displays notes as vertical bars of varying height.
The top of each bar would flash as that particular note plays.

One CV out jack is the “normal” mono out.
A 2nd CV out jack is right now programmed as being the same notes, but inverted.
The gate out jack can be whatever- V-trig, S-trig, pulse.
In the video it’s making S-trigs for the Moog 911 envelope generator.

Software is written in Applesoft BASIC.
(Comes built-in on the Apple.)
The code was incredibly short. I couldn’t believe how little it takes to write something like this.
Making any change such as adding a quantizer, variable note durations or sequence length takes about 1 or 2 lines of code.

Right now it’s programmed as a single channel 16 stage analog sequencer with mono CV out.
But I might make it be an 8 stage with the second row of 8 pots changing the duration of the first 8 stages.

A 30+ year old computer driving a 30+ year old synth can still be a lot of fun.
This critter could also be programmed to allow syncing it to or from an external source.
You could even make it change direction (play backwards) or write a “live performance” to disk without too much work.
I have to play around with it some more, but thought some of you would find it amusing.
If nothing else, it’s nice to hear a Moog modular sometimes.
Maybe I should make a “Frankenstein” modular as a hobby? I don’t own any analog synths.

2

What would be interesting, and very useful, would be a MIDI controller for softsynths. If you could make the panel larger and model it on the panels of the actual Moog modular you used, that would attract some interest, I think.

A modular style tweakable MIDI controller would make a lot of difference to the playability of a whole range of softsynths and could be a serious commercial proposition.

3

There’s already many different MIDI controllers available, so I’m not sure I quite understand what you described.
If I understand correctly, you’d like a MIDI controller that looks like a Moog module and fits in a Moog or similar modular, but then controls external softsynths?
Or would you basically like a fake Moog modular with no analog guts, but the switches and knobs would instead control softsynths (like Arturia’s Moog modular)???
That would be sort of cool.
Sort of like that fake Ody panel that controls an Ody emulation.

But either way… I’m not gonna build it.:wink:
This sequencer project was for fun.
MIDI controllers don’t sound like much fun to me.

4

Fun project kevin. Almost makes me want to pull my IIgs out of mothballs and play with it again :slight_smile:.

5

[etc]

What I’d personally like is a MIDI controller with a lot more knobs than any I’ve seen when I’ve looked at them in the past. The best option would be a modular one you could add sections to so you could add another row of knobs when you need them, or choose ARP-style sliders, plus a couple of joysticks. If it would allow templates to be fixed to the front for whichever softsynth I’m using, that would be very helpful as well.

The idea of a controller in the specific form of a Moog modular or whatever has been suggested a few times by different people, and I’d expect there’d be a market, though I’m not sure how big. An EMS type controller would be a fairly popular option for EMS-type softsynths as well, though a bit limited for the more advanced and diverse XILS 3.