Personal
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Better late than never?
Well, It’s been a while and yeah I’m failing at updating this blog regularly. First an update on synth stuff, I’ve been working on a front panel for my synths, I’m currently fed up with the sound of the analogue synths I’ve heard (though I will say the GS e7 sounds amazing) and I want to build one for myself, this isn’t a product I plan to sell. I’ve designed the voice, using two SSI VCO chips and an NJM2069 VCF/VCA (as I have a few), I’ve got the PCBs for that but haven’t got around to building any yet. The front panel also uses a lot of the same…
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LTNT (long time no type)
I am trying to keep my blog (this thing) updated regularly, but I’m failing so here are three updates in one! PDP11 Hack Plus I’ll give a quick update on a number of things, firstly with the PDP11 Hack plus board I’ve been doing. Basically I can’t get it jump into the onboard monitor or ODT (Octal Debugging Technique). Whilst I can see a clock and I can see at power up some address and data lines change as if it is looking for a boot strap of some kind, but I cannot get it into the ODT. Mr Usagi Electric has kindly offered to test my DCJ11 chip for…
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Life and Delta
I’ve succumbed to the dreaded black dog that is depression again, but with the help of my partner, Jayne, I’m getting better. She is very good at looking after me and helping me avoid pitfalls. Jayne is also improving, she nearly ended up having emergency surgery, but has pulled through and we’re waiting to see the consultant early April to find out what can be done to stop this from happening again (this has happened before, and will happen to her again). In the meantime I’ve been taking time to enjoy walking with my dog, Suzi, and appreciate some of the good things in my life, like Jayne, Suzi, my…
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Delta & Life
Recently my partner was rushed to hospital and has spent 5 days in with a serious condition, thankfully she is now out but will need to have major surgery in 6 to 8 weeks. This has got me thinking a lot about my life and what is important to me. She and Suzi are what matter to me above all else, this trip into hospital has really brought that into focus. So what is the upshot? Well, I’m giving serious thought to Delta being my last commercial synth. It takes a lot of work to make a poly synth, and for one person it can be very hard. There’s a…
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2023 and onward
Well another year has come and gone, 2022 was not a great year. With chip shortages, recessions and friends suffering a lot (for reasons I shan’t go into). I’m not one for new years resolutions, but I do like to have a goal for the year, so my goal is to “declutter” and simplify my life. Things have gotten very complex. So I’ve put some effort into Delta over the holiday and I have most of the prototype UI (screen and knobs) done which let’s me fully test the synth engine and debug that. Though Dove Audio is now closed, I’m unsure what form Delta will take. PJ5 (my TTL…
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Walks, Delta and dogs
The weather here has been cold of the last weeks and yes we had snow, which Suzi was really confused about, she kept running and trying to eat it, rolling in it and generally seeming to enjoy the experience which was wonderful to see. During these walks the colours of the sky are often quite amazing, so I take some pictures, here are a couple from recent days (before the snow). I’m no photographer but I can appreciate the colours 🙂 Delta Delta is now playable, I can set a default patch (pushing a button and it sends a string of commands to the FPGA) and play it via MIDI…
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Speed, Delta & Doves
Speed The world is moving at an incredible rate lately, now I know as you get older your neurons fire slower and time seems to move quicker, but that’s not what I mean. Everyone is in a rush, a rush to make things, a rush to get places a rush to buy and received stuff and people seem to be incredibly impatient, now I caught myself doing this and I was shocked. I blame amazon for their “next day delivery”, and sometimes same day which is just nuts. It’s made us all impatient and rush to do things and expect things. The item in question for me was this uConsole…
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The Black dog and a white dog
Some of you know that I struggle with depression, I make no secret of it. I don’t talk about it much as it is not an easy thing to discuss, and a large portion of society would rather not hear.Well, for the moment the black dog (depression) is visiting again and I’m struggling, I’m exhausted (for many reasons) and that isn’t helping. Like many I’m worrying about the economy, keeping a job and a roof over my head as well as paying bills. Also, the UK government is getting worse and worse, with more corruption and bigotry as the days go by, I used to be proud to be british,…
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The future of Dove-Audio
I think everyone is aware of the chip shortage that has been on going for a while now and it’s sadly showing very little sign of improving for the 12 to 18 months. It’s not just chips either, connectors, potentiometers, switches, everything has gone long lead time. Add in the growing rate of inflation, cost of living crises that’s happening in the UK as well as a number of personal changes in my life, I’m considering the future of Dove-Audio and synths. In my life, Suzi is keeping me very busy and I am really enjoying the morning walks, which take around an hour and we go through some beautiful…
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The “Industry”
I was watching several videos about Knobcon, a synthesiser event in Chicago) as I had friends there and I found it really quite enjoyable to see them talking about and showing their latest products. What was disappointing, but not entirely surprising, was to learn that my ex company are still using my old name, in person and online. Sure enough after a quick google there are videos online showing this, followed with multiple “corrections” in the same video. Now for those who don’t know I transitioned over 6 years ago, and it was something that had been in the works 2 years before that. My business partner at the time…