cgs programmer/sequencer

[lanxe]

it seems like so many people are interested in analog sequencers, but there is very little on this sequencer.

well, its great! you can build it with as many stages as you want. you can choose the start/length of the sequence by patching from the pulse out of the last stage you want to the pulse in of the first stage you want. this is a very cool feature.

it clocks well with my mfos lfo, but i am sure it would step well with any pulse in. i want to play with this more (like hits from a drum machine).

it has 4 control voltages out which makes it pretty cool to control a couple of vco's and vcf's. it can get pretty crazy. each of the 4 control voltage outputs has its own row of pots so the sequence can be completely different than the row above it.

i also built the mfos sequencer which is great, but this one is very different. the mfos sequencer requires alot of wiring....which if you are like me, it can get messy. the cgs sequencer uses board mount pots which makes it clean, but also means you have to build it in the serge format (which is what i modeled my little synth after anyway).

thats my quick take on the subject. i will post a panel picture of mine, but since its panel mount pcb's it looks alot like ken's.

Ryan

[numbernone]

I also built this, totally great!!

However mine has one weird glitch; It boots up to step 5, and when advanced by the up/down triggers will only make it back to five but will not step past it. Very strange.

Any ideas out there on what is up, havent had loads of time to poke at it unfortunately.

[lanxe]

mine actually did almost the same exact thing. it would stop but i could press the next step button and it would continue back around and stop again.

so i took the panel out and looked at my boards and re-soldered/cleaned up some of the joints that looked even remotely suspect. i think it was the link wires that go across the boards (just bad joints since i was assembling in such a tight spot). that was it. it worked and has worked since.

at first i didnt think the cpo (common pulse out) was working properly, but i just realized that the pulse length is short. works fine with the trigger input on the mfos adsr.


Ryan

[numbernone]

Hey thanks, been over it with my magnifying glass but not for a while. Got too busy using it manually, but now I really wanna drive it from an external source more regular sequencer style.

Im gonna try tonite to set it off with 8 free running square LFOs, one to each step and see what sort of madness pops out.

[lanxe]

what if you tried to take out the bad step? i mean, temporarily wire around it and see if you can get it to step up and down that way. how many stages did you put in? i did 8.

Ryan

[otherunicorn]

[numbernone]

Zoinks! Hi Ken, very nice to have you here!

I loved building this, a real gas. Like a ship in a bottle.

I will report back when its 100%.

[lanxe]

here is mine:



horrible picture, i know. and its nothing different than what ken did with his.

[lanxe]

here is the overall portable synth i just about finished. just a mix of mfos and cgs designs in a serge style format. a couple of cgs vco's, 2 cgs vca's, cgs steiner vcf, psycho lfo, 2 cgs cv mega mixers and of course the programmer in the bottom right.

[Peake]

That's a great Serge-alike! Banana jacks rule.

[numbernone]

VERY NICE

Have and pics of the backside?? I am most interested in getting ideas for construction techniques. I seem to change the way I jam it all in everytime I make a new panel.

[lanxe]

i just have this picture of the back during construction. but i think it give you a good idea of how i did it. i thought about mounting the pcb's to the front panel....like i do on my larger motm style synth. but it was just easier for me to get my hands in there with the boards mounted to the wood with nylon spacers.

the boards that go to the top row of the synth are mounted to the top of the cabinet. by the way, if you couldnt tell, i just used the ikea rack that i found out about here on the forums.

[numbernone]

Holy crap, did you wire the programmer sequencer inside the box??? Very interesting, I cant say I have seen PCBs attached to the case before. It does look like it would be easy to fidget with them tho.

[fluxmonkey]

here's mine:



i use it most often as a kind of preset selector on complex self-running patches... dial in 8 different variations that i can then jump-cut between...

bbob
www.fluxmonkey.com

[synth_ollie]

[norman phay]

Wheeee......



http://www.flickr.com/photos/16804034@N00/2618961254/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16804034@N00/2618138477/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16804034@N00/2618139529/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16804034@N00/2618140773/

The momentary pushbuttons have LEDs built into them. It looks great when it's running!

Row 2 puts out negative voltages as you turn the knobs up, rather than positive ones, otherwise it works 100%. Haven't managed to suss out why as yet. What a great little thing, though! Tons of thanks to Ken for making it available.

The 2 other problems I had were: when it hit stage six, both of the LEDs for stage six and stage seven lit up - this turned out to be a solder whisker shorting two of the board buses together. Also it did a variation on the dude upthread's - it would advance forward to stage seven then stick. It would play backwards fine though. This turned out to be one of the resistors that feeds into the pair of BC557s on board seven having a dry joint. An easy, if slightly fiddly fix.

[mono-poly]

That looks really great Norman.
Is it for your Wiard?

[norman phay]

[mono-poly]

Sweet

[widdly]

The serge TKB have sequencing of rows as well as columns.

You could add this using a CD4051 and CD4520

Feed each of the row outs to the analog inputs of the CD4051.

Connect the bcd outputs of the 4520 counter to the bcd inputs on the 4051.

Clock the 4051 from step 1 gate output.

Now your 8 x 4 also has a 64 step output.

[krisp14u]

[neandrewthal]

Wonderful work all of you! It looks like a piece of cake to build (except Norman's, it's funny how the pcb mounted pots work against you when you don't have enough panel space the boards) compared to other sequencers.

Krisp, is that 5U wide as well, or is my widescreen monitor playing tricks on me?

[krisp14u]

Yes its 5 up 5 across

Also just finished off a 4U across CGS-33 bipolar matrix mixer

That’s 9U of CGS goodness all in one day

I think I deserve a beer

[norman phay]

Woah Krisp, that looks totally awesome!

[blue hell]