Tuesday, April 29, 2008

And now for something entirely different

Not MOTM at all, but I guess related in a way, this is a video recently shot in regards to the 50th anniversary of the BBC radiophonic workshop. Fun stuff!

Click here

T J

MOTM artist

I got an e-mail from Jeff Laity, a fellow MOTM user. He pointed out that he spotted an MOTM synth in the studio of Roger Manning, via a post on Matrix synth. So here it is again:
Roger Manning MOTM.

Thanks Jeff!

T J

Update and apologies

To start with the apologies: I have not updated this blog in several weeks. My wife has started her own business, and I've been very busy doing a lot of DIY at her salon, so that she could open up for business last week. Hence I've not had any time to work on my synth or blog. In the hurry, I also completely forgot to take my kits with me on my travels, and yes I am traveling again, so I won't be soldering for a while either.. My apologies for the long absence..
What I can do however is blog. So first off, here is the latest from Synth Tech:


Things will pick up dramatically in MOTM-land after this week. My business travel will be put on hold for almost 3 weeks. I will be able to start shipping and working on kits and assembled modules. I'm sorry things have dragged here in March/April but I knew this was coming and not much I can do about it.

On a positive note, I have all the parts placed on the MOTM-730 VC divider CPU board and now I can load in the netlist and start routing away :) I am hoping I can keep it to 4 layers but it is quite dense and will not be surprised if it is 6-layer like the '650 turned out (it is difficult to get +-15V routed all over and still have room for all the signals). On boards of this nature I hand-route all of the analog signals and auto-route all the digital ones and the +5V power/ground connections. The auto-router is blazing fast, I expect that the digital signals (about 100 of them) will route in < 1 minute.

Paul S.

T J

Monday, April 07, 2008

MOTM-730


So what is this MOTM-730 then?

Well, to see the full story , visit : modular synthesis
Paul adds : "The production unit is a 2U wide module, with the addition of
a polarity switch for which edge to clock off of."
The above picture is one of the prototype board.

T J

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Latest MOTM update April 6th 2008

The following update comes straight from Synthtech's Paul Schreiber :

a) I will have 4 of the 5 boards in the MOTM-730 VC Divider in later this week for testing. These are "prototypes but ready for production', meaning unless I screwed up I can use the design for production. The last board is the CPU board, it is a 4-layer board (hopefully not 6) and I will get these at the end of the month. The mechanical design of how all 5 boards stack up/interconnect was quite a pain. By the end of May the board set & front panel will be released for production, and around the 4th of July will be ready to ship. The cost will be $349.

b) due to extensive non-MOTM work requirements starting tomorrow, very little will be shipped this month. I will be able to ship what I can April 22-26, I will try to catch up as much as possible. The month of May looks to be *much* better in this regard, and also May is set aside for the CG/CGX pcb layouts. The breadboarding has gone well for both of these, we are convinced there is no major issues so it's time to flip the switch.

c) I will get MOTM-300 panels with the new paint April 21st.

d) as time allows (again, not a whole lot in April) I will start kitting up the last 62 MOTM kits, starting with the 4xx VCFs. I need to pound on Newark for the rest of the log pots (they owe me 200) but I do have 300 of the 248J (metal shafts, plastic bushings).

e) also due in this Wednesday are the revised MOTM-910 mult pc boards (I messed up the jack holes the first time, they worked but not 'perfectly') and I expect them to be good enough for production. I have 5 coming in, I will build up the 5 and ship them out ASAP as there are back orders for 9 I last checked.

Paul S.

So some great news on new modules, and not too many back orders left, meaning that by the middle of this year, shipments will be on track for every new order.
Now, which one to go for.......