User Profile

This is an offshoot of my personal LJ, erschlagener, with an emphasis on scratchbuilt electronic musical gear and making some noise with the aforementioned equipment.

I don't pretend to be in any way, shape, or form, "good" at what I do yet, musically or electronically, but I am learning. This is documentation of that progress as well.

The chief project so far is a Music From Outer Space Soundlab as part of a larger modular system also in varying stages of completion.

I'm a student, currently at San Jose State University, who's tight on cash and free time, so surprise surprise, progress is slow.

Costs motivate (and/or limit) a lot of what I do here. As said, progress will be slow as I attempt to save money. The Iron Triangle of Compromise offers visual insight on the matter.


I'm on Synth-DIY and Analog Heaven, and Ahcalifornia mailing lists, where I go by my Yahoo email, lightburnx (at) yahoo (dot) com (a relic of junior high - for the volume of mail I get on the lists I'm on the Yahoo Mail interface just works well for me).

On the electro-music.com and Muff Wiggler forums, I go by de_engineered.

I'm on the Ken Stone CGS Yahoo usergroup too, same email as SDIY and AH, but don't think I've had anything to post there yet.

Most of my music gear and skill lies in guitar-oriented things, so I'm into stompboxes a lot too. I'm on the DIY Stompboxes forum as de.engineered.

More use in the future will be made of my YouTube account as well, under the name deengineered (YouTube only likes a-z 0-9 characters for usernames, as does the DIY Stompboxes forum, hm).

I've begun to explore CNC machining, and operate under de_engineered in the CNCzone.com Forums. (Haven't posed anything yet however)

If you have a LinkedIn account, I have one too.

As a possibly buyer, wondering about my eBay credentials? Here's that as well.

In the interest of full disclosure, and just being silly, here's my Yelp Profile. There's some reviews for electronics part shops, so that's kinda on topic :P


Projects on the Bench:

Where the Party At? 8-Bit Sampler

Percent Done: 15%

Various resistors, latches, and a case remain. Will investigate some more MIDI-oriented applications as time goes on.

Ken Stone CGS Super Psycho Modulation Source

Percent Done: 80%

Some resistors and panel mounting remain.

2X Ken Stone CGS Rene Schmitz VCA

Percent Done: 80%

Need to mount both in panel still, and add the SMT bypass caps.

Ken Stone CGS Simple Wave Folder

Percent Done: 80%

Needs SMT bypass caps, and panel mounting.

Ken Stone CGS Saw Pitch Shifter/Wave Multiplier

Percent Done: 60%

Lot of resistors need soldering, and needs panel mounting.

Ken Stone CGS Bi-N-Tic Filter

Percent Done: 35%

Got some sockets and resistors in place. Need a load of 33K resistors. Will get em soon...

Ken Stone CGS Twin CMOS VCF

Percent Done: 35%

Like most projects, resistors, resistors, resistors... And panel mounting.

Ian Fritz 5Pulser Waveshaper

Percent Done: 80%

Few odd caps, and panel mounting remain. Also need coax for.

Elby Designs PSU-2 Power Supply Module

Percent Done: 20%
Need transformer, heat sinks, and most of the parts still.

2X Buchla Resonant Low Pass Gate Clone

Percent Done: 5%

Need to get parts with the big batch I've got lined up from Mouser. Some bits I already got, but not many.

MFOS Soundlab Mini-synth

Percent Complete: 85%

Truth be told, I'm gonna sell this once it's totally populated, and buy the newer, bader, bigger version.

Tellun Corp. TL-712 Doomsday Machine

Percent Complete: 5%

I got a load of subminiature pots that all manage to fit in one panel space (custom size I picked up in a surplus lot - I yet may standardize to MOTM though), but they're kinda scratchy, so I need to get them cleaned and lubricated. The waveshaping/animating whatever cores are basically cascaded op amps and a 4070 XOR, modulated by a pair of LFOs each. It sounds pretty nifty though.

Fonik Korg PS3100 Resonator Clone

Percent Done: 15%

I have one board more populated than the other, and both lack plenty of resistors. As with many of the projects, I'm getting around to consolidating a massive parts order to get all that I need in one go. Things will come together then.

JH Living VCO

Percent Done: 25%

Lots of parts in, need some more, might swap the existing transistor pairs (3046s) with more closely matched ones (THAT array perhaps; I need just one pair, but the high frequency tracking diode ideally is the same temp as the expo pair, ie same die/same IC). Nifty stuff!

Thomas Henry Mankato VCF

Percent Done: 20%

Them resistors, I needs more of em! And 5 and 7 pin MTA connectors, which fit better than the silkscreened patterns of 2 and 3 pin ones.

MOTM-510 Wavewarper

Percent Done: 5%

i have the super expensive analog computer IC ($60, ouch), and the PCB, which is quite simple really - just the support circuitry to interface the chip with analog levels. This is soon to be a discontinued item, so I had to get it...!

Ken Stone CGS Steiner Synthacon Filter

Percent Done: 80%

There's some errors on the silk screen, which I need to sort out. Panel mounting, and maybe some mods to make this more like the Euro version - that and a switch to make some of the diodes (which as as VC resistors) Germanium, which alters the response curve.

Thomas Henry El Cerrito VCO

Percent Done: 10%

Ten percent means having a PCB, tempco, and two of the more exotic ICs the project calls for: an XR2206 function gen, and an LM394 matched pair. Otherwise I have the other more mundane parts, save probably a lot of resistors (and I reckon I'll be investing in some poly caps, this being a VCO).


Projects on the Shelf:

Seb Francis Fat Controller

Percent Done: 1%

I have the board and a programmed PIC. Hardly anything else at this point!

JH Varislope Filter/Phaser

Percent Done: 1%

I have the board. That's about it so far :P

2X JH VC Interpolating Scanner

Percent Done: 1%

I'm not crazy about chorus effects (the board was originally meant to simulate an electromechanically realized chorus effect from an electric organ), but the potentials of a VC scanner are very interesting. I got two as I want to play with an X/Y scan matrix, and progressively out of phase scan modulation signals for two scanners drawing from the same sources.

2X UD-1 Drum Voice

Percent Done: 4%

Two, as part of an analog drum setup. The four percent there is indicative of the PCBs, and my having the elusive LM566 (read, not 556) VCO chips.

3X MPS Mega Percussive Synthesizer

Percent Done: 40%

I had one, then I got two more. They can do a lot more than just drum sounds, should be fun. One essential, imo, mod I'll be doing is a pre-VCA external effect send. I'm always trying to add more distortion and what not to the drum sounds I get out of the old keyboards I have, but want that sharp cut clarity between the hits. Working on a synthesis level, I can exact that >=)

More to be listed later....!


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