Lexicon PCM80 AD-converter

 Finally I have found a replacement chip for CS5389 AD-converter in my PCM80 reverb. Lexicon worked from digital-input but analog inputs were silent. I once ordered CS5389-chip with eBay from China but that never arrived to Finland. Now I tried creative_dynamo from eBay and this was a success. I ordered direct replacement chip CS5390 from creative_dynamo UK. After I had checked the voltages and replaced the old 89-chip with 90 one everything worked as supposed. 

Now my PCM80 is back in business. Thanks creative_dynamo!

AS3046 DIP

Alfa's AS3046 DIP format chip is a direct replacement of old LM3046/CA3046 chip. Vbe is matched to +-1mV (LM3046 only to +-5mV). Another Moog Prodigy-clone is alive and with AS3046s the VCOs track  at least 8-octaves (as much as I can get from Arturia MicroFreaks CV-out).

AS3046's are here right the 14-pin DIPs.

This is the first version of my clone with old-style switches.

Joystick MIDI-controller

Today you can buy cheap Arduino UNO R3 microcontroller copy from Velleman for just 15€. With two analog joysticks, Arduino with code, two resistors, wire, connectors and a Hofnar cigarette box you can build a simple MIDI-controller to control four parameters with two hands (MIDI CC).

From UPIC to IanniX

You can find here a free PDF-download of a book of UPIC and Iannis Xenakis. UPIC was a computer/software system that enabled sounds to be generated from graphic structures. First working version of UPIC was created in 1977. Today there is an open source software IanniX that is based on Iannis Xenakis works.


Controlling audio from IanniX on Vimeo.

Arturia MicroFreak

Bought this little synth because it has a capacitive keyboard with CV, gate and pressure outputs. I consider it also cheap. It's actually very nice synth with 4-voice paraphonics, Mutable synthesis, modulation matrix, arpeggiator and sequencer. Here it's speaking with Speech-synthesis.

Sigma · MicroFreak Speaking

Voix Celeste is released

Voix Celeste is now released on Bandcamp and streaming services. Enjoy !

Voix Humana

Free taste of the 31.3.2020 MANU-album.

Voix Celeste

New solo-CD of MANU is coming out soon. It contains seven new compositions and one cover song. Voix Celeste (it's also an organ stop) is about silence and silent music. Silence is not just physical absence  of sound. It's a state of mind that music creates in the mind of the listener. Silence can stand for a definite kind of presence rather than absence. Cover picture is edited from Robert Fludd's (1574-1637) Sun de metaphysico macrosmi (Wellcome Library, Creative Commons license).

Cristal Baschet

What an magical instrument! Developed by Baschet brothers in the early 1950's. Here Peter Pringle plays his DIY version of this instrument and Ethervox Theremin. Basic sound is generated by dipping your fingers in water and rubbing them along a series of glass rods. These glass rods are connected to metal resonators that amplify the sound and create additive harmonics.



This other video shows two baschets (basic and bass versions) playing Erik Saties Gnossienne no1. Here you can see how wet those rods are. Interesting harmony between human, water, glass and metal.