I can't get enough of clocking devices.
After 30 plus years of 'music making', I've come to appreciate just how incompetent I am. This is largely due to me being a lazy, ill-disciplined git who never practices - I can barely sustain the simplest pattern of chords/notes/beats beyond a few bars. I can however improvise like hell but that's at the expense of musical meaningfulness - fun to do but not a spectator sport.
The solution is a system that runs itself - one which allows me to hook up all my disparate pieces of gear to run in perfect sync. With everything sequenced, I can set it 'in motion' and then more less leave it to it while I potter about drinking coffee and smoking roll-ups, making the occasional adjustment or fiddle.
The system would combine both MIDI and analogue clocks. Some gear behaves itself but with others, there can be timing instabilities and drift - often the case with things like the old Casiotones I've modded myself or devices I've inexpertly built. Luckily, however, there are folk in this world who not only have the knowledge to do things right, but are also kind enough to share their work. Yusynth is one such person and so I decided to build his Triple Clock Divider. In addition, I've incorporated a MIDI to analogue clock option. In 2017 I backed the tangible waves' AE Modular project on Kickstarter and ended up with a 'spare' master module. This came about due to an issue with the first run of modules, which Robert quickly resolved (excellent service - check out the community here). With the replacement master module installed, I now had a not quite functioning correctly spare. Fortunately, the MIDI to clock conversion on it does work and it's now found a home. Here are some build images:
After 30 plus years of 'music making', I've come to appreciate just how incompetent I am. This is largely due to me being a lazy, ill-disciplined git who never practices - I can barely sustain the simplest pattern of chords/notes/beats beyond a few bars. I can however improvise like hell but that's at the expense of musical meaningfulness - fun to do but not a spectator sport.
The solution is a system that runs itself - one which allows me to hook up all my disparate pieces of gear to run in perfect sync. With everything sequenced, I can set it 'in motion' and then more less leave it to it while I potter about drinking coffee and smoking roll-ups, making the occasional adjustment or fiddle.
The system would combine both MIDI and analogue clocks. Some gear behaves itself but with others, there can be timing instabilities and drift - often the case with things like the old Casiotones I've modded myself or devices I've inexpertly built. Luckily, however, there are folk in this world who not only have the knowledge to do things right, but are also kind enough to share their work. Yusynth is one such person and so I decided to build his Triple Clock Divider. In addition, I've incorporated a MIDI to analogue clock option. In 2017 I backed the tangible waves' AE Modular project on Kickstarter and ended up with a 'spare' master module. This came about due to an issue with the first run of modules, which Robert quickly resolved (excellent service - check out the community here). With the replacement master module installed, I now had a not quite functioning correctly spare. Fortunately, the MIDI to clock conversion on it does work and it's now found a home. Here are some build images:
My usual build is an MDF enclosure with printed labels, all lacquered in acrylic, which hides vero-board circuits and a tangle of wires. The red PCB on the left is the tangible waves module for the MIDI to clock conversion.
Finally, a couple of close ups...
Video and audio to follow...
Comments
Post a Comment