New, knobby SID synth

tMt · 2014-11-13T09:25:50.000Z

did anyone manage to sequence therapsid with a monomachine?
mine seems to get easily confused.

OHEXOH · 2014-11-13T09:51:47.000Z

I (very quickly) tried mine with an Octatrack this morning and it was getting confused also - some times notes played, sometimes they didn’t.

Going to have a proper play this evening.

tsv · 2014-11-13T17:41:01.000Z

Hey

Here’s a quick recording of my unit being sequenced by Logic. Single square wave then filter closes and opens with full resonance. I left some silence at the top so you can hear the self noise. As more OSC are added the noise does get worse and does contain some tone. From what I understand the SID chip is prone to noise and many people use a noise gate on the output with there MIDIbox SID and Sidstations. I’m thinking of picking up a used DBX noise gate off ebay and leaving it on the output.

Alex any thoughts on this?

https://soundcloud.com/charles-stella/therapsid-test

tsv · 2014-11-13T18:49:39.000Z

Therapsid sequenced by Octatrack. Theapsid is using all 3 voices. Filter starts fully open then closes showcasing some gritty filter distortion. Some silence was left the beginning to highlight the self noise of the unit. The noise and bleed thorough increases as more OSC’s are added.

https://soundcloud.com/charles-stella/octasid

tsv · 2014-11-13T19:50:38.000Z

Here’s 3 OSC’s driving the filter hard. Arp is created using the internal sequencer and slaved to MIDI clock from Logic

https://soundcloud.com/charles-stella/therapsid-arp

skylab001 · 2014-11-13T20:19:08.000Z

Yeah mine gets confused too, missed notes and stuck notes, sometimes it completely locks up. I’ve been thinking it has a mind of it’s own. At least I’m not alone in some of these problems. I’ve noticed it does better when sequencing directly from a DAW rather than using a hardware sequencer/arp. I haven’t had it lock up(yet) when I use a DAW, but from hardware, sometimes it won’t catch all the CC changes and notes, then eventually it just hangs on a note. I sometimes have issues with it not turning on too, anybody else have that? I have to plug it in a few times, then it turns on, it’s totally random when it happens. I also noticed some weird stuff happening with the ipad app, but those may just be bugs in the app.

I can’t comment on if the capacitor fix helps with stuck notes because I haven’t got mine fixed yet, still waiting on the parts, but I do have a terrible amount of oscillator bleed in mine. Alex has been very quick to respond to any issues I’ve had so hopefully he’s able to get it all sorted quickly. The sid chip makes a cool sounding synth.

R7 · 2014-11-13T20:29:37.000Z

The 6581 SID chip is prone to lot’s of noise. They released a later version that is less dirty sounding, the 8580 (also sold as the 6582).

If the noise is a issue you might have to run a noise gate.

tsv · 2014-11-13T20:44:35.000Z

Yeah from what I’ve read it’s a common problem with SID chips. Other than the noise and bleed mine is great. It’s working well manually playing it or sequencing form Logic or the Octatrack. MIDI clock is also ok.

The noise isn’t an issue when it’s playing but it is annoying coming through my mixer when it’s not doing anything. I just talked to my friend and he’s giving me a older DBX 563X noise gate / reduction unit so I should be cool.

cube48 · 2014-11-14T07:13:51.000Z

One idea concerning the noise. TubeOhm describes in Shruthacon filter board assembly instructions that Styroflex capacitors are very hum sensitive.
http://www.tubeohm.com/Manual/Shruthacon-english-Final.pdf
Page 44.

So he creates easy DIY shielding around the filter board. Yes, hum is different thing then noise but maybe we could try this trick too as therapSID uses the same or at least similar caps from what I saw in my tS.

Will try that after I receive my tS back from Alex. It had above mentioned issues too but till unplayable level although the cap fix was already in place when the unit arrived. Anyway, I was at least able to listen to some presets and I was amazed by the punch, sonic character, grittiness and variety of possible sounds. Really cool synth indeed.

OHEXOH · 2014-11-14T07:51:04.000Z

I had a good play with mine yesterday. The noise I am hearing is the same as what I hear on your audio TSV and is the noisey SID chip. As I’m running mine through the Octatrack I’ve used it’s noise gate to knock it out at -45db. I also use the one in Live if I’m working through my DAW.

The synth works ok via Live too but on my Octatrack I get no luck. I place trigs (no CC changes) and press play and sometimes they play, sometimes they don’t. They also don’t react to the note length so the notes are held.

So yeah, it’s not playing nice with the OT at the moment. I’m amazed you can get such patterns from yours.

Sound great however when it’s in full swing.

tsv · 2014-11-14T15:56:38.000Z

Sorry to hear you guys are having problems with yours. I recall specifically being able to get note lengths working on the OT yesterday.

Sounds like Twisted Electrons needs to get their QC up. A lot of machines not quite working.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

v00d00ppl · 2014-11-14T17:29:03.000Z

What midi to usb connectors are you guys using to run the ipad sequencer?

skylab001 · 2014-11-14T17:58:26.000Z

""OH/EX/OH"":

I had a good play with mine yesterday. The noise I am hearing is the same as what I hear on your audio TSV and is the noisey SID chip. As I’m running mine through the Octatrack I’ve used it’s noise gate to knock it out at -45db. I also use the one in Live if I’m working through my DAW.

The synth works ok via Live too but on my Octatrack I get no luck. I place trigs (no CC changes) and press play and sometimes they play, sometimes they don’t. They also don’t react to the note length so the notes are held.

So yeah, it’s not playing nice with the OT at the moment. I’m amazed you can get such patterns from yours.

Sound great however when it’s in full swing.

Sounds like the same problems I’ve been dealing with in the hardware realm although I’ve tried using a sequentix sequencer, MPC, DSI evolver sequencer and not the OT. Since this is my main workflow I’m a little discouraged.
In Live, Logic, or PT it seems to work ok. As for the ipad app, I run it via wifi into my DAW so I can merge it with a synth to trigger notes. The merged signal goes out to the therapsid via my usb-midi interface. Not exactly ideal as I’d like to be able to connect the ipad directly via CCK or other means and fully control it without a computer involved.

ElectronicFur · 2014-11-18T14:50:06.000Z

Got mine and testing this weekend also showed it had the VCA issues. So waiting for the capacitor to fix now.

Looks and sounds very promising though.

ElectronicFur · 2014-12-01T19:49:10.000Z

Has anyone had success with this VCA fix?

Or had any response from Alex? I’ve emailed asking for him post me the required capacitor , but not heard anything back.

Also did anyone have problems with that US plug converter that was included? Mine doesn’t work.

tsv · 2014-12-01T20:32:36.000Z

Hey

According to the manual all units shipped after 10/20 should have the fix. It’s outlined in the new manual on P.26. Basically a 1nF (.001uF) cap soldered across pins 6 and 7 of the SID.

twisted-electrons.com

Therapsid-User-Manual.pdf

5.79 MB

Even if you have the VCA fix there is still a lot of VCA bleed that is just inherent in these chips. I opted to buy a noise gate which fixes this nicely.

I’m in the US so I didn’t need the adapter.

HollyKing · 2014-12-02T03:44:07.000Z

I soldered on the VCA fix and it did not do anything…The notes are still sticking. I have contacted Twisted-Electrons today and will let you all know what I hear.

OHEXOH · 2014-12-02T11:40:24.000Z

I got Alex to send me a new chip with the soldered cap added, I sent him back my old SID chip. Seems to have fixed the issue, but yes, the chip is noisy. I have mine running into the OT with its noise gate set to around -45db.

I still can’t play mine via the OT (or any other Elektron gear) which is pretty annoying as it doesn’t fit into my studio as neatly as I’d hoped. Alex says this is a simple fix in software so waiting on that.

What else, it’s not great at keeping time with a midi signal. A 16th note pattern is all over the place. Again, Alex says this will be fixed with a software update. Just waiting on when.

The USA adapter is pretty rubbish, I have two of them and they both don’t work (or do but need to be partly pulled out of the socket to work). Fortunately I had another decent multi plug to hand so am using that for now.

But when it gets going it sounds great. Some of the pattern based sequence presets sound lovely. Can’t wait to hook this up to the OT to sync and sample.

EX/

cube48 · 2014-12-03T13:32:52.000Z

Mine tSID was sent back and repaired by Alex although I had the cap fix already in place.
Now I’m able to play it properly but so far only through cheap USB<>MIDI interface. Direct connection to MIDI keyboard (Kawai K5000) or Octatrack results in randomly stuck notes and generally weird behavior. Gotta do some more testing also with other gear. I’ll try to measure any possible current differences between those connections.

Edit: Yes, I also experience VCA bleed but that’s easily solved by mixer noise gate. Actually it is nice on certain sounds to leave a bit of a noise tail in place. Adds some nice grungy character.

tsv · 2014-12-04T01:43:42.000Z

I’ve been lucky since I first got my unit and it’s been working well. I decided to try a different SID chip and bought an 8580R5 from a reputable guy on midibox.org

I replaced the 6581 with an 8580R5. Switched the power jumper and the caps. I could immediately notice a brighter sound and much better resonance but also a lot of sporadic behavior similar to what others have experienced. Not really usable. I put the 6581 back in and it works great again. Go figure!

I liked the 8580 brighter sound and resonance. The 6581 is darker and grungier which is also cool. Not sure what’s going on but I’ll stick with the 6581 for now since it’s actually functional.