Ribbon controller video

Reribbon

Some time ago (quite a while really) I discovered my ribbon controller seemed to have stopped working. I opened it up, poked around, decided the SoftPot had somehow become damaged, decided I didn’t want to shell out for a new one right away, put it aside for some time (quite a while really), took it […]

Ribbons and knots

I went to use my ribbon controller for the first time in quite a while and discovered it wasn’t working. After a lot of examination I’ve come to the conclusion the SoftPot is damaged. No sign of physical injury but it behaves as if the conductive and resistive layers are in permanent contact a couple […]

Building a ribbon controller (Part 4)

The ribbon controller project is done! (I don’t always finish the projects I start, unfortunately. But this one I did.) It was a pretty straightforward task to transfer the prototype interface circuit to perfboard. I added a 12-pin header in case I ever want to turn it into a Eurorack module, but for now it’s still […]

Building a ribbon controller (Part 3)

Video here. So I now have a functioning prototype ribbon controller. The business with the USB-to-serial converter was resolved when I realized that while the Sparkfun one I was using has a female header that the Arduino Pro Mini just plugs into, the Pololu one has male pin headers, and has to be connected to the […]

Building a ribbon controller (Part 2)

Lengthy video here. I built a prototype ribbon controller today… well, no, actually I built a prototype ribbon controller interface. For now I’m letting an ordinary pot stand in for the SoftPot. There were some stumbling blocks but in the end it’s, well, kind of working. Only one output jack is really usable, the other two […]

Building a ribbon controller (Part 1)

For those who’d rather watch video than read blogs, I posted to YouTube about this… but honestly, I write better than I video. I found my Gakken SX-150 in the basement a while ago. That little cheap synth has a VCO, a VCF, an envelope generator for both the VCO and the VCA, and an […]