Synthesizer Build part-66: ROLAND TB-303 VCF.

The famous acid house filter from the Roland TB-303. A Eurorack friendly project and a ladder-filter that sounds amazing. 

This is the 14th filter on this website and this is one with a very specific sound so I thought let's make a project out of this because I think that this filter in particular will be of great interest to many people because of it's unique sound. I based my layout on a layout that Jake Jakaan made from a schematic he found online in combination with the original service manual schematic of the TB-303 (TB 303 stands for Transistor Base 303). 

I have to warn you, the filter sounds great in itself but to get that Acid-House sound out of it requires more than just this filter. That specific sound is a delicate balance between filter settings and envelope input and maybe some LFO or offset voltage added. When I first tried this filter I didn't get anything near that classic sound. However, I found some tips and instructions online which helped a lot. I posted a very helpful short video at the bottom of this article below the video demo's that tels you how to get that sound.

I got close in the end though as you can see in the demo video below. My mate Jake Jakaan built a few of these filters and he can really make them sound like a 303 should sound but then he's a professional musician. 

This is really the first filter I ever built that you have to learn how to use. I'm getting there tho ;)

A LITTLE HISTORY:

The TB303 was a bass synthesizer made by Roland and released in 1981. It was supposed to simulate bass guitars but it sounded nothing like a bass guitar and it became a commercial flop. It was taken out of production in 1984 after a run of 10.000 units. These were sold off cheaply by Roland. (If only we knew then what we know now @___@)  However, cheap second hand 303's were picked up by electronic musicians and the twirping, squelching sound became a main stay of electronic dance music genres like Acid House, Chicago house and Techno. There are now numerous clones on the market and original units fetch prices of over $3000,- on the second hand market. Originals were also modified in the 80's, adding distortion and external inputs (Nova mod).

The TB-303 was designed by Tadao Kikumoto who also designed the TR-909 drum machine. It has a single oscillator which produces a sawtooth wave or a squarewave. This goes into a 24dB/Oct lowpass ladderfilter which is manipulated by an envelope generator. 

I have read that it's actually an 18dB/Oct lowpass filter instead of 24dB but I don't know if that's true.

SCHEMATIC:

Here is the schematic. It's a bit low resolution because this was originally a file with a black background and bright green lines. I took it into Photoshop and inverted the image and brightened it up and made it more legible. I also included the transistor pinouts. All transistors on the schematic are NPN 2SC945's except for the two at the bottom marked 733. Those are two 2SA733 PNP transistors.

The capacitors in the schematic are not marked as polarized but the 10µF electrolytic caps are obviously polarized and for the 1µF you can use either type. Polarized or non-polarized. I used polarized caps in the layouts below so that you can see where the minus pole goes if you choose to use polarized caps.

Here's the filter part of the service manual schematic for reference. It has two 2K2 resistors from +12V to T1 and T2 but I think that's a misprint. It needs to be 22K:

The filter does not use any negative voltage. It is powered by +12V and it also needs a +5V powerrails which is provided by the onboard voltage regulator. The +12V goes through a 100 Ohm resistor. I wondered whether or not to include that but I wanted to see how much voltage that resistor takes off from the original 12V and it's only 0.2V so I left it in.

Staying true to the original includes using 2SC945 transistors for the NPN trannies and 2SA733 for the PNP transistors. You can however use other transistors like the BC547 and BC557 but beware when you do because you'll have to redo the layouts. The 2SC945 and 2SA733 have an unusual pinout. It's emitter to the left, collector in the middle and base to the right. I had to constantly keep this in mind when designing the layouts and it wasn't easy but I managed it in a day.

The transistor pairs at the top and bottom of the ladder and the transistors next to it with the common emitter connection need to be matched pairs!! Very important with this filter.

I came to the conclusion that my usual method of matching on Hfe didn't meet the case here so I did it with setting up a differential amplifier on a small breadboard. The method is shown below.

I ordered a hundred of the 2SC945's and made 10 matched pairs and I used those transistors in this project even with the middle trannies in the ladder. I thought I might aswell use all matched transistors but you don't have to do that. You can use other transistor types like the BC547 and BC557 which are used in the Doepfer A-103 VCF6 filter but you'll have to redesign the layout because their pinout is different from the 2SC and 2SA transistors I used.

Two resistors in the circuit have been replaced by trimmer potmeters so we can tune them in to our liking. These are in the Cutoff and Resonance control so they are important to the sound and they do make quite a difference. The way I set them was almost fully open for both (max. resistance).

To make things extra clear I just completed the KiCad version of this schematic:

MATCHING TRANSISTORS.

For this filter I didn't want to rely on just measuring Hfe and matching the transistors on that value. I used the Ian Fritz methode. I took a small piece of stripboard and set up a simple differential amplifier with two transistors. If the transistors are matched then the voltage measured between the two emitters should be zero. Make sure you let the transistors cool down after handling them with your fingers.

For D1 any silicon diode will do. The voltage drop over this diode ensures both transistors get exactly the same Collector Base voltage. Beware this setup requires a dual voltage source of +/-12V. You also need to make sure the two 100K resistors have exactly the same value.

You then need to switch the transistor positions and measure again. I didn't bother with that though. An other method is to leave one transistor in place and change the second one. If you find two transistors that display the same voltage difference from the fixed transistor, those two will be matched.

This method worked very well. I used matched pairs throughout the ladder filter and also for the differential amplifier made up of T1 and T2.

Please read the full article on transistor matching by downloading the article by Ian Fritz. 

Below is a picture of my transistor matching stripboard. I can get them matched to within 1/10,000th of a Volt or 0.1 milliVolt. I cut a DIP8 IC socket in half and connected the top and bottom pin together. I use that as socket for the transistors under test and with this setup I can measure NPN transistors with different pinouts because I have an emitter contact at the top and the bottom. I placed the sockets away from eachother to make it easier to change transistors without influencing the other transistor. I usually accept transistors that measure a difference within 0.3 milliVolt or lower. If you go to extremes with accuracy you'll be measuring until doomsday before you find a match.

LAYOUTS:

Below are the layouts for this project which are verified as ever. I used them to build my filter.

Wiring:

I numbered the transistors that are not part of the ladder, using the same order as in the schematic so you can easily understand which transistor is which when you compare it with the schematic. The light grey transistors are the 2SA733's. I included an extra CV input with the same level control as the Envelope input. 

The transistors in the ladder have the base and collector connected together so they actually function as diodes.

As you can see the envelope and CV input level potmeters have pin 3 connected to a 10K resistor and not straight to ground as is usual with input level potmeters. This is done so that the Envelope input is never fully closed. This is also the case in the original Roland TB-303 because the envelope input is very important for the characteristic sound of this filter. In my own build I did connect pin 3 of the CV potmeter straight to ground instead of the 10K resistor because I wanted to be able to fully close that input. So I leave it up to you how you want to wire that up.

If you look closely at the audio input you can see a 220K resistor on the stripboard that isn't used. I have the audio going straight into the filter through the 1µF cap. Originally that 220K should be in series with that cap but I think the value is too high. I later experimented with a lower value but you can also leave the resistor out.

Stripboard only view:

Cuts and wirebridges seen from the component side. As always, mark the cuts on the component side with a Sharpie or Edding marker and then stick a pin through the marked holes and mark them again on the copper side. Then cut the strips at the marked positions with a sharp hand held 6- or 7mm drill bit.

Bill of materials:

PICTURES:

Here are some pictures of the build proces:

Cuts and wirebridges done:

Everything is soldered in.

Here's the design I made for the panel. Feel free to us it if you want.

And here's how the panel came out:

You can see the colours don't come out as strong with clear waterslide paper as opposed to using white waterslide paper. But I like this effect. The design shouldn't be too overpowering I think.

Here's a look at the finished module:

Side/rear view. I had built a version before this one but it didn't work but I re-used the panel I made so the mounting holes are not positioned where they need to be so that's why the M3 bolt is bent sideways.

VIDEO DEMO:

This filter has that typical ladder filter quirck where if you turn the resonance up the volume goes down and you get less bass. Most ladder filters have this characteristic. The Moog ladderfilter does it and even the Doepfer A-103 VCF-6 does it. 

Here's demo, trying to get that Acid sound using some of the tips from the YouTube short video below. I came close but it's not quite there. I had a slowly rising sinewave on the CV input and a short pulsing envelope, with just some decay and all the other parameters of the ADSR closed. Instead of an LFO I think an offset voltage alone would be better. You can hear it reaches that "eeeuuurrrghhh" sound as the LFO rises in voltage but then it gets too high and it starts to whistle more. I'm going to do more experiments, using the voltage processor and see where that gets me.

Here's an other short test. Beside the envelope input I also had an offset voltage going into the CV input. That offset voltage came from the dual voltage processor to which I also had a sawtooth LFO connected. I set the processor in such a way that I always fed an offset voltage to the filter but the voltage would swing between about +2V to +4V. You can do this by raising the offset and then using the attenuverter to limit the maximum voltage. A very useful module to have in combination with this filter.

Here's a YouTube short explaining how to get the characteristic 303 sound:

Documentation:

Here's the webpage of Tim Stinchcombe about the TB303 ladder filter.

Here's Ian Fritz's original article on transistor matching in PDF form

PCB Service:

A PCB for this filter is available. It's 6.6 by 9 CM

It costs €10 incl. free shipping inside European union. Use the paypal link below to order. 2 in stock.

(PCB only, no components.) 

That's all for this one.

If you have any questions or remarks about this project then please put them in the comments below or post them in the special facebook group for this website.

Synthesizer Build part-65: YAMAHA CS FILTER w IG00156

 A LP, BP and HP filter in one chip. Not a filter you can just decide to build on a whim though. It uses Yamaha's own IG00156 VCF chip which is very rare and very expensive if you can find one. Like three figures expensive. This projects deals with a Eurorack version of this filter but of course it will work equally well for Kosmo sized synths.

PCB'S AVAILABLE ON REQUEST. Contact me on Facebook messenger. (2 in stock). They are 6 by 8 CM in size. The boards work fine but miss a connection you must make yourself but it couldn't be easier, just connect pins 1 and 9 of the IG00156 chip with a wirebridge.

A good friend of this website, a fellow Dutchman who happens to be an amazing psy-trance producer by the name of Jake Jakaan, signed to a top record label, who uses modules from this website gave me one of these chips. He managed to get hold of a few of them. He states this filter is great for filtering FM sounds from the TH VCO555. It's very low-mid heavy.

It was not easy to find a good schematic for this filter. In fact, all I had was the service manual for the CS-5 and a stripboard layout that someone put together which looked very dodgy and had some mistakes in it (although it did seem to work for my friend but I didn't use it).

I made a completely new schematic for this filter using the original circuit from the service manual and from that I made a new layout, small enough to fit a Eurorack system. The layout turned out to work faultlessly straightaway for which I was very grateful because the IG00156 is not a chip I'd like to blow up. The chip is actually quite robust, I found.

There are two things that are unique to this filter; it has a frequency dependent Q (resonance peak) and a gentle single pole lowpass effect. Resonance (Q) is achieved by damping rather than using a positive feedback loop and because damping will not go to zero the filter can not self oscillate.

This filter is used in all of the Yamaha CS range of synthesizers. Even in their flagship synthesizer, the CS-80. It's a two pole 12dB/Oct. state variable filter. In the CS-80 one chip is used for a lowpass filter and a second one for a highpass filter and in other CS synths like the CS-5, one chip is used for lowpass, bandpass and highpass. The filter I present here has all three functions under a switch although you could have each output go to its own socket but then you have to redesign the output stage or simply bypass the output opamp which I wouldn't advise. You should have opamps with a little bit of gain on the outputs.

Here is the schematic I made and on which I based the layouts below:

Here's a block diagram of the inside of the IG00156 chip:

Source: Yamaha IC Guidebook.

There's an in depth analysis of this filter on the Modwiggler forum: CLICK HERE to read that.

I added an audio level control on the input because this filter is rather sensitive to high volume levels. I also added a gain potmeter on the output that gives you the option to set the gain from 2 to 4 times with a 100K potmeter. That is more than enough, but if you want more gain, put in a 500K potmeter which will give you 12 times gain, or 1M which will provide 23 times gain. It will just clip. There's no use in doing that. I really wouldn't advise it.

The schematic says to use +/-15V but I tested it on a dual 12V powersupply and it works fine. The chip inputs for the cutoff and resonance functions are very sensitive and the complete cutoff range is controlled by a voltage that goes from 0 to 0,25V. Only 250 milliVolt for the full range. This is achieved by the voltage divider consisting of the 22K resistor in the cutoff line and the 470 Ω resistor between pins 7 and 8 (or pin 7 and ground really). The potmeters for Cut-off and Resonance need to be fed with +10 volts so I added 1K8 resistors to the pins where the power comes in to cut off roughly 2 volts. You can actually use other values for these potmeters because they're only used as voltage dividers but then you will have to re-calculate the values of those two resistors to make sure the pots receive +10 volts. For instance, if you use 100K potmeters you're need to use two 18K resistors.

I used this schematic to make my stripboard layout which wasn't that difficult because it's quite a simple filter. There aren't many components in it. It worked straight away although at first I couldn't get it working because I had not wired everything up yet. I thought I had connected all the knobs I needed for testing but I forgot the V/Oct input. That needs to be connected to ground if it is not in use and once I had done that the filter sprang to life. After testing I added a V/Oct section to the stripboard layout as explained in the next paragraph.

VOLT per OCTAVE INPUT:

At first I had the V/Oct socket grounded through the socket switch but then I realized that isn't needed because the V/Oct input is always connected to ground via the 470Ω resistor. 

I applied a voltage divider to the V/Oct input consisting of an 18K and a 470Ω resistor, I went with an octave range of 8 octaves, meaning that the input would get 8 Volts at maximum which would need to be reduced to the same range as the Cutoff input because they all enter the same summer inside the chip (see diagram above). 18K with a 470Ω would give 0 to 203milliVolt which works out perfectly.

Because the filter can not self-oscillate anyway, the filter can not be used as a sinewave oscillator with the resonance fully open. So accurate volt per octave tracking is not an issue and therefore none of these calculations need to be super accurate, it just needs to work so that it sounds good and the filter now tracks nicely up with the octaves.

LAYOUTS:

Here are the layouts I made for this filter. As always they are verified, I used them for my build. As you can see it's a really simple project. There's only 25 resistors, a few capacitors and wirebridges and the chip sockets to put in. The biggest job will be the wiring up of the potmeters and sockets and the making of the panel.

Wiring diagram. Note that the Resonance potmeter is connected the other way around from all the other potmeters, with ground at the clockwise lug. This is usually the case in VCF's.  

Stripboard only:

It's best to use bi-polar or none polarized capacitors for the 1µF caps in the filter outputs and on the audio input. This is because we're dealing with bi-polar signals that go through the zero Volt line. The caps don't need to be this specific value. You can use anything between 1 and 10µF without problems.

As you can see all three filter outputs have a 100K resistor to ground. Together with the 1µF capacitor this forms a highpass filter with a cutoff frequency of 1.6Hz so in effect it keeps DC voltage from passing and all the other frequencies get through. Make sure you use high quality capacitors for the two 1,5nF filter caps. I used Polystyrene ones which always sound the best.

Cuts and wirebridges. As always, mark the cuts with a Sharpie or Edding pen on the component side and then stick a pin through the marked holes and mark them again on the copper side. Then cut the strips at the marked positions with a sharp hand held 6- or 7mm dril bit. Make sure you work accurately!!

And here is the bill of materials. It won't be easy to find an IG00156 chip. They are long out of production so your best bet is websites that sell rare synthesizer components. They go on Reverb for $189,- but that is top dollar. They should go for between $70,- a $100,- 

I did not include any bypass caps or extra electrolytic caps for the voltage rails. If you want to include those you need to add them to the list (2 x 100nF and 2 x 10µF/25V). They're not on the layout or schematic either but there's room enough on the stripboard to put them in over the voltage rails.

The two trimpotmeters should really be the normal kind and not multiturn trimmer. There's really no use in having multiturn trimmers because there's no need for that kind of accuracy.

NOTE: There is a Hongkong based listing of the IG00156 chip floating around on the internet selling them for €10,- Don't fall for that, it's a scam!!

PICTURES:

Here are some pictures from the build proces:

All components soldered on:

Testing:

Drilling the panel using a copy of the panel design I made in Photoshop as a dril guide:

Waterslide design applied to the faceplate and now drying on the central heating. All the creases you see will be gone by the time this is dry.

Finished panel ready to receive the pots and sockets etc. After the waterslide design has dried we cut out the holes with a very sharp hobby knife and then apply two more layers of clear acryllic lacquer and let it dry overnight.

Finished module. The module is 14hp wide (7 CM) and 3.7 CM deep.

I only had a 4 way rotary switch, that's why the HP mode on the panel has 2 settings. Lugs 3 and 4 of the switch were connected together.

Side view:

Side and back view:

Here's an oscilloscope screenshot of a squarewave wave in LP mode with full resonance applied:

CALIBRATING THE FILTER:

There are two trimpots on this filter that need to be set.

The first one is the 100K trimpot. You use this to set the throw of the Cut-Off potmeter. Set it in such a way that you get the most resolution of the Cut-Off potmeter.

The other one, the 200K, is used to set the Resonance to maximum. Turn up resonance and turn the trimmer until you're at max resonance. This will probably be around the middle of the trimmer at about a 100K.

It's best to have normal trimpots not multiturn ones. There's no need for those and the normal trimpots are easier to use.

VIDEO DEMO:

Here's the first test I did after finishing the project. This filter literally makes the room shake. If you turn up the volume (with good speakers or headphones) you will hear stuff starting to rattle in the background. It's a very bass heavy filter which really sounds great!

Here's a short demo I made with the X4046 VCO hard synced by the 555 VCO going through the filter.

Here's an other video I found on YouTube dealing with the CS-5 Lowpass filter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F8_RfVzO2A

Here's a Facebook video of my friend Jake Jakaan using 3 of these filters in bandpass mode to create a formant filter that makes sounds akin to human speech.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1A2Q6Ws1AE/

Okay that's it for this article. Not a filter anyone can build alas but this website is an archive of all the modules I built myself so it certainly belongs here. I also noticed that Yamaha filter schematics that specifically deal with the CS filter are almost non existent on the internet except for the service manuals. So I hope this article will provide at least one good schematic for those looking for it.

If you have any questions or remarks about this project then please put them in the comments below or post them on the special Facebook group for this website.

Synthesizer Build part-56: VCF-1 STATE VARIABLE FILTER by THOMAS HENRY.

 A very easy to build and awesome sounding state variable filter by Thomas Henry. For Eurorack or Kosmo systems.

I have covered many different types of filters on my website but I had not yet built a State Variable filter. What does that even mean I hear you ask. Well state variable means that it can simultaneously provide two or more types of filtering. In this case the filter has Lowpass, Highpass and Bandpass outputs and rather than having to switch the filter into these different modes, you have them available together, so each filtertype has its own output.

I found this particular schematic on "Birthofasynth.com", a website that has all of Thomas Henry's projects on it.

In the article about this filter he calls it a 'barebones' filter. Very much taken straight from the CA3080 datasheet. That may be so but it's still a great sounding filter. The way it sounds reminded me of the Steiner-Parker filter but I think it may even be better. It has a bit more edge to it I think.

It's a really old school filter with a 12dB/Oct. cutoff slope (2 pole filter) and it sounds like a 70's synthesizer filter should sound. It's pure sounding, phat in the low end (especially using squarewaves in Lowpass mode) with a beautiful but little bit agressive resonance. I own a Behringer Odyssey and that synth has a choise of three filters and one of them is a 12dB/Oct. filter and that is my favourite type of VCF. I always have the Odyssey set to the two pole filter. Anyway I urge you to read the article I linked to above if you want to know more about what TH said about this filter and its development.

THIS FILTER WILL RUN FINE ON BOTH A DUAL 12V OR A DUAL 15V POWERSUPPLY!

SCHEMATIC:

Below is the schematic I used for this filter. It says the filter is to be used with a dual 15V powersupply but I did all my testing running it on a dual 12V powersupply because many of you will be building this for Eurorack and it works just fine. I also used a Eurorack friendly size of stripboard which is 24 by 41 holes. That will fit behind a Eurorack panel.

As you can see the filter uses two OTA chips, the AS3080. These are the modern version of the original CA3080 chips and I believe these are less noisy than the originals too but they have that original sound. I got mine from Electric Druid, They are also available at Thonk and other online retailers. 

The LM13700 OTA chip also has two CA3080 chips inside and can be used in this circuit but then you'd have to design your own layout because that is a DIP16 IC. For this particular project you'll need the AS3080 chips. 

The numbering of the opamp pins has been changed to fit the layouts below, because I used the opamps in a different order to the original schematic.

The schematic shows a two transistor exponential converter with a PTC as temperature compensation. which we already know from the Thomas Henry 555-VCO. The temperature compensation is only useful if you intend to use the self oscillation of the filter as an extra oscillator. I never used a filter in this way and I can't imagine any of you will ever use the filter for that purpose so you can leave out the PTC and just use a 2K resistor. That's what I did eventhough I have these PTC's in my stock. In fact Thomas Henry himself used a 2K resistor as he mentions in the article linked above.

You do have to match the two PNP transistors though. I matched them as I always do just by measuring the Hfe on my multimeter and picking two transistor that measure the same value.

You might use the filter in full self resonance mode if you're looking for a special sound effect. I tested it and it will track with the keyboard because it has a Volt per Octave input. I have not tested how accurate the tracking is but I do think you can make it track over a few octaves if you want. Beware that the self oscillation is about twice as loud as the normal audio you get from this filter!!

You can leave out the Frequency Fine Tune potmeter too because that's only there to tune the self resonance for tracking. As a Cut-Off Frequency potmeter it is pretty much useless. One thing you can do is change the 3M3 resistor to a 100K and add a socket to that potmeter so it turns into an extra CV input with level control. Wire it up like the Envelope input. That's what I did myself. I find two CV inputs a necessity for a filter.

LAYOUTS:

Below are the layouts I made for this build. As always they are verified. I used them to build my filter. I was very thorough with checking this stripboard layout for faults before I printed it out and used it to start building my filter. I'm glad I checked it over a few times because I did manage to catch some mistakes in the design fase which saved me some hours troubleshooting I think.

Anyway the build went fine and apart from one transistor being faulty which needed changing out the filter worked straightaway.

Here's the wiring diagram:

All potmeters are seen from the BACK SIDE!

The Cutoff Frequency potmeter is wired up in such a way that the filter opens up when you turn it clockwise. The Resonance potmeter is wired up so that it gives more resonance when you turn it clockwise going into self oscillation when turned fully clockwise. It looks asif the wiring of the Resonance potmeter is the wrong way around but that's not the case. Resonance increases when the wiper moves clockwise towards the connection to ground. Resonance potmeters are usually wired up like this.

A little remark about the Frequency Fine Control. Only include this potmeter if you intend using the filter as an oscillator with the resonance at self-oscillation. As I mentioned earlier, the Frequency Fine Control is meant to tune the self oscillation of the filter so that it tracks with the keyboard. In itself it has very little influence on the CutOff Frequency so if you intend to use this filter just as a VCF and the tracking accuracy of the self oscillation isn't important to you than leave out the fine control potmeter. It will save some space on the faceplate too. I myself left out the Fine control potmeter too. I changed the 3M3 resistor for a 100K one and connected a second CV input to that point, complete with level control potmeter like the envelope input. Here's a detail of what that looks like:

Below is the stripboard only view. A little tip, when soldering in the trimmer potmeters put the wipers in the middle position. That way you won't have to do much tuning when you're testing the filter. 

Here's an overview of the cuts and wirebridges. Start soldering these in first before you solder in any components. There are 35 wirebridges to solder in. Make sure you're very very accurate here. It's easy to make a mistake and one wirebridge in the wrong position and the filter won't work.

And finally the cuts only as seen from the component side. As always, mark the cuts on the component side first with a waterproof Sharpie or Edding 3000 and then stick a pin through the marked holes and mark them again on the copper side. Then you can cut the strips at the marked places with a sharp hand held 6 or 7mm drill bit. This way you have the least chance of making mistakes.

Once again you need to be very accurate here because the component placement leaves no room for errors.

And here's the Bill Of Materials:

If you're going to build this module for Eurorack then I urge you to order miniature potmeters. You're going to need all the space you can get. There are 5 potmeters to accomodate and 7 sockets.

Adding extra's (like an LED and 2nd CV input):

As you can see there's only one audio input but it is easy enough to add more inputs. You can simply connect them through a 100K resistor to pin 9 of the TL074 and they will be summed together. You can also put in more CV inputs if you wish by connecting them through a 100K resistor to pin 2 of the TL074, which is what I did.

   The trimpots for the Offset control could actually be left out. They are not really necessary. They are part of the design because the early versions of the CA3080 chip (which was originally used in this filter) had quite a bit of variation in their offset voltages. But the latest generations don't have that problem anymore. I left the trimmers in because I stayed true to the schematic but it's up to you. The filter should work fine without them. Should you take them out then you can remove the trimmers and the 100K resistors in series with the wipers. Leave the 22 Ohm resistors to ground in place.

   Finally we have an opamp left unused! We have to do something with that right? :-)

I always like to include a LED if I can, so I altered the layout a little and made a jumpwire from the envelope input to pin 3 of the TL072. The green wirebridge from pin 10 of the TL074 needs to be lengthened and soldered straight to the bottom strip (X). Now we have configured the opamp as a voltage follower or buffer so we can connect a Bi-coloured LED to it without drawing any current from the envelope input. I used a big 4K7 resistor as current limiter so the LED will only be the brightest with the highest voltage. Below is the layout to show this alteration. 

The components for this change are not listed in the Bill of Materials because this was done as an after thought, but it's only a LED and a resistor. I used a red/blue bi-coloured LED.

ABOUT THE AC/DC SWITCH:

You may have noticed the audio input of the filter has an AC/DC switch in it. This is provided for instances where the full audio bandwidth of the signal is desired. DC coupling allows very low notes to pass through uninhibited by the input capacitor. This is actually the only filter on this website (apart from the ARP2600 LPF) that doesn't have a capacitor in the audio path, when switched to DC that is.

A DC signal can pass straight through the filter without ever encountering a capacitor so the filter can actually process a control signal! This opens up an entirely different can of worms. (In a positive way.)

For example you could patch the CV output of a sequencer through the Lowpass mode of this filter before it goes into a VCO. If you then modulate the cutoff frequency with an LFO you can create some really spacey effects.

CALIBRATION:

This is the procedure for the V/Oct. tracking of the filter in full self oscillation:

Connect the lowpass output to your VCA so you can hear the signal. Be careful, the self oscillation signal is quite loud! (Very loud in fact)

Connect a keyboard or other V/Oct. source to the 1V/Oct. input of the filter.

Put the filter in self oscillation by turning the resonance full clockwise and adjust the V/Oct trimmer for as close to a one Volt per Octave interval as possible. Go between C2 and C3 on the keyboard for instance and turn the trimmer to get the best result. Use the Frequency Fine control to help you tune the oscillator to the right notes, if you kept this potmeter.

About the trimmers.... what I actually did was put them in the middle position and just leave it at that. There really is nothing to trim because the modern AS3080 chips don't have erratic offset voltages in their output like the old CA3080's used to have. That's why this option is built into this filter, to trim away the offset from the CA3080's but with the new AS3080 there is no offset voltage.

So I didn't do any trimming and the filter works fine but I'll give you the procedure anyway, but as far as I'm concerned, you can ignore it.

Here is the procedure as mentioned in the official article: 

Put the trimmers in the middle position. With multiturn trimmers you start turning them untill they start clicking. Then turn back and count the number of turns until the wiper is at the other side and you hear it clicking again. Now turn the wiper half the number of turns you counted. Then it's in the middle position. You could also just measure the voltage coming from the wiper and turn until it's at zero Volts. Then it's in the middle too.

Connect a square/pulse wave to the filter input and monitor the Lowpass output with an oscilloscope. Now check for DC deflection as you turn the Frequency Cutoff potmeter through its range. Adjust the trimmer to get the least DC deflection at the output. 

The trimmers are interactive (they influence eachother) so you may have to go back and forth between them a few times.

There should really be very little to trim. As I mentioned earlier, the filter will actually work fine even without these offset trimmers and with the AS3080 there shouldn't be any offset voltage to speak of.

PICTURES:

Here are some pictures I took during the build proces:

As long as I was waiting for the new powder coated aluminium to come in the mail, I thought I'd make a template for the panel out of cardboard, so I can mount all the components in it and see if all the wiring is long enough. As you can see I changed my mind about the switch placement and I needed to lengthen several wires but it all fits nicely behind a Kosmo sized panel of 20 x 7.5 CM. I want to install this filter in my DIY synthesizer, not my Eurorack system. I think, if you want to fit it behind a eurorack panel, you have to make it a bit wider still.

Here's the finished module all ready to go mounted in my DIY synthesizer: I did all my testing running this filter on +/-12V and it was absolutely fine. But in my synthesizer I have two powersupplies, one for +/-12V and one for +/-15V, so I decided to connect it to the +/-15V supply for permanent use. 

(Boy, does this thing sound good. I love it!)

I wrote the labels with a white acryllic pen. I got new pens and this one is not as scratch resistant as the old pens I used to have so after I finished labeling everything I sprayed the panel with a layer of clear lacquer.

The stripboard is mounted behind the panel with a piece of plexiglass that I bent at both ends so it grips the stripboard like the fingers of a hand. I glued two little pieces of plexiglass at the ends so the stripboard can't slide out and I secured it with hot glue. Then I drilled a 3mm hole through one end and mounted it to the panel with an M3 bolt. I also used superglue to secure it and keep it from rotating should the bolt get loose.

When I first tested the filter I found that the Frequency control wasn't working. The Resonance was fine and I could see on the oscilloscope that the filter was doing it's thing but no Frequency control. I took my scope probe and tested the legs of the transistor pair and sure enough. Transistor Q2 was not working. So I put in a new matched pair of transistors and now everything was fine. It all worked as it should. Strangely enough the transistor was not faulty. It must have been a bad connection.

Here is a video of me testing the filter and the different outputs. It's a video I also uploaded to my YouTube channel.

I found with testing that the Lowpass sounds best with a squarewave on the input. The High- and Bandpass filters sound the best when you use a Sawtooth wave on the input.

Here's a little test video with a demonstration of the extra CV input I installed (with level potmeter). I have a sinewave connected to the second CV input. The rest is like the previous video:

Okay, that's it for now. Enjoy building this filter. It's a really good one!

If you have any questions about this or other projects then please comment below or post your question in the special Facebook Group for this website.

Synthersizer Build part-45: STEINER-PARKER DIODE FILTER for EURORACK.

This is the same Yusynth Steiner Parker diode multimode filter I posted in project 26 but with a new layout for Eurorack.

I'm busy setting up a Eurorack system dedicated to live performances, so I want to remake some of the modules I built earlier to make them fit the Eurorack 3U size. So here's the first one I converted, one of my absolute favourite filters, the Steiner Parker multimode diode filter with Lowpass, Highpass, Bandpass and Allpass. This is a Sallen-Key type filter with positive feedback so that you don't loose volume when you increase the resonance like you do with the Moog ladderfilter for instance.

I won't go further into how it works etc. You can go to the previous Steiner Parker article for more details.

I started out matching the diodes I needed by measuring the voltage drop but they all came from the same batch and the measurements were so close that I stopped matching and just put them in (and the filter works absolutely fine). The transistors however must be closely matched otherwise the filter won't be in balance. You can set the right balance with the 1K potmeter but that's only a fine control so make sure the transistors are matched. You can match them by simply measuring the HFE and look for two with the same values.

When you start out building, make the cuts in the copper strips first and then put in the wirebridges. Then you can put in the rest of the components.

About component values:

For the level potmeters I used 10K linear ones because that's what I had. You can use any value from 10K up, it doesn't matter for level potmeters. Keep to the recommended value for the Cut-Off and Resonance though. I used a 100K for the Cut-Off frequency potmeter and I changed R26 to a 100K to make the voltage drop over the potmeter the right value. This works perfectly fine. You can of course use a 47K (50K) potmeter but then use a 47K resistor for R26. (R26 is the 100K resistor in strip A to the right).

For the 1,5nF filter capacitors I would recommend using good quality polystyrene, polyester or silver mica types. These form the heart of the filter so don't use ceramic caps for those.

Btw, I left out the two 10 Ohm resistors in the + and -12V strips because this filter was designed for 15V but running on 12V so I wanted to avoid any further voltage drops. I also left out the bypass capacitors but if you want to include those just put a 100nF capacitor from +12V to ground and one from -12V to ground right above the location of the chip. There's room enough left. (I did put them in later, just to be sure, but they are not on the layout or the bill of materials.)

LAYOUTS:

Below are the layouts I made for this project. They are verified as always. I used these for my own build. I left out the second CV-IN and the second AUDIO-IN potmeters and jacks to keep the layout free from clutter. You just copy the first input if you want two of them (which I strongly advise you to do especially for the CV). The stripboard is 24 by 41 holes. The switch to choose between Lowpass, Bandpass, Highpass and Allpass is a normal 2 pole 4 way rotary switch. 

Instead of using a reverse logarithmic 50K potmeter for Resonance I used a 100K linear type with a 100K resistor soldered onto it to get the reverse logarithmic characteristic. (See layout below. Two 100K resistors in parallel make for one 50K resistor). This is the recommended alternative in the original Yusynth article and it works really well. Of course, if you happen to have a reverse logarithmic 50K potmeter then use that instead of the 100K pot + 100K resistor solution. Should you have problems with resonance coming in too soon, put a 10K resistor in series with pin 3 of the resonance trimmer potmeter to get the throw of the resonance panel potmeter more to the clockwise side. Thanks to Nick in the comments below for the heads up on that one!  Here's an image of the alternative wiring of the Resonance potmeter:

Wiring Diagram:

Stripboard only:

About trimmer T1: 

I changed trimmer T1 from a normal one to a multiturn trimmer which made it much easy to set. You need to set this trimmer so that the Cutoff frequency potmeter has the correct throw with full resonance at about 2/3 clockwise with the resonance potmeter set to almost self oscillation. I measured the resistance of T1 when I was done and it was about 640 Ohm.

This filter works best if it has a 1V/Oct CV permanently connected to it, although you can't play the self oscillation as you can with some other filters where you can use the filter as an oscillator. This filter's resonance is just too agressive for that.

Making the cuts accurately:

Here's a layout of all the cuts you must make and the wirebridges you need to solder in. This is viewed from the component side. Mark the cuts on the component side, with an Edding pen, and then stick a needle through the marked holes and mark them again on the copper side. Then you can cut them with a hand held 7mm dril bit. The cuts are all over the place so concentrate and be accurate otherwise the filter won't work. Don't forget the cut underneath the wirebridge at position S-19:

Bill of materials: Buy a batch of 100 BC547 transistors if you don't have any, so you have enough to choose from when looking for a matched pair. If you want to include de-coupling capacitors then order two extra 100nF caps because these are not included in the BOM. Order good quality polystyrene or silver mica or polyester types for the three 1,5nF filter caps.

Here's the schematic drawing by Yusynth:

Here are some pictures of the build proces and the finished product. Notice I had to put two capacitors in parallel to create a 680nF capacitor. I didn't have one in stock.

I soldered all the wires directly to the copper side of the print and mounted the print with the component side pointing backwards of course, otherwise you can't get at the trimmers. I put some Gaffa tape over the pins of the 4 way rotary switch to avoid accidental contact with the print or wiring.

 

A look at the finished panel. I managed to fit everything in nicely. I had this piece of powdercoated aluminium left over so that was perfect for this project. I made the 3mm mounting holes wider to give me some room to move the module sideways to fit the rest of the modules (which are yet to come ^___^)

Finally a word about hum. This filter is susceptible to hum especially when using a switching powersupply. I have no problems with mine in my DIY synth because it uses linear powersupplies but my Eurorack filter did suffer from this. I solved it by putting two 1000µF/25V electrolytic capacitors over the powerrails. This provides enough capacitance to suppress the hum. It worked fine for me. See picture below. The overall depth of the module is 45mm with these caps installed. Still below 5 CM.

There's a forum post about the hum problem here -- CLICK HERE --

Okay that's it for this one.  

If you have any questions or remarks please comment below or post them in the Facebook group for this website where we have a great little community willing to help anyone encountering problems with the projects.