justin3am's Mutable Instruments Ambika build now w/sound!

[justin3am]

Oh, this isn't my first DIY project and I've certainly made bigger mistakes before... I was just hoping to get a chance to play this weekend.
Not to mention, the display is one of the hardest parts to remove once it's been soldered in place. I have a solder re-work station here at the office, so hopefully it will make things a bit easier.

[justin3am]

I received a package from DigiKey today...


Not the parts I was expecting.

I installed the new display (and the 100 Ohm resistor) and assembled the case.



It's alive!

[bftucker]

Congratulations! It looks great

===

[Kriminal]

What would you estimate the total cost to be on this, including your time ?

[Sendy]

What would you estimate the total cost to be on this, including your time ?

I was wondering the same thing.

[MWSOS]

Hi Martin, thanks for stopping by!

Your Shruthi mods for the SMR-4 are really awesome. I've been tempted to build a Shruthi-1 for a long time (back when it was called Shruti-1) but I wasn't really in the market for a mono synth. I may have to build one now, just to experiment with all the cool mods.

Thanks Justin - I'm pleased to see (and hear that your Ambika is now up and running after its couple of hiccups, and that you're so pleased with it

I've been investigating the possibility of adding filter FM to the Ambika, but since it's not practical to add a individual pot for each voice so I've been trying to hack the firmware to make it work. Olivier says that the control rate for the filter is limited to 1kHz, after which aliasing kicks in but I'm not deterred.

I'm really intrigued by your Res CMP mod. If I build the SMR-4 voices for Ambika (which I probably will), I may experiment with that mod and add jumpers for the different settings (since this probably isn't something I'd want to change frequently).

Olivier is quite correct that firmware won't be able to do what the true FM mod does, but I'm sure you could turn this 'changing the filter frequency 1000 times a second' it into a usable effects however it sounds

I did spend ages on the Res CMP mod - really must get some audio demos of that one onto Soundcloud along with all the others


Martin

[justin3am]

What would you estimate the total cost to be on this, including your time ?

I was wondering the same thing.

$750-$800 just for parts, PCBs, etc. It took a bit more than 30hrs of actual work but my time isn't worth much so I'm not billing myself for labor.

If I were to build one of these for someone else, I'd probably ask for $1000. I think others are asking $1100-$1200 for a completed Ambika.

[justin3am]

Thanks Martin and bftucker!
I should have some time to crank out patches and some sound demos, if not today or tomorrow, definitely over the weekend.

[robogone]

Thanks Martin and bftucker!
I should have some time to crank out patches and some sound demos, if not today or tomorrow, definitely over the weekend.

Definitely need to hear this thing up and running!

[justin3am]

Some dirty arp action.
http://soundcloud.com/justin3am/ambika-arp

[ritzysheens]

I love building synth kits!

[justin3am]

I love building synth kits!

Hey thanks! So do I.
You are known elsewhere as cutterfiltoff, if I'm not mistaken.
Good luck getting your video synth back, I just bought some raffle tickets.

[bftucker]

So...how are you enjoying your new synth so far?

And what's next?

[justin3am]

I like it a lot. It's a great sound design playground. I've recorded some stuff but nothing really worth posting.

I'm in the early stages of designing my next project (not really a kit based thing but based on existing circuits). Just doing some tests and high-level planning at the moment.

I've been really busy with work which means I don't have much time for my own projects. Hopefully I'll have something I can show off before the winter holidays.

[Hink]

awesome job Justin, thanx for sharing the build