17th July 2012
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#1 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter  | Studio Electronics SE1 & SE1-X go Modular!
check this out: click
The first prototype will be used by me ^^ I guess you can order your mod from stefan huebner if you just ask, or, read below..
What this features the blog already tells.
This unit is intended for use with cv enabled ADDA converters, in my case a modded creamware a16, a mod that also MR. Huebner does!
This is a dream come true for me, the guys using softsynths dont know what they miss from analog, the analog guys dont know what they miss from softsynths, the guys who use both dont know what they miss by not melting them completely together. now think about what you could do with analog sound controlled by the computer via real cv voltages?
The accuracy coming from computer cv (DA conversion) will be perfect timing and audio rate modulation...midi? whats that? 
unlimited sonic possibilities there, you can for example just take one track of your current mix, run it to the filter of the se1x, control intensity by adjusting simple track volume then you have controllable filter FM with any source you use in your sequencer, with midi then you could modulate the volume of that track which would control the intensity of the filter FM.
for those who really aim for crazyness and perfect timing, while still wanting to sound warm and analog this is the way, with the se1-x concept you can even save your starting sound, just make sure you take a note on what cv cables you had connected, but if hooked directly to an ADDA 8/16 channel converter, you are never going to change the cables anyways.
Or, think about playing the se1-x just like always with midi, but dont record the output but rather the Pitch cv to your computer, then edit it there slightly, or if you want to go crazy, add a simple technical compressor to that track, the result will crack you up 
In my opinion this is the perfect blend of analog and digital, you just can't melt it together any better anymore. Apart from that, the se1-x is such a nice sounding piece of gear, I thought this would be the ideal synth for such a mod, since it also has sysex midi program save capability, so you still have total recall.
The only thing it really lacked was cv controllability, with this mod you can almost cv control everything now, and at the same time even export it for recording in your sequencer
tell me what you think of it? prices depend on demand I guess. You can write it down here if you're interested, also make a note on the price region this mod would be worth to you, then Mr. huebner will see if a small series of those mods will be produced, I guess they will, although I would have no problem if I would be the only one using this thing
take care...been waiting now for way too long for this mod...just wanted to promote it a little bit, so probably the price I pay for the prototype goes down..
cheers
lee
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17th July 2012
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#2 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2004 Location: France (before in the Netherlands). My French is not really good but try me. It's good for me to practice some French gearslutz talk.
Posts: 1,355
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Intereseting!
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17th July 2012
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#3 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2009 Location: yurp
Posts: 9,575
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So this means truly snappy envelopes at last?
I think the SE1x is great, I'm glad to see that it is modifyable enough to pull a courageous stunt like that. Great initiative!
I sold mine again - have a Voyager OS and a Model D, but it had its own particular sound character, which I liked, different from both Voy and D. It has modulation both the Voy and D can't do, and lots of the patches show this off (a slight "twang" to the second or third oscillator to add flavor to leads and bass). The filter's nice and "splatty" as well.
While I'm not planning to buy one again to have it modded, I'm looking forward to hearing sound samples with the new possibilities.
Just asking - is this also going to be an option for regular SE1-owners? If so, you might want to advertise it as such - they're slightly cheaper to pick up and if everything goes fully modular then all the drawbacks of the SE1 are history.
__________________ For all the intelligence and knowledge that technology empowers us with, the lazy and stupid is amplified along with it (Staticstarter) Threads to check out: Chord Generators & Tips | Pop Sound Sources | |
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17th July 2012
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#4 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter |
thanks for the tipp yoozer, I will forward that to stefan huebner, Im sure if the demand is here, he will modify the mod to be also applicable to se1 synths
of course that would be way more economic! It just happened that I had a se1-x so the prototype got an se1-x mod
sound samples will follow, and I guess they will blow you away, I will do some very very slutty stuff with this synth once it's ready - think this: routing an external voice sample into the synth, letting an lfo (a software one) do the modulation on the filter - then speed it up to audio rate and then calibrate the frequency to play a melody ha! filter resonace melody overlaying the tone of the voice, will be fancy, but enough words, sounds must follow...it looks like I will get my hands on the finished synth within 2 weeks.
well, stay tuned
p.s. yes of course snappy envelopes, but the internal ones are not being changed by the mod directly, you can just add external analog envelopes or you could use digital envelopes or build your own, I reccommend digital though, as there you can just mix cv signals the way you would mix audio tracks, so you could easily add some snap to your filter envelope. you can record the behaviour of your se1(x) envelopes to your sequencer, then edit that track to make it snap more and there you go, more snap you can save that snap audio file for later use, in case you want that exact snap in another sound program ) pure bliss I tell ya cant wait cant wait.
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18th July 2012
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#5 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jan 2007 Location: Seattle WA Suburbs
Posts: 1,001
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Interested.... I have a early S/N SE-1
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19th July 2012
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#6 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 178
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I'm curious- are you using Expert Sleepers' Silent Way? and how does one go about messing with CV in a DAW?
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19th July 2012
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#7 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2004 Location: France (before in the Netherlands). My French is not really good but try me. It's good for me to practice some French gearslutz talk.
Posts: 1,355
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Darn...just sold mine...would have loved to do a hack like this!
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19th July 2012
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#8 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by MPZ  I'm curious- are you using Expert Sleepers' Silent Way? and how does one go about messing with CV in a DAW? | sure expert sleepers is one way to go, but there are so many other nice tools - how does one go about messing cv in a daw? well...I probably got bored of the limited possibilities of midi, probably because I never felt lucky editing midi or automation to make something sound right
i use cubase, and audio editing is blazing fast there if you use it alot...unfortunately windows 7´s graphical interface make it not as slick/sleek in usage as windows xp, I'm so disappointed now with windows 7, graphics tend to be laggy and slow even window animations...I was way quicker editing audio in xp, gonna revert back to xp = time consuming...reinstalling all vsts... :(
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19th July 2012
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#9 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 178
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So Daws just treat CV like any other audio file?
Sorry to pester you-I'm just really curious about this
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19th July 2012
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#10 | | Gear addict
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 421
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there is no difference between audio and CV in principle, they are both just voltage variations in an electric signal, audio is just the subset that oscillates at audible frequencies when patched to a speaker. If your audio interface doesnt high pass filter things below audio freqencies then your DAW can produce cv.
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19th July 2012
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#11 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2009 Location: Perth
Posts: 2,064
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Does this have some advantage over other modular systems? Cost? Just the SE1 sound you love? Would you still use the patch memory to some extent?
From reading the blog, it seems it's more something that just developed as it went along, rather than a plan to achieve a particular goal.
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19th July 2012
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#12 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2006 Location: Middlesbrough , UK
Posts: 2,461
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I own a SE-1X and love it, the only thing I wish it had is 3 extra knobs on the front panel to make a oscillator mixer as its a pain menu diving for it when jamming.
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20th July 2012
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#13 | | Gear addict
Joined: Jan 2006 Location: Austria/LB
Posts: 345
| Quote:
Originally Posted by cane creek I own a SE-1X and love it, the only thing I wish it had is 3 extra knobs on the front panel to make a oscillator mixer as its a pain menu diving for it when jamming. | If you don't want to save the patches, a CC controller is okay for this ... but I'm still looking for the sysex of the SE-1X ... hard to find.
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20th July 2012
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#14 | | Gear addict
Joined: Jan 2006 Location: Austria/LB
Posts: 345
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I bought my SE-1X around three years ago used, it's an upgraded SE-1 and in addition to the filter in has some CV inputs, I've never seen before and I've never used until today :( . The seller (ebay) said, 'it's from a guy from Ableton' .... Maybe there's some relation to the much more advanced mod described here?
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20th July 2012
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#15 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by Oli Does this have some advantage over other modular systems? Cost? Just the SE1 sound you love? Would you still use the patch memory to some extent?
From reading the blog, it seems it's more something that just developed as it went along, rather than a plan to achieve a particular goal. | no it was all immagined by my needs as a musician, mr huebner is the technician who is realizing it now
of course the patch memory has still its use, usually you start a sound with midi and knobbing the synth - if youre fine with the sound you can save it, once you saved it you really twist sounds out of it with cv - for later use you have to remember the patches, well in my case I will never patch the synth, it gets hard patched to my modified converter.
Advantage over modular synths: much less hazzle in one complete package, much more productivity without the need to patch, you do all the patching ideally in software.
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20th July 2012
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#16 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Apr 2009 Location: Perth
Posts: 2,064
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Cool. I look forward to seeing how that pans out in use.
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11th August 2012
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#17 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Sep 2007 Location: melbourne, Australia
Posts: 638
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cv enabled ADDA converters" I'm not sure I've heard of such things. It would be a voltage calibration thing. Is my metric halo 2882 cv ready - because I have an se=1x and am getting this mod!!
__________________
Your entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts - Wise Man MJ.
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13th August 2012
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#18 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by dogma cv enabled ADDA converters" I'm not sure I've heard of such things. It would be a voltage calibration thing. Is my metric halo 2882 cv ready - because I have an se=1x and am getting this mod!! | Silent Way - Device Compatibilty check out this list, if you cant find your converter in there, you will need some of the hardware expert sleepers offers, so you can either use your converter for cv use, or get an adat-> cv converter from them - in my case mr huebner did a mod of a creamware A16, im happy to have 16CV IO connected via ADAT in 1U now, took some time though
Still no audio demos, but it looks like the mod is gonna be finished very soon, when I have it you get some smashing demos | |
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13th August 2012
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#19 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2009 Location: yurp
Posts: 9,575
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Pictures would also be nice - or is the back just peppered with jack inputs? | |
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13th August 2012
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#20 | | Gear addict
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 407
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I am hoping the extra ADAT converters I have on the XITE-1 will suffice. I only use a pair for the Ventillator in the Scope Project Window.
I already have Expert Sleepers SIlentway Suite and the Calibration files , but Polyphony using the Modular was not what I expected.
But on my SE-1s, both converted to SE-1Xs and both woith the distortion upgrade and additional SIne Wave are so FAT I don't use my EML-101 anymore.
All I would realy want is controlled Filter Sweeps where the ADSR can be used by a BiPolar audiorate Mod Sopurce/LFO seperately from the CFM sweep from a seperate LFO which is also BiPolar, but at a different rate.
Jere's a demo of what I want but this is Solaris, which is really a Modular synth without cables, but it's routing options are infinite.
Last edited by teamsterjim; 22nd August 2012 at 02:12 PM..
Reason: Dont speak English
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22nd August 2012
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#21 | | Gear addict
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 407
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We're feverish Tomy.....  | |
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22nd August 2012
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#22 | | Moderator
Joined: Dec 2004 Location: in a low orbit
Posts: 21,334
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wow  | |
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22nd August 2012
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#23 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by teamsterjim We're feverish Tomy..... | yeah me too, all I can do though is to wait, just like you but concerning your modulation dreams described in your earlier post: "yes you can!"
but psst, dont tell anyone about soniccore stuff, we want to keep our secret weapons secret, don't we?
@Yoozer, no messy drilled holes, there´s a custom built backplate with fine custom cut holes of highest quality, aren't there pictures in his blog? he´s german, he does things right, clean & organized, once he does them
I really told him to really take care not to alter the sound of the se1-x, cause doing a mod could be tempting to do so, and I know germans like to optimize things. But in any even oh so tiny thinkable way I want that mod to be sonically nonexistent, it should only increase the accessibility. I do like the sound of the se1x a lot, dont want it to be altered by internal electromagnetic emission, nor crossfeeds nor "better" PSUs nor any new differing parts at all. Had a terrible nightmare in that regard with a german synth (tinysizer*) which would otherwise be a work of genius, unfortunately it was noisy as hell, crossfeeding everywhere, for many thats no problem, but for me the ratio between noise, crossfeed and signal is just right in the se1-x. woudn't like it to be any noisier or any cleaner...the guys from Studio Electronics just seem to know and feel very well what they are doing imho...but we are getting there with this mod, and all of you guys will be delighted to not have to change your aesthetic approach when making music with his wonderful piece of gear and this wonderfully sonically nonexistant mod
actually since im a musician the sonical nonexistence of the mod is my biggest concern, of course I expect all the other functional stuff to just work...
anyways cheers to mr huebner I know he can do it and he is almost done, and he´s a good guy for such stuff, repairs my synths all the time, he´s class, I would not let just anyone put his fingers inside my baby anyways ^^ (my baby is my se1x..don't what u were thinking^^) 
*thinking about it, it probably was the fault of my electromagnetically emitting computer standing below it, the tinysizer has many little clables and probably not so good shielding so actually mouse movement was audible in the audio chain coming from my tinysizer...probably guys working with tinysizer dont have computers or better shielded ones (macs) so I dont know if it was really the fault of the tinysizer, I just know my se1-x never had any of these problems.
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22nd August 2012
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#24 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by cowudders I bought my SE-1X around three years ago used, it's an upgraded SE-1 and in addition to the filter in has some CV inputs, I've never seen before and I've never used until today :( . The seller (ebay) said, 'it's from a guy from Ableton' .... Maybe there's some relation to the much more advanced mod described here? | uhm not really, the thing with the mod from me and huebner is more based on the philosophy of integrating a wonderful piece of gear totally into a digital environment, via PCM, in and out. Everything that does sound does need control, and the idea in this project is to access this control in the most extent way thats currently possible, which means recording audio rate cv signals and cutting them in your sequencer.
hopefully this will become a leading standard and midi will fade away existing merely as a patch saving function. maybe one day we will see vst(i) instruments and plugins with in/outputs for pitch cv, filter cv, env, etc etc...all that stuff...
would love to live in that world...reaktor seems to have gotten there already kind of...soniccore/creamware scope was there 10 years before, they just didnt figure out the potential of going cv with converters, thats what Oz from expert sleepers actually did imho...but correct me if I am wrong...
cheers
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23rd August 2012
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#25 | | Gear addict
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 407
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That's great news Tommy.
I especially like the idea of preset recall, as I have certain gangings of Oscillators, Sync and Oberheim BP/Moog LP that I can call up now and place on the 88s anywhere I want, but slowing down the LFO rate and really having control of CFM, etc. is what's needed.
I know you have been on this for a while, so it;s quite a project.
My buddies are telling me to get a virtual synth and screw the se-1X, then they hear it, and realize that the virtual synths are great at many things but will never approach the thick, FAT, dead on Balls accuracy of this beast. Besides I already have a quality sounding Solaris that does my polyphonis, and 2nd Mono source stuff. Computers + real hardware is where it's at for me.
Here's the FAT BASTARD... http://soundcloud.com/jimmyvee/solaris-red-lined | |
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23rd August 2012
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#26 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2011 Location: Australia
Posts: 2,638
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You need Silentway VST now
Been having fun with it and my modded SH2 - fired from a Motu 2408 mk3. The headphone out will hit 9.3 volts. I use an insert cable for CV/Gate
Extra 24 bit envelopes and audiorate LFOs from Silentway is so nice....
I found it funny playing my SH2 from my PC keyboard, tracker style, with Silentway | |
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24th August 2012
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#27 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Oct 2008 Location: fear and loathing across the country, listening to my 8-track
Posts: 2,973
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Waveform select CV?
Thas interesting...
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24th August 2012
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#28 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Mar 2006 Location: Sasquatch, OR
Posts: 4,643
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fun project i'm sure!
i think it'll get tiring reaching around the back of the rack to patch it though??? or perhaps there is a break out box planned?
anyway - i bet it'll be fun and add a lot of functionality... and be a ton of work!
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24th August 2012
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#29 | | Gear maniac
Joined: Jan 2005 Location: Berlin
Posts: 244
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by ignatius fun project i'm sure!
i think it'll get tiring reaching around the back of the rack to patch it though??? or perhaps there is a break out box planned?
anyway - i bet it'll be fun and add a lot of functionality... and be a ton of work! | I thought about that, for my setup at least, which was focussed around reducing any gear that is just too much in my studio, I settled with the idea of having my 16ch adda converter directly connected to all cv ports of the then modded se1-x, so no need to reach for the backside, surely it would be more troublesome to integrate that thing into a huge existing front-patching modular setup, cause patch points are at the back, but I figure im not gonna need any other modular or analog gear after I get this mod...cause at some point you just have to decide on what you are gonna go productive with, otherwise one really is just hasting between different pieces of gear not ever getting done very much, your mileage may vary, but my lack in productivity in the last 4-7 years was mainly because I was buying and selling so many synths gear and stuff, it all has to end somewhere...well after all, at least now I really know what I need, to be able to get the music that is in my head, out of my speakers. I would say I now have my dream setup...and I finally live in berlin, such a nice place for electronic music
looking forward to go to LA (in the long term) though, if I dont succeed in making germany a high culture ("Hochkultur") again. | |
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24th August 2012
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#30 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Feb 2004 Location: France (before in the Netherlands). My French is not really good but try me. It's good for me to practice some French gearslutz talk.
Posts: 1,355
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I know, it's a bit late for this but....might be convenient to replace all jack inputs with a couple od D-sub 25 so you can directly hook them up to the AD/DA converter...saves some real estate on the back of the SE-1 ...
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