Baby-10 Complete

I closed up the case on my Baby-10 sequencer project. Here's a demo video and a list of what I learned.

Baby-10 Complete

Here's a demo of my Baby-10 sequencer project in action!

The unit isn't perfect.  The biggest problem is that the clock input isn't working, and I don't know why at this time.  However, perfect is the enemy of done, so I decided to close up the box and try using it for a while with my Werkstatt.

What did I learn?

  • The whole circuit runs at about 10V, but due to loss, each step can produce a maximum of 8.75V.  I should have run the clock and decade counter at 5V and used an opamp to convert the output to volt/octave levels.  An opamp would have also buffered the output.
  • The gate is always the same length, so you can't do staccato or legato notes.  Next time, I'll add pot that can adjust the duty cycle of the gate.
  • If I run a clock signal into the gate output jack (don't ask why I tried that), the decade counter runs, which is very weird.  This could probably be fixed by a diode.
  • I connected the front panel to the main board using Dupont connectors.  They are hard hard hard to get right.
  • The point-to-point wiring on the front panel is a mess and was hard to do.  I mean, look at this:

Right?

I'm still pretty happy with the overall result, and look forward to trying it out in some musical projects.