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Synths |
| Last Updated: | |
| | Moog MG-1 | Moog MG-1 Mods & Midi | | |
| Moog Realistic Concertmate MG-1 Mods & MIDI | |
| | Foam Removal | Sliders & Switches | Sockets | VCF IN | VCF CV | MIDI | Other Mods | | |
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Synths |
| Last Updated: | |
| | Moog MG-1 | Moog MG-1 Mods & Midi | | |
| Moog Realistic Concertmate MG-1 Mods & MIDI | |
| | Foam Removal | Sliders & Switches | Sockets | VCF IN | VCF CV | MIDI | Other Mods | | |
| MODs and Work on the MG-1 | ||
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| All MG-1 suffers from one big issue - the black foam paddings that they use under the front panel actually decomposed over the years. |
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You won't noticed it when you opened the synth, but when you take the PCB out, you'll see all those black foam, sticky and they fall apart if u touch them! |
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| The decomposed foam is very sticky and horrible, so imagine that going into the sliders and switches... |
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| Took me a while to clean them out. |
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| Other MG-1 users have the same issue, see Planet Zero's MG-1 page... |
| It seems that some of these foam has got into a few sliders and switches, and the sliders are starting to get cracks and so on.... |
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| NEW Sliders and Switches |
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| Well, thank goodness, people have made new sets of these MG-1 Sliders and Switches and selling them on eBay. I got a set, and basically de-soldered most of the sliders and switches and re-solder these ... and now they're like brand new. |
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| AUDIO JACK SOCKETS |
| Since the MG-1 comes with RCA sockets, I added normal 1/4" jack sockets, one for normal Audio Out, and one for Audio In (to VCF). Some people remove the whole RCA board and put the jack sockets there, but i did this quite earlier on, and i actually drilled 2 holes next to the RCA Sockets... |
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| The Audio OUT socket can be wired to the RCA socket PCB. See the RED wire.... |
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The GROUND is basically where that Yellow/Green striped
wire goes to, on the above image, you can see I have wired a black wire
there near the bottom right of the RCA board.... Wire the ground to both the sockets. |
| More on the Audio Input Socket below.... |
| Well, we have the extra Audio IN socket, external audio can be fed into the socket and goes straight to the MIXER input so it can pass into the VCF section. |
| There have been lots of debate on this - some say, you should wire a resistor in between, some say a capacitor. On mine, i just wired it direct... |
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DIRECTION: |
| If you look at it from the back of the PCB, it's the where the pink/purple circle is on this image: |
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You can just solder a wire from the jack socket to this solder point, and don't even need to take the PCB out. |
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| But since i was cleaning the FOAM and changing the sliders/switches anyway, so i actually soldered it to the leg of C14 on the component side of the PCB... |
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This is not difficult at all. The CUTOFF FREQ
Slider is where you need to look at. |
| See the BLUE wire in this pic.... |
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| MIDI-to-CV on the MG-1 | |
| Choice | |
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I chose the PIC Midi-to-CV again from
Papareil
Synth Labs. |
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Reasons: - cheap/cost effective - Custom PCB - MCV628 is the basic version, which offers Midi to CV/Gate + one additional AUX CV - has handy software config program |
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| Constructions | |
| The MCV628 construction is pretty
simple: 9 jumper wires, a few resistors and caps, few IC's and the PIC. |
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| My 2nd time building one of these, i have pre-drilled/enlarge some of the holes on the PCB so that components can be fitted easier to the PCB. | |
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| PIC16F628 Programming | |
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I use a USB PIC Programmer - Simple to use. put the PIC in, launch the software program, load the HEX and program. |
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| The good thing about the Papareil MCV's, is that, other than the simple Config Switch/Learn Button and Gate On LED, Marc has also written software program for configuring the PIC. | |
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One thing tho, maybe because the MG-1's keyboard stats at F, it seems that the base note of the CV IN starts at F (rather than C). So, on the MCV628 Config, i set the Reference note to Midi Note #41 (F1), and all tuning are then correct. The Aux CV will then control the Filter CV. |
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| V-Trig to S-Trig | |
| Although the MCV628 can provide -ve triggers (using different firmware of the PIC), but this is not what the MG-1 needs. The MG-1 needs S-Trig, but the MCV-628 outputs V-Trig. | |
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So we need V-Trig to S-Trig conversion. This is very simple, just need an NPN Transistor and a 10k resistor. Don't need to do this on a stripboard/veroboard - the resistor and transistor can just be soldered to the GATE wires.
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| Powering | |
| MG-1 has +12V, -15V, 0V and -12V. i used +12V/0V/-15V for powering the MCV628. | |
| These can either be tapped from the PSU board or from the main PCB. | |
| PAD 1 has +12V PAD 3 provides -15V PAD 4 or PAD 7 provides the 0V / Ground. |
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| Mounting | |
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| Mounted on the side.... | |
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| Panel Mounting and Switches... | |
| I mounted the MIDI LED, MIDI Learn Switch on the front LEFT side cheeks. It's plastic, so easy to drill. | |
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Well, I actually added 2 switches. - One to switch between the internal keyboard CV/Gate and the MIDI CV/Gate. (Gate from the Keyboard will still be active tho) - To switch the VCF CV on/Off. |
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REAR PANEL |
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| So now, my External CV/Gate still function but the GATE now accepts V-Trig. | |
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| I mounted MIDI IN socket near the Power Switch... | |
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| There are a few other mods that can be done on the MG-1, but i haven't done them. | |
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Analogue Solutions offers MODULAR UPGRADE Outputs on the MG-1 for £38 (ex-VAT).
This include a VCF CV IN and separate
outputs of the VCO's, noise, Bell and Polyphony.
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Well, VCF CV IN i've already
done. The other separate outs - i think these can be simply tapped from the sliders on the MIXER section. |
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Hyperreal Music Machine page
has some text files - by Ricard Wolf - one mod on Multi Trigger (Re-Trigger / Continuous Glide) - one mod on Trigger Speed Enhance |
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| I have actually done some stripboard drawing for the Multi-Trigger mod, but i haven't actually done the mod yet, maybe I'll add these one day.... | |
