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So.. BIG fan of Gieskes gear - he is a space-cadet with a fantastic design ethic, and his kits are amusing to play with. I try to buy them all when they come out, and started with his Arduino-based vision/pattern generators way back when.. Still use them in the Videomixes regularly..
He did an 8-bit echo/grunge kit called the DEP2, look here: http://gieskes.nl/effects/?file=dep-2 and ofc i got one and built it.. It sat in it's box in the studio for a year, and i would see it and think i should really use it, but never did. a SHAME.
I picked up a eurorack from a skip at work, and removed all the useless telco crap that was in it, and set about filling it with the modules i was not using in the racks i use every week, and the DEP2 was staring at me as i was doing this, all lonely and sad, so, i thought i'd cheer it up and mount it in the case so i could actually use the fuc*er on something.
I designed a eurorack panel using the free software from https://www.schaeffer-ag.de/en/downl...anel_designer/ and in about a week it arrived - it was about 40euro all in.
Next, the DEP2 had to be stripped. All the pots can be re-used, EXCEPT the volume pot, which is horrible, so a look on RS and i found a nice low-profile one, and while i was at it, got some minijack sockets and some toggle switches, and the most expensive and sexy buttons i could buy, one of them backlit with a blue LED, of coarse, to use as the level indicator. = Fu*k it. It's a one-off. In fact, the only thing more expensive then the buttons was the kit itself. A close 3rd was the knobs i bought - REALLY posh long ones.. mmmm...
I went for minijacks for the AF/audio in & out on the panel, and took quite a while making sure the whole lot would fit behind the panel. It's tight, like very tight, but it works fine.
The real bitch was making the whole thing self-explaining, as one issue with all Gieskes' kits is once you build it, you have no clue as to what everything does unless you put it in a case and label everything. SO. the 3 rocker switches that control MODE - really only 2 of them are in play, the first is about the loop sweep direction, so i mounted the 2 selectors horizontally, and made a truth table graphic using <> >< >> << as the 4 options and a word as a clue to each mode. BINGO. Now it makes sense, er, to me anyway.
My eurorack case is a lab one, so the holes in the rails are for smaller screws then the typical (doepfer, etc.) and the rails themselves are largerand deeper, so, i DID have to file down a portion of the corner of the board - you may not have to - but there is nothing there anyway, so no big deal.
The rest is simple really - just transplant the pots to the panel, wire them back to the main board, remove the jack sockets, wire the points to the minijack sockets on the panel, and power it up. Yeh, OK, it's not *that* simple, you will facepalm a little, but use your head.
Mounting the board to the back of the panel is done by using the 2 holes i placed for brackets. I used machined 'L' hinges left over from the scrapping of the rack, and long screws, so it was easy for me - you will have to think about this if you try it, you need the board to sit perpendicular to the panel, so go ahead and use the 2 mounting holes as a starting point.
To power it i used a super-cheapo 12v to 9v DC-DC convertor off fleabay http://www.ebay.com/itm/302065815955 and fed it with the 12v from the eurorack power rail. It probably would have been fine with the 12v , but i wanted to be sure, so went this way.
He did an 8-bit echo/grunge kit called the DEP2, look here: http://gieskes.nl/effects/?file=dep-2 and ofc i got one and built it.. It sat in it's box in the studio for a year, and i would see it and think i should really use it, but never did. a SHAME.
I picked up a eurorack from a skip at work, and removed all the useless telco crap that was in it, and set about filling it with the modules i was not using in the racks i use every week, and the DEP2 was staring at me as i was doing this, all lonely and sad, so, i thought i'd cheer it up and mount it in the case so i could actually use the fuc*er on something.
I designed a eurorack panel using the free software from https://www.schaeffer-ag.de/en/downl...anel_designer/ and in about a week it arrived - it was about 40euro all in.
Next, the DEP2 had to be stripped. All the pots can be re-used, EXCEPT the volume pot, which is horrible, so a look on RS and i found a nice low-profile one, and while i was at it, got some minijack sockets and some toggle switches, and the most expensive and sexy buttons i could buy, one of them backlit with a blue LED, of coarse, to use as the level indicator. = Fu*k it. It's a one-off. In fact, the only thing more expensive then the buttons was the kit itself. A close 3rd was the knobs i bought - REALLY posh long ones.. mmmm...
I went for minijacks for the AF/audio in & out on the panel, and took quite a while making sure the whole lot would fit behind the panel. It's tight, like very tight, but it works fine.
The real bitch was making the whole thing self-explaining, as one issue with all Gieskes' kits is once you build it, you have no clue as to what everything does unless you put it in a case and label everything. SO. the 3 rocker switches that control MODE - really only 2 of them are in play, the first is about the loop sweep direction, so i mounted the 2 selectors horizontally, and made a truth table graphic using <> >< >> << as the 4 options and a word as a clue to each mode. BINGO. Now it makes sense, er, to me anyway.
My eurorack case is a lab one, so the holes in the rails are for smaller screws then the typical (doepfer, etc.) and the rails themselves are largerand deeper, so, i DID have to file down a portion of the corner of the board - you may not have to - but there is nothing there anyway, so no big deal.
The rest is simple really - just transplant the pots to the panel, wire them back to the main board, remove the jack sockets, wire the points to the minijack sockets on the panel, and power it up. Yeh, OK, it's not *that* simple, you will facepalm a little, but use your head.
Mounting the board to the back of the panel is done by using the 2 holes i placed for brackets. I used machined 'L' hinges left over from the scrapping of the rack, and long screws, so it was easy for me - you will have to think about this if you try it, you need the board to sit perpendicular to the panel, so go ahead and use the 2 mounting holes as a starting point.
To power it i used a super-cheapo 12v to 9v DC-DC convertor off fleabay http://www.ebay.com/itm/302065815955 and fed it with the 12v from the eurorack power rail. It probably would have been fine with the 12v , but i wanted to be sure, so went this way.
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