Tau Hydrae and Azure Dragon - updates

The Tau Hydrae and Azure Dragon have been working well in both jamming and recording situations but both have had an upgrade. There's a demo video here.

Tau Hydrae - Filter v2

The Filter v2 front panel - a much more inspiring design and controls

The old Tau Hydrae filter was the same basic design that I used in the FloriVoxTron which is a Elka Synthex that contained several different filter arrangements but the reality was that I mostly used the 4 pole Low Pass filter. The reason for this was partly down to a lack of switched level buffers whereby the level changes between the filters was quite significant. Given the nature of the Tau Hydrae being a live jamming synth, I thought I could do a more expressive filter.

I found the basis for a design which would make up two filter stages using a pair of CEM 3320 filter chips. One was doing a 4-pole low pass and the other a 4-pole high pass. Combining these two filters would make for some interesting results and I could achieve most configurations of filter I would want.

I was concerned about the panel space as I could only use the space that existed as I was effectively putting two filter arrangements where previously one lived.  The list of possible modulation sources and configurations was quite high, so some options had to go. I managed to make it work with the only real casualty being the modulation for the resonance control. It was worth the sacrifice but I did gain a Key Follow feature.

The filter controls are straightforward: select HP mode (2 or 4 pole), adjust cutoff frequency, and toggle active/bypass. The low pass filter has identical controls. Modulation options are below, with key follow always active—choose half or full keyboard control voltage. Key follow naturally adjusts cutoff frequency as you play across the keyboard.

The result is not perfect as I think the resonance for the high pass needs some work. It could be schematic design or a setting of which I don't know now. I can say that it is more interesting for creating sounds.

Azure Dragon - Spring Reverb v2

All the modules on the Azure Dragon are wonderful except for the Spring Reverb. It was noisy and low level. The tone controls didn't really work and the feedback section was a waste of time. It was rushed. I wanted something more inspirational.

The new Spring v2 - the controls remain the same as v1


I regularly source designs and boards from Australian audio guru Rod Elliot. He has several spring reverb schematic designs but the one I chose was the Spring Reverb for Guitar or Keyboard. His article made me understand where the original design was flawed. I needed a new reverb tank which was no biggie and I could get one with the same dimensions as the original. His design didn't include any tone controls so I took a 3 band eq design out Douglas Self's Small Signal Audio Design which suited the spring reverb perfectly. Now I have a clean and high responsive spring reverb that I see moving which allows for a great swang!