Music From Outer Space – WSG mods completed
Usually I will just post a couple images with brief descriptions of the process behind a project I post. But with the completion of my mods to the MFOS Weird Sound Generator I wanted to offer up a couple of the dos and don’ts I learned while working on this.
Dos
- Do buy an Alesis Quadraverb on eBay for 10 bucks and use the 1 space rack case instead of buying something new.
- Do save the seemingly useless Alesis front panel because you never know… you might need it (and I did).
- Do take the time to measure twice, three and four times.
- Do be prepared to find out that your measurements might still be wrong.
- Do go with your instincts and spend the extra cash to make it look nice.
- Do use pre-tinned solid wire (and save a lot of time).
- Do drill or punch starter holes.
- Do look up parts you’re unfamiliar with in Mouser’s four inch thick hard-copy catalog. It’s far easier to get an idea of what your actually buying sight unseen.
Don’ts
- Don’t waste three weeks comparison shopping at on-line front-panel design shops. You spend a lot of time learning stripped down versions of proprietary CAD tools that can be enormously frustrating and in the end the price difference isn’t that significant.
- Don’t do anything less than 2mm on the width of the front panel.
- Don’t ever go back to stranded wire.
- Don’t pass by the $20 Quadraverb and waste two and a half weeks looking for a better deal. 18 days is worth the extra $10 bucks compared to the money you save from buying new.
- Don’t rush.
And lastly, Don’t do this:
When you can do this:
This is a nice shot of the whole unit which shows the excellent work the folks at Front Panel Express did on this. If you’re considering spending the coin on a custom front panel and on the fence about it I can say without reservation that my expectations were exceeded and I will never doubt that it was money well spent. Just make sure you have your measurements right. I made a couple mistakes which I was able to work around without major issue but it was at the expense of several days time figuring out alternative solutions.
