Studio Electronics Boomstar Manual
7
Design Beind the ‘Stars
THE DESIGN BEHIND THE ‘STARS
As
SE
fans know, we’ve been doing the multiple filter thing for some time,
and while our approach has never been one of exact emulation of the
original synthesizers––that could only be accomplished if the entire signal
path was cloned as well––the focus and purpose was/is to bring the main
essence–-the ‘spirit” of the classic originals into our own unique, performance-
based platforms, and in the case of the
Boomstar
, with as many hardware
“handles,” i.e., crossmod, ringmod, overdrive, feedback... “fit-able.” Judging
from the many flattering remarks (from owners/well-wishers/followers), and
downright effusive praise, satisfaction has been “gotten,”––and thanks to all!
The Grimy Circuit Details:
For oscillators, essentially we’ve been using
the same Moog based design since our re-issue of the
MiniMoog®
stabilized
oscillator board. In the Boomstar synths we replaced the Fairchild cans with
3046s, which are stabilized with temperature compensating resistors placed
on top––something very similar to what is in an
S.E.M
: it’s gives us just the
right amount of warmth and tuning stability. The
Moog®
filter employed in all
our own synths is a clone, except that in the
Boomstar 5089
, a 3046 replaces
the original hand-matched transistors in the top and bottom of the ladder. The
resonance produced is lovely; it sits perfectly along with the signal, singing
out, but never dominating. The
Arp
filter is very
faithful
to the original
4075
circuit, and the
3003
and
S.E.M
are near identical twins* as well, with some
design license taken by Tim Caswell (in respect to all the filters). The VCA in
the BoomStar is the
MiniMoog®
VCA which we used in the
SE-1(X)
as well;
the
Omega
and
ATC
series synths use a VCA incorporating an LM13700.
These are “through-hole” (to be contrasted with “surface-mount”) decidedly
discrete analog synthesizers: the Holy Grail of PCB assembly procedures, built
to last and utterly serviceable––bound to be necessary if they stick around
making people happy as long as we expect them to!
Greg St. Regis 3.3.13
*
to their original namesakes, that is, not to each other
El Segundo, CA USA
