[AVAILABLE] Blacet VCO2100 + build thread

[hammerhead]

...

In other news, sad to see that the blacet.com domain registration has lapsed and fallen to a squatter. :-(

I don't know why Synthcube took on the Blacet line - in the 2.5 years they've had it, or whatever it is, there has been next to nothing available. But at least they were keeping the documentation online. Now even that seems to have gone the way of the rest of it.

+1 sad. +1 why.

JB had released a new envelope module shortly before he died. I assumed it would be relatively easy to inventorize and sell off at least part of his product line. But maybe I was wrong. Synthcube, can you please shed some light on the process you've been through during the 2.5 years?

process is assimilating (acquiring many well respected companies) but not doing much with them.
In the case of Blacet at least. They have been very busy in other fronts but with Blacet they have dropped the ball.

If this was true, this would very, very sad. I'd consider it another form of squatting, or hoarding.

Synthcube, please comment.

[KSS]

I guess no good deed goes unpunished?

Where would Blacet be right now without Synthcube?

I'm as frustrated by the slow Blacet rollout and as disheartened by the Blacet site going as anyone. I miss John.

But I think we all might want to take a step back and consider the last few years. It's been a *bit* of a unique situation.

That Synthcube is still around at all is a blessing and the fact that they have been able to buy up stock and preserve assets from companies which have gone out of business is something we should be a little more caring towards.

Order anything from small bear recently? That's Synthcube now. <--the point is that due to the pandemic a great many un-typical opportunities came and Synthcube had the guts -and resources- to step in to patch those sinking -or scuttled ships.

From all outward appearance this is a family business and there are only so many hours in the day. Sorting and setting up to sell Blacet likely took a back seat to the other pressing issues in the middle of a whole Earth meltdown. Like getting-keeping Small Bear up and running. MFOS. And others too.

I am thankful that Synthcube is 'squatting' or 'hoarding' because if they weren't these products and companies would already be completely gone. With no hope -ZERO- of *ever* seeing them again. I'm not going to second guess anything they've felt the need to do to keep their own business afloat!

You do all realize the world situation is not normal right now? Still. And for the last few years too.

Give Synthcube a break. At least we can look forward to a possible Blacet in the future.

...

In other news, sad to see that the blacet.com domain registration has lapsed and fallen to a squatter. :-(

I don't know why Synthcube took on the Blacet line - in the 2.5 years they've had it, or whatever it is, there has been next to nothing available. But at least they were keeping the documentation online. Now even that seems to have gone the way of the rest of it.

+1 sad. +1 why.

JB had released a new envelope module shortly before he died. I assumed it would be relatively easy to inventorize and sell off at least part of his product line. But maybe I was wrong. Synthcube, can you please shed some light on the process you've been through during the 2.5 years?

process is assimilating (acquiring many well respected companies) but not doing much with them.
In the case of Blacet at least. They have been very busy in other fronts but with Blacet they have dropped the ball.

If this was true, this would very, very sad. I'd consider it another form of squatting, or hoarding.

Synthcube, please comment.

[hammerhead]

Man, this is classic gaslighting.

First off, no need to insert that you "miss John". So do others. You don't know me. This adds no value right here right now other than shining a light on yourself. Nice halo.

Secondly, I wrote that IF the process, as suggested, WAS "acquiring many well respected companies) but not doing much with them", that would be sad and I'd consider it hoarding or squatting. That's not entitled and ignorant of the current state of world affairs, as you're trying to frame me, it's just saying that if the previous accusation was true, then ...

I guess no good deed goes unpunished?

Asking them directly for comment on someone's theory isn't "punishment".

Where would Blacet be right now without Synthcube?

Maybe it would be available because someone with more time alotted to it had acquired it. Maybe not. You don't know, I don't know.

But I think we all might want to take a step back

Including you and your pathos and rhetoric.

and consider the last few years. It's been a *bit* of a unique situation.

For everyone. Businesses are shutting down left and right. But John died before that. And it only costs a few minutes to log on a forum and say something like twice a year. You, apparently, have a lot of time to post.

I am thankful that Synthcube is 'squatting' or 'hoarding' because if they weren't these products and companies would already be completely gone. With no hope -ZERO- of *ever* seeing them again. I'm not going to second guess anything they've felt the need to do to keep their own business afloat!

My fallacy alarm is going through the roof. Why do you claim they "would already be completely gone"? Do you have proof for that theory?
Many product lines have changed ownership in synth history. To use a couple examples that are close to John, Grant Richter handed his 1200 series to Malekko and his 300 series to Wessex Analogue. The transitions were smooth and successful, each in a different way. (Yeah, Malekko/ Darkplace have come under much criticism since, and some entitled sounding dude complained about Wessex recently, but my emphasis here is on the early years after transition.)

I wasn't bashing Synthcube nearly as much as your rant suggests, and the alternative to Synthcube isn't the desperate black hole of ubervanishing zeroness your rant suggests.

Please, drop the framing.

You do all realize the world situation is not normal right now? Still. And for the last few years too.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3014376/do- ... -for-jerks

[diophantine]

1. Synthcube was not the only party seriously considering acquiring Blacet Modular from John's family/estate.

2. As a (the?) beta tester for Synthcube Blacet kits, I think that they are good people with good intentions, but that Blacet is not a high priority. I sense this is probably a combination of their available bandwidth (I do worry if they have enthusiastically acquired more than they can currently support) and the (probably low) level of customer interest.

3. I do not speak for Synthcube or Blacet, and I don't have any details of future plans. I do hope that Synthcube can share some details of their plans regarding Blacet.

[mamonu]

It is what it is.
perhaps its the (indeed low) amount of interest.
I dont blame me either for basically not holding my breath with Synthcube and FRAC

But not having relatively easy to do staples (you know rack cases and PSUs) in stock for 2 years is kinda dropping the ball.
I mean how on earth someone not DIY minded can start/expand a system without these.

(I am not talking about myself i got enough racks and psus btw)

In the PSU case im told many times that its a Meanwell OEM available via Farnell/Mouser etc.
But Blacet had boxed it in such a way and generally made it easy for bozos like me
to connect them to the modules and voila a new 3U/6U row. That is what is missing IMO first of all.
Now modules wise would be nice to see TEM out in the wild.

Also letting the domain expire sucks a bit.

In any case I have a repo with BLACET info/user manuals I have gathered throughout the years for my own peace of mind
through archive.org etc

https://github.com/mamonulabs/Blacet


Feel free to copy/download/peruse

[soup]

[synthcube]

Hi folks! Very interesting discussion. To add a little perspective from the point of view of the person that bought Blacet:

1) It's all sitting here as a 'yet unrealized' synth legacy and brand; we will be doing more with it! Promise.
2) We could have lifted/borrowed/stolen/cloned the designs just like a lot of people might have, but personal ethics demand that the creators (or their families) get at least some benefit from their work. That's not a comment on the synth industry, its just a personal standard.
2) Yes, we'll retain the Frac format including cases, power etc, likely the Rak 3 and legacy Blacet power solutions which we like
3) Yes we are investing in porting some Blacet designs to Euro but that does not signal a shift from Blacet to Euro; it is in addition to, not in place, of relaunching the Frac modules. Including some fun classics-- dated, but still relevant we think.
4) There are a few technical and parts issues we want to sort out better--- eg obsolete pots, knobs, trimmers and the like, so that newly released modules and kits are DIY friendly the way John intended them.
5) We still have all of the original documentation of course, much of it in difficult or even unreadable electronic formats. (Claris Appleworks anyone?) The 'original' Blacet module guides are actually paper 'masters' made up of printed pages from different software and *gaak* word-processed pages, collated together and copied as needed for customers. Not easy to create PDFs from computer source files. But we remain committed to making that info available and try to respond to requests for documents. At the moment we have a shared Dropbox folder with some requested Blacet PDF docs available upon request.
6) Unlike the legacy MFOS website, the legacy Blacet website was not as content-rich nor as popular. We decided to sunset that domain and will be launching the 'new' Blacet site.
7) 'Hoarding' just doesn't make any sense in the context of what we are doing here-- we're running a small family business as best we can in the current economy, and investing in cool synth projects like Blacet, MFOS, MOTM and the like when time and money allow... which lately, has not been that much - but we have not given up yet either.

Help us help you. We've had amazing help and support from some Frac fans willing to look at beta kits, suggest changes etc--- keep the format alive with your postings, pictures, music and the like. We are always open to feedback.

[mamonu]

Hi folks! Very interesting discussion. To add a little perspective from the point of view of the person that bought Blacet:

1) It's all sitting here as a 'yet unrealized' synth legacy and brand; we will be doing more with it! Promise.
2) We could have lifted/borrowed/stolen/cloned the designs just like a lot of people might have, but personal ethics demand that the creators (or their families) get at least some benefit from their work. That's not a comment on the synth industry, its just a personal standard.
2) Yes, we'll retain the Frac format including cases, power etc, likely the Rak 3 and legacy Blacet power solutions which we like
3) Yes we are investing in porting some Blacet designs to Euro but that does not signal a shift from Blacet to Euro; it is in addition to, not in place, of relaunching the Frac modules. Including some fun classics-- dated, but still relevant we think.
4) There are a few technical and parts issues we want to sort out better--- eg obsolete pots, knobs, trimmers and the like, so that newly released modules and kits are DIY friendly the way John intended them.
5) We still have all of the original documentation of course, much of it in difficult or even unreadable electronic formats. (Claris Appleworks anyone?) The 'original' Blacet module guides are actually paper 'masters' made up of printed pages from different software and *gaak* word-processed pages, collated together and copied as needed for customers. Not easy to create PDFs from computer source files. But we remain committed to making that info available and try to respond to requests for documents. At the moment we have a shared Dropbox folder with some requested Blacet PDF docs available upon request.
6) Unlike the legacy MFOS website, the legacy Blacet website was not as content-rich nor as popular. We decided to sunset that domain and will be launching the 'new' Blacet site.
7) 'Hoarding' just doesn't make any sense in the context of what we are doing here-- we're running a small family business as best we can in the current economy, and investing in cool synth projects like Blacet, MFOS, MOTM and the like when time and money allow... which lately, has not been that much - but we have not given up yet either.

Help us help you. We've had amazing help and support from some Frac fans willing to look at beta kits, suggest changes etc--- keep the format alive with your postings, pictures, music and the like. We are always open to feedback.

This is encouraging news.

But also as a note : please do provide some news (even if its the old "no news is good news" every once in a while). Even John at some point
just updated the page with a nice sunset and clouds. No need to say anything other than.. we are not closed .

re particular points

1. Great. Looking forward to it.
2. Yay. without power and cases nothing can go forward






5) ok lets get this thing going then.
I am sure FRAC enthusiasts might will be able to help on other things ...
But this AppleWorks format issue perhaps can be solved by using LibreOffice and opening/saving as PDF

(on https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Fea ... _Office/en ) look for
"Import of legacy Mac OS word processing documents" and you will see that its supported.


there is also this python script
here

to convert them all for you so you dont need to open/save_as one by one.
Let me know if you need any help/support on this .

[soup]

[werock]

[synthcube]

Hi folks! Very interesting discussion. To add a little perspective from the point of view of the person that bought Blacet:

1) It's all sitting here as a 'yet unrealized' synth legacy and brand; we will be doing more with it! Promise.
2) We could have lifted/borrowed/stolen/cloned the designs just like a lot of people might have, but personal ethics demand that the creators (or their families) get at least some benefit from their work. That's not a comment on the synth industry, its just a personal standard.
2) Yes, we'll retain the Frac format including cases, power etc, likely the Rak 3 and legacy Blacet power solutions which we like
3) Yes we are investing in porting some Blacet designs to Euro but that does not signal a shift from Blacet to Euro; it is in addition to, not in place, of relaunching the Frac modules. Including some fun classics-- dated, but still relevant we think.
4) There are a few technical and parts issues we want to sort out better--- eg obsolete pots, knobs, trimmers and the like, so that newly released modules and kits are DIY friendly the way John intended them.
5) We still have all of the original documentation of course, much of it in difficult or even unreadable electronic formats. (Claris Appleworks anyone?) The 'original' Blacet module guides are actually paper 'masters' made up of printed pages from different software and *gaak* word-processed pages, collated together and copied as needed for customers. Not easy to create PDFs from computer source files. But we remain committed to making that info available and try to respond to requests for documents. At the moment we have a shared Dropbox folder with some requested Blacet PDF docs available upon request.
6) Unlike the legacy MFOS website, the legacy Blacet website was not as content-rich nor as popular. We decided to sunset that domain and will be launching the 'new' Blacet site.
7) 'Hoarding' just doesn't make any sense in the context of what we are doing here-- we're running a small family business as best we can in the current economy, and investing in cool synth projects like Blacet, MFOS, MOTM and the like when time and money allow... which lately, has not been that much - but we have not given up yet either.

Help us help you. We've had amazing help and support from some Frac fans willing to look at beta kits, suggest changes etc--- keep the format alive with your postings, pictures, music and the like. We are always open to feedback.

This is encouraging news.

But also as a note : please do provide some news (even if its the old "no news is good news" every once in a while). Even John at some point
just updated the page with a nice sunset and clouds. No need to say anything other than.. we are not closed .

re particular points

1. Great. Looking forward to it.
2. Yay. without power and cases nothing can go forward






5) ok lets get this thing going then.
I am sure FRAC enthusiasts might will be able to help on other things ...
But this AppleWorks format issue perhaps can be solved by using LibreOffice and opening/saving as PDF

(on https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Fea ... _Office/en ) look for
"Import of legacy Mac OS word processing documents" and you will see that its supported.


there is also this python script
here

to convert them all for you so you dont need to open/save_as one by one.
Let me know if you need any help/support on this .

Thank you for the suggestions!

[chachi]

just wanted to say good on ya, SC, for staying positive and friendly in the face of criticism. that itself is encouraging.

[bigtex]

5) We still have all of the original documentation of course, much of it in difficult or even unreadable electronic formats. (Claris Appleworks anyone?) The 'original' Blacet module guides are actually paper 'masters' made up of printed pages from different software and *gaak* word-processed pages, collated together and copied as needed for customers. Not easy to create PDFs from computer source files. But we remain committed to making that info available and try to respond to requests for documents. At the moment we have a shared Dropbox folder with some requested Blacet PDF docs available upon request.

I have all of the original documentation from a rather large collection of modules. They've been in a binder in plastic sleeves, essentially immaculate. If I scan / OCR it, into PDFs with searchable text, would that be helpful? Certainly not the same as original source files, exported perfectly, but perhaps a good clean copy is good enough?

[synthcube]

5) We still have all of the original documentation of course, much of it in difficult or even unreadable electronic formats. (Claris Appleworks anyone?) The 'original' Blacet module guides are actually paper 'masters' made up of printed pages from different software and *gaak* word-processed pages, collated together and copied as needed for customers. Not easy to create PDFs from computer source files. But we remain committed to making that info available and try to respond to requests for documents. At the moment we have a shared Dropbox folder with some requested Blacet PDF docs available upon request.

I have all of the original documentation from a rather large collection of modules. They've been in a binder in plastic sleeves, essentially immaculate. If I scan / OCR it, into PDFs with searchable text, would that be helpful? Certainly not the same as original source files, exported perfectly, but perhaps a good clean copy is good enough?

That would be enormously helpful to us, and we'll be happy to share those with Blacet enthusiasts via the store page and shared docs folder-- thank you for the offer... let us know if we can do something nice in return too.

[cheapmachines]

Finished and working as it should, very nice sounding oscillator.

Thanks for the tips and suggestions on here, and to werock and johnchantler for helping source some of the trickier components.

[werock]

Good to see it completed - looking good

[thee ghost ov n_phay]

very nice sounding oscillator.

they do sound nice, a bit EMS-esque in tone I thought.

The STG Soundlabs VCO offered a few posts down also sounds very good, albeit in a differnet way & well worth picking upo a couple if they're still available.