Hey, tried perfboarding a voice of saturn from the schematics, i’ve relooked my perf design many times and it matches the schematic exactly. I just cant seem to get any real noise of it. The only pot that works is the LFO rate…

What i think my problem is that im using tantalum caps instead of electrolytic caps for the 10uf’s. Do you think thats my problem? I heard tatalum caps do have a polarity, and i tried switching their direction many times and still nothing. Any help?

Also, is there really only one connection to the audio (synth out) jack? I assumed to just ground the other side of the jack…

any help = thanks a bunch!

You’re right, all the jacks should have a ground connection, also.

Electrolytic caps are polarized, and can blow up if installed incorrectly (so I’ve read, experience hasn’t blown one up yet). I think electrolytics may still work backwards to some degree, however. I didn’t know tatalum caps were polarized, but I could be wrong on this.

I’ll breadboard the circuit tomorrow or Monday and see if I can walk through some trouble shooting with you and also make sure there aren’t any errors in the schematic, since it was recently changed. I doubt it’s the caps… more likely a wiring or schematic mistake. Well, I bet it would sound different with tantalums since they have a much lower ESR (Equivalent Series Resistance), but it seems like you should at least get something.

One other thing: there are several large “regions”, or knob settings, with no sound at all. Try upping the osc frequencies and the range pot to about 80%... actually, just play around with those pots a lot since I’m not sure off hand which way is “up.”