ISLA Instruments

Listen to me ramble on incessently today at 4pm (EDT).
I'll be giving an update on all things Isla Instruments, production updates mostly about the S2400DSP and Caladan. and at the end I'll have a noodle around with the Caladan and make some sounds etc...
I'll try to answer questions too..

Isla Instruments 'Everything' Update. Join Brad today at 4pm EDT while he rambles on about everything going on in house Atreides! S2400 Shipping, S2400DSP production update, Caladan and cards upd...

Here is the final OPL3 FM/Analogue Hybrid card. In the end, because we ditched on-card DSP in favour of our S2400 DSP project powered platform, this card has now become SIX voice. So Six hybrid analogue/FM voices on ONE card!!! These have the elka synthex filters on board and sound SWEET!!!
I'm really sorry I haven't gotten my arse in gear to get demo videos but I am working hard to get there. Right now I've been head down getting everything lined up for mass production.. Soon, I promise... (Sorry)

A Naked Caladan…

All the new Caladan Prototype boards arrived today. I love days like this!

This is now a much more modular design with boards that plug into each other and even the addition of the empty black pcb which is used as a vanity panel to hide (and protect from your brutish insertion antics) all the electronics underneath the voice cards. Production units will of course have shout outs, graffiti, profanity etc printed on them!
Perhaps another live build stream / ama??

Thanks, Meta AI.

Back panel ended up getting a sw***y grille…

in the garage! esteemed breaks dj and I have him playing girly handbag house with me!!

And here, in the depths of the undergrowth, we see a triumph stag V8 engine mixing with the indigenous workshop population. A sight rarely seen in nature these days.

Attic storage B

Isla has decided she wants to make salsa a # now... .

Today we send off the Caladan boards for what we hope will be the final prototypes before we hit the first production run! :D

We've just come to the end of a lengthy restoration of this beauty.
It's now up for sale.

I'm now working on a lengthy video update all about the S2400 DSP and the Caladan Synth..
Incoming!

Oberheim EVS-1 Eight Voice Synthesizer 1975 - Black / Cream | Reverb ** Note that SEM #2 in the photos seems to be missing the caps from the 2 frequency pots. these are not missing and I had forgot to mount them before taking the photos. Rest assured they are included. Up for sale is a complete, eight voice SEM system including FVS-1 and #4 voice Expander module, ...

Vladimus prime with his comedic code commit messages…

Anything better than CTRLR out there for designing synth control panels with?
Finding it to be super buggy. I'm aware of midi quest already.

A very rough and ready test of the OPL3 card hardware.

Isla Instruments Caladan - Dual OPL3 card test.. SPEAKER WARNING: A VERY rough demo just messing with the onboard filters and synthesis of our OPL3 caladan card.

Built myself a little workspace here in the workshop. I’ve got lots of video content to do for the upcoming DSP board and I need somewhere to bust out the keyboard from time to time. Need better audio monitor placement. It’ll do for now.

Just now getting to listen to this wonderful Xmas gift from Dephrase .
A xmas infused beat tape made on his S2400.
Had to recondition and service this Technics M270x cassette deck just to listen to it, but it was worth it! ❤️

Finished up another resto.
What a beauty! ❤️

Wanted to drop y’all an update with where we’re at with the S2400 filter card and DSP card.

After some testing, I’m not overly blown away by the actual sound of the filters. I’m waiting to do more testing with them.
More UI code needs to be written yet.
Further, I’m waiting to hear how the analogue filters on our two Caladan cards sound, if one of those is much better, we’ll transplant those onto the S2400 card.

The DSP is progressing, albeit a little slower than I’d like. But I’ve been doing a lot of testing with it.
So far we have an insert plugin chain for each of the 8 outputs, these can be paired into stereo channels or treated as mono. So 8x mono or 4x stereo or any combination thereof.

Each of the 8 channels can also be sent to 2 send busses which also have their own insert fx chain. (Think reverb/delay etc) Finally, a new master channel which can again have its own plugin chain. There’s a fair amount still to do with the actual UI for this.
Aside from that, I’m trying to hat hatch a plan to figure out how we can also have a kind of ‘master performance fx ‘mode akin to sp404 stutter fx, slowdowns etc. using the 8 pads as triggers.

All this is of course going on while we’re hard at work with Caladan.

Thanks for all the support this year as it draws to a close. Spending a few days with the fam in Georgia then onto Asheville or cataloochee NC in search of snow. I’ll be back at it next week.
Big ❤️
Brad.

Merry Xmas you set of bastards, I hope you’re all being forced to wear matching pajamas somewhere too!! ❤️

Stock caladan card (remixed OG parva voice) and rev 2 OPL3 card arrived today!! Testing to commence!!

Had the legend that is Bill Pettaway come visit us at Isla HQ to talk about how he uses his S2400 and what we’re up to over here. Bill’s credits read like a who’s who of pop. He wrote the smash “Girl you know (it’s true)” ‘Performed’ by Milli Vanilli, did lots of the work on Justin Timberlake’s ‘Justified’ album, Missy Elliot and so much more. It was an absolute pleasure, Bill. Thanks for stopping by! (Check the next post for a jam video)

👀 hands up!!!

Congratulations to my buddy Manfred Veber on opening his space in Paris.. what a sight to behold... I could almost make a mirror of it here if I had the style... I don't.

Woof!!!!

Prototype dual OPL3 cards have entered the building!