Stop Jackin' Around and Give Me Some Power

So my conundrum about how to reconcile the fact that Wally uses pretty much every different connection standard ever gained another twist.

I asked my wife (who is way more practical-minded about, well, everything than I am) for some advice. I'd been trolling the PAiA and Blacet websites, ogling FracRac format modules I can't afford (don't judge), when it occurred to me that most of my modules are actually 3.5mm jacks, and so are the jacks on some of the other gear that I've been lusting after (Arturia MicroBrute, Korg Volca series). Well, that's not strictly true, most of my jacks are Banana Jacks, but I'm almost positive that I want to move away from those.

"So," says my wife, "why not just use 3.5mm jacks for everything that's Frac format, and 1/4" jacks for everything else?"

Why not, indeed?

So that means I can convert the LFO, VCA and Noise modules in-place by swapping out their jacks. The ARF VCO will still get 1/4" jacks to match the ARF VCF and A/D Generator.

I'll need to get more 3.5mm -> 1/4" cables. I already have 3, and they work fine. I'll also need a fist full of 3.5mm patch cables. Blacet makes a cable kit I could use to get both, but I should shop around some. I also just discovered Stackcables, which makes banana jacks even less desirable. Though at over $8 a pop, I won't be getting a ton of these. :)

This leaves the question of power distribution. At the moment, the FracRack itself has a simple but effective +/-15v supply in it. Power from that is distributed by basically the same sorts of connections we used to use to power disk drives in computers. It turns out that that's a TERRIBLE way to distribute power to analog equipment. But what can I say, I was young and needed the milliamps.

My "big boy" power supply uses three screw terminal blocks (+V, Gnd, -V), and expects each module to have a 3 wire connection that can clamp down. Electrically, it's sound enough, but it's relatively hard to attach and remove things.

My old MOTM stuff had this great block sort of like this one, and lucky me, I found the extra one I had! So, clearly, it's time to retrofit my system to use the more stable and convenient connectors. Blacet sells a kit of headers and wire which I can use. I might be able to get equivalent parts from Mouser or Jameco, so I'll be doing some shopping.

So there you have it - 3.5mm jacks for my FracRack stuff, 1/4" jacks for my "free range" modules, and MOTM-style power blocks for everyone!

Time to start saving my pennies.