Tag: cereal instruments

Cereal Instruments BINARY and RESOLUTION – DIY Builds

January 18, 2023
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Cereal Instruments BINARY and RESOLUTION - DIY Builds

Cereal_Instruments_LOGO__Text

Cereal Instruments BINARY

Cereal Instruments RESOLUTION

We decided to do a few things a little different this month by not only having more than 1 build/review, but having 4 by one company… Cereal Instruments. Their utility modules are something that every rack should have in them. We use them all of the time not only for performance but for recording or just jamming. Check out the latest builds of the Cereal Instruments BINARY and RESOLUTION.

BINARY

The Cereal Instruments binary is a dual gang attenuator that allows you to attenuate two signals with one knob. This 4HP passive module is pretty self explanatory and the controls are simple.

Knob A controls the attenuation of the signals passing through the ‘a’ inputs and outputs, whereas knob b controls the attenuation of the signals passing through the inputs and outputs of the ‘b’ jacks. 

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Cereal Instruments SWERVE and RAZE – DIY Builds

January 17, 2023
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Cereal Instruments SWERVE and RAZE - DIY Builds

Cereal_Instruments_LOGO__Text

Cereal Instruments SWERVE

Cereal Instruments RAZE

We decided to do a few things a little different this month by not only having more than 1 build/review, but having 4 by one company… Cereal Instruments. Their utility modules are something that every rack should have in them. We use them all of the time not only for performance but for recording or just jamming. Check out the latest builds of the Cereal Instruments SWERVE and RAZE.

SWERVE

The Cereal Instruments swerve is a passive dual performer switch with mute buttons built in. You can toggle between sides with the toggle switches or temporarily mute one side or the other.

Jacks are either in’s or outs and are labeled simply as “a” or “b”. One thing to note is that this 2021 edition of swerve is not the same as Cereal Instruments earlier release of ‘swerve’ (which can be found here). This swerve is a performing switch whereas the other ‘swerve’ was a rotary switch that you could route cv, or effects to other modules. 

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Cereal Instruments ‘thump’ – DIY Build

September 1, 2020
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Cereal Instruments 'thump' - DIY Build

Cereal Instruments - THUMP - Completed Front

Cereal Instruments ‘thump’ allows you to send two signals through a gritty vactrol amp with low pass gate modes & plenty of gain/distortion. Sounds cool huh? We thought so too and thought it only made sense that the ‘thump’ was our next build. One thing to note is that the ‘thump’ is unlike its brethren kin with regard to power. It is Cereal Instruments first active module, meaning it requires power to operate unlike the ‘mesh’ or ‘swerve’.

The ‘thump’s aesthetics are a matte black panel with orange knobs and white silkscreen give the modules their own unique look. The PCBs that Cereal Instruments uses are excellent quality. They soak up solder like a sponge grabs water. This makes for a stress free build. Speaking of the build, the ‘thump’ would be recommended for intermediate builders and above.

Novice builders could struggle with some of the tight spaces, double PCB layout and the giant pot/switch that needs to be wired in a specific manner in order to get the correct switching.

Let the soldering begin…

Since there are 2 PCBs, start with the logic board first. This is the one that doesn’t have the jack/pot mounting spaces (that is the control board). Resistors, diodes and caps were first up (one cap will be placed on the control board). We used top down soldering instead of bottom soldering due to the ease of access. After these were tacked down, the IC sockets were next. 

Dab one pad with solder and then line up the IC socket with the holes. Heat up the solder and lightly push the IC socket into the melted solder. This will hold everything in place when you turn the control board over and complete the IC socket soldering.  

The main power header is next followed by the standoffs and the electrolytic cap. This capacitor is soldered on the backside of the logic board.  Lastly, attach a wire from the top CV jack pad to the outer CB pot pad as shown in the photo below.

Detailed - Install Wire
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Cereal Instruments ‘mesh’ – DIY Build

August 15, 2020
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Cereal Instruments 'mesh' - DIY Build

Tailgating off the last build, we take on the Cereal Instruments ‘mesh’ module. Another passive module in the Cereal Instruments lineup, the ‘mesh’ is actually 6 attenuators. ‘Mesh’ allows you to passively, mix, mult and attenuate in a small 8hp size.  

Now, this might seem like overkill on attenuators, but think back about the last time you actually needed one and you didn’t have one. This is a utility module with purpose, much like the other modules produced by our newcomer friends at CI. 

Mesh - PCB quote

Another cool thing about the Cereal Instruments ‘mesh’ is that each of the rows set of 3 inputs are normalized together so that they can actually act as an attenuative passive mult. Read that again, that is cool. Let’s not stop there though. The columns on the ‘mesh’ have their top outputs normalized to the bottom, allowing you to mix the top and the bottom rows when nothing is plugged into the top.  With this being said, you now may be wondering what exactly an attenuator does.

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