The First Walkman: Restoring My 1979 Sony TPS-L2
How I restored my 1979 Sony TPS-L2, the first Walkman: new belts, a clean tape path, an oiled motor, and speed set...
// 02 / Technology / The workbench
Technology
The technical layer behind AERA: the machines, repairs, circuits, tests, mistakes, rebuilds, and signal paths that eventually become part of the music. This is where I document the devices I build, restore, modify, and use.
Build families
Four ways into the workbench.
The archive is organized by the kind of machine being shaped: amplification and
playback, synthesizers and sequencing, rhythm machines, and effects or signal
processing. Each family opens into a focused archive of related build posts.
01
Amplifiers & Playback
Power amplifiers, headphone amplifiers, speakers, phono stages and cassette players: the listening and playback chain that decides what the music really is.
02
Synths & Computers
Analog voices, sequencers, modular systems, vintage recreations, and the machines that create the raw material.
03
Drum Machines & Sequencers
Analog & TR-style rhythm machines, authentic recreations, analog pulse, strict timing, and the mechanical side of groove.
04
Effects & Processing
Phasers, chorus, analog delays, flangers, and analog studio processing circuits that change the emotional size of the room.
Build log by category
Recent posts from each technical world.
A compact view of the latest work in each category. The full archive for each family
lives on its own detail page, while this page stays readable and gives visitors a fast overview of the current technical work.
Amplifiers
Amps & Playback
Power, clarity, gain structure, headphone amplifiers, monitoring chains, playback machines, and the pieces that decide how honestly I hear the studio.
A Journey Into the Ultimate DIY Headphone & Speaker Amp
Building the AMB Beta22: an all-discrete, balanced Class A headphone and speaker amplifier, from power supply to finished chassis.
Building the AMB Beta24 power Amp
Building two AMB Beta24 power amplifiers, a no-compromise discrete design, after meeting its designer Ti Kan in Sunnyvale.
Synths
Synths & Computers
Oscillators, filters, control voltage, step logic, interfaces, restorations,
and the machines that generate pattern and tone.
Building the Beast: My Journey to a Large Analog Synthesizer
How I built a large analog modular synthesizer to capture the organic sound of Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze and 70s pioneers.
Back to 1981: Recreating the Roland Jupiter 8
Recreating the Roland Jupiter-8, the 'final boss' of analog poly synths: the build, the filters and that creamy yet aggressive sound.
Creating Music with an Atari Falcon030
Why I built my studio around a 1992 Atari Falcon030: a production-grade music computer with a disciplined, focused workflow.
Rhythm
Drums & Sequencers
Rhythm circuits, timing, trigger behavior, noise sources, repairs and the physical machinery of pulse.
The Beat That Changed Everything: The TR-909 Legacy
The Roland TR-909's legacy in techno and house, and my DIY build of the drum machine that defined a generation's sound.
Building a Beat: The Sound of a Roland TR-808
Building the Din Sync RE-808, a DIY Roland TR-808 recreation: sourcing obsolete transistors, hundreds of solder joints, the first beat.
The Birth of the MSS 2007 MIDI Step Sequencer
The story of the MSS 2007, the DIY MIDI step sequencer from ucapps.de that powered the 40-minute live odyssey of my album...
Processing
Effects & Processing
Phasers, delays, filters, modulation, signal treatment, and the devices that bend the sound after it is born.
Riding the Storm Tide: Haible’s Bounce Flanger
How I built Jurgen Haible's Son of Storm Tide flanger in 2008: BBD chips, the Bounce function, and one of my earliest...
Crafting the Legendary Solina Wall of Sound
How I built Jurgen Haible's Triple Chorus, a Solina string ensemble emulator, for my Frac Rack modular: the lush 70s string sound.
The Haible Schulte Krautrock Phaser
My first DIY effect, built in 2007: Jurgen Haible's clone of the Schulte Compact Phasing A, the legendary Krautrock phaser.
How to read the archive
The workbench is part of the music.
These posts are not separate from the musical process. They document the physical
decisions behind the sound: why a circuit is rebuilt, why a signal path is changed,
why a machine is kept, repaired, or abandoned. The studio hears the result later.