vLinn LM-1 User Manual

LM-1 DRUMS

www.alyjameslab.com

USER MANUAL 1.0

BY

Aly James

©2014-2015 ALYJAMESLAB

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3

INSTALLATI ON............................................................................................................................... 6

CONTROL PANELS ......................................................................................................................... 9

THE A M6070 DA C.........................................................................................................................11

SAMPLE TUNING ..........................................................................................................................15

THE HIHAT CASE...........................................................................................................................18

MAIN PANEL ................................................................................................................................19

CEM FILTERS ................................................................................................................................19

SETTINGS .....................................................................................................................................22

EPROM LOADING .........................................................................................................................24

PRESETS IMPORT / EXPORT...........................................................................................................27

MIDI AUTOMATION......................................................................................................................28

LM-1 SEQUENCER ........................................................................................................................29

HIDDEN SECRETS..........................................................................................................................31

LINKS...........................................................................................................................................32

DISCLAIMER & LICENCE AGREEMENT ............................................................................................33

INTRODUCTION

My name is Aly James;

French steam funky musician, composer and creator of strange musical DIY
devices and software.

I was planning for a long time to make an accurate Linn LM-1 VST dedicating
to the 1
been happy with packs of samples coming from different recording chains,
lacks of control over the pitch and all that makes the unique funky sound of
that legendary drum computer made by Roger Linn.

The Linn was THE killer drum machine in town back in the 80’s; it was also the first that include real
drum samples!

st

Sample Based Drum Machine in History, mainly because I have never

The Linn LM-1 Drum Computer was created by Roger Linn. He used samples of acoustic drum sounds
recorded on the f ly with some basic hardware he made at that time. The fact that they were
recorded raw with a custom made ADC, ignoring the basis of digital recordi ng makes them cut be tter
in a mix than anything available at the time, they sounded so great that they become an alternative
to the analog drum sounds of the 80's drum machines.. To this day the unique sound of the LM-1 is
highly regarded and only using samples of an LM-1 output cannot reproduce the wide range of
sounds this machine can produce . The DAC in use in here and the whole circuitry stands next to the
samples characters in that unique sounding team.

The LM-1 is an historical piece of gear th at has a place in the sound of the 80's era.

Only around 500 of these things are out there so don't count on findi ng a working one easil y or for
cheap. It has been used by major acts li ke:

Prince, Phil Collins, Thompson Twins, Stevie Wonder, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, The Human
League, Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, John Carpenter, Todd Rundgren,The Art of Noise etc... The
Machine was made by a musi ci an for musicians and I tried to stick to that standard. So as there were
no accurate VST for that legend out there ...

I had to make the VLINN!

____________________________________________________________ ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ _

Personally, I grow up listeni ng a lot of Funk Musi c and especially the Minneapolis Funk scene, The
LM-1, Linndrum & DMX Drum Machines sound we re preeminent and were a huge part of that
particular sound. The fact that the LM-1 had multipl e outputs screamed for experimentation and it

wasn’t uncommon to send each drum sounds to fx units or guitar pedals. The usage of algorithmic
gated reverbs of that era was also part of the sound (think AMS RMX16 or Eventide harmonizer).
Most of the rare LM-1 machines were usually modified to suit the artist needs, increasing pitch
range, adding external triggers & changing stock EPROMS samples wasn’t uncommon. Still, t he
characteristic stock sounds of the Bass, Snare, Claps, Rim shot and Hihat were always present.

The coolest thing was that each and every sounds of the LM-1 we re tunable and as they were stored
in EPROMS chips, they can be replaced by other EPROMS wi th different or custom made samples.

The Linn LM-1 was controlled by a Z80 processor and featured a built i n sequencer. An urban legend
goes on for a long time about the LM-1 having a special groove and even a kind of secret
randomization built in…This is pl ain false, as Roger Linn himself have recently stated and debunk the
myth, the LM-1 groove only comes from the low resolution of its se quencer, whi ch is, 48 PPQN (see
LM-1 Sequencer section)

This emulation is based on reverse engineering and old datasheets; it uses a C++ custom core with

mo deled AM 6070 DAC , Oscillators, counters, OPAMPS & Filters.

The product has been assembled through the SYNTHEDIT framework using the very last version,
Mostly custom C++ coding and some third party licensed code where nothing fancy were needed. It

will be ported to OSX at some point in the future.

____________________________________________________________ ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ ___ _

Thanks to all the nice people that started to use VLINN and support my projects and to proud
owners of original Linn LM-1 Units who have sent me some recordings to make tests.

A special thanks to Roger Linn (LM-1 C reator) & Paul J Whites (Electrongate.com).

Full Credits & Thanks can be accessed on the VLINN GUI panel.

Bass – MIDI notes 35, 36

Conga High – MIDI note 49

Snare – MIDI notes 38, 40

Conga Low – MIDI note 50

Hihat Closed – MIDI notes 42, 44

Claps – MIDI note 39

Hihat Open – MIDI note 46

RimShot – MIDI note 37

Cowbell – MIDI note 56

Tambourine – MIDI note 54

Tom High – MIDI notes 41, 43, 45

Cabasa – MIDI note 51

Tom Low – MIDI notes 47, 48

Additional Custom Voice – MIDI note ??

Mainly,

VLINN can be triggered via MIDI following mostly the GM MIDI Drums mapping.

Each trigger will engage a binary counter that will run at the speed of an oscillator which
pitches is fixed by the tune knob setting. Byte after byte, the EPROM content will be read
and the output will be decoded by the emulated AM6070 DAC. The output of the DAC is
amplified by an OPAMP and will be filtered in some way differently depending on the voice.
The counter will read all the EPROM content even if you release the key before the end.

A main mixer is used to set the volume of each voice before it hits the output stage.
The Linn LM-1 featured panning switches that are not needed anymore because we have
separate outputs that will be mixed and panned ins ide a DAW; hence there is no panning in
VLINN VST.
Each voice has its own tune knob that will control the s peed of the EPROM data reading, the
range available is 978 Hz – 44092 Hz which correspond to a real mod you can apply to the
Linn LM-1 to increase the pitch range, stock was 12048 Hz – 30303 Hz). (See Sample Tuning.)

Seven of the stock LM-1 EPROMS can be replaced by external compatible content and an
additional voice can also be used. This opens up to Linndrum sounds (often called LM-2),
DMX, Drumtracks etc… and even your own created EPROM content (See EPROM Loading.)

Basic MIDI implementation:

MIDI IN:

VLINN can receive any MIDI CH as main source for triggers .
It can be triggered with a standard MIDI Keyboard/Pads or even a MIDI Drum Kit.

The mapping follows almost the same mapping as GM MIDI Standard.

Note that most DAW can convert incoming MIDI notes to another if needed and that most of the
hardware MIDI pads can be assigned to any MIDI notes.

INSTALLATION

COMPATIBILITY

VLINN is a Windows 32Bit V ST Instrument for use wi th MIDI capable DAWs.
RUN on 32/64 Bit Syste ms.
If you want to use it with a 64bit DAW you can use JBridge or inte rnal DAW Bridge.

INSTALL VST

1. Decompress the downloaded archive file

2. Copy the entire Folder VLINN to your V ST PLUGINS folder

3. Load i t in your DAW

INSTALL STANDALONE

1. Decompress the downloaded archive file

2. Copy the entire Folder VLINN_STANDALONE where you want

3. Simpl y R UN VLINN.exe

State of VLINN current features

WIN 32 VST runs on 32/64Bit Systems and it is multicore compatible.

HIGH QUALITY GUI

(Different panels for controls etc...)

INSTANT UPDATE FOR ALL CONTROLS

FULL MIDI AUTOMATION

With midi learn (right click to assign MIDI)

AM6070 MODELED REAL TIME DAC DECODING

Following the exact datasheet decode table for 8bit companded incoming DATA.

HIHAT DATA LOOPING & VCA

The LM-1 Hihat circuitry was pretty unique, the hihat proms were read constantly in a l oop while
onl y a V CA was triggered, f or closed hihat the circuitry had the ability to discharge the current
through an additional way based on the de cay pot setting. This basically makes the hihat sounding
different on every hit.

CEM 3320 Filters

Unlike the very first produced LM-1, some Voices with Bass frequency content were filtered to
minimize the remaining 8bit noise, using a VCF configured as a 4 poles l ow pass filter with no
resonance. The CV frequency of the VCF was shaped by the circuitry in a way that lets the transi ents
pass through relatively unfiltered. The VLINN lets you fi ne tune the CV pulse or completely bypass
the filter, this i s useful when a voice is tuned very low or if you want to repl ace a "Bass" sl ot with
another EPROM that doesn't require filtering.

SEPARATE PITCH TUNING

This is one of the coolest features of the LM-1, letting you tune any voice to a particular frequency
for a wi de range of sounds.

The PROMS data were read one byte at the time by a counter which speed was controlled by a
relatively stable oscillator, the counter reading speed could then be affe cted by the ex ternal tuning
pots in a limited range, + or - 1 Octave.

This tuning range can be tweaked and the VLINN provides a useful wide range of pi tch from 1000
Hz to 44100 Hz and anything in between.

(Stock se tting range was 12048 – 30303 Hz. See Sample Tuni ng.)

SEPARATE OUTPUTS

The LM-1 features separate outputs for every voices, so as the VLINN.
You can choose from ALL to 1 Stereo Channel or Separate Stereo Channels for e ach voice.

VELOCITY CONTROL

You can limit yourself to only 2 velocity levels or use the full range of MIDI velocity for convenience.

GU I & AUTOMATION

The GUI features the original trigger buttons for kick listening and controls over every aspect of the
Drum Machine, most of the parameters like volume and pitch knobs can be MIDI learned and
controlle d by an exte rnal MIDI Hardware.

LOADING EXTERNAL EPROMS DATA

The VLINN provides the abili ty to replace some voices with external compatible 8bit companded
EPROM data, which opens up the machine to LINNDRUM (LM-2) sampl e s, LINN 9000, DMX, DX,
DRUMTRACKS etc... Even load your own custom made. You can swi tch between custom loaded and
stock EPROMS on the fly.

VLINN supports the foll owing type and size EPROMS binaries (.bin)

2716(2048_Bytes) 2K

2732(4096_Bytes) 4K

2764(8192_Bytes) 8K

27128(16384_Bytes) 16K

27256(32768_Bytes) 32K

LOAD & SAVE FULL PATCH & BANKS in FXB/FXP

CONTROL PANELS

Overview

VLINN GUI INTERFACE is pretty straight forward; it stores the different parameters on different
panels.

The main sliders on the mixer set the volume for e ach voice.

The Tuning knobs set the pitch (sampl e rate ) for each voi ce; y ou can al so type in the precise pitch in
Hz manually by clicking on the number itself.

The Hihat horizontal slider to the left bottom of the GUI sets the decay value for the closed hihat
circuitry.

You can also trigger a voice by clicking on the corresponding drum pad, some of them have two
velocity values available some not, and hence the double pads on Bass, Snare, Hihat, Tamb & Cabasa.
Toms & Congas pads trigger either the high or low voice.

Note that the high Tom or Conga can be tuned lower than the low corresponding voice; this is

basically just a name to differentiate the two voices.

Once a voice is triggered a red LED indicates the status.

These are the main panels than can be reached by the panel buttons to the left:

PANELS:

MAIN: Access to the Mixer Board.

CEMS: Access to the filters settings of the CEM 3320 chip for BASS, TOMS & CONGAS voices.

PROM Access to the EPROMS configuration panel.

SETS Access to settings like velocity handling and voice output routing, also displays the binary

counters for each EPROM in real-time.

One is blank for future updates and extended features…

Right click on a knob, button or slider will open a midi learn assign menu. Ctrl click + move allow fine

tuning.