I built a DIY-only 4ms Company Noise Swash module, bought from Thonk. It’s a pretty old module that has gone through several design iterations. This is the last iteration, August, 2019, which is version 1.4.

The instructions (paper printout included) are quite good and easy to follow. I found four extra resistors, but one missing capacitor. Not to worry; I decided to substitute all the capacitors with my own. Mine were newer and smaller. I emailed the 4ms company for a v1.4 schematic, having found only older ones online. They responded that they didn’t release this schematic. So I took an exercise to draw my own by tracing from the PCB. That took the better part of a day, but was worth it. I saw several changes they had made from the older versions, though I can’t claim to understand this circuit! I frowned at the lack of bypass capacitors. The only ones were 100uf electrolytic caps on the input and output of the 9V regulator. That seemed way too big to me, so I substituted 10uf. I put my last tantalum capacitor on the output of the regulator. It’s the big yellow one. I used a shrouded, keyed power header of my own, instead of the 10-pin header included.

I put a big MOTM knob on the 10-turn swash pot. The rest of the knobs are the ones that came with the kit. I’ve seen photos of Noise Swashes on the Internet with many different kinds of knobs. The pots used are D-shaft and these knobs matched.

Now for a little noise. This is a mono recording from the Noise Swash output. Nothing is patched to the input. Self-patching Mood to Swash CV in seemed like fun. I twiddled knobs and switches during the recording. It’s quite unpredictable and fun.