Synthesizer and Music Electronics

[CD Xbow]

Retirement is a wonderful thing for an aging geek especially if you have a friend who can do SMD soldering successfully. I recently challenged my friend to build a pair of these Armachat Lora communicators, and he did! With access to these skills ('look out Honey, I'm using technology...') I thought I would investigate what DIY Synth projects looked appealing. While hunting around I found a number of links to interesting sites that may be useful. I found a number of Pi Pico projects based on Jan Knipper's Polykit Pico DCO, a very impressive polyhphonic synth. One of these is a mono synth, using the Saeed RP240 pico clone.

Seeed RP2040 dual DCO

Carrying on the excellent work by Jan Knipper, I ported his Polykit Pico DCO to the Seeed XIAO RP2040, not much of a feat I know, but I made a single voice dual DCO with the available pins. I modded the detune so only the second DCO actually detuned down from the first. I also added the FM input...

lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group

I thought this would be a little easier. I managed to find some of the 6 voice Pi DCO made on strip board.
Raspberry Pi Pico DCO

And a whole thread of verified strip board layouts that folks might be interested in. Much easier if someone's done all the hard work.
Verified Stripboard Layouts! - DIY STUFF - Look Mum No Computer Thingies

Last but not least I found this rather weird single digital chip which mimics an analog synth. One guy has put it in a plug, making the worlds smallest synth.
Synthetic Sound Labs dspG1 Midi Synth Chip (synthcube.com)
It's a bit weird, because it has 5 voices, each with 3 DCO. BUT it's only got a single Filter and envelope. Rather than polyphonic, it's called paraphonic. Still would work as a true mono synth. You need a midi controller with lot's of kbobs to control it. I'll keep an eye on it. It was originally released in 2014 with a limited run but has had another production run earlier this year. Here are a few more useful links:

Simple DIY Electronic Music Projects

electro-music.com :: View Forum - DIY Hardware and Software

Music Tech DIY - MOD WIGGLER

There are a few more links I will post when I have sorted them out, but I would ask other BF members to post their links the DIY music circuits here.
If you have an SMD kit you can't put together I'm sure my friend would be happy to hep for a sliver of silver, contact me if that is the case.

 

[Toump Ass]

I love soldering, it's more a summer hobby for me though because it is cold in my garage and less light during the day

I have modified some SMD stuff but I don't build SMD stuff. I make guitar pedals and eurorack modules and I refurbish, modify and circuit bend old music and video synthesizers and effects units.

Last week I added a MIDI module to a Korg Volca Modular and finished repairing a Yamaha DX synth I got for $40 on ebay. After I fixed it, I bent it so it makes kind of weird and random sounds.

I think if you want to learn soldering Guitar FX Layouts is a good place, some of the pedals are really fun too. There's some really simple circuits there to get started and the components are only a few dollars. I really like painting the cases for the pedals too.

I am not sure what I am going to build or fix next- I have an old Yamaha drum machine I want to finish modifying, and some Alesis drum machines I need to repair/destroy. I have a vintage Roland SH101 I want to mod and a kit for a Throbbing Gristle synth ready to go Gristleizer — MusicPCB, there's heaps of half-finished things in my garage waiting for me though.

 

[CD Xbow]

I love soldering, it's more a summer hobby for me though because it is cold in my garage and less light during the day

I have modified some SMD stuff but I don't build SMD stuff. I make guitar pedals and eurorack modules and I refurbish, modify and circuit bend old music and video synthesizers and effects units.

Last week I added a MIDI module to a Korg Volca Modular and finished repairing a Yamaha DX synth I got for $40 on ebay. After I fixed it, I bent it so it makes kind of weird and random sounds.

I think if you want to learn soldering Guitar FX Layouts is a good place, some of the pedals are really fun too. There's some really simple circuits there to get started and the components are only a few dollars. I really like painting the cases for the pedals too.

I am not sure what I am going to build or fix next- I have an old Yamaha drum machine I want to finish modifying, and some Alesis drum machines I need to repair/destroy. I have a vintage Roland SH101 I want to mod and a kit for a Throbbing Gristle synth ready to go Gristleizer — MusicPCB, there's heaps of half-finished things in my garage waiting for me though.

Which DX? What did you have to do to fi it?
I have a PCB somewhere for the Gristleiser, you can have it if you want it. I'd like to see it built.

I had an original DX7 decades ago, one modded by Robin Whittle, sadly it got nicked. I was very fond of that synth. Total pig to program but overtime I got the hang of it and even sold a few sounds.

 

[CD Xbow]

We recently put together a Raspberry Pi synthesizer that run 'bare metal' with no OS needed. It's neat becuse you can use older Pies for this. I love repurposing old tech. Boots in 4 seconds & works just like a bought one! The project is here:

GitHub - rsta2/minisynth: A virtual analog synthesizer for Raspberry Pi

A virtual analog synthesizer for Raspberry Pi. Contribute to rsta2/minisynth development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Its a dual oscillator analog synth with envelopes for the filter and amplitude. The main screen is well laid out and easy to follow. I've only had a little play so far, but I remain impressed. I have ordered an official raspberry pi touch screen for it which will make it a nice self contained synth - this is the only touch screen that works with it.

 

[CD Xbow]

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The Viktor NV-1 is a beautiful and wonderful sounding software synth. 3 Oscillators, midi capable and fx including a compressor. I don't know what use a compressor is on a synth, perhaps someone could tell me. Highly recommended.

Viktor NV-1 Synthesizer

Synthesizer built with the Web Audio API. Play using your MIDI keyboard. Save your custom patches, export your library or import libraries created by others.

nicroto.github.io

I had a go at installing it locally and it didn't quite work properly. The GUI was all stuffed up although the machine still worked, but not really usable.

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The GM midi Tiny Synth is a small synth that includes a midi file player, a timbre editor and reverb. It has an interesting synthesis technique using oscillators and dynamically generated buffer source without any samples. While I can't tell you what that means in English I can tell you I was able to host it locally and mod it. I have posted it as an app on puter,com
here: https://puter.com/app/gm-mini-synth

Here it is hosted in a subdomain.
https://tiny-midi-synth.puter.site

Finally a plug for puter.com. This is a cloud based site that gives you an online desktop. You can use it to build and run apps, store files, play games, build & host sites and use AI tools. Lot of stuff for free. You can potentially earn money from your apps. Worth a look even as a file store. Every successful referral you make gets you an extra gig of storage.

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[CD Xbow]

After much pain and suffering I managed to build and deploy this midi sequencer, Signal. Working, both served and locally. I'd appreciate if some posters could give it a go and let me know if there are problems. I've only tested on Windows Edge/Opera and Android Chrome. Follow this link:

Signal Midi Sequencer

It's a fine piece of work by the dev, in fact it's so good you can buy it. There are links on the landing page to the various stores. I've added a bonus ancient synth, the EMS Synthi A, to the distribution. Brian Eno used something like this in his early Roxy Music days. Like many of these ancients synths it has a patch bay ensuring it is almost impossible to operate and so many controls it was very difficult to recreate your sounds. Fortunately the dev has added a digital program store (top right) and a pop up keyboard (bottom, rightish) to ease the pain.

Direct link to this ancient 3 oscillator beauty is here
Enjoy!​

 

[revo333]

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The Viktor NV-1 is a beautiful and wonderful sounding software synth. 3 Oscillators, midi capable and fx including a compressor. I don't know what use a compressor is on a synth, perhaps someone could tell me. Highly recommended.

It's only a hobby for me but when I use synths in GarageBand they sound good on the headphones but sound very lo-fi on speakers.

When I use a compressor on drum loops it seems to make them sound louder and a bit more in focus.

I always keep forgetting to use a compressor on my synths to see if it does the same.

Now that they have some new drum loops on GarageBand it's motivated me again to have a play around.

 

[CD Xbow]

It's only a hobby for me but when I use synths in GarageBand they sound good on the headphones but sound very lo-fi on speakers.

When I use a compressor on drum loops it seems to make them sound louder and a bit more in focus.

I always keep forgetting to use a compressor on my synths to see if it does the same.

Now that they have some new drum loops on GarageBand it's motivated me again to have a play around.

So they are 'fattening' up the synth sounds?