I am starting to get an itch to try a DIY synth
Anyone progressed from pedals to synths? I have always been an analog synth lover and it seems there are some sites out there for the DIYer
just wanting to hear from any members that have or wanted to get into this.
Yeah I'm a synth dabbler.
I built a Shruti from Mutable Instruments, which is fantastic (highly recommended).
I've built various filters and bits too in the past (MS20 filter, Multimode etc.).
However, I have finally taken the plunge into Euro(c)rack, with the aim of DIY'ing as much as I can.
Eurorack is looking like the most sensible format for DIY synth stuff.
Frequency Central have some really cool projects, and I have a couple on my bench at the mo.
In short, go for it!
Started with this kit in 82, still have a box of PCBs that I need to put in a rack.
http://www.synthfind.com/powertran/powertran-transcendent-2000-4/
There is so much good info on the web, I suggest you start at muffwiggler.com
Peter
not yet, but soon I'll become muahhahahaha!!!!!
Synth builder here as well, play keyboards in bands, use my DIY pedals with synths, rhodes, organ etc.
Also do electronic music with drum machines and samplers
Have built bits of stuff for everything, only hurdle i haven't jumped is finishing my own modular synth. I have the necessary pieces just trying to clear out the back log of pedals and such first.
Wow, .....cool. So now I am really inspired.
How is the learning curve?
I've been wanting to do a kit from MFOS. I can't decide between the Soundlab Mini Synth Plus or the Mark II. It's cool to know there are people here interested in this!
Been strongly tempted to build the bones of a synth (VCO, VCF, VCA, ADSR, maybe a LFO), but the pricetag on most everything scares me. The old MOTM prices really scare me :)
Does building synths in software count?
I have a list of things I'd like to try and a Synth is definetly on there. Nice to see it's actually possible.
Anyone interested in building a Theremin?? I need a kit/layout, so if anyone has experience, please let me know.
Quote from: m-Kresol on February 20, 2014, 08:18:55 AM
I have a list of things, I'd like to try and a Synth is definetly on there. Nice to see it's actually possible.
Anyone interested in building a Theremin?? I need a kit/layout, so if anyone has experience, please let me know.
I think Moog sell theirs as a kit don't they?
Regarding costs. When you add it all up, Euro-rack by far becomes the most flexible and affordable option. I was looking at the MFOS synth kit, but I think the flexibility and convenience of Euro-rack stuff wins over.
I was looking at some of these simple synth kits.
http://www.synthrotek.com/
Not too pricey and at least a way to get started. I have built a few pedals from them using their pcbs. I might give one of their synths a shot before I spend any serious $$$
They also have a theremin kit, which I too am interested in building.
Quote from: raulduke on February 20, 2014, 09:40:25 AM
Quote from: m-Kresol on February 20, 2014, 08:18:55 AM
I have a list of things, I'd like to try and a Synth is definetly on there. Nice to see it's actually possible.
Anyone interested in building a Theremin?? I need a kit/layout, so if anyone has experience, please let me know.
I think Moog sell theirs as a kit don't they?
Regarding costs. When you add it all up, Euro-rack by far becomes the most flexible and affordable option. I was looking at the MFOS synth kit, but I think the flexibility and convenience of Euro-rack stuff wins over.
Yes, Moog is selling their theremins, but they are pretty expensive. Also, they take away all the fun by sending populated PCBs.
Quote from: peterc on February 19, 2014, 07:36:08 PM
Started with this kit in 82, still have a box of PCBs that I need to put in a rack.
http://www.synthfind.com/powertran/powertran-transcendent-2000-4/
There is so much good info on the web, I suggest you start at muffwiggler.com
Peter
This is kinda what I had in mind when I heard and said synth. I don't really know what eg. the Eurorack parts do or how they work together. What would one need with the eurorack or mutable insturments? Amp, speakers, keyboard?
MOTM are among the most pricey. I recommend CGS, and there are many group buy projects with good documentation on the forums electro-music and muffwiggler. Also lots of amazing help. Some overlap with the pedals community of course. I found there to be a learning curve with: bipolar power, mechanical assembly (synth panels require forethought and sometimes special parts, like brackets and such if you are doing panel based modular synths...I take the easy road and do mine as little desktop boxes/standalone things in ABS enclosures or re-purposed enclosures!) My biggest synth project has been an 8-bit sampler called "Where's the Party At?" - pretty amazing. My flickr with some builds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/32803926@N06/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/32803926@N06/) I use DIY stuff every time I play a show, including a little standalone clone of the Roland TR-808 kick drum.
If you can do a complex Madbean pedal like Aquaboy SDX or whatever you will have no problem doing synth things.
Oh watch out for high levels. Modular output is 10 vpp! VERY LOUD!
What's fun is control voltages. I got into this early thanks to linking Moogerfooger and Frostwave pedals together with sequencers, MIDI, etc. I've gone and added CV to my pedal projects, using vactrols to create a voltage-to-resistance link, so I can connect pedal controls to synth LFO's and such in an interactive way.
Strategy
Paia, http://www.paia.com, has been around for a long time. They've got a theremin kit as well synth modules. Some guitar kits as well.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
Quote from: kothoma on February 20, 2014, 06:19:24 AM
Does building synths in software count?
Absolutely! I am a audio software junkie. Don't code it but love using it.
Quote from: kothoma on February 20, 2014, 06:19:24 AM
Does building synths in software count?
Yes, it counts. What do you use to build them? (Environment, language, etc.) I've done several AU based effects and a couple of synth based things with FM and soft-sync like stuff, but it's been a long time now. I really need to get back into doing it.
On the hardware side, I've wanted to get into doing some hardware based modular stuff for a some time now. But, I haven't really figured out where to start yet.
My biggest worry, looking at synth boards, is how seemingly nothing is boardmounted, except for Oakely stuff.
I love the front panels on the Catgirl Synth :)
You need to check this thread out at Overclockers.com.au. Stygian Shane is making some huge thing on vero ...
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=980132&highlight=vero
It's fecking nuts!
Quote from: Willybomb on February 21, 2014, 04:36:33 AM
You need to check this thread out at Overclockers.com.au. Stygian Shane is making some huge thing on vero ...
http://forums.overclockers.com.au/showthread.php?t=980132&highlight=vero
It's fecking nuts!
Wow......super impressive!
Quote from: RobA on February 21, 2014, 04:17:34 AM
Quote from: kothoma on February 20, 2014, 06:19:24 AM
Does building synths in software count?
Yes, it counts. What do you use to build them? (Environment, language, etc.) I've done several AU based effects and a couple of synth based things with FM and soft-sync like stuff, but it's been a long time now. I really need to get back into doing it.
[...]
Here too, it's been a long time since I actually finished something. I have lots of bits and pieces of number crunching, standalone or VST, written mainly in C / C++, even Java, D, and a few lines of x86-assembler, running on Windows and Linux. I need to get more into GUIs and including OSX in true cross-platform code.
The last years I spent more on conzeptualizing things in my mind than actually realizing anything. And as it goes with concepts: they grow and grow. I always wanted a modular system that could be a studio DAW, a live setup, an algorithmic composition framework, a sound desing lab, a modular synth that incorporates any known and unknown synthesis technique... Something like Sync Modular (http://www.sync-modular.org/)/Reaktor/puredata/Max, Bidule, Cubase/Logic, Ableton Live (did I forget something?) rolled into one.
Only dreaming? I think Bitwig and its (underlying) modular design is perhaps already very much like what I have in mind. At least it seems more convincing than the Max4Live approach. But it still is too monolithic for my taste. I see the potential of Non DAW (http://non.tuxfamily.org/) but feel that's too little integration.
Edit.
I really like FM synthesis. I somewhere have an almost working DX7 clone, but abandoned that as Hexter matured. I also like to twiddle with FM8 and Operator in Live. And of course I have my own ideas for an additive-subtractive-FM monster.
How did you implement oscillator sync?
Quote from: kothoma on February 21, 2014, 07:28:19 AM
[...]
Here too, it's been a long time since I actually finished something. I have lots of bits and pieces of number crunching, standalone or VST, written mainly in C / C++, even Java, D, and a few lines of x86-assembler, running on Windows and Linux. I need to get more into GUIs and including OSX in true cross-platform code.
Using the GUI tools for OS X certainly makes that part easier, but then that is really not cross-platform.
The really slick thing about OS X is the AU architecture. It really is designed to be a (DAW free) way of plugging together synths, effects, MIDI, and audio I/O. But, as far as I know, no one uses it that way. I'd love to see the concepts taken over to Linux where that environment would be more conducive to the idea growing, at least in spirit.
Quote
The last years I spent more on conzeptualizing things in my mind than actually realizing anything. And as it goes with concepts: they grow and grow. I always wanted a modular system that could be a studio DAW, a live setup, an algorithmic composition framework, a sound desing lab, a modular synth that incorporates any known and unknown synthesis technique... Something like Sync Modular (http://www.sync-modular.org/)/Reaktor/puredata/Max, Bidule, Cubase/Logic, Ableton Live (did I forget something?) rolled into one.
Only dreaming? I think Bitwig and its (underlying) modular design is perhaps already very much like what I have in mind. At least it seems more convincing than the Max4Live approach. But it still is too monolithic for my taste. I see the potential of Non DAW (http://non.tuxfamily.org/) but feel that's too little integration.
I hadn't seen Non DAW before. It looks really interesting. I'm going to have to find some time to play with it.
Quote
Edit.
I really like FM synthesis. I somewhere have an almost working DX7 clone, but abandoned that as Hexter matured. I also like to twiddle with FM8 and Operator in Live. And of course I have my own ideas for an additive-subtractive-FM monster.
How did you implement oscillator sync?
FM is great. I love the versatility that comes from such a simple concept. Similarly, I find digital waveguide synthesis to be really incredible in what can be done with such a really simple idea. (I also find it amazing that a patent was ever granted for either of them >:( ).
For the oscillator sync stuff, I'd have to go and find the source somewhere to be certain, but it was in this overly complex modular AU I was working on, so the idea must have involved pre-filtering of the input signal followed by zero crossing detection that was then used to reverse the slave oscillator.
Quote from: RobA on February 21, 2014, 11:27:13 AM
The really slick thing about OS X is the AU architecture. It really is designed to be a (DAW free) way of plugging together synths, effects, MIDI, and audio I/O. But, as far as I know, no one uses it that way. I'd love to see the concepts taken over to Linux where that environment would be more conducive to the idea growing, at least in spirit.
I wasn't aware of this. But this sounds similar to Jack. Or is there more to it?
Quote
For the oscillator sync stuff, I'd have to go and find the source somewhere to be certain, but it was in this overly complex modular AU I was working on, so the idea must have involved pre-filtering of the input signal followed by zero crossing detection that was then used to reverse the slave oscillator.
How did you address band limiting? Oversampling and decimating?
Quote from: kothoma on February 21, 2014, 11:43:31 AM
Quote from: RobA on February 21, 2014, 11:27:13 AM
[...]
I wasn't aware of this. But this sounds similar to Jack. Or is there more to it?
I haven't played with Jack in any way other than as an end user of software that needed it, but my impression is that they are similar but on opposite ends of the usage spectrum. Where Jack allows programs to hook together in a modular way, the AU spec allows any program to make use of any AU on the system and plug them together in all sorts of ways. There would be some overlap in the way AU's can form a graph with I/O and mixer nodes, but the intention is more to allow any application to be able to use any AU to do audio work. There are a bunch of AU's included with OS X. There are AU's for any audio I/O device and there are mixer AU's for routing between these and any software audio source. There are reverb, compressor, EQ, etc. AU's built-in as well. There are even various noise and sound generator AU's.
As an example, I was learning about consonance and dissonance curves and got interested in how it would work with mixing higher order harmonics from multiple notes played on different instruments and what that would say about 3, 4, ... note chords in non-12TET systems. I originally wrote a set of Python scripts to do the curve computations and then I'd transfer those to a synth with micro-tonal tuning capability and see what it sounded like. But, that got cumbersome, so I wrote a really simple program that could compute the curves and then used an AU graph to play back the sounds by mapping the chords to an input MIDI note. The way the AU stuff works, it was nearly trivial to do. This wasn't something that was anywhere close to performance worthy, but it really impressed on me how powerful the idea was for putting together tools to do pretty much any kind of performance.
I don't know though, maybe the reason it hasn't taken off is that a finer grained approach, like Pd or Reaktor, is really better for building performance tools. But, it does make a great resource for writing applications in.
Quote
Quote
For the oscillator sync stuff, I'd have to go and find the source somewhere to be certain, but it was in this overly complex modular AU I was working on, so the idea must have involved pre-filtering of the input signal followed by zero crossing detection that was then used to reverse the slave oscillator.
How did you address band limiting? Oversampling and decimating?
Good question, it almost certainly involved oversampling. I used oversampling heavily at the time and other effects in the AU would have been non-linear distortion effects, so oversampling would have been applied at the input of the AU and more up/down sampling would have been applied in specific places. But, it was far from finished when I quite working on it, so I'm sure there was a bit of work left to do to get rid of any artifacts running around.
Oscillator sync is an effect I really like though, so I'd really love to get a hardware version of it into an effect.
OK , I see I need to look more into this AU concept. And Macs.
(BTW I'd like to see a synth like FM8 with the matrix expanded to have the options of (hard) sync, AM, and PWM in addition to phase/frequency mod for the operators/oscillators. And any number of oscillators, few or many, based on arbitrary waveforms, mabybe even wavetable scan and samples.)
speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 02:24:25 PM
speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.
Yeah, this is exciting. I still struggle because of the price...
Coincidentally I just got these back from OSH park today:
(http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stevo83/Snapbucket/72ADADAF-B786-4719-A481-4869130A9DA7-2045-000003F8545F97A6_zpsce822063.jpg)
(http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stevo83/Snapbucket/9C040082-412D-406D-9C8E-7E6139F584A7-2045-000003F83BD89D81_zpsabe1b4c6.jpg)
Experimenting with using PCB material as front panels for eurorack stuff.
1st experiment looks promising (2xAttenuator and 2x4 Passive Mult').
If they work out I'm gonna move onto more serious stuff (an active mixer is next in the pipeline).
Quote from: kothoma on February 21, 2014, 02:31:49 PM
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 02:24:25 PM
speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.
Yeah, this is exciting. I still struggle because of the price...
What is the price suppose to be? I am a registered user of Cubase and that's already pricey enough so don't know if I would/could afford to jump on another DAW but it does look interesting.
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 03:34:16 PM
Quote from: kothoma on February 21, 2014, 02:31:49 PM
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 02:24:25 PM
speaking of Bitwig, I see they finally have a release date of March 26th.
Yeah, this is exciting. I still struggle because of the price...
What is the price suppose to be? I am a registered user of Cubase and that's already pricey enough so don't know if I would/could afford to jump on another DAW but it does look interesting.
https://www.bitwig.com/en/news/Bitwig-Studio-Announcement-Details.html
Quote
Box: USD 399.99 MAP, 329 EUR including VAT
Download: USD 399 / 299 EUR
yeah, not surprised. If they sell it too cheap, people won't take it serious or think it's "pro" enough.
Silly, but not surprised. Still cheaper than Live, I guess.
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 04:03:03 PM
yeah, not surprised. If they sell it too cheap, people won't take it serious or think it's "pro" enough.
Silly, but not surprised. Still cheaper than Live, I guess.
Well, the price is fair, I guess. It's just that I already have Ableton Live and don't really need Bitwig... Maybe I'll wait for the 2.0 version. But if everybody does...
Quote from: raulduke on February 21, 2014, 03:12:48 PM
Coincidentally I just got these back from OSH park today:
(http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stevo83/Snapbucket/72ADADAF-B786-4719-A481-4869130A9DA7-2045-000003F8545F97A6_zpsce822063.jpg)
(http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa381/stevo83/Snapbucket/9C040082-412D-406D-9C8E-7E6139F584A7-2045-000003F83BD89D81_zpsabe1b4c6.jpg)
Experimenting with using PCB material as front panels for eurorack stuff.
1st experiment looks promising (2xAttenuator and 2x4 Passive Mult').
If they work out I'm gonna move onto more serious stuff (an active mixer is next in the pipeline).
What a great idea raulduke!
Quote from: kothoma on February 21, 2014, 05:17:13 PM
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 04:03:03 PM
yeah, not surprised. If they sell it too cheap, people won't take it serious or think it's "pro" enough.
Silly, but not surprised. Still cheaper than Live, I guess.
Well, the price is fair, I guess. It's just that I already have Ableton Live and don't really need Bitwig... Maybe I'll wait for the 2.0 version. But if everybody does...
were you a beta tester? just asking because I have yet to speak to anyone that has used it and I would be curious how it compares to Live.
Quote from: raulduke on February 21, 2014, 03:12:48 PM
Experimenting with using PCB material as front panels for eurorack stuff.
I thought that the Fronttenplatten Design company was the go-to for a lot of diy synth panel work?
Quote from: alanp on February 21, 2014, 06:49:16 PM
Quote from: raulduke on February 21, 2014, 03:12:48 PM
Experimenting with using PCB material as front panels for eurorack stuff.
I thought that the Fronttenplatten Design company was the go-to for a lot of diy synth panel work?
It is. But it is also more expensive than osh park ;)
I'll make the panels I've done public once I've confirmed they work and fit
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 06:16:37 PM
Quote from: kothoma on February 21, 2014, 05:17:13 PM
Quote from: peAk on February 21, 2014, 04:03:03 PM
yeah, not surprised. If they sell it too cheap, people won't take it serious or think it's "pro" enough.
Silly, but not surprised. Still cheaper than Live, I guess.
Well, the price is fair, I guess. It's just that I already have Ableton Live and don't really need Bitwig... Maybe I'll wait for the 2.0 version. But if everybody does...
were you a beta tester? just asking because I have yet to speak to anyone that has used it and I would be curious how it compares to Live.
Sadly no. Found out too late...
Heads up.
The mult and attenuator front panels are up as shared projects on OSH park:
http://www.oshpark.com/profiles/SJ-Effects (http://www.oshpark.com/profiles/SJ-Effects)
(http://uploads.oshpark.com/uploads/project/top_image/b8rLDzg3/i.png)
They work fine for me. Note I use these jacks:http://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/pj301bm-3-5mm-jack-sockets-x50/ (http://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/pj301bm-3-5mm-jack-sockets-x50/)
Quote from: raulduke on May 21, 2014, 04:16:18 PM
The mult and attenuator front panels are up as shared projects on OSH park:
http://www.oshpark.com/profiles/SJ-Effects (http://www.oshpark.com/profiles/SJ-Effects)
Ordered a set of the mult panel (and all three are mine... duplicate modules in synth-land are very, very useful.) Hopefully Erthenvar jacks fit in it :)