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Anyone had a go at Designing/making your own synth? Just finished a degree in electronics and was thinking about it as a project. was just wondering if anyone else has had a go at it on here? How you went about it etc.

was thinking something simple to start with, a single voice synth, maybe using a 555 timer as the VCO (square and triangle waves) and maybe a couple of filters to switch between.

Anyone on DSF had a crack at anything similar?

I've often considered it but apathy tends to take over before I start. How would you get a triangle wave out of a 555 timer? I thought they could only do pulses?

Music from outer space/wierd noise generators.

Just google them and elaborate on the schem's. Real middle school introduction kinda projects, but they have a big section that outlines simple tone gen circuits, processors, ect.

Also has plans for diy effect boxes and filters, for those into that sorta thing... sound alright too... been considering building my own mixer for a long time, if I ever do, they'll be whats under the hood.

I'm definitely going to have a go at some point, but I'm going to do some lesser projects (dub sirens, tone generators, MIDI controllers) first.

I don't think its going to be easy. I'm certainly not ready to design my own circuit yet anyway!

£10 Bag wrote:dub sirens!

volcanogeorge wrote:I've often considered it but apathy tends to take over before I start. How would you get a triangle wave out of a 555 timer? I thought they could only do pulses?

There is a way iirc, by ramping the input on pin 5

tbh, to make basic noise generators isnt hard. to make them interesting i supose would not exactly be harder, just moe imagination needed haha. i was thinking of rigging up a single 555 timer to make some noises, then expand on it, maybe use a couple more to make some more voices, couple of simple filters etc.
I was just interested who off the site had attempted anything and how they went about it really. might even get on the PIC's and program some shit, thats always fun!

Edit: volcanogeorge:

Square and triangle
http://www.robthefiddler.com/electronic ... 55-as-vco/

x0xb0x - 303 clone.

Awesome, ive got one, but bought it ready built.

Tons of info available.

http://forums.adafruit.com/viewforum.php?f=35

heh, pretty interesting looking into that project. The guy took apart an orig 303 and reverse engineered the whole thing, even down to researching all the charictoristics of the transistors to find the orig part or the closest things to them! dedication.

TBH, im more looking to do my own thing, rather than a kit. will probs draw up some plans this week and go from there really!

snick01 wrote:
Square and triangle
http://www.robthefiddler.com/electronic ... 55-as-vco/

Cool cheers for the link

paradigm x wrote:x0xb0x - 303 clone.

Awesome, ive got one, but bought it ready built.

Tons of info available.

http://forums.adafruit.com/viewforum.php?f=35

one day i will have one, just the rare parts for it are rarrrrrrrrreeeeeee

i was debating starting a diy thread to share the various schematics, mods and links i have and others to share too if people want em
never tried to tackle building a synth before, but definitely will someday and it will be a modular system

if i had even a slightest clue on how to work with electronics, i would would SO try to make a DIY synth. if i tried to do it now, i'd probably fry myself to death.

komanderkin wrote:if i had even a slightest clue on how to work with electronics, i would would SO try to make a DIY synth. if i tried to do it now, i'd probably fry myself to death.

don't use the mains, and don't touch the ends of capacitors, and you should be ok...

deadly habit wrote:

paradigm x wrote:x0xb0x - 303 clone.

Awesome, ive got one, but bought it ready built.

Tons of info available.

http://forums.adafruit.com/viewforum.php?f=35

one day i will have one, just the rare parts for it are rarrrrrrrrreeeeeee

i was debating starting a diy thread to share the various schematics, mods and links i have and others to share too if people want em
never tried to tackle building a synth before, but definitely will someday and it will be a modular system

Mate, its not that hard at all. Theres a guy called gaetano (sp?) on the x0x forums who sells a complete rare parts kit, only about $70-80 afaik, all the rest you can get at most electronic stores.

http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?t=5526

Its the building it thats hard (for a noob like me).

Id also love a 9090 (http://www.introspectiv.eclipse.co.uk/) and midibox 808 (http://www.eight-oh-eight.org/) but my noobiness puts me off, plus the 808s are on a kit based order form, have to wait until the main man decides to make another kit

Similarly the sammich SID looks cool, especially if you have a sid, and the Wheres the Party At sampler is also cool...

I got well into this at one point, but never started...

OP;

these may be more up your street;

http://www.synthdiy.com/
http://www.diy-central.com/DIYBuildingT ... essor.aspx

nice wan
hmmm maybe when i'm getting more c64s for parts and have spare sids i'll take on that sammich sid
think once i have some cash to toy with the x0x is gonna get built

Use forum search for analogue tones... secret lemon was just showing off a nifty kit he bought and built that was sounding amazing.. believe he had construction pics and the like.

Basic A wrote:Use forum search for analogue tones... secret lemon was just showing off a nifty kit he bought and built that was sounding amazing.. believe he had construction pics and the like.

yeah, he made one of these;
http://www.paia.com/fatman.asp

http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/mfos ... ate.action

Lots of great info.

Cheers for the links everyone! will have a look through them now. TBH, im more swaying toords a PIC based synth as i am quite confident programming them and it will make it easier to switch between waveforms/multiple waveforms. probs gonna build a basic PIC project then expand from there really! play with different filters and maybe even some crazy waveforms haha.

found this link:
http://synthdiy.com/show/?id=4142

some interesting stuff, but im gonna design it myself i think, thats where the fun is! haha

ucapps.de is one of those places i drool over when i browse sometimes

FWIW a potentially easier/cheaper way to explore this too is circuit bending - modding existing musical circuits to do things they weren't supposed to.