Has anyone here created their own hardware synths?

[deastman]

when i suggested building a psu, that was because if you want to build "synths" rather than have a set of loose modules laying around on prototyping boards you'll have to build/buy a lot more than one psu over time.

I forgot to respond to this part... Just to be clear, I'm not talking about having a bunch of loose modules on prototyping boards laying around. I'm talking about building your own modular synth, one module at a time. Build your circuits on perfboard (not breadboards, mind you), attach them to a front panel, and mount them in an enclosure... preferably FracRak or Eurorack. I had a whole bunch of front panels cut to spec by a local machine shop, for somewhere around $40. I do have a drill press, but any old hand drill will suffice if you aren't too concerned about visual perfection. In the same enclosure, you can mount your PSU and work out a power distribution system to your modules.

Speaking of building PSU's, Thomas Henry had a pretty good design. I never built it myself, but it does give you bipolar 15V. See the link m0j0byrd provided.

[aciddose]

well when i said "laying around" i kind of meant modulars too. i think he was referring to having a non-modular synth and for that you really need to build your own psu boards to put inside. if you salvage broken synthesizers though you may be able to salvage the psus.. although in my opinion you'll be better off using a modular with a midi-cv/gate module. there isnt anything special about analog keyboards unless you include the mis-triggering, problems with flicker on gate and cv, etc.

if anyone is wanting to build their own analog keyboard however (i guess you're insane like me) i'd recommend using the method i use: have an extra resistor on the top of the divider. make it about 10x or more the rest of the resistors. short that one so that you've only got two wires coming from your divider. switch-bus-shorted-upper and lower. get the gate signal from the cv, when it goes above the highest note on the keyboard, the lowest note will normally play, meaning no notes = your shorted top end resistor. run the cv into a trigger detector, then run the trigger pulses into a pulse delay/stretcher. AND the gate + delayed trigger to get the sample pulses and you've then got a working gate/cv from only a single bus keyboard.

benefits:
- less switching noise
- you only sample when a note is played
- you can extract on and off triggers separately
- by running the gate into a dflipflop clocked by the trigger pulses, you get digital style debouncing
- the cv is automatically debounced since it's only allowed to sample with a stable gate/trigger
- the circuit is very simple and separated into logical blocks, easy to understand
- the physical keyboard circuit is greatly simplified electronically and mechanically since you only need one switch bus, and no messing making sure the cv sitches before the gate and so on

not quite so benefits:
- you need a very good sample-hold, since the cv is only sampled once per note change
- the timing of these circuits can be rather critical
- the control circuit is over-all more complicated and expensive
- really, why dont you just use a digital keyboard?

[Synthbuilder]

I would suggest any builder of synths joins up with the Synth-DIY mailing list. A very useful list on which to be a member. There are some guys on there who have been building synths since the early days.

More information here:

http://www.euronet.nl/~rja/Emusic/Synth-diy/

I built my first synth when I was around 14, but it didn't have a keyboard. It made some weird noises triggered by a soft pad that was [mostly] velocity sensitive.

Because this was the late 1970s, the next things I did were organ/string machines, but I finally progressed to a polysynth in 1983. Now, that was a big project, and I probably needn't have bothered since it took way too much time and money.

These days I run my own company and still design analogue synth modules for the DIY builder in mind.

http://www.oakleysound.com/

[mao]

In 1989 I built a hw sampler for the C64... The GUI and the engine was in assembler... what a funny thing...

[Meffy]

@aciddose: Sorry, missed your comments. I probably made every mistake you mentioned. Just a kit (skunk kit, not electronics kit) with a dollar-a-week allowance, trying to make the wrong components do stuff they hadn't expected to be told to do. :-D I learned a lot though... mostly about being more careful with my next projects.

[Goseba]

Around 1980/81 I think, E&MM magazine did articles on building gear. I built a 'Syntom' or whatever it was called and a monophnic synth. The synth I never finished due to running out of cash because I was still at college. I got it working but sold it to a friend. No idea what he did with it.

[duncanparsons]

Wireless World ran a series on building a Modular Mono Synth between 1972-1974 or so. My ExStepfather had them. I was always tempted to have a go during my teenage years in the '80s, but my money seemed to disappear at an inverse ratio to my record collection expanding...

They also ran a series of articles for building an electric piano. I would have liked to have ago at that as well, but the same issue applied!

I just content myself with building software now...

DSP

[Rangtangtang]

I tried build a theremin and only have to do the adjustments for it when I get around to it one day....mmmm...there are a few afordable and tempting kits about it you have the time to spare for it....mmmmm......would you not prefer the real thing over the new expensive VA synths.....if I want to buy hardware I would expect the real deal under the hood...

[deastman]

I was just playing around with my PAIA Theremax this weekend. Lots of fun! I made some cool kick drum sounds by quickly pulling away from the pitch antenna.