Cyrricky's DIY Synth [COMPLETED]

[Dabrenn]

This is very cool! I'd love to see/hear the finished project and I may have to build one myself.

[cyrricky]

Added two more pots and a power switch. Things I still need to do are as follows:

- Add the power indication LED
- Add the amp
- Add a volume pot to the amp
- Add an overdrive circuit/pot to the amp
--> MAYBE add an on/off switch for the overdrive
- Add a toggle between trigger/gate mode
- Add the battery holder

And on the case side:

- Cut the wood
- Cut the metal
--> Maybe print on the metal (I might just use Sharpie)
- Sand the edges of the wood to make them round and pretty
- Stain and finish the wood
- Cut all kinds of grooves holes for knobs and stuff
- Put the case together and jam all the stuff inside

Gettin' near the final stretch!

[cyrricky]

Quick update: I've cut the metal (but not the wood), I'm about 70-75% done with the electronics work (minus testing it) and stuff is going pretty swell!

I'm sorry this is taking so long, soldering is really not my forte.

[cyrricky]

you should make a synth with the 2a03 chip or the 6581

oh gosh :I

I might, but that'll be a day far from today.

Hell, I might pull apart my NES and sort of Frankenstein onto the sound card

[DrSorkenstein]

Two days' progress, still got a loooooooooooong way to go - soldering takes a LONG time.

Honestly your soldering looks a bit messy...

Well spotted FLAOFEI it is messy indeed. You use waaaaaaaay to much solder and with those huge blobs nearly touching one another, there's a high risk of shortcircuits.

You need to heat the contact surface you want to solder a component to, use a dab of solder on the tip of the iron and push it into the hole through which you've threaded the legs of your component.
After a brief moment during which the solder on the iron will have melted you can carefully apply some solder to the heated surface (i.e the hole). Soon as you've covered the joint with solder, remove the iron to avoid burning the contact surface.

Go check out some videos and tutorials to get a better idea of this in action. Take your time and be thorough! Good luck! ^^

[cyrricky]

The only problem with that is that the iron that I've been using is so dirty, the solder doesn't melt pretty much anywhere near the tip (tried holding the stuff for about 15 minutes straight when I started), and I've got no idea how to clean it. I've been yelling at the owner to do it for a while, but from what I can see he hasn't done anything.

As much as I realize it's bad practice, there's a sort of "it works, so it's okay" feel going on. As far as contacts touching, I've been sticking to a nice razor whenever things cross to much to make sure that they stay back.

[Alycs]

The problem with the iron is probably that its covered in oxides. If its as bad as it sounds, I think you might have to use a dremel tool and carefully try to sand it off, or (if you don't need your arm for anything later) get a low grit (60 or so) sandpaper and try to sand it off. Usually steel wool works if its only a small mess, but if it takes over 15 minutes of constant contact to heat it, thats probably not good enough.

Once you do that, I'd go back and try to evaporate off the excess solder. Short circuiting in sensitive electronics like a synth is a very real problem, and messy soldering can become a problem really fast if you aren't careful.

[cyrricky]

Cleaned. It works a lot better now. Ended up using a new PC board and it's much cleaner and nicer.

Cut the wood and metal. I just have to glue, stain, finish, and drill some holes and I'll have the case done.

The synthesizer PCB is done save for the amp circuit. I'll probably finish that this week.

Wow this is taking so long :3

[itroitnyah]

So is this the first synthesizer you've tried building yourself?

[cyrricky]

Yup, it is.

It's not my first electronics project, though. I dabbled for about a year and a half / two years when I was younger.

It's my first shot at non-whittling woodworking / metalworking though!

[cyrricky]

FINALLY got the parts shipped for the amp. I guess there was a hold-up or something. Started testing them and soldering them in today, and I'll probably have the case done by the end of next week (I've been lazy). The synth too if I'm lucky.

I apologize for double posting/bumping a sorta-old thread, but I'm treating this as a sort of production diary, if that makes any sense.

[cyrricky]

I have, for all intents and purposes, finished the synth. I'll have a sound demo in a few days, but for now; pictures!

[Alycs]

Dang that looks nice. Can't wait to hear how it sounds

[itroitnyah]

It's your little sound box. Whenever you have a friend over who doesn't know you make music or something or a friend asks what it is, just say: It's my noise box. Turn a knob, press a key, and it makes noise.

[Sonarch]

I am officially working on a synthesizer for my electronics class! First I have to do some research so I understand how they work, and decide what kind to build.

[Nine Volt]

What's its name?

You gotta give that little guy a name, cyrricky :3

[cyrricky]

It's called the Cubic II

Cubic 'cause it's a square wave synth

And it's based on the second version of the schematic

Cubic II ouo

[Nine Volt]

No, no, no. You gotta give that thing a REAL name, like... Boxxy.

[MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN]

Two days' progress, still got a loooooooooooong way to go - soldering takes a LONG time.

Plus I have to build the box still

man

cyrricky is pretty much the son my Chief Engineer dad always wanted

[Sonarch]

Oh god what kind of synth should I build, i'm drowning in a sea of options, and also schematics I don't understand.

[cyrricky]

Learn to understand the schematics before you even do anything.

-

The gate is being a bit finnicky, but I managed to get some sound out of the box.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/55312807/Audio ... t%2001.mp3

[FLAOFEI]

Oh god what kind of synth should I build, i'm drowning in a sea of options, and also schematics I don't understand.

I'd recommend a square wave synth with only a pitch knob if you want something easy. There are some quite easy to follow tutorials on youtube for them, just search "square wave oscilator" and you'll probably find a bunch of them. I dont know what level your expected to show, so it might be to simple if your at a higher level, but from what i can tell its a good starting point.

Now tell us... what do all the knobs actually do?
Make a demo video?

[Pimps_McGee]

sexy :3

when do you think you could use an arduino (or some other device) to add midi?

i dont electronics so i no clue

Pretty certain transforming this little thing into anything besides a fun noisemaker is pretty useless. I guess you could technically add a sequencer and complicate things further if you wanted to, but personally I would be more interested in taking things a step further into more complicated synths like a SoundLab Mini for analog (CV) or a Shruthi for digital.

Also if anyone is interested in anything Arduino-MIDI related I have a lot of helpful hints. I just finished my mock Midi Fighter based around an Arduino UNO board and I was actually able to get it to send MIDI signals directly over USB without a need for serial-midi converters.

[cyrricky]

The top three knobs control the pitch and two gates, the bottom two control gain and distortion.

A few more images, taken at my studio

and a demo

y u so talented, cyrricky.

I dunno ouo

[cyrricky]

Yup