Cyrricky's DIY Synth [COMPLETED]

[cyrricky]

Having recently been playing around in the realm of electronics engineering, I decided to create a simple analog synthesizer. If there's anybody else on here who's interested, I drew up the schematic digitally so that I could share it with you.

The synth has two oscillators (OSC 2's output can be mixed in to your heart's desire!), made by pulsing a TTL 7404 chip. While the chip provides a maximum of seven oscillators, I chose to go with two for simplicity's sake. There is no CV/MIDI input in this schematic (again, for simplicity's sake. The pitch is modified using the 10K Ohm potentiometers), and to hear anything you'd need to use an external amp.

Of course, if you wanted an internal amp or CV input, all you'd have to do is modify the schematic.

If it wasn't clear, the power is going to pin 14, and pin 7 goes to ground. it is implied that the oscillators are receiving power.



If you have any questions, leave them below.

EDIT: Oh yeah and this is a square wave synth.

EDIT 4/3/13: It's finished! And I changed the title from A DIY Synthesis Schematic to Cyrricky's DIY Synth. Pictures are on page 2. I'll edit this OP later to add a picture, the finished schematic, and some sound demonstrations.

[itroitnyah]

So wait, did you physically build this yourself?

[cyrricky]

So wait, did you physically build this yourself?

Yeah, I'm working on the case and I'll have pictures up soonish, probably in a seperate thread.

[itroitnyah]

Well, hot damn. That's pretty neato. You'll have to tell us how well it works as well.

[Captain Ironhelm]

strange thing is I was thinking about what it'd take to build my own hardware synthesizer just a couple hours ago.

[cyrricky]

Do it! It's super fun, and the parts list comes to about $30 or $40 USD

Assuming you have a soldering iron and a PCI board of course

[Alycs]

Huh, looks like a pretty easy build. Might have to try making one of these if I have time.

[Captain Ironhelm]

That's not bad at all. I'll have to give it a shot!

[the4thImpulse]

strange thing is I was thinking about what it'd take to build my own hardware synthesizer just a couple hours ago.

Do it! It's super fun, and the parts list comes to about $30 or $40 USD

Assuming you have a soldering iron and a PCI board of course

You can get more complicated kits online too, for $100-200 you can have filters, envelopes, and other synthesizer elements. building something like a minimoog size would take a long long time and much knowledge on electronics, the small stuff comes in kits with schematics and all required resistors/transformers ect..

[Pimps_McGee]

You can get more complicated kits online too, for $100-200 you can have filters, envelopes, and other synthesizer elements. building something like a minimoog size would take a long long time and much knowledge on electronics, the small stuff comes in kits with schematics and all required resistors/transformers ect..

I know Music from Outer Space has a whole lot of different projects from their simple Weird Sound Generator all the way to the full blown Sound-Lab synth. Definitely a great place to learn about DIY synthesizers.
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/index.php?MAINTAB=HOME&VPW=1024&VPH=825

Mutable Instruments on the other offers a lot of essentially professional level synths that build from a kit or just the circuit board if you already have the parts for it. I personally love their Anushri synth.
http://mutable-instruments.net/

[cyrricky]

I just added a gate to osc 1 using osc 3, I'll post an updated schematic (Plus an amp!) in a few days.

[cyrricky]

As far as that'd go, I'd probably use CV to control the pitch. I actually hadn't thought of using an Arduino to use MIDI.

Hell, I might set up a MIDI to CV converter to use my keyboard as opposed to a bunch of buttons.

[Sonarch]

Oh my god this is so cool, i'm in an electronics class right now, and I think it would be super legit to build a synthesizer like this for my 4th quarter project!

[cyrricky]

Alright final specs are as follows:

- 1 Square oscillator w/ pitch knob, and trigger key
- 1 Gated square oscillator w/ square LFO, LFO rate knob, pitch knob, and disable/enable switch
- Toggle between a built-in speaker or a 3.5mm (1/16 in) audio out
- Built in amp w/ gain control and overdrive distortion circuit

Then there's stuff like the fact that you can turn it on and off, etc. It's not the most sophisticated synth in the world, but it makes some really funky sounds (especially with the LFO at a high rate and the overdrive knob all the way up).

I'll try to get some build pictures, final pictures (once I get the case together), and sound examples up soonish - I'm not sure when it'll be done.

[Sonarch]

Okay so electronics is sort of a vague thing for me, so would you be able to explain what it is that affects the type of wave in this schematic? I'd like to understand how this works so I could get creative and modify the design for my class project.

[cyrricky]

This is still really cool, though!
Have you by chance been studying Boolean algebra so you can build more efficient wiring as the project gets more complex?

I have not! I'll go look up a khan academy thing right now~

Okay so electronics is sort of a vague thing for me, so would you be able to explain what it is that affects the type of wave in this schematic? I'd like to understand how this works so I could get creative and modify the design for my class project.

Does this help any?

If not I'll go into a more lengthy explanation.

[Sonarch]

I'll have to open that on my computer, it's not working with the one i'm on.

[cyrricky]

All the extra bits came today. I'm only short one knob and some wood for the case ouo

so the thing's maybe like 75 or 80 percent done.

[Nine Volt]

That's pretty cool actually. I've always had this vision in my head of someone being an especially kickass producer and using custom built synths and whatnot.

I personally think this would be a fun little project to do, I might try it out sometime.

[cyrricky]

This is the newest iteration of the schematic:



I'm still working on the amp. I decided to add some overdrive distortion and so I have to tweak the schematic a bit.

This new version is interesting in that OSC 1 and OSC 2 are used as gates. When all three are turned on and you modulate the pots on them, you can get some crazy, dirty sounds.

NOTE: the pot in OSC 3 can be either 100K or 10K. Your choice.

EDIT: Fixed the lack of an on/off switch in the power section

[cyrricky]

Started soldering today. I'll have some pictures up of the WIP PC board tomorrow

Now to play the "How many parts can I fit on one PC board" game.

[SevenUpPony]

Ooh this sounds really neat Cyrricky Nice schematics too, can't wait for the pictures! xD

[cyrricky]

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

Plus I have to build the box still

[itroitnyah]

Looking good, Cyrricky.

[FLAOFEI]

Honestly your soldering looks a bit messy... But I shouldn't complain, I doubt I could do much better.

Looking forward to seeing (and hearing) the fruits of your labour c: