TL;DR: Designing RPi Pico Synth, mock-up shows what functionalities planned, anything missing or should be removed?

Hi, I am designing and building an RPi Pico Synth as a way to learn electronics and also how synthesis works under the hood.

I have never used/owned a hardware synth before, so I am basing my schematics off features found in software synths. I have attached both a drawing mock-up and a test-fit uising actual components.

There will be a separate PCB that will hold the RPi Pico and the other ICs -- this will come in later once I have decided what hardware I actually need.

I needed to resort to menu diving due to limited pins. But I hope the buttons themselves are self-explanatory with regards to what menu items to expect with each button. But just in case: -

• "Macro" functions similar to "Transit" by Baby Audio.
• System menu allows fine-tuning configurations such as encoder speed.
• "ROT1" through "ROT4" allows adjustment of values displayed on OLED screen.
• "LFO1" through "LFO3" allows chaining to other parameters (feature of synthio).

I am unsure if I should include "VCF" (ADSR on filter), as it is not supported OOTB by synthio (but should not be too difficult to program one), and the CHR/DLY/RVB menu -- these will be handled by external ICs and I am not sure if I have the kahunas to wire everything up properly without shorting something.

Are there any buttons/functionalities that seems to be missing in your opinion? Or is there a button that can probably be dropped?

https://preview.redd.it/jzbhyuedr1tc1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=16dd1b59fa98c3e9a37e0ae4c437860b40168160

https://preview.redd.it/zm87h69er1tc1.png?width=986&format=png&auto=webp&s=ecd95b4f7a22e54d4c8206342446ffe750f3e24d

Dear Community,

I got the idea to be able to change the shape of my LFO with a voltage. Right now the control only works with a 50k pot, but by implementing a current mirror in place of the resistor/pot the max. amount of current that the cap discharges with (which determines the rate of rise) is controlled by a voltage.

You can gradually change the shape from Triangle to Sawtooth.

https://preview.redd.it/brdtffy7o1tc1.png?width=672&format=png&auto=webp&s=56f0a70683388ea0bc714cb6891b148c9fda52b1

EDIT: Added a better schematic with diode.

My new way of getting a reliable dual rail power for when I'm breadboarding. It's a Behringer Euorack PS, a LMNC dual rail breadboard attachment and a $5 bamboo box from Kmart.

After a day of frontpanel prototyping, it's time for a (Scottish) Dark Matter rum and coke (www.erikoostveen.co.uk/SteamModular.html)

Can anyone help me figure out what the pot is doing? I understand how to make a simple noise box but if anyone has some recommendations on cool modifications like this that would be awesome. https://www.instagram.com/p/C4uwCrQC4Px/?igsh=amE1ZDJ2MnNmc3l2

Wondering what would be a good starting point for a single supply 9V (eg guitar pedal) filter, with resonance and CV control. Would be cool if it was switchable LPF HPF BPF or poles. At the moment I’m using Tim’s Q&D filter which isn’t really a true VCF and LFOs have a tendon to bleed into the audio stream, so would love recommendations on places to start looking for something a little more complex

Hey! I'm currently a freshman in electrical engineering and I'm kinda looking into jobs/internships at companies that make synths. I know it's a pretty niche, but I tried to look at LinkedIn postings for a bunch of companies but couldn't really find anything related to hardware positions. Are any of you guys in this industry, and if you are, how hard is it to get into this industry? And are there any specific companies that I should look at?

Thanks in advance!

Hey all! After struggling to do everything the analogue route i’ve decided to try implementing a Teensy into my setup to do a few of the things I’m trying to do. Done some basic things with the IDE, setup pins and made a few basic loops. It works great!

I’m now thinking how powerful this can be hooked up to maxMSP. Have managed to get a serial connection made and trigger stuff, change params in Max, works better than I thought it would. After playing with the timings of things got the latency down a lot and feels nice and speedy. Still think it can be better though.

My question is, what’s the most efficient way to read a pin on the teensy and pass it through serial to max? Should I just aim for super high baud rates?

Ideally I want to read the pins and convert to signal domain in max ASAP. The patch will end up quite complex plet so want to start with these things figured out from the start. Also stuff out from max (all CV gates and triggers), might be different on the way out?

Another side question if anyone knows; are there any ways to get higher resolution data passed over through serial coms?

Many thanks, new to microcontrollers so sorry if any of this doesn’t make any sense

Blog post here.

I don’t see it on their order page yet. Their blog post didn’t say whether they can do aluminum panels in multicolor, there’s probably no reason they couldn’t. This could be a real game changer for us DIY types!

I'm building a Pi Pico-based synthesizer (my first synth). And was looking for some form of pre-made solution for a small board that handles all 3 types of outputs as I understand that all 3 has different "expected default" gain/impedence levels.

Is there such a thing? Anyone able to link me to it?

Otherwise, how would you go about this? I can only think of outputting audio into an amplifier IC, then split the amplified output 3 ways with the appropriate gain/impedence level adjusting. If this is the best way forward, any links that can help me as well?

Hi friends!

Ok so what I'm thinking about here is a way to connect internal workings of a synth project, or really any DIY electronics project, that would allow one to quickly make solid connections between wires that could then be taken apart. Screw Terminals kinda accomplish this but there's something unexact about them that I don't trust.

I'm imaging a male and female set of RCA connections where one has threading and the other a spinning nut. Each end can be permenantly fixed to it's RCA jack or plug, and so that once the male end is inserted into the female end the nut can be turned around the srew thread, fixing them to each other tightly but non permenantly.

This would allow all the internal components to modular. They could be removed and replaced with upgraded components. Componenets could be swapped to different projects. Shielded cable could be used to reduce interferance.

Does anyone know of anything like this that currently exists?

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Thank you!

For those who love modular synths, minimal techno, bleep, electro, - I hope you'll like this...

Here's the first single from my upcoming LP Microcosms. Alien Transmissions is available for download [free] from my Bandcamp page, and as each track from the LP is released, I'll be uploading an accompanying music video I've created personally to match the track. As this record was generously funded by Arts Council England, I'll be giving away digital copies of the album for free; be sure to subscribe to my Bandcamp to recieve notifications when tracks from Microcosms are published.

Microcosms came about through a realisation I'd been living until the age of 27 with far-sightedness. In re-examing the visual world around me with a new clarity, I decided to apply the same investigation to sound; this record is a collection of electro-magnetic radio transmissions, noise and field recordings all treated through my modular synthesiser.

Please show me some love or leave a comment if you dig it. Have a nice day.

Alien Transmission [Youtube]

Hello synthdiy, you are a realy awesom and creative people here!

Got hocked by diy about a month ago and started to learn as much as i could about it.

Now i am able to share my first project, a kickdrum.

Still missing a lot of tools and stuff. But i used what i got for now.

https://preview.redd.it/698hrdlb1fsc1.jpg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef3cd68fec0302b9e8b3a4ef361143a8e99177dd

https://preview.redd.it/fcxleohc1fsc1.jpg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3f93541e2b91a27955bfff85be9f737a83025b74

https://github.com/supersynthesis/eurorack/tree/main/Unreleased/S%26H

Just published an unreleased design for a triple sample and hold module. I made it to try out some analog shift register kinds of ideas (worked!). This is a good example of a simple S&H building block, and an "edge to trigger" circuit in the S&H block. I use the edge-to-trigger block allll over the place. In this particular build, if you send a square wave to the first "sample" input, the three S&H circuits work together as a three stage analog shift register. If you don't know what that is: https://learningmodular.com/glossary/asr/. This all happens via jack normaling, the sections operate totally independently if patched that way.

This module probably didn't make it into our normal lineup because the ASR function can be a tad confusing, especially as it works specifically with a square wave vs a series of pulses like one might imagine. This is for... reasons... such as needing some kind of clock divider IC to stagger and distribute pulses and that's not what I was exploring at the time! This was more like "well hey, does this kind of S&H actually work? how's the droop?" not bad at all is the answer. I used a polyester cap here, do some googlin' on why the type of dielectric matters if you don't know already.

I have assembled PCBs (SMD, everything except the jacks) + panels available onnnn the Super Patreon! The $10 tier gets you access to this $50 pcb/panel set, plus 20% off all Super products, access to my big ol' design library in ltspice, etc. You can also build it yourself with the gerbers, bom, etc in the github!

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Let me know if there are any questions about this circuit or anything else.

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screenshot of the s&h hierarchy block

Hi there, I just finished soldering up the Polivoks VCF and I got audio, but no filtering. Naturally I checked my soldering and component placement. So far I couldnt find an error.

Now I want to turn towards the testing points. Can someone with a working unit provide me with the correct values for the tps?

edit: Found the problem, it was a faulty powercable

Hi guys, newbie here. I'd like to create a circuit that counts down from 255 to 0 by some chosen amount, and each digit of that 8-bit binary number would be individually outputted as a 1 or 0. Pretty much, I'd like to create something similar to Erfurt by XAOC Devices. Any suggestions on IC's I might use or any good resources to learn circuit logic?