Synthesised Mayhem

Hi my name is Matt, and I am building a modular synthesizer, It's going to be awesome.

My first priority is to build myself a bank of filters I can use to process other instruments. Along with a few other bits such as an ADSR, LFO and MIDI to CV converter.

Because of space considerations in my flat I have decided to use the Frac Rack format as eventually it'll fit into a pre-existing 19" racks, though at this stage I may very well decide to build custom cases out of wood and tolex.

Modules in progress

• Polivoks Filter Clone
  • Based on schematic from here
  • using individual op-amp ICs and built on pad-per-hole
• 556 based dual ADSR
• MIDI-CV converter
  • based around arduino uCto allow for user based development
  • support for different tuning systems
  • future expansions will support programmable CV quantisation and arpeggiation
• +-15v PSU

Modules in the planning stages

• Ian Fritz Chaos Modules
• George Hearn VCO
• Sample and Hold
• Noise Generator
• Wavetable Oscillator
• A 556 based chime module
  • 4 Voltage Controlled FM oscilators
  • 2 Simple AR generators
  • pitch inputs

Things I have learned

As I am new to most of this stuff I am leaning things as I go on, some obvious, some not so obvious.

• ALWAYS use an RCD when building your own PSU
  • This one is a bit of a no brainer really
• Plan your pad-per-hole layouts before you put soldering iron to board, this will save you time, brain-ache, money and components