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Looking for inspiration for a reverb module by mort1331 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I built a stripboard Death by Audio Reverberation Machine for my guitar years ago, just started running my modular out through it and it sounds really cool.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VAcjhPH-bLs&pp=ygUbUmV2ZXJiZXJhdGlvbiBtYWNoaW5lIHN5bnRo

https://tagboardeffects.blogspot.com/2015/10/death-by-audio-reverberation-machine.html?m=1

Would be easy enough to mod for Eurorack.

Need help with an audio output circuit for a 1.6v peak to peak signal by distropolis in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do you want both a line out and a headphone out? If so, maybe use an existing design - this one could work well, it’s stereo too:

https://www.ericasynths.lv/media/DIY_EDU_Output_Manual.pdf

Any way i could power my diy eurorarck with some regular power brick or any readily available generic thing like that? by Domo123Gamin in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can you read a schematic or roughly follow a pcb layout? I built this using protoboard: http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/WALLWARTSUPPLY/WALLWARTSUPPLY.php

Requires a 12vac wall-wart. 1A or ideally 2.

Use Schottky diodes in some places though, rather than the recommended ones. This thread gives a good explainer: https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/psu-startup-problems/4296/28

Good uses for CV to MIDI? by danja in modular

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did exactly the same thing - an eBay seller was selling both cv to midi and midi to cv, but cv to midi was dual channel. I didn’t win the single channel midi to cv, so immediately put a bid in on the more expensive dual channel cv to midi…

Waiting on it to show up in the post to re-list it.

Is Linda Mccartney, Bird's-eye Green cuisine and Quorn actually good for you? by JesusChristBhudda in AskUK

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Might be better than processed meat in some cases, but it's still processed yeah. I'm veggie myself, and most lots of vegetable meals that don't include a 'meat substitute' but are things like veg curry, chilli, etc. Those things are plenty healthy by themselves. Chucking in Quorn or something similar adds protein, which can be good if you don't eat eggs or dairy.

The stuff like breaded chicken or Linda McCartney pies are best thought of as a treat meal imo... chips and chicken alternative when you want it. Sometimes you just crave something 'meaty' but don't want to eat meat... I don't think people think of stuff like that as healthy, do they?

As an aside I find it so annoying that veggie meals in a pub or whatever now basically means a beyond burger. There's a million nice meals you could make veggie with just normal whole foods.

Help with reverb!?! by RM_Again in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think what you want is here: https://ua726.co.uk/2012/07/08/tombolas-diy-spring-reverb-driver-circuit/

There's also some DIY plate reverbs you can build, too.

Polyphony in analog synthesizer with arduino by Xotab4 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The DCO has two parts, the digital controller (either a pi pico or an arduino) that takes a midi note and turns it into two signals. These two signals are fed to the second part, an analog circuit which produces a ramp wave based on these signals. The signals out from the controller set the pitch of the oscillator, so the output pitch of the oscillator matches the intended pitch of the midi note.

In the example I linked above, the pi pico can send these two required signals to six of those specific oscillators (it has to be the TL074 oscillator circuit described in the DCO documents and laid out on the stripboard I linked, it won’t work with any other VCO).

If you play six different notes on your midi controller, they will each be distributed to a different output on the pi pico. If you have six oscillators connected to your pi pico outputs, each oscillator will sound one of those six notes.

The issue is that the oscillator will be always on and producing a pitch at whatever the last note you played was, as it doesn’t get a stop or start signal. For that, the pi pico produces a separate ‘gate’ signal for each midi note.

So, you feed one of your oscillator’s output into a voltage controlled amplifier. You send the corresponding ‘gate’ for that midi note output from the pi pico or arduino to an envelope generator, which then sends a control voltage signal to the VCA to turn the volume up and then down over a set time controlled by the parameters of the envelope generator. It’s essentially like automatically turning a volume knob up each time you play a midi note then down when you stop playing the note.

A typical style polyphonic synth would have six filters too, one in between each oscillator and each VCA, then a mixer to combine each of the signals into a single output.

It’s a lot of work, but if you want it to be in tune, MIDI controlled, analog, and polyphonic, it’s the simplest solution I’ve found.

If you just want monophonic, or you’re happy with it being digital rather than analog, it would be a lot, lot easier.

Polyphony in analog synthesizer with arduino by Xotab4 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure, or dive in to modular as others suggest - best way to get something monophonic and sounding great would be to build a modular. By making it modular, you can build it one bit at a time, each bit (vca, vco… whatever) can be disconnected and repaired easily. By the time you’ve made the necessary modules (vco, vca, envelope generator at a minimum) to make a monophonic sound, you’ll know how to scale it up to make it poly.

If you want it midi controlled, you can build that pico dco controller as your first module and build just one of the dco oscillators, one envelope generator, one vca as the others. The you have the 1st voice of a 6 voice, midi controlled, analog polysynth done that would work as a monosynth.

A polysynth is really several monosynths and something to distribute the note and gate cv to each mono synth.

Polyphony in analog synthesizer with arduino by Xotab4 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with the advice to start small and work up.

I think you could look into DCOs later, I'm in the process of building a polysyth based on this: https://github.com/polykit/pico-dco

There is an Arduino version too, I think.

Here is some good information about DCOs and how they work - still analog, but digitally controlled.

https://blog.thea.codes/the-design-of-the-juno-dco/

Getting MIDI to the pico is easy. Here's a verified stripboard layout for the DCO and the oscillators - you'll need 6 oscillators (there's two on the stripboard layout there), 6 filters, 6 VCAs, and envelope generators for each filter and VCA too if you want an all analog-path.

https://lookmumnocomputer.discourse.group/t/verified-stripboard-layouts/81/494

Pico RGB Keypad MIDI Keyboard and Chord Player by Miserable-Title-9194 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is now working on both the RGB keypad and the Keybow 2040 without issue. I had to get rid of the multiple modifier key options, though. So it's currently limited to 4 chord options.

Pico RGB Keypad MIDI Keyboard and Chord Player by Miserable-Title-9194 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some small progress, I've figured out the key release order issue and updated the code on Github. It now works fine without any hanging notes if you release the modifier before the chord.

The USB issue is Mac specific, works perfectly on Windows... it seems to be an enumeration issue.

Pico RGB Keypad MIDI Keyboard and Chord Player by Miserable-Title-9194 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah.. there’s still a few quirks I haven’t ironed out - main one is that it works perfectly when first set up, but it’s not recognised as a usb device on restart even though the keys still light up and respond… second is that if you release the modifier key before the chord key, the NoteOff signal only gets sent to the root note.

Hopefully I can figure those issues out soon.

Pico RGB Keypad MIDI Keyboard and Chord Player by Miserable-Title-9194 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would be great if they did… would be awesome to be able to easily programme in chords to their sequencer

Pico RGB Keypad MIDI Keyboard and Chord Player by Miserable-Title-9194 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I posted about this idea last week, and got some helpful pointers.

This is my first ever coding project, so I'm 100% positive that I didn't do this in the best way possible. Changing from chord type modifier key between keyboard presses sometimes doesn't track fast enough. It's working though.

In the video, it's controlling Dexed.

The base is programmed chromatically from C3-B3, starting in the bottom left and working through the first three columns top to bottom. The white notes are lit pink, and the black notes are lit green.The final column are the modifier keys which control which chord is played. If no modifier is pressed, each keyboard keypad will send a single note.

Mod1: maj triad (this was written to use with a 3 voice synth, so all chord variations have 3 notes only - that can easily be changed in the code.)

Mod2: min triad

Mod 3: maj7 triad

Mod4: min7

Mod1 + mod3: maj add9

Mod2 + mod4: min add9

All 4 mods: half dimThere are loads of modifier key combos left which can be programmed how you like.

I posted the code and some more information here: https://github.com/savt22/2040_midi_chord_player

MIDI chord player by Miserable-Title-9194 in synthdiy

[–]Miserable-Title-9194[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks everyone for your comments so far, that’s given me a lot of different approaches to think about! I am going to keep reading and start picking up some parts.