MATRIXSYNTH: DIY


Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Monday, July 28, 2025

IG00151 VCA Clone for YAMAHA CS Synthesizers (CS5,CS15,CS30,CS50,CS60,CS80)

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.


You can find them on Reverb and Ebay.

"The clone is fully drop-in replaceable and is able to coexist with the original vintage chips in the same synthesizer. It can function as VCA and current source for envelope controller on M-cards, or control voltages for TRG boards (and on any other board that uses that chip). It has the same control voltage cutoff point and similar non-linear control curve as the original, so all the control sliders work the same."

Additional details follow:

"The iG00151AP is a replicant of the rare IG00151 Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA) chip, which was used by Yamaha in their CS-series analog synthesizers and organs from the 1970s and 80s. The iG00151AP was carefully engineered from the original chip, retaining all of its characteristics and properties, including the peculiar non-linear control curve and cutoff, input and output impedances, and identical power consumption at the same gain setting. This makes the iG00151AP the only "clone" available today that is fully drop-in replaceable and is able to coexist with the original vintage chips in the same synthesizer. While the originals are getting more expensive and harder to find, the availability of the iG00151AP ensures that the CS-series analog synthesizers remain serviceable. One CS-80 synthesizer contains 210 of these chips!

INSTALLATION

To install the iG00151AP, ensure that the marked PIN 1 location on the part matches PIN 1 location on the circuit board. With the pins pointing down, PIN 1 on the original chip is on the left when facing the part number, while the iG00151AP has PIN 1 on the left when facing the component side (not the part number). Carefully orient the part properly and solder it to the circuit board. Clip excess leads as necessary.

WARNING: As with the original chip, a reverse installation will damage the part when power is applied!

CALIBRATION

After installing the part, allow the instrument to warm up and stabilize for at least 30 minutes, then recalibrate the circuit following the procedures of the original manufacturer. Similar to the original chip, the gain may vary from unit to unit. Proper calibration will ensure that the new part performs the same as the original.

As with the original chip, the iG00151AP may have a similar input offset that varies from unit to unit. This manifests itself as a control voltage (CV) feedthrough to the output. Depending on the application, it may be necessary to trim the offset, but this is usually provided in the vintage circuit, if required. No additional offset trim circuitry is necessary if it is installed in the original circuit.

The iG00151AP is compatible with Yamaha CS-80, CS-70m, CS-60, CS-50, CS-40m, CS-30, CS-20m, CS-15D, CS-15, CS-10, CS-5, and other synthesizers and organs that use the IG00151 VCA chip."

First test of replacement AX-80 displays


video upload by Craig Barnes

"Finally got hold of an Akai AX-80 to test my replacement displays and after having to replace one ESP 32 because it refused to load a sketch I finally managed to wire up all 3 displays to the AX, I had to replace the AX power supply as my 220v to 110v converters all gave out. But it does mean the power is 100-260v now for any country. Still need to build the second board and buy some more ESP32 Dev boards."

Sunday, July 27, 2025

Analog Modular Synthesizer Session - ELECTRO


video upload by Andreas Remshagen

"Another Analog Live-Session from my DIY Modular System
I always wanted to make an Electro-Style Music-Session in the Style from Alexander Robotnik and Ludus Pinsky"

Donner L1 Synthesizer Inside and Mods


video upload by Maffez Synthmods

"Some easy modifications (Filter FM, VCA boost) and a couple of inside pictures of the Donner L1 synthesizer module. You can see how the alfa par ICs are used for VCO, VCF and VCA, how the whole magnetic keyboard system is arranged and how the ADSRs are digital (not that they soudn any less funky!). All sounds in the demo are from a modified unit."

Syntom II - DIY analog drum synth from 1980s electronics magazine


video upload by funkpirateradioscene

"Breadboarding and testing some sounds from the Syntom II - a do-it-yourself design from the April 1983 Electronics & Music Maker magazine. Other drum sounds coming from the Roland TR-606, which is also providing a trigger voltage output to trigger the Syntom.

00:00 Triggered by gate pulse from TR-606
00:35 Triggered by piezo drum pad

Images from the mu:zines magazine archive. Check out the original article and schematics https://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/sy...

Additional LFO circuit from SyntherJack https://syntherjack.net/syntom-ii/"

Monday, July 21, 2025

PlantsSystem-PRA32-U


video upload by plantssystem

"Build your own digital synth with PRA32-U × Raspberry Pi Pico!

ISGK Instruments' PRA32-U is a digital synthesizer that uses Raspberry Pi Pico.
The Pico and various circuits can be arranged smartly, making prototyping and modification a lot of fun, and allowing you to quickly put your ideas into shape.
This time I put together everything from MIDI input to sound generation and output, and it was extremely easy to use as the foundation for a homemade synth, and it was a very fun experience to build it."

https://risgk.github.io


Overview

4 Voice Polyphonic/Paraphonic Synthesizer for Raspberry Pi Pico 2/RP2350

Built-in Chorus and Delay FX

Controlled by MIDI -- PRA32-U2 is a MIDI sound module

Having the function of writing the parameters to the user programs and the flash

Modifiable with Arduino IDE and Arduino-Pico (by Earle F. Philhower, III)

An I2S DAC hardware (e.g. Pimoroni Pico Audio Pack) is required

PWM Audio can also be used instead of I2S (PWM Audio does not require an I2S DAC hardware)

Prebuilt UF2 files ("bin")

"Digital-Synth-PRA32-U2-Pimoroni-Pico-Audio-Pack.uf2" is for Raspberry Pi Pico and Pimoroni Pico Audio Pack

"Digital-Synth-PRA32-U2-PWM-Audio.uf2" is for Raspberry Pi Pico and PWM Audio

Bottom pic with control panel.


Demos by the maker Ryo Ishigaki:

MIDI Controller PRMC-1 (type-0) Demo (2025/04/13)

video upload by Ryo Ishigaki

Digital Synth PRA32-U with Panel Prototype 2 Audio Demo (2024/09/11 v2.5.1)

video upload by Ryo Ishigaki

Reco-Synth Mutuca AMNO - Some Sounds


video upload by Arthur Joly

Patch sheets at www.recosynth.com

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Reco-Synth Compact System - Patch 1


video upload by Arthur Joly

Saturday, July 19, 2025

Cheerful Electronics OPL Studio - First Contact


video upload by j bowman

"🎵 Welcome to Cheerful Electronics OPL Studio - First Contact! 🎛️ In this sound design experiment, we dive deep into the world of FM synthesis using the powerful OPL Studio, exploring retro sounds inspired by classic OPL3 chips. Whether you're a fan of chip music, vintage FM synths, or curious about pushing the limits of sound design, this video is your perfect starting point.

Get ready for rich, textured tones and quirky sonic explorations as we showcase the raw potential of OPL Studio. This first contact session covers live tweaking, patch creation, and modulation — perfect for anyone diving into retro synth workflows or looking for viral FM synthesis content.

If you're into chiptune, retro game soundtracks, or nostalgic hardware-driven music, you'll feel right at home. Watch now and get inspired to experiment with your own OPL3-based synths and plugins!"



via Cheerful Electronics

OPL Studio is the ultimate OPL2 / OPL3 synthesizer! It gives you almost limitless control over what you can do with the OPL3 synthesizer chip.

Features of OPL Studio

OPL Studio has a long list of features. To name a bunch of them:

Integrated patch editor to edit predefined instruments and create your own
Load and save instrument banks from popular formats such as *.BNK, *.SB, *.O3, ect.

Patch linking to layer up to 4 instrument patches for even more complex sounds
Polyphonic sequence editor to create up to 32 drum and 32 melody sequences
Quad sequencer to live play up to four sequences

Composer module that lets you create complete songs from your sequences
Midi channel mixer

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Looking At Italian Synthesizers You Have NEVER Heard Of - Some only one in existence.


video upload by LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER

Follow-up to this post.

"This week We were lucky enough to spend the whole week at ‪@museodelsynthmarchigiano1717‬ Lots of videos and things to come! ‪@Hainbach‬ behind the camera!
------
i have a video on the Crumar spirit already up on patreon here :-
/ look-at-crumar-133890428
-----
if you haven't seen the link at the top to the museums youtube channel here is the website :-
https://www.museodelsynth.org/"

Also see A visit to the Marche Synth Museum

Check out the labels below for additional posts.

Clockwork PI, ESI XSynth - when these work together, it's awesome (lots of sound examples)


video upload by Floyd Steinberg

"The ClockworkPI u console is a so-called Cyberdeck (think oversized Blackberry) powerful enough to run DAWs. The ESI XSynth is a digital synthesizer that registers both as an audio interface and as a MIDI keyboard. Now this should be the perfect match, right? Table of contents:

00:00 sound example
00:05 hi
00:20 what on earth is this
01:19 what is the XSynth?
02:07 hello linux
03:13 patch examples: A001 XSynthGo (Poly AT demo)
03:37 A006 LoFiPicks
03:54 A008 Fatness
04:13 A009 Whales
04:26 A015 On Clouds
04:47 A028 7Flower
05:42 A074 Pianism
06:05 A102 LeGrand
06:45 B060 EP Pad
07:18 B075 RevPad
07:48 some patches I made: C001 Nostalgia
08:40 C002 David
09:07 C003 Warm Pad
09:42 C004 Chaos
10:00 C005 TR909L
10:14 XSynth Architecture: Creating a patch with FM, PWM and Ring Modulation, Mod Matrix, Effects, ...
15:25 Layering tracks on the ClockworkPi to create this track (XSynth only)
17:16 some thoughts on this setup
18:35 bye, subscribe, support

Links:
ClockworkPI https://www.clockworkpi.com/home-ucon...
Clockwork OS https://wiki.clockworkpi.com/ClockworkOS
Reaper https://www.reaper.fm/

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Fixing up a 1985 Oscar clone


video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the repairs to my 1985/86 hand made Osc Oscar clone, the famous Moog Oscar from Sound on Sound June 2004. I finally received it back after around 38 years apart. It's had some refurbs and mods and travelled extensively. Europe and the states and eventually wound up in Berlin. I received it dead with no boot. MIDI board was loose, but it couldn't be that simple. No sound from the synth and after getting it to the panel mode and tweaking a few knobs I eventually got it to make a weak sawtooth sound. Lower half of the keybed was dead so I replaced the 5x 4051 chips that read the keyboard and the 7 that read the front panel. Then I removed the aux input mod and upgraded to the Tauntek midi board. A little scratchy in places but nothing that can't be fixed."

DIY eurorack modular synth | MOD2 Break beats : RP2350 based drum module


video upload by HAGIWO

"This module is an open source general-purpose Drum module based on Seeed XIAO RP2350.
Thanks to AI-friendly hardware design, it's easy to create software variations using generative AI.
With general-purpose components and a simple circuit, this module is affordable and DIY-friendly.

Break beats:
PCM break-beat playback module. Slice points are pre-programmed into the MCU and can be selected via CV."

https://note.com/solder_state/n/n33132a160afb

Thursday, July 10, 2025

Overlooked Module #17: Wild Sync Fatmoog VCF / VCA


video upload by Musical Miscellany

"This is a really cool filter from Wild Sync. It emulates the classic Moog 24db/octave ladder filter but has a character switch for Bass (Minitaur) and Lead (Prodigy) variants.

Visit Wildsync's store on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/wildsyncgear

See more Overlooked Modules here:"

Overlooked Modules Playlist


Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/musicalmisce...

Tuesday, July 08, 2025

[MON2 FW2.0] Sampling Daft Punk - Discovery with a 40-Second Limit (and Breaking It)


video upload by Monkhum craft and creative (ม่อนคํา ซีซี)

See the announcement post from 2024 here.

"What happens when you slice Daft Punk’s Discovery into 40 seconds—and drop it into a MON2?

Say hello to MON2: Soundscape Machine FW2.0 — a compact, hand-built synth + sampler from Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In this video, we used 40-second clips from Daft Punk’s Discovery album to show what MON2’s loop sampler can do. With its 6-oscillator synth engine, vertical OLED interface, 12 sample slots, and sound-sculpting FX (echo, distortion, LPF), you can transform iconic sounds into something totally your own.

💽 Load 12 WAV samples (max 40 seconds total)
🎚️ Sequence with 16 steps and real-time tweakability
🎛️ Layer with synths, FX, and MIDI over USB


🛍️ Get yours now:
🌐 Website: https://monkhum.cc
🛒 Etsy: https://bit.ly/3BUZfnw
🛍️ Shopify: comming soon
📸 Instagram: / monkhum.cc

Meet COSMOLAB by Faselunare – Modular DSP Kit for Makers & Musicians | Crowdfunding Soon


video upload by FASELUNARE

"🎛️ COSMOLAB is an open‑source modular DSP developer kit designed for companies, makers, musicians, educators, and anyone who wants to explore and create custom sound tools.

⚡ Powered by ‪@electrosmithco‬ Daisy Seed, Cosmolab lets you:
✔️ Prototype your own synths and audio processors
✔️ Build modular and reusable hardware designs
✔️ Experiment with sound like never before

🛠️ 100% open‑source and fully expandable – you can even design and add your own custom boards to make Cosmolab truly yours.

Cosmolab is made of 8 boards: Audio I/O, MIDI I/O, CV I/O, Display, Pots with double LEDs, and two keyboard options to build your custom synth.

🚀 We’re launching a crowdfunding campaign in September!

👉 Don’t miss out – join our mailing list to get early updates, sneak peeks, and exclusive launch rewards.

🔗 Sign up now at https://cosmolab.faselunare.com/

📢 Be part of the next generation of sound creation!"

Monday, July 07, 2025

Degenerator2 Loading Samples without Crashes


video upload by Rolf Degen

Sunday, July 06, 2025

Drone Pod


video upload by Tim Kaiser

Unique Customised Oberheim DMX Drum Machine


video upload by Congohelium

"I modified this DMX with a full set of custom voice boards, expanded sounds and kits and a custom control panel for sound selection and tuning."

Pics and link to Reverb listing previously captured here.

A $20 MIDI synthesizer based on the SAM2695 chip (#seeed #XIAO-MIDI-Synthesizer)


video upload by Floyd Steinberg

"Here's the #seeed 'XIAO MIDI' #synthesizer, a $20 box based on the #SAM2695 synth-on-a-chip and the XIAO ESP32-C3 MCU. You can get it here: https://www.seeedstudio.com/XIAO-MIDI... Table of contents:

00:00 quick sound impression
00:12 hi
00:38 hardware overview
00:57 default firmware
01:50 creating a firmware that actually supports MIDI (shoutout to @SimpleDIYElectroMusicProjects )
03:12 build a 5 pin MIDI in plug
05:23 some sounds: piano
06:20 saw wave pad
06:34 "crystal ep"
07:13 analog pad
07:27 'glass pad'
08:05 synth brass
08:23 drum kit
08:33 on NRPNs and SYSEX using @intechstudio 's GRID controllers
09:13 NRPN explained (Filter cutoff frequency control)
10:54 SYSEX explained (Reverb time control)
11:38 calculating the checksum
12:20 live tweaking demo
13:01 same, but using multiple tracks
14:25 conclusion; some feedback to SEEED

Also check out https://github.com/kinoshita-lab/MIDI... which uses the same chip but already has a MIDI capable firmware. https://www.tindie.com/products/kinos...

HÄLP ZIS CHANNEL

https://www.patreon.com/floyd_steinberg
https://floydsteinberg.gumroad.com/
https://floydsteinberg.bandcamp.com/"


Features 1: Zero-Barrier Creation, Perfect for Music Beginners

With three preset modes and plug-and-play functionality, you can dive straight into music creation—no complex setup required. Built-in speaker and four tactile buttons deliver an intuitive, self-contained experience that eliminates external dependencies. Start making music from the very first note, no prior expertise needed.

Features 2: All-in-One MIDI + Metronome – Smarter, Smoother Workflow

XIAO MIDI synthesizer comes with a pre-set Metronome Mode, where you can press the buttons to change your BPM and toggle the drum track to effortlessly sync rhythms and control your entire beats with one single device. No need for extra devices or apps.

Features 3: Pro-Grade Performance for Advanced Players

Open-source hardware/software architecture supports deep customization and advanced sound design. With 64-note polyphony and 128-note capacity, unlock limitless sonic possibilities—craft your own signature sound engine, whether you're a beginner or an audio hacker.

Features 4: Ultra-Portable & Fully Hackable

Pocket-sized design (71mm × 49mm × 28.5mm) lets you capture inspiration anytime, anywhere. The 3D printed enclosure is fully open-source for you to remix and customize—not just an instrument, but your personal music canvas.

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