Cracking the Vectrex & Sega Saturn for Synthesis

These two videos came in via @midi_error. The first video on the Vectrex is pretty self explanatory. The second video on the Sega Saturn focuses more on bypassing the CD copy protection in order to load custom software, followed by a custom sound patch designer at 11:l6.

cTrix Early Vectrex Music Experiments

Published on May 8, 2015 debuglive

"Running some test ROMs on the Vectrex! (Only 2nd week of dev) Still having a few issues with hardware envelopes - they worked in assembler when I kept things simple - but get lost in translation from a YM source even though I can see the registers in the code. All part of the fun - I hope to have it working soon! This is simply a work-in-progress."

Sega Saturn CD - Cracked after 20 years

Published on Jul 10, 2016

Sound editor at 11:16.

"A detailed look into Dr Abrasive's lab and what it took to engineer a plug-in-flash-card for the Sega Saturn.

Update: Dr Abrasive now has a twitter! https://twitter.com/prof_abrasive Discussion is now over at http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/s...

FYI: This is not a commercial product. It also is still being tweaked.
FYI: The sound patch designer tool shown is in early early days!"

USB Eurorack Power Kits from c1t1zen modular

via c1t1zen

"I've made these USBpowered Eurorack pcb kits. That convert the 5V output from USB and up-converts it to +/-12V. I usually use a USB battery charger...but you can use any USB power source. I've been able to push 250mA to the +/-12v for several hours. It's great to have a portable small system to tweak on the couch or on the go. Also I have one on my bench for testing builds.

It's based on the work of Tom Whitwell of Music Thing Modular."

Kit Includes:
USBpower PCB
USB Cable
Capacitor
USB Jack
5 Shrouded Headers

Side note: c1t1zen also made the lunchbox modular featured in this video from Thomas Whitwell of Music Thing.

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Christmas Time Is Here - Altera DE2-115 Nios II Synthesizer

Published on Dec 13, 2016 Zackery Arnold

The Altera DE2-115 is a Development and Education Board from Intel. The following are details on the board itself, and not the synth above, via Intel. Just thought it was a fun holiday post, and as with many posts on MATRIXSYNTH, it's an FYI that this is out there for those that might be interested. Not sure what the sound/synth engine is, so I reached out to Zackery and will post back if I hear back. See the FPGA label below from some previous posts featuring FPGA DIY projects.

"Board Category: Development Kit

Components & Interface: Audio: Iomic; Expansion: Generic, HSMC; Industry Standard: Ethernet, PS2, RS232, USB Device; Video: Composite Input, VGA Output

End Market: Broadcast, Computer & Storage, Consumer, Industrial, Medical, Military, Test & Measurement, Wireline

General User IO: 7 Segment Display, LED, Push Button, Slider Switch

Technology: General Purpose

Cyclone Series: Cyclone IV: Cyclone IV E

The DE2 series has consistently been at the forefront of educational development boards by distinguishing itself with an abundance of interfaces to accommodate various application needs. Extending its leadership and success, Terasic announces the latest DE2-115 that features the Cyclone IV E device. Responding to increased versatile low-cost spectrum needs driven by the demand for mobile video, voice, data access, and the hunger for high-quality images, the new DE2-115 offers an optimal balance of low cost, low power and a rich supply of logic, memory and DSP capabilities. The DE2-115 adopts similar features from the earlier DE2 series primarily the DE2-70, as well as additional interfaces to support mainstream protocols including Gigabit Ethernet (GbE). A High-Speed Mezzanine Card (HSMC) connector is provided to support additional functionality and connectivity via HSMC daughter cards and cables. For large-scale ASIC prototype development, a connection can be made with two or more FPGA-based boards by means of a HSMC cable through the HSMC connector. The Cyclone EP4CE115 device equipped on the DE2-115 features 114,480 logic elements (LEs), the largest offered in the Cyclone IV E series, up to 3.9-Mbits of RAM, and 266 multipliers. In addition, it delivers an unprecedented combination of low cost and functionality, and lower power compared to previous generation Cyclone devices."

Michel Cardboard Modular Synthesizer with Rope Control, Map, & Love Modules & More

My Michel: my modular synthesizer

Published on Dec 12, 2016 AXL OTL

"Let me introduce you my synth: Michel!"

Love module at 3:03 is likely NSFW for a split second. Rope control come in at 5:08.

DIY Modular Synth by The Electronic Slob

Published on Oct 30, 2016 The Electronic Slob

New Bubblesound DiOD Filter - Classic Steiner Parker Diode Filter

"The DiOD Filter is a faithful recreation of the classic Steiner Parker Diode Filter with modern inout and output buffers. This keeps the noise to a minimum while retaining everything that made this filter a classic. The DiOD is a unique sounding and versatile filter in a small 4HP package. From soft and smooth to brutal, noisy and chaotic, the DiOD's flexibility will make it at home in any size system.

This filter will track, but not as tight as the VCOb and it will self resonate; in fact at the upper reaches of the Resonance it's pretty hard to control.

Compact and quiet enough to chain several together for stereo filtering, adding more poles or creating a very resonant phaser.

The 2 CV inputs can be CV or Audio.

Specs
4HP
20MM deep
+50mA
-30mA
2 CV inputs
High Pass, Band Pass and Low Pass settings
Single Output."

The filter is soon to be available assembled from Control exclusively till the end of the year and kits from Control, Modular Addictand Thonk.

Conway's Game of Life synth module

Published on Dec 5, 2016 thenervoussquirrel

"Quick test of a trigger module for modular synth. 64 outputs controlled by a MIDI input, or 'game of life' mode using John Conway's cellular automaton rules.

The video shows a few percussion modules connected, but it can of course be used to trigger envelope generators, sequencer steps etc.

Synth page: www.nervoussquirrel.com/modular

Uses one of those lovely 8x8 LED matrices by Adafruit.

Based on Tyler Hyndman's code: https://github.com/tylo42/Arduino-Gam..."

RiDrum TS-01 Snare Tom Proto

Published on Nov 30, 2016 Richard O

"Proto from the snare drum tom/bas part, parameters release, tune and mix of the 2 sine osc. and the sustain and release for the noise part, noise is lent from the 909"

DIY Arduino String Synth & Drum Machine

Published on Nov 25, 2016 gary909

"A quick demo of my DIY Arduino String Synth and Drum machine. Sorry I can't play that well but whatever ;-)"

Update:

You can find build instructions here. It's based on DIY instructions from DSP Synthesizers here. The drum machine is a Korg Minipops7 build.

DSP Synthesizers Announces the Tiny Touch Synthesizer DIY Kit & Black Friday Sale

via DSP Synthesizers:

"The Tiny TS is a credit card sized (100x65mm) fully open-sourced synthesizer with a capacitive touch keyboard.

It has a 1-octave capacitive keyboard.

Audio/CV/Gate outputs and 6 synth parameter dials.

If you don't like the onboard sound of the synth, the CV's output 1V/oct and Gate from the keyboard so teams well with other 1v/oct synthesizers.

This will be this christmas DIY kit to play with.

And it will be cheap.

http://janostman.wordpress.com"

And on the sale:

"30% sale on all orders during Friday 25th.
The offer stands for all orders from DSP Synthesizers between Friday through 24:00 Sunday night.

http://www.dspsynth.eu

http://www.dspmodular.eu"

AI003 Looping Envelope Generator DIY Synth Module

Published on Nov 13, 2016 AI Synthesis

"A product demo of the aisynthesis.com AI003 Looping Envelope Generator DIY Synthesizer Module"

"The AI003 Looping ADSR Envelope Generator DIY Kit is a looping ADSR Envelope Generator. It can be manually triggered via Momentary Push Button, Gated via the Gate Signal, Triggered or re-triggered by a Trigger input, or set into a loop mode via a toggle switch. An LED shows the status of the output.

This Looping ADSR Envelope Generator DIY Kit circuit was derived (with permission) from the great and simple circuit (only 2 ICs!) from Nicolas on the Electromusic.com forums. With some help from the great Dave Brown, the circuit was updated to provide additional voltage protection, more uniform looping and gate behavior, more precise LED monitoring, and some nice user experience updates.

In Gate or Trigger mode, the envelope can be used as a traditional ADSR envelope generator. In loop mode, the output sends a variable exponential waveshape between Ramp, Triangle, and Sawtooth LFO with control over the attack and decay of the LFO shape.

The modes are dependent on whether or not the gate jack is inserted, and for triggers, the Sustain level – see the chart below. We will be releasing a more traditional ADSR with 'normal' gating functions shortly (but with twice the part count and no AD loop)."

Alpes Machines - Matrix Ctrlr - Hardware Controller for the Oberheim Matrix-6/6r/1000

Published on Oct 23, 2016 BIM0X

"The Matrix Ctrlr is a custom arduino based midi controller to edit Oberheim Matrix 1000 and Matrix 6 synths. Available as a kit.

http://alpesmachines.free.fr

Short demo of the Matrix 1000 os1.20 with the Matrix Ctrlr by Thomas from Cotton Claw."

Rackable, desktop hardware controller for the Oberheim Matrix-6.

"Hardware 19” 3U rack

Compatible with Matrix 6 Keyboard, Matrix 6R Rack & Matrix 1000 Rack units

32 knobs covering 50 parameters (2 virtual layers)

All 96 of the Matrix’s voice parameters (including the modulation matrix) editable using display and buttons

Control up to 4 Matrix synths at the same time

Full SysEx and MIDI CC implementation

Store and manage 1000 patches

Includes a powerful arpeggiator

Computer free!

Available as a DIY kit (soldering required)"

Update: note you need OS 2.13 or greater on the Matrix-6 for external sysex editors like this.

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DSP Synthesizers dsp-G1 Analog Modeling Synth Source Code Released

DSP Synthesizers has released the sources code for their dsp-G1 Analog Modeling Synth. You can find it here.


Euro G1 Chords and Sweeps Published on Feb 18, 2016

"Exploring chords and filter sweeps of the DSP-G1 and Euro-G1"

Video previously posted here.

Homemade Analog Synth by David Henderson

Published on Oct 13, 2012 David Henderson

"How I built an analog synth from old piano parts I found in a dumpster."

Herb Deutsch gets a mention.

And a follow-up video:

Analog Synth

Published on Feb 10, 2013 David Henderson

"Description of home-made analog synth, built from an old piano."

DIY Teensy-based Polyphonic Synth by Florian Loretan

Published on Apr 20, 2016 Florian Loretan

"Here’s a quick demo of a project in progress.

A while ago, I bought an old bontempi keyboard on ebay for €3.50, but it stopped working shortly after I got it. My original plan to simply replace the defective sound chip was ditched for a fully custom enclosure with its own interface - the only thing remaining from the original are the keys. The sound generation is done with a teensy and the fantastic teensy audio board.

There is still functionality to be programmed (arpeggiator, presets, sampler among others), but the hardware part is done, and enough is there for the synth to be really fun to play. A more detailed walk-through might come later."

Building a custom synth enclosure

Published on Aug 12, 2016

"This is a follow-up on the demo of the synth, this time covering how I built the custom enclosure."

DIY Teensy Synth: the Electronics

Published on Sep 15, 2016

"In this follow up video, I talk about the electronics part of my Teensy-based Synth. Note that I'm using the Teensy Audio adaptor to generate the audio, so all the electronics is only about control signals, no audio processing, which simplifies things quite a bit."

Analog Rythm Synthesizer :: test run

Published on Oct 11, 2016 wsadhu

"Analog Rythm Synthesizer for House
by K'sadhu | Squid Sound System

phone recording from air - please turn up the volume"

Update:

Analog Rythm Synthesizer :: quick view

God’s Box - Humpback - Eurorack VCF

God's Box - Humpback - Eurorack VCF from thonk on Vimeo.

https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/humpback/

"A full DIY kit for a 2-pole multimode filter reminiscent of the classic ‘SEM’ style state variable VCF. Special features include a hot rodded resonance circuit and increased frequency range."

"The God’s Box ‘Humpback’ kit is produced exclusively in collaboration with Thonk.

This kit includes everything you need to build the module apart from tools and solder. The module is 8hp wide and is skiff friendly; 38mm deep. The kit is packed to the same high standards customers have come to expect from all Thonk kits.

Contents
Aluminium 8hp Eurorack panel – High Quality two colour Aluprint process
Red PCBs with ENIG gold traces
All electronic components required including matched transistor pair
Genuine and new/unused Rochester CA3080AE chips
Knobs, power cable, M3 rack screws
Description
The Humpback multimode voltage controlled filter is a 2-pole, CA3080 based implementation of the classic state variable architecture. The controls of the filter are as follows:

Filter cutoff – a hardwired DC voltage frequency control
CV inputs – two frequency CV inputs are included on the panel and controlled by attenutators.
Outputs – lowpass, bandpass, highpass and notch are available simultaneously
Signal input – one signal input is available on the panel
Resonance-resonance control is included and is hot-rodded to allow self-oscillation. In self oscillation the filter will produce a sine wave output."

Teensy Polyphonic Synth

Published on Oct 1, 2016 otemrellik

"My first venture into the teensy audio library! This is a polyphonic synthesizer with various controls.

Learn about Teensy audio library:
https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_A...

Code:
https://github.com/otem/teensypolysynth/"

Upcoming TripsQuad: Quad Waveshaper Eurorack Module by Auxren aka Oren Levy of Tabor

Published on Sep 29, 2016 Oren Levy

"A demo of my new eurorack module. It has 4 waveshapers normalized in series with plenty of modulation inputs for fun."

Oren Levy is the man behind The Quill by Tabor. His modular explorations have been featured here on MATRIXSYNTH numerous times.

The image to the left is via modulargrid. It appears the brand will fall under the moniker auxren.

The following are some details in via Oren:

"This one is mainly open source and meant to be a non-daunting way for people to learn to surface mount solder. The files and info is on github.com/auxren/tripsquad.

Cost for parts and everything is around $60. I'll have circuit boards and panels for purchase and I might even hand build some if people want complete modules, but the purpose is to get people to build something easier than the other surface mount projects."

Believotron at Knobcon

via @believotron5000

"Showing off our @axoloti_be synthesizers."

Some info on what they have to offer via the Believotron website:

"21ST CENTURY INTERFACE

Everyone is different, pick the workflow that works best for you. Use the existing settings and customize to your heart's content, or you can design a brand new way of working with the machine and share it with the community.

INSTRUMENT / PATCH MANAGEMENT

System ships with an SD Card preloaded with an ever evolving range of instruments
Download an up-to-date set of core instruments
Extensive community instruments
Develop your own
Sync files with github / gdrive / dropbox / icloud and more
Modern private version control for musicians that want to protect their work

EVER EVOLVING FEATURES

Zero Programming: New Adventures in community instruments
Zero internet? Use an SD card. DIY or buy from literally anyone with a good idea and a charming experience
Sync directly over USB
Easy Graphical Modification: You will love how easy it is to find and understand the synth logic, and make the changes you need to improve your workflow. Making a mistake is harmless and experimentation is encouraged.

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