8 voice poly to 12 voices

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the synth I made last year which was an 8 voice bi-timbral analogue polysynth with AS3340 VCOs and AS3372 filters in matrix 12 configuration. As happy as I was with the synth I thought it would be great to make use of what I've learnt on my last 12 voice DCO polysynth and apply it to this build. So I created some smaller 6 voice cards, made the LFOs in software on the PICOs and rewrote all the controller software. Early days, but it's sort of working, one voice card is slight louder than the other and it's effects don't work. I'm sure there is a lot more to do yet."

Black Pill (BP Synth) build.

video upload by Craig Barnes

"A reasonable description of my Black Pill synth build into an M- Audio Axiom 25 chassis with a Teensy 4.0 based editor managing the sounds.

The github page. https://github.com/craigyjp/Black-Pil..."

"I created a hardware editor for the BP Synth to specifically fit it into the M-Audio Axiom 25 chassis.

The synth was created by Blaine at SyntheTech about 3 years ago. [2nd set of videos here]

To Do list

Replace screen 0 with one the same as the others.

Clean the main screen display

Add the Portamento switch with an LED instead of the LFO wave select.

Connect the transpose buttons to the Teensy so I can manage the transpose.

Make the footswitch input assignable to Arp Start/Stop, Glide on/off etc."

12 voice polysynth latest iteration

video upload by Craig Barnes

"After finishing the second voice board and debugging the filter issues with the first board I've now connected everything up into a 12 voice configuration for more testing and fixing of bugs."

Poly 61 rack mount with editor added

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is an upgrade to the Poly 61 rack mount synth that I built from eBay parts last year. It was always staring at me asking, 'where is my editor'. So I finally gave in and created this.

The code and schematics are here.

https://github.com/craigyjp/Poly-61-e..."

Self contained 6 voice polysynth board

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is a test of the latest version of my self contained 6 voice polysynth board. it has 6 dual DCOs with super saw, square with PWM and a triangle, a standard saw, square with PWM and a sub oscillator. These are fed into AS3372E analogue filters configured the same as the matrix 12 filters for 16 variations of LP, HP, BP, notch etc. Each voice has 3 ADSRs, 3 LFOs and a noise source."

Roland JX-70 / JX-10 rack mount note to LED addition

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I had finished this project, but originally the 16 patch and bank buttons were dual LEDs. Today I started to replace them with blanks and thought, what if I leave patch buttons 1-6 as dual LEDs and add a simple processor to intercept the serial Comms between the assigner board and the voice boards. Effectively creating a midi to trigger to display the notes as LEDs."

Roland Jupiter 8 from 2x JP-08's

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the latest iteration of my Jupiter 8 style synth from two JP-08 boutique synths.

If anyone is interested then here is the code repository with schematics.

https://github.com/craigyjp/Jupiter-8..."

Reminds me of the various custom controlers from Synth-Project.

Completed software and hardware for the Jupiter 8 Controller by Craig Barnes

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the final version of the Jupiter 8 from two JP-08 builds, I finished each section off and finally completed the DAC outputs to control the mixer volume and balance."

Craig Barnes Jupiter 8 editor/assigner

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Building a cheap Jupiter 8 from two JP-08 modules I rarely use. I've tried to emulate as much of the original Jupiter 8 onto the front panel, although I've made some concessions because of the way the JP-08 is controlled over MIDI."

Progress on the Roland Super JX 10 Vecoven V4 editor build.

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I've finally managed to lay everything out on the bench and install the voice boards and midi board into the CME UF-70 chassis."

Super JX 10 Vecoven V4 editor

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is my first pass through the Super JX-10 editor, just wired all the pots, sliders, display, buttons etc into the mux and MCP chips. All programmed up for testing. A lot more to do and test as it doesn't do anything with upper and lower sections yet or send out any NRPN or sysex messages."

Cherry Audio MemoryMode Synth

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is the Cherry Audio MemoryMode VST realized as a standalone synth. There's a mini pc inside running the standalone VST and outputting to a DAC, the controller can store upto 999 patches."

Cherry Audio Arp Quadra synth/controller

video upload by Craig Barnes

"This is a project I built a few years back, always wanted a Quadra since playing one at Chase Music on Oldham Street, so when this VST came about I thought it was possible to build a synth with a tiny pc and a midi keyboard and some electronics to tie it all together. This week I've been spending time breaking down the Cherry Audio factory patches in an effort to load them onto the SD card and have them all at hand. I also decided to give it a spruce up because the panels were going brown in the sunlight."

Five patches created on the Hybrid 8

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I'm not very good at patch creation, but here are the first five patches I've created on the new Hybrid 8 synth. The organ patch is using wavetables, but the rest are just sawtooth VCOs."

A stereo Korg Poly 61

video upload by Craig Barnes

"As my poly 61 is now controlled by a dedicated editor, the editor hardware can be used to control a Behringer June 60 chorus, a simple mod of the June 60 to use 5v relays instead of push buttons and it can be controlled by a micro."

Progress on the Teensy TDM synth

video upload by Craig Barnes

"Latest update of the Teensy 4.1 based audio library synth. I've ditched the hardware envelopes because they lacked real-time control and only changed on a fresh key press, so now the Electric Druid Envgen8c chips are back in their sockets on envelope duty. I've opted for log envelopes although I think the AS2164 has a lin/log converter, I need to check."

Poly 61 editor built into the 61 case

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I'd always thought about doing this, so this afternoon I got it installed. Nice tight fit in the lid of the 61."

Poly 61 hardware midi editor (Tauntek upgrade)

video upload by Craig Barnes

"I quickly built this encoder based hardware editor for Tauntek upgraded poly 61 boards, it's fairly simple and uses an ESP32 Dev board and io port expanders."

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."

MOscar fully restored (except knobs)

video upload by Craig Barnes

"First test of the restored MOscar synth. It came to me quite dead with a loose MIDI board and a dead -5v rail, along with quite a few weird pots and strange wiring. Anyways I think it's back to normal now with a Tauntek MIDI upgrade as well."