The Appendage:An analogue voltage controller for synthesizers.

video upload by Todd Murray

"This is a DIY project that was originally designed by Scott Stiles on the Electro-Music Forum. Being a DIY project means you can augment, customize and kick things up a bit. I wanted a new controller that was thin and light enough that I could bounce around on stage and give a light show, while playing.

The current light controller is activated by a 5 Volt gate signal to an Atmel microcontroller. The next revision will incorporate both Gate and CV which will not only activate the lights, but change colour depending on frequency.

You can use this simultaneously with patchable Eurorack and large format +/-15V modulars or polyphonic MIDI controlled synths using the CV to MIDI converter."

Generative Music: The Seagull & The Walrus

video by Todd Murray

"Generative music with a modular synth is not so much about playing notes with a keyboard or sequencer. It's about building a story from clock pulses, oscillators, filters and modulating everything. Its about how you feel, while making it. It is not really random, although it can be. Many cases it is about controlling or selecting waveforms that may suit a particular scale and pattern. The best part is, if you don't record the story, it is gone forever......

Modules used:
Intellijel Quad VCA
Intellijel Scales
Intellijel Mixup
ALM Pamela's New Workout
Mutable Elements (DIY)
Mutable Plaits
Mutable Stages
Mutable Beads
Make Noise QPas
Make Noise Optomix"

TTSH (Arp 2600 clone) meets the Squid

Todd Murray

"This is my latest DIY synthesizer. A V4 TTSH connected to a Toraiz Squid. Basically, this just demonstrates how these synths sound with just 3 VCOs, one of which is also providing a sub-oscillator. Jump to 1:15 to hear the sub-oscillator kick in and about 1:46 to hear all the VCOs. Oh yea... crank this up for best effect. And this build has some alterations to components, etc from the standard TTSH"

Latest TTSH build (Arp 2600 clone)

Todd Murray

"This is from the latest V4 TTSH PCBs from Synthcube. There have been many mods done to this as well, including waveshapers, gatebooster, VCO sync, etc. Although most of the voltage control still uses the LM301, many are selected for the lowest input offset voltage as possible. Additionally the entire audio path uses OPAMPs that are closer to the original MC1439s in either fast slew rate or lowest input offset voltage where needed. VCOs, VCA and VCFs make heavy use of matched (Vbe) transistor (NPN/NPN or PNP/PNP) pairs, matched JFETs and NPN/PNP pairs selected for identical and optimal Hfe."

MFOS SoundLab Mini-synth MKII

Published on Feb 1, 2020 Todd Murray

"Here is an MFOS mini-synth MKII demonstration video. The audio is recorded directly to the mixer as raw audio, with no effects or processing. The video is intended to give anyone who is considering building one of these, a sample of the sound pallet. This synth is 100% analog across all audio and control portions of the design. This particular build repurposes an old knife box as a housing. The unit is powered by a 13.5VAC wall wart for the +/-12VDC power supply the synth runs on.

This synth design allows a lot of different modulation sources an destinations for an old school mono synth. I personal believe this is one of the better designs for synths in the small, analog mono-synth category, and provides tons of fun and a useable pallet for adding to any composition.

More details on the design is here: http://musicfromouterspace.com/index....

You can buy a bare printed circuit board from here: https://synthcube.com/cart/music-from...

See my other builds, etc here: https://sixbyseven.ca"

Deckard's Dream DIY Expander Demo 1

Published on Apr 21, 2019 Todd Murray

"This is a demonstration intended only to show the basic operation of the Deckard Dream DIY expander, and how the controls effect the sound. This video focuses mainly on the Ring Modulator, but also shows some of the Delay and Reverb effects."

GIY Deckard's Dream Expander Assembly and Instructions

Published on Apr 19, 2019 Todd Murray

"Anyone can build the Deckard's Dream Expander. This kit requires no technical knowledge or special tools. If you can grow dandelions, you can make one of these. GIY. Grow it Yourself. Use only Organic Synthesizers."

Tangerine Dream Modular Synthesizer

Published on Jan 24, 2018 Todd Murray

Based on circuit designs from Ray Wilson, Thomas Henry, Michael Barton, YuSynth, Saint Gillis, Roman Sowa & SixBySeven.ca

"A small tour of the DIY Modular showing the various modules and where they are relatively located. This is used as a demonstration for the main article. Please visit http://sixbyseven.ca/the-tangerine-dr...
for all the details on this synthesizer and others.

This modular synthesizer has:

5 – VCOs, trackable over 7 octaves
1 – LFO
6 – VCAs
3 – VCFs
3 – Envelope Generators
1 – Ring Modulator
1 – Delayed Modulation
1 – Phase Shifter Module
1 – Wave Modification (Freaker)
1 – Sample & Hold Module
1 – Noise Module
1 – Wah Module
4 Channel Mixer, with effects routing
1 – Voltage Controlled Echo Module
2 – MIDI to CV programmable converters
1- CV & Gate Signal Expansion Module
1- Voltage Quantizer Module
1- Multi-Function Expanded Arpeggiator
2 – Variable DC power supplies."

Quick demo of 2x PreenFM & 1x Ambika with 6 SMR4 voice cards. HQ Sound

Published on Oct 30, 2017 Todd Murray

"This is a nothing planned, adhoc session just to demonstrate the sound quality of these two DIY synth projects. Both synths are open source code, and open hardware. You can still obtain prebuilt PreenFMs or you can DIY and build the entire synth from scratch.

The Ambika is not longer made by Mutable Instruments. It too is Open source and open hardware, and there are some sources who still build them or you can DIY

In both cases you can build these synths yourself by downloading all of the CAD files for the circuit boards and case, sourcing their build, then source the components and assemble the circuits.... then download the software and install it.

If you want to build these yourself, and have experience you should have little issues as both are fairly straight forward and the build doc quite clear. The PreenFM may be a particular challenge if you choose to DIY the MCU board. Soldering a STM32F405 takes practice and a steady hand. In both cases you will also need to upload the firmware to the processors.

You can learn more about the Ambika
here: https://mutable-instruments.net/archive/

and the PreenFM here: http://ixox.fr/preenfm2/"

Final demo of the Slingerland drum machine. With HQ Sound

Published on Apr 2, 2017 Todd Murray

"The Slingerland drum machine is built from the TR-909 and TR-808 printed circuit boards from Hexinverter.net

For more information on this build and other synths, please visit http://sixbyseven.ca"

Jasper Wasp, DX7II and TR-909 clone test with HQ Sound!!

Published on Mar 30, 2017 Todd Murray

"Here I am using an Arturia Keystep to clock my big MFOS (DIY) sequencer and run the DX7II (off screen) on MIDI. The MFOS sequencer is triggering the 909 (DIY) clone triple toms and kick. The Wasp (DIY) is played freestyle, no sequencer or trigger.

Ya, I know the video sucks, but this is about the sound of the Hexinverter Nein-oh-Nein PCBs and the wasp. I recorded the sound off the mixer and then synched it to the video track using Adobe Premiere. I am ever amazed at how I can run multiple digital and DIY analog synths with the Arturia Keystep.

- Nein-oh-Nein clone is the red panel unit
- MFOS Sequencer (4 x 16 CV/Gate/Trigger) large blue unit at top of screen
_ Arturia on table top
- Jasper Wasp is the black unit I am tweaking
- Yamaha DX7IIFD is off screen and behind me.

More info can be found here: http://sixbyseven.ca/synthesizers"

Testing the SlingerLand Drum synth

Published on Mar 21, 2017 Todd Murray

"This is basically a Roland TR-909 drum machining clone. If you want one, you can either buy a used one, or build one yourself. To build one, you need to obtain the printed circuit boards from Hexinverter.net, then source the components and then solder them in place. You may or may not have issues though. In my case, they high Tom is wonky due to the selection of capacitor types, and a potentiometer (the dial), which is causing feedback through the circuit. But for the most part, it sounds decent enough."

Vari-Clock sequencer and 909 Kick & Snare

Published on Mar 20, 2017 Todd Murray

"Short demo of the quadratic sequence machine triggering the 'Delphichord' synth and the 'Slingerland' 909 clone kick and snare.

Further info is here: http://sixbyseven.ca

The sequencer is based on the Ray Wilson 16 Step vari-clock analog sequencer, with 3 gate/trigger expansions: http://musicfromouterspace.com/index....

The 909 clone is built from the Hexinverter Nein-oh-nein Kick and snare drum PCBs which are based on the Roland TR-909"

Jasper Wasp noodle

Published on Mar 5, 2017 Todd Murray

"I keep saying that you don't create music using analog synthesizers. You just discover it, all we do is take crap out of the signal, but the music was already in the wires.

I was trying to design a case to put all of this into, then I started to play with this little synth. I have to tell you, build one. They are very cool machines. The sound is much richer from the little peavey guitar amp, as the camera sound does not really do justice here. The bottom end of this thing is window rattling. The midi is not being used here, the sequence is derived by the secondary hold function and the repeat-sustain and repeat-delay sections."

See the Wagner & Hugget label below for more.

"On the run" Floyd's famous sequence of E2-G2-A2-G2-D3-C3-D3-E3

Published on Dec 16, 2016 Todd Murray

"Just messing around with more sequences on the DelphiChord mini-synth and seeing what the range is for modulation.

For more info please visit: http://www.sixbyseven.ca"

Follow-up to this post.

The DelphiChord Synthesizer complete demo

Published on Dec 10, 2016 Todd Murray

"This is the DelphiChord Analog Synthesizer. It is based on the Mini Synth Mk II from Ray Wilson and Music from outer space. It has also been modified to provide CV or Gate input and output of each section or 'module' in the design. Instead of building a single circuit board, this design used a handmade and wired vector board for each circuit. I have also incorporated a Thomas Henry (of Nuts & Volts fame) design for wave shaping, particularly triangle to sine wave conversion.

The concept was to build a synthesizer that was imagined in the mid 1800s. Not steam punk, but more like the physicists of the day would have built. I chose the Mini-Synth Mk II over his Mini-Synth Ultimate, because this design came after the Ultimate was released, and I think it is a better synth overall. Schematically, the two designs are very similar with some subtle differences with the EGs and VCF however, the ability to modularize the MkII meant I can incorporate this easier (and less expensively) with the upcoming drum synths and sequencers I am also planning.

For additional information see: http://sixbyseven.ca/the-delphichord-...

For Ray Wilson and MFOS: http://musicfromouterspace.com"