DIY synth or similar

dafthuman · Post by **dafthuman** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:44 am

does anyone know of or has made a synth or something similar by themselves? i have a project for school coming up and if i could make this the teacher said i would get an A for sure.

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 12:56 pm

Softsynth or hardware synth?

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Mon Mar 22, 2010 11:58 pm

I'm building a synth consisting of a dedicated Core2Duo PC inside a 61-key chassis, with dedicated control surface (faders, knobs, vector joystick) and software.

Does that count?

dafthuman · Post by **dafthuman** » Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:55 am

hard synth. and yes that sounds rather like what i had in mind actually

tpantano · Post by **tpantano** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:48 am

dafthuman wrote:hard synth. and yes that sounds rather like what i had in mind actually

so, essentially, you want to build a computer that has a built in monitor and midi controls.

rather than a real hardware synthesizer.

that's going to be pretttty expensive, I'm guessing $700 minimum for the parts for the PC, then a bit of money to make a case, then more money to make midi knobs/keyboard, then even more to interface them to the PC. Oh, and of course you'll need to make some custom synth software.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 2:06 am

My advice is, don't do it!

build a real synth instead. I mean, i'm really excited about what I'm doing, but its almost like a full-time job. I've been working on it since september now and its only starting to come together.

If you optimise the OS, then you don't need to worry too much about having a really powerful CPU. However, you'd still need to invest in the keybed (or build one, not sure what's worse. I ordered a fatar one from Doepfer), a small formfactor power supply - e.g. a 1U rack one like used in blade servers. Then you need software. I'm using Max/MSP and Windows XP x64 currently. Interface scanning is the easy bit really.

Then you've got to build the chassis, which is where I am now, mostly. You really have to decide early on what you're going to have. Changing your mind doesn't help things at all.

Using a PC architecture though, there is a lot of processing power and ease of programming, relative ease of assembly (no need to design your own DSP or analog boards). opportunity for more modularity in the interface.

Still, after all that, don't do it!

dafthuman · Post by **dafthuman** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 7:53 am

thanks for the advice guys. muchly appreciated. i wont build a synth, as disappointed as i am its probably the best not to do it at this stage.

X-Trade · Post by **X-Trade** » Wed Mar 24, 2010 11:10 am

Provided you have some electronics experience, it wouldn't be hard to make a fully analog synth, possibly even without any keyboard. A bit like korg's new monotron, maybe a bit more sophisticated than that.

I'm sure you'd find something like this inspiring:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/synthi.php

Vesa · Post by **Vesa** » Wed Aug 18, 2010 6:12 pm

It's amazing what can happen in 10 years.

Asus has a new PC coming out, a newly designed Eee PC, and all fits inside the keyboard.

Wait... make that keyboard look like musical keyboard...and...now it's a soft synth if you add the soft...

Music tech goes pretty slow, new technology added every 3 years or so.

Ofcourse KORG, Roland, Yamaha etc should be leading this wave ! Mac is also great.

EDIT /// Thinking wrong there (blame the red red wine) ... Now with Eee PC and stuff, I really think musical hardware will EXPLODE in terms of CAPACITY vs few years back. Adding RAM to PC doesn't cost much, or HDD..but it DID COST A FORTUNE years back.

And I think they know this... we see soft- and hardware companies merge... for a good reason. I pity the last stubborn company that doesn't merge.

But, sad part is: We HAD these kinds of Eee PC 30 years ago ! Commodore and Sinclair.

WTF happened inbetween ? We're back at same small size...

dayuri · Post by **dayuri** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:55 am

X-Trade wrote:Provided you have some electronics experience, it wouldn't be hard to make a fully analog synth, possibly even without any keyboard. A bit like korg's new monotron, maybe a bit more sophisticated than that.

I'm sure you'd find something like this inspiring:
http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/synthi.php

This is a good idea. The cheapest option would be to buy a waveform generator kit and mod it, or you could even buy a monotron, take it apart and mod it, which is basically just a waveform generator with a few extra controls - Really cheap too, you won't even be able to source the components for the price of the thing.

Check this out: http://www.synthgear.com/2010/synthesiz ... -monotron/
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... l=ja&tl=en