What is Reddit's opinion of Make: Analog Synthesizers: Make Electronic Sounds the Synth-DIY Way?

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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=asc_df_1449345220/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310972644448&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=648437465101712078&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&a...

This is a good reference book and can be found in PDF format for free on archive.org

Ok, here goes. MFOS (Music From Outer Space) is a website dedicated to synth diy. The site is run by Ray Wilson. All of the projects on the site are of his own design. The projects are all sound based and include such things as guitar pedals, audio mixers, sequencers, synthesizers. The Noise Toaster is a synthesizer/sound generator. It includes a Voltage Controlled Oscillator, a Low Pass Filter, an Envelope Generator etc. You can get a wide range of sounds from it by twisting its many dials and flicking its many switches. It has an output jack for headphones or connecting to an external input of your choice. There is also a book dedicated to synth projects called Make: Analog Synthesizers by Ray Wilson.

> Did you build many easier circuits before you built this?

I modded my volca beats, and built a guitar pedal from a kit, but otherwise I prepped for this project by reading Ray's awesome book on the subject, which I feel was paramount to my success (so far), having only had a few small issues that required troubleshooting.

> How do you like the 2 pole LPF on the Ultimate?

I LOVE the sound of this filter. My only slight beef is the fact that the expander design also has a 12db/octave circuit, and I'm debating on doing the legwork and research to modify the circuit on that state variable filter to run at 24db/octave, to provide a bit more filter diversity over the whole unit. I'm still unsure on how involved that effort would be.

Also, if you have time and you're a DIY kind of person, you could consider making your own hardware synths. This book is pretty good

has nothing to do with DSP since its DIGITAL signal processing.

for your google fu, use the term SDIY. plenty of resources available.

also check out music from outer space" (MFOS)

also this is supposed to be nice http://www.amazon.de/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

Basic theory: http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/etext/toc.shtml, and http://electronotes.netfirms.com/free.htm (e.g. see "Theory and Practice of Musical Sound Synthesis")

Ray Wilson's book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

LM13700 datasheet (has circuit example for VCO, VCFs, VCA, Sample and Hold, PWM, multiplier): http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/lm13700.pdf

The LM13700 is a $1 chip which can be used to implement most of the basic synthesizer modules.

https://hackaday.com/tag/lm13700/

http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/DUALVCA/DLLVCA001.html

http://musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth_new/STATEVARVCFFEB2006/STATEVARVCFFEB2006.html

http://www.djerickson.com/synth/

"The kits I build use a lot of the same parts over and over, so having a stock of the basics is good. You can probably build this stock up for about $100:

DIP ICs, a few of each: LM13700, TL072, TL074, LM324"

I would look into the Make: Synthesizers book. https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220

It's a nice, easy to digest read into the entire process. Everything in it is covered by the MFOS website's DIY section, but the book is a nice guided tour of everything if just perusing the website all at once is overwhelming.

You'll need to be able to solder, so I'd start there. You'll also need some basic electronics background. Nothing too deep, but a basic understanding of voltages, ohm's law, and basic electronic components. A multimeter is pretty much required and an oscilloscope is nice to have, but I wouldn't call it mandatory.

As you approach this, break the synthesizer up into it's core parts - oscillator, filter, modulation, and the ever important VCA. Since you're already playing with vst's, I'd get comfortable with a modular synth one as well. Even if you aren't going to build a modular synth, it's a helpful tool for visualizing the path of sound generation.

You'll also need to build a power supply pretty early on. Go for something that uses an AC power brick that steps down the line voltage to something a little safer. Fires and electrocution both suck. 15-20VAC is a nice range that is easy to bring down to +/- 12VDC. Still enough energy to be concerned about, but its not 110 or 220V.

Plan on doing lots of reading and lots of planning. It's a long frustrating process at times. It all works out if you keep pushing along. And don't plan on saving any money. You can over the long run if you intend to build a large modular rig or lots of synths and just enjoy the process enough to not put a price on your time.

If you want to actually spend your time playing and making music, I'd suggest just buying a minibrute or model D clone (or something similar). I have both and they are a total blast. No shame in just buying cool synths. Can be really fun to make your own too - just know what you are getting into.

All depends on how much of a synthesizer you want to build. A desktop synth has an entire voice (or multiple) with oscillator, filter, envelope generator, vca, and maybe even a sequencer. That can be a big / expensive undertaking.

There are also small synthesizers more focused on drone noises that can't really be controlled from a keyboard, but you can control the pitch from a knob - The Atari Punk Console is a popular one that is fairly cheap and easy to build.

A lot of the DIY synth hobby is focused on modular, where a rack is just composed of individual modules, usually with a singular role - oscillator, filter, a huge variety of utilities to route and modulate control voltages. You can go on forever building a modular rack. Prices can vary a lot. In modular, you are most likely going to be building a lot of different stuff and it really makes sense to just buy parts in bulk and do all the sorting and inventory management yourself.

If you just want something amusing to fool around with, the Atari Punk Console would be my suggestion. An upgrade from that might be the Bastl Kastle or something from Isn'tses. Synthcube and Thonk are good places to buy from. Here are the Thonk DIY desktop kits - https://www.thonk.co.uk/product-category/desktop-synth-kits/

If you want to stay small but do a little more, Music from Outerspace is a really cool resource. Website is great, but the book is a really nice walkthrough that covers everything in an approachable manner. https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220

I’d say it depends a lot on your background and inclination. Electronics is a huge field and it will take years to develop a detailed understanding and being able to design your own modules. There are university level courses on almost every topic you can possible imagine and experience makes a lot of difference so it’s important to remember that the field is huge and that you will never be an expert in everything. Patience and an interest to learn is a requirement.

The good part is that getting the first pieces in place isn’t too difficult, and you can start assembling kits long before you understand every detail of them.

For electronics, start with a basic book like Make: Electronics or any other introductory textbook. I recommend paper books, you will want to return to these many times. There are also several online courses to help you get started.

If you are inclined towards studying tech and natural sciences, ie have a college or university background, the Art of electronics is “the Bible”. But it’s a massive university level textbook and is not the first book you should start with.

For basic synth hardware info and getting started in tinkering with sound synthesis, Make: Analog Synthesizers is unbeatable.

TLDR; Start small, learn a piece of electronics at a time. Grow your interest in synths in parallel, get a second hand synth or ready-made modules to make music while your learning how to build more of it yourself.

Read Ray Wilsons book on analog synthesis circuits.

https://www.amazon.com.au/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220

Maybe Make: Analog Synthesizers

http://musicfromouterspace.com/ seems like a good resource.

Maybe ask on r/synthdiy?

Other than those I only know about books on beginning electronic engineering which are really just textbooks about basic circuits.

Definitely MFOS, Ray Wilson (rest his soul) even made a book which is great for beginners - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Make%3A+Analog+Synthesizers%3A+Make+Electronic+Sounds+the+Synth-DIY+Way&qid=1617918813&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367955744&sr=8-1&keywords=make+analog+synthesizers

http://musicfromouterspace.com/

You could start with this book: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Electronic-Synth-DIY/dp/1449345220

It's written by Ray Wilson, who is the guy behind Music From Outer Space, where you will find tons of synths and module circuit, parts, pcb.

The book explains all the wizardry behind the Noise Toaster, and guide you through the build.

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Or you can start with eurorack, there is tons of DIY modules, you can have complete kit, so you "just" need to solder the parts, or you can buy a pcb and source the parts yourself. For eurorack, you will find "through hole" modules, aka classic and "big" components, or SMD, which are tiny component, usually made to be soldered by robots. You might want to avoid SMD as a first build if you don't have a lot of soldering experience (and tools).

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Have you looked at Ray Wilson's book?

Could start looking thru /r/diySynth and /r/synthDIY.

a few Books on RaspPi and arduino projects: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=arduino++synthesizer&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Aarduino++synthesizer

https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/

http://www.amazon.com/Handmade-Electronic-Music-Hardware-Hacking/dp/0415998735/

also there's been threads, they're hard to search for:

http://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/3b278g/diy_synth_build_from_scratch_tipsresources/

https://www.reddit.com/r/synthesizers/comments/3gjtsf/making_synthesizers/

Heya there. Cool you like the stuff, but I doubt that this is some proper design already. I think a real engineer would probably tear his eyes out ;o))
If you're just starting with some more advanced DIY stuff than 555, I'd recommend 3 things... first, really study Opamps, really study them! If you've seen a lot of designs already, you know that this is the way to go.
And, the MFOS guy Ray Wilson has a lot of cool stuff online, but he wrote a book on Make Magazine. It's available on Amazon and similar stores.
I mean there are a lot of electronic books, but IMO he really has a way of explaining things and in this book he builds a DIY synth and exaplains really every component he uses and what the various parts in the circuit do.

This is the book:
http://www.amazon.de/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson/dp/1449345220/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432281599&sr=8-1&keywords=make+wilson

and 3rd thing: http://www.indiabix.com/electronics-circuits/ This online simulator really shows you, what's happening in your circuit. I was totally astonished the fist time I've seen this... to really see how parts in circuits behave and to actually see the protons flow depending on your circuits.

From there on, if you build some circuits it doesn't really matter if you go for Eurorack of Synthesizers.com format... you just need to adapt.
If you have something to show, let me know, I'd wonder what you've done ;)
It's always nice to talk to fellow DIY guys.