A friend (the one who menaged to kill few pairs of speakers with my Binaural Beat Generator) asked me if I could add an CV input to his cassette recorder, so he could use it with his modular synth. The answer was: “Yes”. The mod was preformed in a unusual “engineer way”, not the nowadays popular […]
After few years of fight I finally finished my eurorack drum synthesizer. I was very proud of it, till my girlfriend asked: “Why there are empty spaces in your noisy box? You still don’t have enough modules?”. I laughed, made myself hot chocolate and started to cry in the corner. Cure? Blanks. I was […]
Back to 2006 It was year 2006 and my electronic knowledge was extending. I’ve allready build a ICL 7107 voltometer and a dekatron spinner, therefore I felt I can do something really complex. One day I saw a Syntom II, an electronic drum synthesizer project printed in Electronics and Music Maker magazine, (E&MM, 1983). I […]
Lets go to the last part of our eurorack DIY. The PCB is designed and tested, front panel with decal and PCB holder made. The last thing is to electrically connect PCB with all panel mounted devices. There is a lot of place for mistakes, so I recommend to work slowly and stick to the […]
This is a third part of my eurorack DIY tutorial. Previously I wrote about front panel mechanical work and waterslide decal applying. Now the PCB and front panel need to be connected together. Custom PCB holder is a must if potentiometer and jacks are not included in PCB design. Lets get to work! The […]
Some techniques described here may seem weird (or stupid), but all of them are based on my own experience. For last 4 years I made around 35 eurorack DIY panels for different kind of devices using water decals. This is a part 2 of my eurorack DIY module building tutorial and it describes how to […]
So, you have tested your prototype, got the PCB manufactured and soldered. How to get from here to complete, professional looking eurorack module with mostly hand tools and minimum outsourcing? Here’s a small tutorial. It documents a creation of my Kraft Drum DIY eurorack module. Why I just won’t order a profesionally made front plate? I just […]
GF: What does this module do? Me: It shows a LEGO figure. GF: And? Me: Thats all. GF: … (gives me that you-have-wasted-a-week-of-your-life look and walks away). I was inspired by Gieskes “non-musical” modules, like “bottle opener” and “do-not-touch”. My module is a small display window with a iluminated LEGO figure. But not the ordinary one. It comes […]
It was back in 2014. Thanks to user hidden behind wutierson nickname I managed to finish digital “metallic” sound generator based on the one used in Simmons SDSV hihat / cymbal drum modules. The story SDSV drum brain was shipped with only 5 modules – bass, snare and 3 toms. Hihat didn’t belong to the […]
Kraft Drum (aka V829 Drum) is a Vox Percussion King inspired device. VOX PK is quite rare drum synthesizer from about 1967. The most noticable use was on Kraftwerks track called Autobahn – you just cannot miss this punchy and somehow distorted bass drum. The circuit First, I got some lovely Vox Percussion King […]
Hip bass drum is project brought to you by Craig Anderton. Compared to other drum circiuits it’s very simple (but unique) design. The schematics scanned form Polyphony, October ’83 can be found all over internet (but if you have any problems getting one, call me). It is hard to find any clear demo of the […]
One day I decided to move my modular drum synth into bigger case. The main reason was my girlfriend wanted to use my previous Ikea Rast style case as an balcony table. I had no choice. The plans The design is based on Doepfers A-100 Low Cost 9U case. I made few “improvements” to […]
There is no modular synth without busboards. My design is based on Doepfers A100-BUS. It is simple, cheap easy to make. Same as Doepfer, mine has CV and GATE buses – thus 16 pin power connector. Schematic is very simple, but you have to do it before PCB design. Nothing fancy here, 14 2×8 pin […]
When you type “Clangora” in your web browser, you will find maybe 5 different finished builds. It is not the most popular project, that’s why I feel I should show my device. The synth was designed by Thomas Henry, full description of the circuit along with printable PCB can be found in “Nuts & Volts”, […]
This is a successfull attempt to bring famous ClapTrap drum synthesizer (analog version) into eurorack synth world. It was not very easy. This particular device intrugued me for a long time. It is definitely well-known, but except pictures there is not a lot of info all over web. You can find schematics without any semiconductors […]
This article was updated slightly on 21.05.2018 and includes filtering capacitors change and some output voltage measurements. Introduction Every modular synth needs a power supply (except systems containing only blanks and Giskies 12 HP Bottle Openers). Switched power supplies sometimes cause problems (when you have a lot of small modules, all with input power […]
It’s my attempt to build a famous 808 cowbell drum module. I must say, it sounds like nothing else (including real cowbell). I made some mods in original circuit – some of them are well known: decay mode – lets you choose between 2 decay times: “original” and shorter one, filter mod – changes output […]
There is a story behind this module. Using my countless stupidity, i menaged to broke both hands while riding my bike. After that, i had a lot of free time, but i wasn’t able to many things. With some training i menaged to master computer mouse with partially plastered hand and keyboard striked with pencil. […]
