Digital DIY synths?

[Ben Stuyts]

On Mon, 4 Jan 1999, Barry L Klein wrote:

> I received the same kit after attending one of AD's seminars.  Do these
> other synths you mention use this same 2181 chip?

They use all kinds of chips. I think the Nord's and/or Acces Virus use  
multiple Moto 563xx parts. My Zoom 1504 effect processes uses a TI TMS320  
derivative, and it can do pitch shifting, vocoding, plus the usual assorti of  
delays. I don't know of any synth that uses the 2181, but I happened to get my  
hands on the eval kit. That's why I was interested in using it for music.

>  At the seminar they
> demo'd a SHARC-based synth, which is a much more powerful chip, but it
> sounded pretty cheasy.

The demo 2181 board comes with a demo 'Stairway to heaven' song on a plucked  
guitar-like waveform. (Wayne's World?) It sounds pretty awful too.

> I think most of us would love to hear of digital synth attempts.  I
> haven't heard of any modular designs using that approach.

The Nord Modular uses that approach, but it is commercial and very expensive.  
You draw patch leads on a winblows program. Cute.

>  DSP chips like
> the 2181 are so cheap that it should be cheaper to do it with them than
> the custom analog chips.

Yep, the dsp eval board are usually around $100, and include full docco,  
assembler, etc.

Best regards,
Ben