[sdiy] Calculator Synth

[Dr Strangelove]

I'm gonna add that I'm a big fan of portable stuff and "Pocket Calculator" 
has had me thinking of having some kind of little portable synthesizer.  You 
can get pocket sized housings at radio shack and you could make a keyboard 
out of tiny buttons

0   0   0       0   0       0   0   0       0   0

   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0

According to a friend of mine who went to a Kraftwerk Show several years ago 
in NYC (lucky bastard!), when K-Werk played that tune on stage they had 
little calculator sized things they played on.

As for a synth engine within this tiny device, well, You could use a CEM3396 
or use a simple osc design like a UJT based osc (Check Ack Electronics in 
atlanta for UJT no 2n4853 I bought four of them their, they are now out of 
stock but they said they could get more) Or you could make a OTA based osc 
which is, in my opinion, about as easy as a UJT osc.  You wouldn't even 
necessarily have to scale the oscillator properly, you could tune each key 
with a trim-pot, I guess for amplitude control you'd have several options, 
maybe a tiny joystick, or a little button to trigger the thing, or you could 
use a Yamaha BC-3 breath controller to drive a VCA CV or a resistive strip, 
or.....

These have been my brainstorms on the "Pocket Calculator" type synth.

You could also probably use a SN76477, a SID6581 based synth is most likely 
out of the question though because having battery power and digital control 
of the functions etc, well, if you actually ever were to succeed building 
THAT, *I* want one too! ]:-)


         -=<Jonathan Pratt>=-
       (Phdinfunk at hotmail.com)




>From: harry <harrybissell at prodigy.net>
>To: Prototek <prototek at optonline.net>
>CC: Synth_diy <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
>Subject: Re: [sdiy] Calculator Synth
>Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2001 19:40:20 -0400
>
>You need the old Casio Melody card calculator...
>
>when you press '  =  ' it plays back the display
>
>H^) harry
>
>Prototek wrote:
>
> >    As you can probably tell by my signature phrase below, I'm a
> > Kraftwerk fan. Their Computerworld album recently got me thinking
> > about making a calculator that can trigger various "bleeps, bloops,
> > etc..." by pressing down the right keys. Hell, maybe its even possible
> > to put a SID 6581 in there? I know this whole concept sounds a little
> > silly and far fetched, but I'm still curious about it.
> >    What about the old TI calculators that could speak? Has anyone ever
> > circuit bent those to produce interesting sounds?
> >
> >                            -Proto
> > ------
> > "By pressing down a special key it plays a little melody."
> > Kraftwerk, "Pocket Calculator"
>


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