[sdiy] Starting a synth project

[harrybissell]

Hello Tero...

to tell you the truth, a lot of people post "starting a synth project" and many
times
they come to the same conclusion as you.  I would advise that your first project
NOT be a power supply. In fact I'd recommend you BUY a small, commecial linear
power supply such as a PowerOne, or one of the many other manufacturers.

Brand new they would cost about $45 (US) but surplus they could be as low as $10.

You need to trust your power supply.  I use an 800mA +/-15 supply from PowerOne on
the bench and have never fried it. They have pretty sophisticated overcurrent
protection
and will survive a lot of mistakes.

For a first project, I'd recommend a simple VCO, or LFO... followed by a VCF. This
way you
get to hear some results right away.

Power supplies are cheaper to buy than to build...and they are not much fun. If your
power
supply does not work, or fails suddenly... it can trash all the rest of your work !

H^) harry

tlax at hellfish.org wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've been thinking of starting a synth project. I thought it might be convenient
> to start from the power supply and surfed for them on the net. But one thing was
> almost never answered, what kind of transformers do people use in these?
>
> I've been thinking of something like this:
> http://www.ori.org/~aaronc/synth/PowerSupply_V1.pdf
> but with the 120V -> 2x24V transformer changed to a one with the european 230V
> -> 2x24V, but with 13VA, 22VA or more or even less than 13VA? Farnell.com has a
> lot of these to choose from. :P
>
> Or maybe a better power supply schematics are lying on the net, but I just
> haven't runned into them. Might even buy a commercial one if I find a good one
> inside the europe and could move to the nice part of project like VCO. :)
>
> --
> Tero Laxström <tlax at hellfish.org>