[sdiy] Synth Electronics

[jeff.whitman at icloud.com]

Paulo,

I also wanted to build an analog synth, mainly so I could learn more about analog synth design using off the shelf osc, filter, vca, etc chips. I am mostly a digital guy and experienced in writing embedded code, but my analog skills date back to when electrons were much bigger in the late 70’s :)  After a lot of research, I decided to use Sound Semiconductor chips. I find their data sheets excellent and very detailed with lots of application examples, they have some eval boards you can buy and can download the schematics. They also have been really good at taking feedback to make the data sheets even better. 

Thus far I have built an osc card, a VCA card, a main board, and a pole-mixing filter board that I am just now testing. I am making my boards and layout in a way as to make debug easier. I am using an STM32 micro for all the firmware. I started by breadboarding most of the circuits, and now have moved to making real boards in the last six months from JLCPCB. Using Sound Semiconductor chips was a great choice for me and I have essentially implemented what is in their data sheets, but with digital control. 

Ok, now make fun of my green towel electro-static mat :) 

Jeff



> On Apr 8, 2024, at 4:38 PM, Pete Hartman via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 5:54 PM Paulo Constantino via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org <mailto:synth-diy at synth-diy.org>> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>> 
>> I want to build an analog synth from scratch. I currently work as a digital IC design engineer at a semiconductor company and I have good knowledge in analog circuit design, but I'm not that good at advanced analog circuitry.
>> 
>> Can anyone recommend me a book or some tutorial on synth electronics?
> 
> 
> This is a perennial topic.  I'm sure there are good things in the archive:
> https://synth-diy.org/ (about half way down the page are the archive links)
> 
> If you can find a copy, Electronotes taught a lot of folks here the foundations of what they know, and worked out and explained a lot of what is considered standard now.  Unfortunately they're no longer available from Bernie (and please, list members, let's not turn this into another debate about that topic), so you will have to find someone who is selling their copies.  Join the sister list marketplace at synth-diy.org <mailto:marketplace at synth-diy.org> for your best shot at this.
> 
> A lot of folks will recommend _Make: Analog Synthesizers_ by the late Ray Wilson, whose website is still available here: https://musicfromouterspace.com/
> 
> I learned a lot from several books by Thomas Henry which are available at lulu.com <http://lulu.com/>
> 
> https://electro-music.com/forum/ has a lot of discussion and lots of contributions by various folks with "names" in this area, as well as a wiki containing a lot of circuits.  You'll find recommended websites to look into such as https://yusynth.net/ https://ijfritz.byethost4.com/ https://www.schmitzbits.de/ and a ton of other discussion.  https://modwiggler.com <https://modwiggler.com/> has some fora that also cover this sort of thing, but there are lots of other topics there too, like discussions of the latest gear from the major manufacturers etc etc.  Some of that goes on on E-M as well but modwiggler has been the main hub for that for a while now.  It's all background that would be good to have even if not directly about the electronics.
> 
> Dr Aaron Lanterman has kindly made his Georgia Tech course "Analog Circuits for Music Synthesis", which covers a lot of the common blocks that a lot of analog synths/modules use as standard, available on youtube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYk8r3QlNi8&list=PLOunECWxELQS5bMdWo9VhmZtsCjhjYNcV
> 
> And there is some very good advice from Paul Schrieber of Synthesis Technology here, about things which aren't usually given much thought: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBGyEBQnIws 
> 
> As for getting rich :) I think Paul S has some relevant commentary about that as well which should be findable in the archive.
> 
> Pete
> ________________________________________________________
> This is the Synth-diy mailing list
> Submit email to: Synth-diy at synth-diy.org
> View archive at: https://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/
> Check your settings at: https://synth-diy.org/mailman/listinfo/synth-diy
> Selling or trading? Use marketplace at synth-diy.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/attachments/20240505/ba68874c/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_0790.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 120647 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://synth-diy.org/pipermail/synth-diy/attachments/20240505/ba68874c/attachment.jpeg>