What do you do when you’ve carved out a niche for yourself as a builder of small and useless synthesizers? Why, build an even smaller and less useful synthesizer, of course!
If you’ve been paying even a minimal amount of attention you’ll know right away that this comes to use from [mitxela], who while not playing with volumetric POV displays is often found building smaller and smaller synthesizers, including putting them in DIN plug shells. The current synth is based on his “Silly Synth,” which puts all the guts for the synth inside a USB connector. This time around, though, it’s USB-C, and rather than fitting everything inside the connector shell, the entire synth sits on a PCB that’s smaller than a tiny piezo speaker. The whole thing runs on a CH32V003 microcontroller, and aside from a few support components and the right-angle USB-C plug, not much else.
The PCB is what really shines in [mitxela]’s design, especially the routing. He’s got a 20-pin QFN chip on one side of the board and the USB plug right behind it on the other side to deal with, plus the big through-holes for the speaker and the physical connections on the plug. It’s quite a crowded design, but it gets the job done. What’s more, he panelized the design so that mass production is possible; the reason for this is revealed at the end of the video below.
Pretty much every time we see one of these “smallest synth” videos we’re convinced that we’re seeing the lower limit of what’s possible, but every time, [mitxela] goes ahead and proves us wrong. That’s fine, of course — we don’t mind being wrong about something like this.
Thanks to [hackbyte] and [Stephen Walters] for the tips.
There is still potential for improvement:
– Use a MEMS speaker
– Use a more powerful microcontroller for better synthesis
Tiny Wifi/BT dongles move the controller into the USB A connector. Would that maybe be smaller than having a microcontroller outside a USB C connector?
I have the impression that the sound quality of this one is slightly better:
https://mitxela.com/projects/flash_synth
… yeah. In the demo, it sounds pretty good. I don’t mind someone obsessing about small, as long as it’s still good. Piezo speaker? Pass.
(and what an endearing combination of design genius, ego, humour and showmanship. BBC, give him his own series already)
I am sure Behringer has already copied it.
It is … but that’s probably not the point at all. ;)
It’s no small measure to write such an excellent article! 🤣
Nice effort, but there is room for improvment : use a Moog Modular and get some true sound.
Not everybody is living inside a drawer !
I don’t post here often but, I just have to say that this article, when combined with the video narrator’s tone, is just good journalism. Know your subject, understand your subject, reflect your subject accurately and concisely. We need more of this approach in the mainstream media. Job, well done.
Feels crazy to see the pull request, imagining something breadboarded, then google it, find the hackaday article and see it the creator’s hand! It makes me want to go back and try shrinking some of my other projects.